The house and Bishop Selwyn

The dwelling at 4 Takutai Street is one of several early colonial structures in Parnell constructed for the first (and only) Bishop of New Zealand, George Augustus Selwyn (1814-1890). Selwyn had arrived in New Zealand in 1842 with responsibility for overseeing the formation of the Anglican Church in the new colony. One of his most important achievements was to supervise the signing of the 'Constitution of the Church of England in New Zealand' in 1857, a document that he had drafted. He also organised the erection of numerous churches and other ecclesiastical buildings in the colony. Although based initially at Te Waimate in the Bay of Islands, Selwyn soon moved Anglican operations to Parnell, a small settlement immediately to the east of Auckland. There, he oversaw the creation of a substantial ecclesiastical centre over the following two decades, incorporating educational establishments such as St Stephen's School for Native Girls and a Church of England Grammar School, as well as a formal seat for the Bishop at Bishopscourt and the Cathedral Church of St Mary's.

The major part of Selwyn's construction work in Parnell took place in the mid- to late 1850s. The house at Takutai Street was one of three stone dwellings erected at this time by Benjamin Strange, a stonemason who had worked with Selwyn since at least 1853. The other two residences comprised the Deanery, completed in 1859 for the Bishop himself, and Kinder House, carried out in 1856-1859 for the first headmaster of the Church of England Grammar School, John Kinder. The house at Takutai Street was initially occupied by Strange in part payment for work he was undertaking elsewhere for the Church, but was subsequently lived in by John Kissling, the first Archdeacon of St Mary's. Strange was involved in Church projects for more than a decade, until Selwyn's departure from New Zealand in the late 1860s.


Construction of the house

A site for the new residence was chosen on the 22 hectare (55-acre) St Stephen's School estate. The estate had been granted by the Crown in 1850 to help alleviate financial difficulties that St Stephen's School had suffered following its relocation from Kohimarama (Mission Bay) to Parnell in the late 1840s. The house was to be constructed on a 1.2 hectare (3 acre) site between the main centre of Anglican activity towards the top of Parnell Rise, where the Deanery was located, and St Stephen's Church in Judge's Bay, where the Constitution of the Church of England had been signed. The house was set back from the road connecting these two significant places, with open views across the Waitemata Harbour to the north. At the time of the building's construction, most of the surrounding ground was farmland.

Selwyn had initially preferred stone construction for buildings in the Auckland area, but this policy was abandoned following the poor performance - and possibly the cost - of a number of structures designed by architect Sampson Kempthorne on the clay soils of Auckland. Following Selwyn's engagement of Strange in 1853 with work on St Matthews Church in the centre of Auckland, however, the number of stone buildings increased. Strange is believed to have rafted basalt for the new house in Takutai Street from nearby Rangitoto Island, as with the other two residences he constructed for Selwyn. Strange took out a seven year lease on the site from 1 January 1859, and it is likely that the building was erected at or soon after this date.

Selwyn's Ledger records a total construction cost of ₤575 as at 8 July 1859, of which ₤351 was allocated to Strange for masonry foundations, chimneys, steps and hearths, as well as plastering and paving. ₤155 was paid to an unnamed carpenter, probably for construction of the roof and front porch. The sum of ₤14 was deducted from the amount paid to Strange, itemised as 'stone work in gables not ordered'. This may have consisted of ornate vents located near the top of each of the four stone gables, perhaps considered by Selwyn to be unauthorised embellishments. The vents do not appear in an undated 'Sketch of Mr Strange's House for Approval', which includes an isometric view and a floor plan of the house. It has been suggested that these features could have doubled as gun loops, indicative of concerns about a possible Maori uprising in the Waikato.

Selwyn's Ledger records that ₤25 commission was paid, presumably to an architect. The building's design was an unusual one, with the main rooms evidently being located at the rear of the structure. Unlike the symmetrical arrangement of most early colonial dwellings, the rear gable of the building was consciously offset and a kitchen was incorporated on one side. The nature of the timberwork on the front porch and general assymmetry of the building reflect ideas linked to Gothic Revival architecture, employed in early Anglican churches in the Auckland region and sometimes referred to as 'Selwyn-style' Gothic. Selwyn himself was a member of the Camden Society in Britain, which promoted the use of medieval Gothic forms. The Society can be seen as symptomatic of a conservative Anglican reaction to eighteenth-century Enlightenment ideas based on rationalism and scientific thought.

The Ledger suggests that the Benjamin Strange and his wife Maria rented the house from Bishop Selwyn until the end of 1862. After their departure the house was the home for a time of Archdeacon George Adam Kissling (1805?-1865), the founder of St Stephen's School and the first incumbent of St Mary's Church. Kissling was a former German Lutheran missionary, who had worked for the London-based Church Missionary Society in Sierra Leone, Te Kawakawa (Te Araroa) on the East Coast of New Zealand and Kohimarama (Mission Bay). Both he and his wife, Margaret (1808-1891), were heavily involved in early missionary projects to educate young Maori, including the establishment of St Stephen's School for Native Girls. On 10 November 1865, aged 60, George Kissling died at the house that he and his wife had named 'Heil Ruhe' ('God-given healthful rest'). Margaret continued to live in Parnell until her death in 1891. As a stone building, it is said that the house was marked for fortification during the conflicts between Waikato Maori and the Colonial Government in the 1860s.


Subsequent use

The building appears to have subsequently remained in possession of the Anglican Diocese for a further 58 years. By 1891 the dwelling was being rented to Edward Laseron, a teacher. Laseron remained as a tenant until 1912, changing his profession to surveyor and sharing the house at different times with a Presbyterian minister, a manufacturing chemist and a fruit-grower/nurseryman. The latter stayed on for a time. By 1919, nurse May Saunders-Jones and her husband had taken up residence. During these years numerous alterations were made to the house, including the addition of verandahs on its northern and eastern sides and a porch and lean-to to the southeastern corner.

The Diocese appears to have subdivided the property towards the end of 1923, selling it a year later to Miss Amy Elsie Moss for £1,100. In February 1927 the house was purchased by solicitor Trevor Campbell Thomson and his wife, Margaret Katherine, for £500. Street Directories indicate that Mr Thomson lived in the house for some time before purchasing it. The Thomsons undertook extensive work on the building, adding an upper floor in the mid 1920s and modifying the ground floor arrangements. Recent work has included the addition of a large conservatory on the northern side of the building. The current occupant, Mr Tom Bowden, is the third generation of the Thomson family to live in the house.