Why is this place significant?

The Subritzky family, comprised of widowed matriarch Sophie, three sons, and her daughter and son-in-law, sailed from Hamburg in 1843 as immigrants under the New Zealand Company Scheme. Suggestions that the family, originally from Poland, were descendants of the Polish Royal Sobriski family and fled, probably as political refugees, have been neither proved nor disproved by author and descendant Alice Evans in spite of extensive research. In 1845, two years after their arrival in Nelson, hardship drove the family to Australia. They were not to return to New Zealand until 1860 when they settled at Houhora. There they purchased about 7,000 acres of land from the Maori and leased a further 25,000 acres from the government. This became the basis of an extensive commercial enterprise encompassing trade in cattle, kauri gum and flax fibre which prospered into the 1880s. Upon his arrival from Australia in 1867, John Anton Subritzky (younger brother of Ludolph and Henry) established a coastal shipping service carrying produce from the north, to Auckland. Reasons offered for acceptance of the family by Maori in the "Far North" are that it gave the Maori a centre for trading their produce and selling kauri gum, provided a place to buy pakeha goods and offered a chance to work for wages. Construction of the house commenced in 1860 with the erection of a wooden building to accommodate the family until the homestead was built. Subsequently this structure formed the east side of a "U-shaped" courtyard at the rear and south of the house, although it was removed in 1902. The more substantial west wing was built next, utilising stone, lath and plaster (as was later to be used in the main house). Part of this structure was originally given over to use as the kitchen. The Subritzkys were later to set up their first trading store in this west wing of the courtyard. The third side of the courtyard was achieved when the house itself was constructed on the north with an outlook over the harbour. An unusual feature of the house was a lookout tower in the roof. Access was gained via a steep, "hidden" stairway. The tower was later removed, probably about 1897. This substantial house with its extended wings, school room and two parlours, accommodated what was effectively a group of families, rather than a nuclear family unit. Travellers whose work took them north were sometimes accommodated also. Such visitors are said to have included William Bertram White, Magistrate; the Reverends Joseph Matthews and Richard Davis; and Bishops Selwyn (1863) and Cowie (1873). The house has a room known as "the Bishop's room". Underground tunnels between the house and the harbour were closed off in the 1940s. These have been the source of much speculation with suggestions of smuggling, although were more probably used for the secure storage of trade goods from marauders. The depression of the 1880s together with the death of the eldest son Ludolph, saw a decline in family fortune. In 1897 the Subritzky estate at Houhora was about to be sold out of the family. Edward Wagener, persuaded by his wife Louisa (themselves both grandchildren of Sophie), returned from Australia to buy the property. In 1966 again facing an uncertain fate, the house was bought by their grandson Wilf Wagener, its present owner, through his company W E Wagener Ltd.

ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION: This colonial cottage has a central pitched roof section, enclosing an attic space, surrounded by a series of lean-tos. The resulting roof form is similar to a gambrel. There was once a look-out on the roof. At the rear of the house is a single storeyed and gabled kitchen wing. The house has sash windows, mostly six-paned, finials at either end of the pitched roof and chamferred posts supporting the verandah on the front elevation. The centrally located front door is flanked by windows on either side and has a fan-light above. The main section of the house comprises two parlour rooms, one on either side of a central passageway. These rooms have timber floors, whitewashed walls and a high stud. The east parlour has a built-in sideboard. Peripheral rooms are characterised by exposed rafters in the lean-to roofs and by six-paned windows. While connected to the main part of the house, the kitchen wing has no internal access. Original joinery and a turn of the century oven are still intact and a large fireplace on the south wall has vents which allowed smoke to enter into a smoke room. Smoke darkened beams in the kitchen testify to the curing of hung meat. A square hole set in the floor and edged with stones was used as a laundry sump. Outlying buildings include a smithy and a gum store. MODIFICATIONS: Dates unknown: Re-roofed with corrugated iron. Gum store constructed. Smoke house removed.

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This historic place was registered under the Historic Places Act 1980. This report includes the text from the original Building Classification Committee report considered by the NZHPT Board at the time of registration. Please note that entry on the New Zealand Heritage List/Rarangi Korero identifies only the heritage values of the property concerned, and should not be construed as advice on the state of the property, or as a comment of its soundness or safety, including in regard to earthquake risk, safety in the event of fire, or insanitary conditions.