Historic Significance

Historical Significance or Value The Karori Cemetery Mortuary Chapel is a place of considerable historic and architectural significance, both as the oldest surviving building in Karori Cemetery, Wellington's largest, and as a small but delightful example of Gothic revival architecture. The building, which started as a shelter, has had a variety of uses over its life but has responded to the changing needs of the cemetery. It was particularly associated with the Jewish community through its location alongside the Jewish section, which was in use for interments for nearly 90 years. However, it was used by all denominations, particularly early on, and remains one of the most recognisable of the cemetery's buildings.

Physical Significance

The building's Gothic style on a Greek cross plan gives the building both a formality and an aesthetic appeal. It displays the Victorian delight in the decorative, and is a fitting structure in an established cemetery.

Detail Of Assessed Criteria

The former Mortuary Chapel, Karori Cemetery should be assigned Category II status for its historical and cultural heritage significance, summarised as follows: This chapel reflects important and representative aspects of New Zealand's history through its use, from 1892 until the 1970s, as a mortuary chapel in a major city cemetery. While the building has not been associated with any significant events, the building was very likely to have been used as part of burial ceremonies for many significant people, particularly during the early period of the cemetery's history. However it is not possible to state with certainty which people were buried from that building. It was certainly associated with most members of the Jewish community buried in the cemetery. There is relatively high public appreciation for this structure, as it is, along with the two crematorium chapels, probably the best known structure in the cemetery. The cemetery is a very well visited place, although this building is not visible from nearby streets. It is likely that, given the heavily symbolic and commemorative nature of all cemeteries, that this building has considerable significance in this regard, although less so since it stopped being used for burial purposes. This building is part of a very important historical and cultural landscape - Karori Cemetery. The cemetery has operated since 1891 and is a place where tens of thousands of burials and cremations have taken place. There are 35.5 hectares of graves, memorials, mausolea, columbaria, various buildings, paths and roads, trees, shrubs, gardens, fences, walls and gates. The collection of built structures and the landscape they occupy represents a unique and diverse cultural heritage landscape. The cemetery is a place where, through plot purchase, burial, cremation and genealogical connections, most families in Wellington (and many elsewhere) have some stake in its future.