Early history
Te Kawerau a Maki traditions relate that the earliest occupants of the large forest covering the Waitākere ranges included Patupaiarehe or fairy people. Known to Te Kawerau as Tuhurangi, the latter are recalled in the name Waitahurangi, a watercourse extending from the Titirangi ridge to the Whau River. Subsequent arrivals from Hawaiiki included the tohunga of the Tainui waka, Rakataura - also known as Hape - who named many places adjoining the Manukau Harbour, including Titirangi. From the 1600s onwards, occupants included Te Kawerau a Maki, the northernmost grouping of the Tainui confederation.
During the eighteenth century, conflict between iwi to the north and south, Ngāti Whātua o Kaipara and Te Waiohua, resulted in battles at nearby Paruroa (Big Muddy Creek) and Paturoa (Titirangi Creek) - at which Ngāti Whātua prevailed. Te Kawerau and other groups continued to occupy the area, but pressure for the exploitation of timber resources increasingly led to land passing into European hands from the late 1830s onwards. In the mid-1850s, the land on which the future Hotel Titirangi, Te Uru Gallery and Treasure House were erected formed part of Allotments 44-46, obtained by Auckland-based sawmillers Thomas Canty and John Bishop. The year after tree-felling in 1857, Bishop purchased Canty’s share to establish a farm, following the general pattern of Pākehā holdings in the area. A farmhouse, Dunvegan, was erected a short distance to the west of the current Hotel Titirangi site, accessed via a gated track along what is now Titirangi Road. After Bishop died in 1865, the farm was run by his wife Elizabeth (d.1898) before a major portion passed to their eldest son William Thomas Bishop (1860-1943).
Both William Bishop and his son W. A. (Alec) Bishop (1898-1971) were to have a significant impact on Titirangi’s development, promoting its role as a visitor destination in the Auckland region due to its elevated position and spectacular bush scenery.
Construction of the Titirangi Tea Kiosk (pre-1917)
Titirangi gained a reputation as a desirable place for Aucklanders to visit from at least the 1850s. In the mid-1880s, Titirangi’s first hotel was established, promoted as a sanatorium like other visitor destinations in the region, although the venture soon failed when an economic depression set in. Recognising that improved communications were vital for the area’s development, William Bishop directly constructed part of the New Lynn-Huia road, and remained involved in roading matters after being elected to the Waitematā County Council as the first member for Waikumete Riding in 1887. In 1894, extension of the Titirangi Road through Bishop’s land and other improvements led to suggestions of a tourist road circuit through the Waitākere ranges.
It was not, however, until the establishment of several large parks and scenic reserves around Titirangi in the early 1900s and the one-way Exhibition Drive in 1914 that Titirangi developed as a significant gateway for tourism. This coincided with a growing conservation movement nationally, which emerged partly in response to the rapid depletion of native bush due to forestry and other clearance. A major donor of lands in the Titirangi area, including the immediately adjacent Mt Atkinson Reserve in 1913, was wealthy engineer and businessman Henry Atkinson (1838-1921) - who had been manager of the Auckland Gas Company for 35 years - and his immediate family. As an additional stimulus to tourism in the area, motorised vehicles increasingly replaced horse transport, enabling day trippers to venture further afield from urban centres such as Auckland.
By early 1917, a tea kiosk and store was in operation on the site at the corner of Titirangi and South Titirangi Roads. Occupying a ridge top location, the timber structure provided refreshments to visitors as well as offering spectacular views across farmland and native bush towards the Manukau Harbour. The business may have been run by William Bishop’s wife, Alexandrina, from as early as 1914, and evidently also functioned as a post office and venue for public events such as political meetings. It was among two or three tearooms established in Titirangi in response to the expansion of local attractions, indicating the latter’s impact on the immediate economy.
In 1919, the land passed to Alec Bishop, who evidently took over running of the kiosk. Enlarged by 1921, continued public use included use for a polling station during the special liquor referendum in April 1919 when national alcohol prohibition was narrowly defeated; an address by Ellen Melville in favour of greater women’s representation in parliament; and ratepayers’ meetings in 1923 to advocate for a new concrete road connecting New Lynn and the summit of Titirangi, terminating at the kiosk - at which Alec Bishop was a moving force. Over the Christmas holidays in 1923-4, Titirangi received an estimated 8000 visitors from Auckland. The views from Mt Atkinson, represented as ‘the nearest bush to the city’, formed a major attraction.
Construction of the Treasure House (1926)
Encouraged by Titirangi’s popularity, Alec Bishop subdivided the land on which the tea kiosk was located. In 1926, a section downhill from the kiosk was purchased by a close relative, Dargaville jeweller Frank Oscar Peat (1883-1945), who had spent more than two decades collecting artefacts linked with New Zealand’s natural and cultural past. Reflecting a widespread growth of interest in such matters, particularly after the First World War, Peat decided to display his collection in a purpose-built museum on the site. Part of his collection had previously been shown at the New Zealand and South Seas International Exhibition in Dunedin (1925-6), and was also suggested for the New Zealand pavilion at the British Empire Exhibition in London in 1924-5.
Erection of the new museum coincided with a wave of new construction among museum institutions in the 1920s and 1930s, responding to both local pressures and international trends. Like the contemporaneous Auckland War Memorial Museum (1924-9) and the later Dominion Museum in Wellington (1933-6), it adopted aspects of neo-classical style, reflecting its role as a sanctuary of learning. Designed by the notable planner and architect Reginald B. Hammond, Peat’s Treasure House was erected as a small, rectangular building of single-storey, concrete construction with a tiled roof and front portico - described after its opening in late 1926 as ‘not unlike a Greek temple’. A major proponent of the garden city movement, Hammond had recently gained a national profile for his design of the proposed Orakei Garden Suburb (1925) as well as helping to draft the country’s first Town-planning Act and becoming New Zealand’s first director of town planning (1926).
Peat’s collection was displayed inside the main hall, measuring 18.29 x 7.62 m (60 x 25 feet). The exhibits included a large collection of kauri gum, proclaimed to be from every gumfield in North Auckland and considered by visiting experts to be ‘the finest they had ever seen, and in all probability the best in the world’. The collection also contained numerous Māori artefacts, including the carved sternpost of a large waka from the Manukau Harbour, numerous pou, and many smaller objects such as mere, tiki and fishtraps. A suit of armour traditionally said to have been given to a Māori rangatira by King George IV in 1820 was also a major exhibit. Artefacts from the natural world included stuffed birds such as the extinct huia, rare seashells and ‘a fine exhibit of the large native snail found in kauri forests’. Outside the building, a ‘fairy dell’ containing the widest possible variety of native trees and shrubs was planted as a botanical museum or garden. A small, adjoining souvenir shop was also added.
Prominent visitors to the museum included the Australian opera singer Dame Nellie Melba and the Governor General, Lord Bledisloe - who in 1932 gifted Waitangi to the nation. Advertisements promoted both the Treasure House and adjoining tea kiosk as accessible by daily buses from the centre of Auckland. By this time, the kiosk and store additionally accommodated a post office. As an ongoing place of public gathering, the kiosk hosted further discussions about the construction of a concrete road to Titirangi. By the late 1920s, New Zealand had become one of the most motorised countries in the world per capita, with increasing numbers of its inhabitants exploring the countryside by car. In 1929, shortly before a poll to enable funding of the road, Alec Bishop was elected to the body that would oversee its construction, the Waitematā County Council.
Construction of Hotel Titirangi (1930)
Pre-empting the proposed road, Bishop set up a company - Hotel Titirangi Limited - in 1928, to purchase his kiosk business and erect a large, high-quality hotel on the site. Conceived shortly before the depths of the Great Depression, the venture was claimed to be the first attempt to establish near Auckland a luxurious hotel on the lines of those in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales, and other parts of the world. At this time, New Zealand had comparatively few grand hotels - considered by some private entrepreneurs to be an impediment to attracting overseas visitors and other tourists seeking to experience the country’s unique landscape and culture. Proposed solutions included creating luxurious, resort hotels based on North American prototypes, as at Titirangi and the near-contemporary Chateau Hotel or Chateau Tongariro, erected in the central North Island in 1929. Pre-existing accommodation, as at the Waitomo Hotel - the most profitable government-run resort in the country - was also proposed for upgrading.
At Titirangi, the intent was to cater for businessmen working in Auckland as well as weekend tourists and more general visitors. The latter included sightseers from overseas liners at Auckland port. Extensive views from the site were promoted as a major feature. Initial plans were for a building accommodating 63 guests.
As erected in 1930, the new hotel followed revised plans for a less ambitious, 24-bedroom structure. At five storeys high and incorporating an ornate Spanish Mission design, it was nevertheless a landmark building that dominated the local landscape. In addition to incorporating many initially proposed features such as a tea room, roof garden, ballroom and basement garage, provision was made for a dining room, two shops and a post office– continuing some of the functions of the earlier kiosk, which was removed to allow construction after December 1929. The building was of concrete frame and slab construction, with infill brick walls and a clay tile roof. Both the initial plans and revisions were undertaken by William Swanson Read Bloomfield (1885-1968), who can be considered nationally significant for probably being the first person of Māori descent to study at an architectural school and practise as a Western-style architect.
Of Ngāti Kahungunu descent on his mother’s side, Bloomfield had studied architecture at the University of Pennsylvania (1911-13) at a time when American hotels formed the global standard for commercial hospitality. During the late 1920s and early 1930s, he was responsible for several notable buildings in Auckland of varying architectural influence and design, including the Chicago-Style Yorkshire House in Shortland Street (1926-8), the Arts and Crafts St Augustine’s Church in Devonport (1930), and the Station Hotel in Beach Road which incorporates Art Deco detailing (1930). His versatility can also be seen in the design of hangars (1928) and club rooms (1930-1) for Māngere’s Auckland Aero Club, and several domestic house commissions.
Bloomfield’s design at Titirangi took full advantage of the site at the ridgetop junction of Titirangi and South Titirangi Roads. Influenced by American architectural trends both in its exotic, Spanish Mission style and comfortable appointment, it projected ideas linked with romance, a relaxing climate and higher-status living. Promoted as ‘A Castle on the “Fringe of Heaven”’, the building incorporated unusual features, including a dance floor laid on rubber buffers and piped music to all floors. It also had an electric lift, was centrally heated, and delivered hot and cold running water to every bedroom - a considerable luxury. A rooftop garden terrace and rear balcony at ground floor level enabled full appreciation of the views, while its drive-in basement garage was additionally an important feature for motorised guests. The building was erected by P. W. Peate, a specialist in concrete construction.
The hotel was opened in November 1930 by the leader of the Reform Party and former Prime Minister J. G. Coates. It soon became a destination, including for a driving party linked with the Dominion bowling tournament in 1931. It was not until that year, however, that the concrete road to the Titirangi Hotel was finally created. Before its completion, and as the economic depression worsened, Hotel Titirangi Limited went into liquidation. Similarly affected, F. O. Peat sold much of his collection to the Government in 1933, although this would not finally leave the Treasure House until nearly three years later. Many other tourist resorts in New Zealand likewise struggled to survive at this time.
Economic conditions began to improve by 1935-6, when alterations to Hotel Titirangi were carried out under lessees R. A. Nicolas and Company. In addition to extra bedroom accommodation, elements conceived as part of the earlier, curtailed design such as a lounge on the roof terrace, were added. The work was again undertaken by P. W. Peate but on this occasion overseen by notable architect Llewelyn S. Piper. In 1937, the first part of the popular Scenic Drive through the Waitākere Ranges opened, bringing an increasing number of motorised day-trippers to its starting point at Titirangi.
For a brief subsequent period, the hotel was run by Leonard James Shrubsall, an earlier director and mortgagor of Hotel Titirangi Limited, who recombined the Treasure House land with that of the hotel in 1937. Unable to obtain an alcohol license in ‘dry’ West Auckland, Shrubsall’s main source of income is said to have come from the tearooms. In an unsuccessful attempt to revive the building’s fortunes in 1939, the business was converted into the Titirangi Country Club, when dances were held. At least some of the latter may have been held in the former Treasure House, referred to as ‘an auxiliary dance hall.’ The latter had also been used as a polling station for parliamentary elections in 1938.
In 1942, at the height of the ensuing Second World War (1939-45), the entire property was acquired by the Government for conversion to a School for the Deaf.
Use as a School for the Deaf (1942), teaching facility (1960) and community centre (1983 onwards), and construction of Te Uru Gallery (2012-14)
Following its purchase, the Titirangi school formed just one of two such state institutions for deaf children in the country. Initially intended to be a temporary measure, it accommodated children who had previously been sent to the South Island for education - where premises at Sumner had been commandeered for war purposes. Established in 1880, the Sumner Deaf and Dumb Institution had been ‘the world’s first government-funded school for the training of deaf people who could not speak’, and from 1921 also had a satellite institution at Myers Park in Auckland. Educational approaches for much of the twentieth century in New Zealand relied on medical perspectives, focussing on teaching children to speak. Student immersion by institutionalisation in residential dormitory accommodation was also standard.
Alterations to the former hotel were immediately undertaken. Upstairs rooms were fitted up as separate dormitories for boys and girls, and the former Treasure House ‘next to the tennis courts’ converted to classrooms, at which time its windows may have been enlarged. Initially, some 60 to 70 children from throughout the North Island were accommodated. In the later 1940s, at least one student came from as far afield as Pitcairn Island. Expanding facilities prior to 1951 included another dormitory, classroom blocks and toilet blocks in the grounds. Other than accommodation and classrooms, the main building contained an assembly room, play room, sewing and hobby room, and staff facilities, as well as a kitchen, dining room, laundry and garage.
By 1950 the school had 134 attendees, of which 80 were boarders. Concern was expressed about conditions that had initially been intended as temporary. In 1948, the American educationalist and socialist, Helen Keller (1880-1968), who was herself both blind and deaf and a major campaigner for people with impairments, had visited the school. Alterations in 1953-4 included a small, soundproof room with sawdust-filled walls for audiometric testing and hearing aid instruction in the former hotel basement. In 1958-60, the school moved to new premises at Kelston.
The complex was subsequently converted to the Department of Education’s first residential centre for the in-service training of teachers. It was re-named Lopdell House to commemorate Frank Lopdell (1890-1960), a significant educational administrator who had successively served as principal of the Wellington Teacher’s Training College, superintendent of the Auckland region of the Department of Education and chief inspector of primary schools, as well as being the country’s first officer for in-service teacher training. Early courses included one to prepare teachers for work in the Pacific Islands. The former Treasure House evidently remained in use as a hall for instructional purposes, and had its floor upgraded in 1969. The teaching facilities were relocated to other institutions in 1982.
Following local pressure, the site was obtained by Waitematā City Council (later Waitākere City Council) for an intended district office, arts and community facility in 1983. This reflected Titirangi’s development as an artistic centre from the mid-twentieth century onwards, and its inhabitants’ subsequent desire for a cultural hub. Following establishment of the community-run Lopdell House Society, the main building was refurbished with alterations including a large dining room on the roof terrace and insertion of a theatre in the basement garage. The complex was formally re-opened by the Governor-General Sir Paul Reeve and other dignitaries in November 1986 as the Waitematā City Arts Centre - the main arts venue in West Auckland. In 1989, it became the Waitākere Arts and Cultural Centre. Managed by the Lopdell House Society until 2014, the complex contained the society’s main gallery space - known from 1994 as the Lopdell House Gallery - on the ground floor of the former hotel.
In the late 1980s, a statue of Henry Atkinson was added to the pavement at the junction of Titirangi and South Titirangi Roads. Initially erected by his family in 1922 on the top of Mt Atkinson, this structure was relocated after becoming a target for defacement. During the 1980s and 1990s, the former Titirangi Hotel was the subject for paintings by members of the Auckland artistic community, including by Peter Siddell (1935-2011), who was only the second New Zealand artist to be knighted. By 2011, the former hotel was considered ‘critical to Titirangi’s identity’.
Public concerns about the state of the buildings and the future of the activities that they housed led to vigorous community efforts to conserve the existing structures and create an art gallery of international standard on the site. Formed by community volunteers and other stakeholders, the Lopdell House Arts Development Trust (later Lopdell House Development Trust) oversaw the advancement of plans. In 2012-14 a leading practice in New Zealand architecture, Mitchell and Stout Architects, undertook extensive conservation and refurbishment of the former hotel and Treasure House. Alterations to the hotel included removal of post-1930 roof terrace elements, some reconfiguration of rooms especially at ground and first floor levels, conservation of significant internal elements including the electric lift and seismic strengthening. In 2015, the project was accorded a National Award by the New Zealand Institute of Architects for reasons that included its enhancement of the hotel’s landmark and other design presence, and use as a community facility.
In 2012-14, Mitchell and Stout also created a new, adjoining building of strikingly modern but sympathetic design to accommodate the Lopdell House Gallery, by now known as Te Uru Waitākere Contemporary Gallery. Linked to the former hotel by bridges at several levels, this new structure - abbreviatedly referred to as Te Uru Gallery - was likewise accorded a National Award in 2015. In its citation, the New Zealand Institute of Architects stated that ‘the transformational power of modern architecture can hardly be better illustrated than in this dramatic addition to the Titirangi village…The social effect on the local people is this building’s greatest achievement. It is surely rare for any new project to be so immediately valued and appreciated by its community’.
Retaining strong community connections, the place currently (2020) combines extensive use for public arts with retail facilities and office space for a variety of organisations and businesses.
