Murrell’s Cottage, built in the 1870s is one of two Melmore Terrace buildings to survive on their original sites when Cromwell’s town centre was flooded by the filling of the Clyde Dam in 1992.

Murrell’s Cottage gives an insight into nineteenth century Cromwell. It is one of the buildings which make up Old Cromwell Town, the reconstructed town centre representing nineteenth century Cromwell. It recalls the domestic life of Edward and Mary Ann Murrell and their large family. Its survival shows the importance of the history of the town to its residents who formed the Old Cromwell Society to reconstruct and restore Cromwell’s buildings which would otherwise have been destroyed.

Murrell’s Cottage sits on a rise overlooking the Kawarau River at the edge of the Central Otago town of Cromwell. What is now known as Murrell’s Cottage was the family’s first cottage, and after that, the laundry and storage area for the corrugated iron house which was built later. The building is a single gable structure. It is rectangular in plan. It is built of schist and has a corrugated iron roof on timber framing.

According to genealogist and historian Bryan Jackson, Murrell built the cottage in the early 1870s. Later, a corrugated iron house was built on the front of the original cottage, presumably to accommodate Murrell’s growing family. Murrell played a prominent part in local affairs. He served as a borough councillor from 1879 to 1894 and was Mayor of the borough from 1899 to 1905 and again from 1909 to 1913. He was a member of local groups such as the hospital committee, the cemetery trust, the school committee, and he joined the fire brigade when it was first formed in 1874. Mary Ann died in 1912 while Edward died in Christchurch in 1925. The property was leased to various tenants throughout the twentieth century. The corrugated iron house was demolished in the 1980s.

In 2012 Murrell’s Cottage houses a jeweller’s workshop and gallery.