Why is this place significant?

Why is this place Category 1 / Category 2?

Settlement of Dunedin Both iwi history and archaeological evidence show Māori occupation in the Ōtākou Otago region over an extended period, with the inhabitants utilising a wide variety of natural resources from the diverse environment. Archaeological evidence supports the date of earliest settlement around the 12th century. Today, Kāi Tahu mana whenua is recognised over a large part of Te Wai Pounamu. Kāti Māmoe and Waitaha whakapapa and shared occupation are always acknowledged. Tūpuna such as Waitai, Tukiauau, Whaka-taka-newha, Rakiiamoa, Tarewai, Maru, Te Aparangi, Taoka, Moki II, Kapo, Te Wera, Tu Wiri Roa, Taikawa, and Te Hautapanuiotu are among Kāti Māmoe and Kāi Tahu tūpuna whose feats and memories are embedded in the landscape, bays, tides and whakapapa of Ōtākou Otago. The hapū Kai Te Pahi, Kāti Moki, and Kāti Taoka still maintain their presence and responsibility as kaitiaki in this region. Historically, Kāi Tahu used the tauraka waka at Ōtepoti (Dunedin City) when they visited the head of the Ōtākou harbour as either the gateway to the route to Kaikarae (Green Island) or when off on other mahinga kai expeditions. The soft slope of the foreshore and the tidal flats in the upper harbour where the small stream, Toitū, entered the sea was bisected by a prominent hill Ngā-moana-e-rua (called Bell Hill by colonists), the foot of which lay at the very edge of the high water mark. No permanent kaik or villages were situated at the mouth of the Toitū, simply because there was no need for it. While not as densely populated as the North Island, numerous kaik in the Ōtākou region still hosted a good number of Waitaha, Kāti Mamoe and later Kāi Tahu peoples. Various bays and beaches around the Taiaroa Heads supported several hundred people with kaik in Karitāne, Waikouaiti and at the mouth of the Mata-au or Clutha hosting a similar number. Pā kāinga on the Ōtākou coast included Māpoutahi (Pūrākaunui), Pukekura (Taiaroa Head), Kōpūtai, Huriawa and Moturata (Taieri Island). Whareakeake, one of several pounamu manufacturing sites, attested to another facet of lifestyle for the artisans of the iwi. While the population numbers are still debated by academics and historians, there is no argument that through epidemics and intertribal warfare, the numbers of Kāi Tahu living in the region had dwindled considerably by the time the Treaty of Waitangi was signed at Ōtakou (Otago Heads), 13 June 1840. During the 1850s the population grew only slowly. It was the gold rushes, beginning in 1861, that transformed Dunedin. Its population nearly tripled by 1881. As it grew in population and wealth, the city began to invest in public works, religion, and education. The wealthy elite head for the hills By the end of the nineteenth century, Dunedin had consolidated itself as a stoutly Victorian city – with its financial elite dominating the local economy. Only four percent of Dunedin’s population belonged to this elite financial-mercantile class but ‘they constituted the informal board of directors for the provincial economy’. Rich and poor lived in different areas – North Dunedin and South Dunedin became working-class suburbs, while the elite increasingly headed for the best sites on the hills. High Street, St Clair, Waverley and Māori Hill became associated with Dunedin’s wealthy. By the early 1900s, this configuration was even more entrenched – ‘the new use of geographical space … had become a subtle means of creating social distance’. The first title to Section 10 Block XI was granted to Sophia Barr (nee Dickson), wife of James Barr (1820-1885) Otago’s first historian, in 1873. The land was purchased in December 1913 by Thomas Gray Scoular (1876-1927). It was said to be a late wedding gift to his new bride Dorothy Marguerite Piper (1885-1969) whom he married in April 1912. Thomas Gray Scoular was the son of James Scoular of W. and J. Scoular, a prominent mercantile firm established in 1861. Scoular became a partner in Waters, Ritchie, and Co., grain seed and produce merchants. He also had extensive landholdings. Dorothy Marguerite Piper was born in December 1885 in Ōamaru to Ebenezer and Amelia Piper. The land was put in Dorothy Scoular’s name. There was a house on site but she was promised a new house as a wedding gift from her husband. Basil Brampton Hooper (1876-1960) Basil Bramston Hooper was born in Lahore, India, on 17 April 1876, the youngest of nine children born to Elizabeth (nee Bramston) and William Hooper, both Church Missionary Society missionaries. When Basil Hooper was two, he and the younger Hooper children were sent to Switzerland to live with an aunt. In 1885, the children and their aunt immigrated to New Zealand, settling in Cambridge. Finishing school at age 16, Hooper was apprenticed to a builder. Deciding to become an architect, he studied in Auckland to gain the basic secondary education necessary for the profession. In 1896, he was articled to Dunedin architect J. L. Salmond for three years. Salmond saw private homes as his specialty and Hooper may have developed his interest in domestic architecture at this stage. Hooper left for England in 1901 to further his architectural education. Hooper first worked for Professor A. Beresford Pite, professor of architecture at the Royal College of Art and a leading member of the Art Workers’ Guild, and then E.P. Warren, another member of the guild. The guild aimed to return simplicity and breadth in architecture. They emphasised vernacular traditions and an organic and picturesque relationship with the site. The ‘picturesque’ does not refer to an architectural style but to an aesthetic point of view which grew out of the English love for natural scenery. While primarily concerned with landscape, it profoundly influenced architecture. The picturesque ideal ‘invited an approach to design aimed at pleasing the eye and the emotions over satisfying the intellect’. It also encouraged a simpler, yet eclectic approach to style. Art historian Ian Lochhead wrote that these ‘ideas form the essential background for understanding the houses Hooper designed’. Hooper was influenced by Arts and Crafts architects, with the works of Philip Webb, Temple Moore and C. F. A. Voysey appearing ‘to have exerted the strongest influence on Hooper’. In 1904, Hooper returned to Dunedin and was, in his own words, ‘the first young architect to arrive in Dunedin from England, with A.R.I.B.A. after my name, and up to date designs’. He found the architectural forms of the Victorian era still predominated. Within a short time his reputation was well established and his Arts and Crafts designs ‘introduced a new vigour’ to domestic architecture’. He was about to launch a career as one of New Zealand’s most significant Arts and Crafts architects, and was responsible for revitalising domestic architecture in Dunedin prior to World War 1. The Scoular Residence The Scoulars’ chose Dunedin Arts and Crafts architect Basil Hooper to design their new home and the house plan reveals Hooper’s client was “Mrs T. G. Scoular” (see. Figure 3). It is significant that Dorothy Scoular was the client; she was one of Hooper’s first woman clients for a new house design. It was unusual for women to take this position at this period of time. Hooper’s previous women clients were for additions or alterations to their houses. According to Allen , the only other women who are known to have commissioned a domestic building from Hooper were: Mrs Te Tau at Puketeraki, 1913; Miss Wilson at 55 Easther Crescent 1916; Mrs Napier at 4 Lynwood Avenue, 1919; Miss Buchanan 24 Dilworth Avenue, Remuera, 1925. Nurse A.M.M. Thomson commissioned 71 Stafford Street (private hospital), 1907. Comparing Mason and Wales Archives Heritage List (incomplete) only four women were clients for residences between 1887 and 1958. In April 1914 Hooper advertised for tenders to purchase and remove the old house on the site. On 20 May 1914 he advertised for tenders for a new house to be erected. Scoular House, as it was known for many years, was considered to be Hooper’s best. At nearly 350 square metres, the influence of the English Arts and Crafts architect C. F. A. Voysey was obvious. Hooper referenced Voysey's trademark rough-plastered walls, sloping buttresses, curved gutter brackets and sweeping roofs into designs that are distinctively his own and which respond to Dunedin's topography. Like the Ritchie House (Category 1, List No. 7492) the Scoular Residence was Hooper’s interpretation of British and American Arts and Crafts design ideals and has been described as ‘almost impossibly complex in plan and elevation and as ornate as could be achieved while still acknowledging the basic precepts of Arts and Crafts design’. Although essentially British in style, reflecting the influence of architects such as Voysey, Wenn and Lutyens, it also reflects the concept of the ‘simple life’ promoted by United States architect Gustave Stickley. Wenn and Voysey were central figures in English domestic architecture in the 1890s. They popularised broad eaves, minimal ornamentation, simplicity, unmoulded transoms and mullions, buttresses and tapering chimney stacks, and asymmetrical plans that could be expanded over time. Hooper’s attention to the local vernacular can be seen in his skilled use of Dunedin’s hilly sites, ‘creating more compact, vertical forms than the sprawling homes of Lutyens and Voysey’. The three-storied house demonstrated Hooper’s vertical vernacular. While the influence of Voysey may still be seen, ‘the massing of the exterior and the deliberate contrasts of materials are Hooper’s own’. While Hooper also followed the Arts and Crafts tradition of using organic, ‘earthy’ materials, this was also characteristic of vernacular architecture. The organic shape of the chimney pots are emblematic of this. The particular use, however, of timber with roughcast plaster as well as leaded windows became Hooper’s signature. Windows were positioned to maximise views and there were numerous transition spaces to create a flow from the interior to create a direct relationship with the garden which flows down a slope to merge with the Town Belt. Miss Maunsell, the Scoulars’ granddaughter wrote this of the house: "The original layout catered for the needs of a young family and its servants. Having been at times a cook/housekeeper herself, Mrs Scoular was considerate of those in her employ, and the maid’s bedroom with its own bathroom was larger than that destined for the daughter of the family, and had easy access from the kitchen by way of a separate staircase. By later standards, the orientation and layout of the kitchen and scullery was not acceptable, but in an era when the means of cooking gave off heat and there was no refrigerator, a south facing kitchen had its merits … During construction of the house, by A. J. Anderson, Mr and Mrs Scoular rented a house in nearby Arthur Street, and walked to the site each day to inspect progress. At this time they had only one child, a daughter born on 13 February 1913. Mrs Scoular enjoyed watching the house take shape, and being involved in the selection of such things as door plates, bell pushes, lamp brackets, pendant light fittings etc (and later in the choice of William Morris and other linens for furnishing) all in the Arts and Crafts style. The finished house well and truly lived up to the client’s expectations, and easily accommodated the two further children. There was a large productive vegetable garden, small fruit bushes and a huge pear tree. A gate opened from the back garden to the Town Belt, through a high hedge on the boundary. The flower garden concentrated mainly on perennials and roses suitable for picking. The entrance hall, with its welcoming fireplace, was an ideal place for children to gather on wet days, and later as young adults they were able to roll up the carpet and dance there. So satisfied was Mrs Scoular with the design of the house, that she did not make any alterations or additions to it. On 22 January 1927 the sudden death of Thomas Scoular changed the family’s way of life. Mrs Scoular was determined to own the house until the marriage of her daughter. After the marriage in 1938, with the reception held at the house, the property was sold." Dorothy sold the property to an acquaintance, James McLaren Ritchie (1907-1981). He was at that time Assistant Manager for Dunedin of the National Mortgage and Agency Co. of New Zealand Limited, and recently married to Nan Orbell. Ritchie altered the house in 1950, choosing Dunedin architects Mandeno, Fraser and Galbraith to design the alterations. In 1954 the house was purchased by James and Isabella Phillips. They had a retaining wall built in the front garden to create a carport, and in 1960 altered the study and added a sun lounge. After two further changes of ownership in the mid-1960s the house was purchased by medical practitioner Michael Shackleton. In the mid-1970s they altered the service areas of the house – the kitchen, scullery, porch, wash house and coal shed, with the alterations designed by McCoy and Wixon Architects. A modern kitchen was added, as was a door to the sunny side of the property. The house changed hands again in the 1980s and the new owners installed a Jetmaster fire in the entrance hall in 1991. The garage was extended in 2002. In 2017, the house had been renamed Kiftsgate and the name can be seen on the entrance gate. The current owners have invested in rewiring the house, have installed vented underfloor heating, and insulation both in the ceiling and underfloor. Their attention to detail in retaining the original light fittings through the rewiring process is to be applauded.

(This description is an abridged version of that appearing in Allen, Ralph, Motif and Beauty: The New Zealand Arts and Crafts Architecture of Basil Hooper, Dunedin, Harptree Press, 2000.) Sitting near the top of York Place in Dunedin, Scoular House is set back from the street amongst established trees and shrubbery and enjoys spectacular views across the city, across the harbour to Waverly on the peninsula, and south to St Kilda and the ocean beyond. The house is approached through a gate of Arts and Crafts design, bearing the name Kiftsgate, to a fulsome mature garden. Exterior Basil Hooper historian Ralph Allen provides a detailed description of the house which has been abridged here. The south east elevation, facing York Place, shows a sweep of slate roof descending from the ridge that traverses the full width of the house. On the left of the building, the expanse of the roof is broken by a tiny attic and a larger first floor dormer until it reaches the ground floor drawing room. The drawing room has a little veranda and a circular window. A central pyramidal roofed tower encloses the stairwell. To the right of the tower rises the gable of the master bedroom, over the entrance hall and, at the corner of the house, the diagonal bay windows are bisected by a substantial buttress. From ground to gable peak, the walls are double brick clad in white roughcast, broken only by an ‘eyebrow’ over the porch archway and a circular motif of eight tiles on the gable. Hooper historian Ralph Allen describes the design melding together ‘with glorious elegance, scale and proportion.’ The other three elevations have been equally well thought out. The north elevation is dominated by an enormous chimney that thrusts up from ground level through the central gable to well above the main ridge. It is tapered in three steps, its height accentuated by tall cannon-like earthenware chimney pots (one of which has been replaced and is not the same style). To its right is the prominent leadlight bow window of the dining room, and above the massive semi-circular arch that encloses the main bedroom’s balcony. The northern corner of the house is occupied by a veranda and small conservatory, above which is the hip-roofed dormer of another bedroom. The rear elevation (north-west) comprises two equal hipped roofs over the matched pair of windows of adjoining bedrooms and their common balcony. Below the balcony is the back door, and to its left the study, extended by a modern conservatory. The south west elevation is remarkable for its profusion of windows of different dimensions, and another tall, but slender, chimney. Interior Allen describes the front entrance to the house as ‘almost as breathtaking as that of the Ritchie house.’ The front door opens into a vast hall, complete with coffered ceiling and wide brick diagonal fireplace. The walls are lined with oak panelling, while the hall is lit by a double casement and the diagonal pair of three-sided bay windows with lead lights. The cloakroom tucked in beside the stair has been converted to a bathroom and features two lead light octagonal lozenge-shaped windows which have a central pivot for opening. The staircase to the left of the hall has balusters forming an ‘unusual geometric pattern of rectangles’ and suggests the influence of Hooper’s American contemporary, Frank Lloyd Wright. Beside the stairs is the drawing room, and via a short passage with a deep arch, the dining room. The passage continues beyond a glazed door which provides access to the servants’ stairs, then the kitchen, with associated pantry, scullery, and wash house subsumed into the large modern kitchen which has been renovated by the current owners. A new floor has been laid from wide boards discovered in the attic (approximately 26cm wide). The study, veranda, and conservatory are at the end of the passage, but can also be gained from the dining room. The rooms are very spacious. The drawing room has two pairs of diamond-paned leadlight windows, set deep in the thick walls, flanking a simple cream-tiled fireplace with a copper visor. This room was yellow when the current owners purchased it and they have recently repainted it white. The ceiling is plastered with an ornate oval wreath of wheat, nuts and fruit, and a decorative cornice of floral elements set within triangular frames. The ceiling is uninterrupted by a central lighting fixture and original wall lights are still in situ. A built-in window seat of Hooper’s design is situated in the corner window overlooking the front garden. The stairwell is lit by tall four-casement windows, the upper casements decorated with pairs of stylised tulips (the only stained glass in the house). The wall panelling is pierced by a deep-set circular window. On the upper landing the walls are panelled to door height. The landing provides access to the bedrooms. The rooms have interesting forms dictated by the shape of the roof. The dining room is painted white and presents a large bow window to the northeast and a centrally placed brick fireplace. The chimney breast is encased by wood panelling complete with two rectangular niches above the mantle up to the picture rail. Built in bookcases designed by Hooper are fitted to the left of the fireplace and to the right of the window. The ceiling is white with exposed beams like the entry hall which provides the illusion of a lower ceiling. To the newly initiated the house presents a grand rabbit warren, angles and corridors abound to confuse the visitor yet it has a warm solidity and cosy feel. There is a distinct change in ambience from the public rooms to the service areas at the back of the house. A richly formed wainscoting clads the hallways leading down the hall towards the storeroom room, servants staircase and kitchen area, and round to the veranda and study. Upstairs One of the most startling features of the upstairs are the views. These sweep from the Otago Harbour moving towards the direction of the Heads to the inner harbour and the Pacific Ocean beyond. At the rear is the wooded slopes of the Town Belt which merge with the rear garden. Two staircases access the upstairs bedrooms – the main sweeping stairway and the servants’ narrow, steep, brick-lined staircase. The large master bedroom is full of light and interesting ceiling angles. It opens on to a verandah, on the York Place elevation and provides views over the roof-tops to the harbour and hills. Also opening on to this veranda is a small sun room, possibly once a nursery, with elegant windows. The function of this room is suggested by the interconnecting door between this and the master bedroom. One of the bedrooms retains fittings which may date to its original construction; Dado panelling wraps round the room and can be seen inside the cupboards tucked under the eaves. The bedrooms at the rear of the house are smaller, but still well-lit with interesting ceiling angles. One of the larger back bedrooms includes a door to a small balcony with two windows either side. A small in-built cupboard is fitted into the eaves and as elsewhere in the house, fixtures and fittings on doors and windows appear to be original. The other bathroom is modern, although it includes an original window and beside this an additional toilet has been added. The ceiling creates interesting nooks and crannies which allows for inbuilt cupboards and shelves. The upstairs hallway is lined in panelling three-quarters of the way up the walls. The upstairs also includes enormous built in storage, including large linen cupboards lined with T&G. One is linked by a skylight and separates into two halves with doors accessing each half from different parts of the hallway. This linen cupboard, and the huge amount of storage available to the home owners, speaks of Mrs Scoular’s influence on the architect. It is usually difficult to tell where the architect’s design ideal has been softened by the wishes and desires and financial constraints of the owners. Here, in the area of basic domestic needs, it is likely the ruler of things domestic had a firm word in the ear of the architect and the results are quite superb. Stairs, not original to the building, run from the first floor to an attic room which spans the house from front to back. The ceilings are sloped to tight extreme this close to the roof. A bookcase fills the eastern wall from floor to eaves, and the western has recently been enclosed with GIB plasterboard. Each end of the space includes what appear to be original windows. Each end also reveals the brick work, remaining unlined. It is possible to look into the cavity between the double brick walls and see the wall ties within. Comparative Analysis Scoular House is regarded as an outstanding example of Hooper’s Arts and Crafts style. Hooper historian Ralph Allen describes the Scoular House as commonly considered ‘Hooper’s finest house.’ Douglas Lloyd Jenkins, design historian, includes Scoular House in his list of New Zealand’s Top 50 homes. He writes, ‘nothing prepares you for the finely honed combination of art and craft demonstrated in Basil Hooper’s Scoular House.’ In this house, Hooper was showing off his ‘newly acquired skills to a Dunedin audience.’ He moved ‘toward the clean white forms of the modern house’, leaving out extraneous details but preserves a sense of craft, often in the most unusual places.’ Lloyd Jenkins writes that Hooper’s ‘mature style’ was encapsulated in the Watson (1912-1913), Ritchie (1914) (Category 1 List No.7492) (see Figure 1), and Scoular (1914) houses. Like his contemporary Auckland architect Gerald Jones, Hooper preferred ‘rendered exteriors, steep, slate-clad roofs with bell gables – that is slightly upturned eaves – and small, multi-paned windows.’ He, like Jones, had ‘moved away from the frontal emphasis and the hallway-dependent planning of the villa to something altogether more complex. Front facades – indeed all the elevations – were no more strongly articulated, with projections and recessions that did not always make the position of the front door entirely obvious.’ Often the house was entered from a porch positioned at the side. Hallways were small, ‘usually square rooms off which important rooms led.’ Hooper paid attention to craft which is evident in small decorative details such as light fittings, internal glazed doors, window and door furniture and the delicate panels for light switches. Hooper and Jones were ’darlings of New Zealand’s emerging popular design press.’ While the ‘Sleepy-eyed’ Watson House ‘introduced a new look to local architecture’ the Scoular House, with its prominent position at the top of York Place, was ‘built to impress.’ Lloyd Jenkins writes that it was different from earlier houses of this scale in that ‘it was not pompous, but rather carefully proportioned and keenly scaled to achieve an unmistakable elegance.’ ‘The house is tied to its site with a heavy green slate-tile roof that sweeps towards the ground. This visual motif is extended by the use of buttressed walls that enforce the suggestion of a strong connection to the earth. The whole composition is then pinned in place by impressive chimneys. The front door, positioned on the right of the façade under the main gable, opens into a large hall that clearly Mary Ann had to wax. As if to compensate for this extra labour, the walls of the hall were covered in plywood panelling, requiring little attention but giving a handcrafted appearance to the room. The hall was, as Hooper preferred, heated by its own fireplace. This literally gave the house a warm heart, and encouraged easy movement from room to room, even in the coldest weather.’ The principles ‘promoted by Hooper and Jones were widely embraced by key local architects.’

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Disclaimer Please note that entry on the New Zealand Heritage List/Rārangi Kōrero identifies only the heritage values of the property concerned, and should not be construed as advice on the state of the property, or as a comment of its soundness or safety, including in regard to earthquake risk, safety in the event of fire, or insanitary conditions. Archaeological sites are protected by the Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga Act 2014, regardless of whether they are entered on the New Zealand Heritage List/Rārangi Kōrero or not. Archaeological sites include ‘places associated with pre-1900 human activity, where there may be evidence relating to the history of New Zealand’. This List entry report should not be read as a statement on whether or not the archaeological provisions of the Act apply to the property (s) concerned. Please contact your local Heritage New Zealand office for archaeological advice. A fully referenced New Zealand Heritage List report is available on request from the Otago Southland Office of Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga.