Likely erected in the 1850s, Callaway House (Former) is believed to be the earliest in situ dwelling of European design in the Coromandel Peninsula. The single-storey timber residence and its associated property represent an important reminder of intertwined relationships between Māori and Pākehā peoples shortly after the signing of Te Tiriti o Waitangi / the Treaty of Waitangi (1840). Linked with early industrial, mercantile and other collaboration between these communities at Kikowhakarere, near current Coromandel Town, the place has close connections with several significant individuals including the rangatira Pāora Te Putu; sawmiller and boatbuilder John Callaway and his wife Huihana Te Arawaere; and their son Wāta Te Wahahuia (Walter Callaway), composer of a haka that became the official battle cry of New Zealand troops in the South African War (1899-1902). The property also has later connections with numerous New Zealand artists, including the innovative twentieth-century potter Warren Tippett; photographer Marti Friedlander; and Slade-trained watercolourist Herbert Rogers.

Early occupants of the Kikowhakarere area included Te Patukirikiri, who migrated to Hauraki at the time of Kapeatua. Te Patukirikiri intermarried with pre-existing Ngāti Huarere and also incoming groups associated with Marutūāhu, notably Ngāti Tamaterā. Coastal settlement included a pā overlooking the south end of Kikowhakarere Bay, at the head of which - according to Tainui traditions - conflict between Marutūāhu peoples and other groups occurred. The bay is also significant to Ngāi Tai, being where the rangatira Te Whatatau set his wife Te Kaweau ashore for refusing to provide huamanu (bird eggs) to his relatives from Torere. Due to its extensive kauri forests, Hauraki became one of the first regions in Aotearoa to experience widespread contact between Māori and Europeans. Kikowhakarere was a place of early encounter, the HMS Coromandel obtaining timber spars there in 1820-21. Its leading rangatira in the 1840s, Pāora Te Putu (?-1861) of Ngāti Tamaterā, Te Patukirikiri and Ngāti Tamatepō may have signed Te Tiriti o Waitangi at Karaka Bay (1840), and subsequently set up enterprises to trade with newly-arrived European populations at Auckland and elsewhere.8 In this, he was assisted by John Callaway (1818-1904), a Cornish emigrant with boat-building skills.9 Callaway helped erect a flour mill for Te Putu at Kikowhakarere in 1848-9, and also constructed vessels during the period when Te Putu’s coastal trading fleet formed one of the largest in northern Aotearoa New Zealand.

Situated near the foreshore, Callaway’s kauri-built residence was created before 1858 and possibly as early as 1849, when he founded a nearby mechanical sawmill. However, it more likely post-dates his marriage to Huihana Te Arawaere (c.1837-1883) of Ngaere hapū of Ngāi te Rangi in circa 1852, subsequently accommodating what became a multi-generational, bicultural family. Of Georgian-influenced design with a hipped roof, skillion and verandahs on two sides, the house incorporated an unusually large front parlour, rear living area or kitchen, and three small bedrooms. Other nineteenth-century structures on the property (since removed) included a rear outbuilding and boatbuilding sheds. Initially functioning in a Māori landscape, the complex formed part of a small hamlet or kāinga of housing for European sawyers and carpenters, which fronted a road - Calloway Lane - servicing the mills. Following Te Putu’s death and the opening up of Hauraki land to Europeans in the 1860s, Callaway sold the sawmill (1867), formally purchased the house property (1870) and focussed on boatbuilding and goldmining as nearby Coromandel township took over Kikowhakarere’s industrial and commercial mantle. Likely partly brought up at the property, John and Huihana’s son Wāta Te Wahahuia (1873-1926) is credited with later becoming the first Māori soldier to participate in the South African War - the earliest overseas conflict in which New Zealand forces were engaged - where he served with distinction.

From perhaps the mid-1870s, Callaway House became the residence of Wāta’s eldest sister Mere (Mary; 1853/4-1918) and her husband, George Yeoland. It may have previously been briefly occupied by the young family of Thomas Henry Maning (1848-1896), a goldminer and nephew of the Native Land Court judge Frederick Maning. Noted for its scenery, Kikowhakarere attracted visiting artists such as John Kinder and Alfred Sharpe, a phenomenon that extended into the twentieth century.

Between the 1930s and 1970s, tenants included the watercolourist Herbert Rogers (c.1875-1945) and then potter Warren Tippett (1941-94) - considered ‘a seminal figure in the history of New Zealand studio ceramics’. Photographed at the house by renowned photographer Marti Friedlander, Tippett later relocated to Australia; experimented with vibrant glazes; and joined Sydney’s Rainbow community. Residential alterations included converting a bedroom into a small kitchen (1925) and adding an eastern room, possibly in the 1950s.22 In 2001, substantial renovations occurred.
Still in use as a private dwelling, the house retains many important features including its early external appearance and layout, heavy framing, and unusual surviving elements such as extensive 1869-70 wallpaper in the front parlour.