Occupying a substantial Claude Road site in Auckland's Epsom, the two and a half-storey, Arts and Crafts-style Marire is a well-preserved early residential design by eminent New Zealand architect William Gummer (1884-1966). Constructed in 1915 on the lower slopes of One Tree Hill (Maungakiekie), the brick dwelling was created for Frank Winstone (1879-1952), a successful merchant and businessman with close family links to the building trade.
Maungakiekie and its surrounding area were occupied by Waiohua chief Kiwi Tamaki before being taken over by Ngati Whatua in the eighteenth century. Following the founding of Auckland as colonial capital in 1840, the land was part of a Crown Grant farmed until at least the late 1880s. In 1915 prosperous seed and grain merchant Frank Winstone purchased a three-lot parcel adjoining Cornwall Park on which to build his family home. Prominent in his own right, Winstone was also a member of a successful Auckland-based family whose nineteenth-century haulage and fuel supply business had diversified to become a major merchandiser and later a manufacturer of building products (Winstone Limited).
The residence was designed by architect William Gummer, a personal friend. It reflected strong Arts and Crafts influences attributable to prominent British architect Edwin Lutyens under whom New Zealand-born Gummer had worked and studied in 1911. An early Gummer design and one of comparatively few residential works by the architect, Marire incorporated polychromatic brickwork and a floor plan that extended over several levels. Internally, it contained a basement with washhouse, playroom and garage; a ground floor incorporating a central hall, living, dining and breakfast rooms, kitchen and maid's room; and an upper floor with four bedrooms and bathroom. Building products for which Winstone Limited held agencies - including local brick and American plaster board - are likely to have been utilised. Formal grounds encompassed lawns with low stone retaining walls and plantings, a curving driveway, and a small gate providing direct access to Cornwall Park.
In 1927 the re-roofed house featured in an advertisement for Winstone tiles. Subsequent alterations included an addition to the breakfast room and incorporation of the verandah into the house. In 1944 the home of the founder of Frank M. Winstone Merchants Limited (by then a significant manufacturing company) was sold to nephew Bruce Winstone an engineer and a later director of Winstone Limited. The kitchen was modernised and a bathroom installed downstairs in 1951. Marire's seventy-two-year association with the Winstone family ended in the 1980s, the decade both firms were taken over by other interests. The house and its grounds remain a private residence.
Marire has aesthetic significance for its visually interesting design, the quality of its interior and for its spacious well-designed setting. It has architectural significance as a well-preserved, early domestic design in an Arts and Craft-style by eminent New Zealand architect William Gummer later co-founder of renowned architectural practice Gummer and Ford. Marire has historical significance for its seven-decade association with members of the Winstone family whose industrial and commercial enterprises were of considerable importance in the Auckland region and beyond. It is particularly linked with Frank Winstone, whose interests encompassed seed retailing, agribusiness and manufacturing.
Maungakiekie and its surrounding area were occupied by Waiohua chief Kiwi Tamaki before being taken over by Ngati Whatua in the eighteenth century. Following the founding of Auckland as colonial capital in 1840, the land was part of a Crown Grant farmed until at least the late 1880s. In 1915 prosperous seed and grain merchant Frank Winstone purchased a three-lot parcel adjoining Cornwall Park on which to build his family home. Prominent in his own right, Winstone was also a member of a successful Auckland-based family whose nineteenth-century haulage and fuel supply business had diversified to become a major merchandiser and later a manufacturer of building products (Winstone Limited).
The residence was designed by architect William Gummer, a personal friend. It reflected strong Arts and Crafts influences attributable to prominent British architect Edwin Lutyens under whom New Zealand-born Gummer had worked and studied in 1911. An early Gummer design and one of comparatively few residential works by the architect, Marire incorporated polychromatic brickwork and a floor plan that extended over several levels. Internally, it contained a basement with washhouse, playroom and garage; a ground floor incorporating a central hall, living, dining and breakfast rooms, kitchen and maid's room; and an upper floor with four bedrooms and bathroom. Building products for which Winstone Limited held agencies - including local brick and American plaster board - are likely to have been utilised. Formal grounds encompassed lawns with low stone retaining walls and plantings, a curving driveway, and a small gate providing direct access to Cornwall Park.
In 1927 the re-roofed house featured in an advertisement for Winstone tiles. Subsequent alterations included an addition to the breakfast room and incorporation of the verandah into the house. In 1944 the home of the founder of Frank M. Winstone Merchants Limited (by then a significant manufacturing company) was sold to nephew Bruce Winstone an engineer and a later director of Winstone Limited. The kitchen was modernised and a bathroom installed downstairs in 1951. Marire's seventy-two-year association with the Winstone family ended in the 1980s, the decade both firms were taken over by other interests. The house and its grounds remain a private residence.
Marire has aesthetic significance for its visually interesting design, the quality of its interior and for its spacious well-designed setting. It has architectural significance as a well-preserved, early domestic design in an Arts and Craft-style by eminent New Zealand architect William Gummer later co-founder of renowned architectural practice Gummer and Ford. Marire has historical significance for its seven-decade association with members of the Winstone family whose industrial and commercial enterprises were of considerable importance in the Auckland region and beyond. It is particularly linked with Frank Winstone, whose interests encompassed seed retailing, agribusiness and manufacturing.
