The Glen, a single-storey weatherboard house nestled on an elevated site above Eastbourne’s main road, has historical significance for its association with Wellington businessman and banker Harold Beauchamp (1858-1938) and his daughter, Katherine Mansfield (1888-1923), both figures of importance in New Zealand history. Although the exact date of the house’s construction is not known, it was possibly built for Sidney Clark Barraud (1853-1912) after he acquired the land in the then remote Muritai (‘sea breeze’) in 1897. In the late 1890s, it was leased to the Beauchamp family for several summers. Beauchamp and Barraud had associations through the Bank of New Zealand and church. Mansfield, who was to become New Zealand’s most internationally acclaimed author, set many of her short stories in places with which she had gained familiarity during her childhood and she endeavoured to be accurate. The location that inspired the setting of ‘At the Bay,’ one of Mansfield’s most significant and best-known short stories, has long been the subject of debate, but there is agreement that the story’s Crescent Bay is based on Muritai. It has also been reasoned that the story’s setting fits that of The Glen and the house itself informed Mansfield’s description of the fictional Burnell family’s bungalow.

Tribal narratives describe the great Polynesian explorer Kupe as the first person to visit Aotearoa New Zealand. He spent time in what became the Wellington region, including the harbour, which, following permanent settlement, was named after the rangatira Tara, son of Whātonga, the captain of the migratory waka Kurahaupō. Tara’s people, Ngāi Tara, occupied the east and south coast of Wellington. Since around the fifteenth century, there were kāinga in the sheltered bays of what is now Eastbourne, and pā sites occupied the headlands. In the seventeenth century Ngāti Ira migrated south from Hawke’s Bay and intermarried with Ngāi Tara and Rangitanē to become the dominant iwi. Ngāti Kahungunu also had a presence in the area. Ngāti Ira was supplanted by in the 1820s and 1830s by Te Ātiawa, Ngāti Tama and Ngāti Mutunga, all of whom who came south from Taranaki during a period of great upheaval associated with the introduction of Pākehā muskets into te ao Māori. The Ngāti Mutunga rangatira Putukawenga gifted Waiwhetu the land east of Heretaunga (Hutt River), and Whiorau (Lowry Bay) to Te Ātiawa. When Ngāti Mutunga and Ngāti Tama people migrated to Rēkohu (Chatham Islands) in 1835, their land rights around the harbour were transferred to Te Ātiawa. In 1839 Te Ātiawa and Ngāti Kahungunu made peace, with Te Ātiawa occupying Te Whanganui-a-Tara.

In the 1840s and 1850s, the Māori population of the eastern shore of Wellington Harbour declined as European settlement increased. Since at least the 1850s, Eastbourne was popular with Wellington day-trippers and holidaymakers, and by the early 1900s had become a thriving holiday destination. Houses increasingly dotted the hillsides, meadows and sandhills. While The Glen’s scale and architectural features were not especially notable, it had an attractive façade with eave brackets, sash windows, and a veranda that was decorated with spandrels and closed at one end. When The Glen was sold in 1913, the eight-roomed residence was described as one of the most attractive places in Muritai.’

By 1906, the Beauchamp family had acquired their own holiday cottage at Days Bay, and from the 1910s the popularity of Days Bay as a resort declined. Since this time, The Glen has had a number of owners. The house underwent significant alterations in the mid-1950s, including the removal of the front veranda and the conversion of the house into three self-contained one-bedroom flats. Subsequently, the property fell into a state of disrepair but following its sale in 2019, major alterations were undertaken. The veranda was reinstated, reflecting the original design as supported by historical photographs. Additionally, the house was converted into a single dwelling. The exterior is now consistent with the period when Beauchamp and Mansfield used it.

While the Beauchamp family would have reached the then isolated Eastbourne by ferry, today The Glen is part of a leafy residential suburb, surrounded by houses and local amenities, but still with a backdrop of bush-covered hills. The house’s history reflects the changes in Eastbourne over this period, emphasising its role as a holiday destination for Wellington’s wealthy families when spending part of summer at Muritai ‘became de rigueur among the local elite.’ For decades it has been valued as a Mansfield-related Wellington site and it continues to contribute to the understanding of Katherine Mansfield’s association with Wellington, in particular the seaside holidays of her childhood.