The house at 221 The Terrace was built circa 1896. The first Certificate of Title is dated 14 March 1896 with the owners being Charles Palliser and Thomas Raymond Jones, contractors. On 21 September 1897 the property was transferred to Jones’s sole ownership and then in June 1899 to Charles Alfred Ewen, who owned it until 1919. Ewen worked for the Bank of New Zealand, then the New Zealand Assurance Company, and was general manager of the Commercial Union Assurance Co. from 1907 until his death in 1921. It is not clear if Ewen bought the house to live in or as a rental property. In 1913 he was living at 126 The Terrace, and 221 had two occupants – Courtency Mohr (described as a metaphysician) and a Miss Isabel Bellaney; in 1915 it had five occupants, and three in 1926. Fire escapes were added in 1916/17. However it appears that the house was not converted into five flats until 1962/3. The house is a two-storey weatherboard bay villa, retaining some Italianate details on the street façade: wooden quoins on the corners of the building, and an elegant scrolled hood on one of the first floor windows. The most interesting feature of the façade lies in the treatment of the bay. The gable has plain pierced barge boards and terminates with a large finial. Filigree work has been incorporated into the triangular space under the gable and the gable ends are supported by elaborate curved brackets which match the line of quoins. It is a good example of the many variations possible within the bay villa type. Alterations and additions were carried out in the mid-2000s. This included removing the external front staircase, restoration of existing original windows and doors, and rebuilding the interior to provide for six flats. The significance of House, 221 The Terrace derives from its interesting architectural detailing and its contribution to The Terrace streetscape – one of a diminishing number of substantial wooden residences that once lined both sides of The Terrace.