Cox House (Former) is a weatherboard-clad Arts and Crafts-style residence with long, sloping Marseille tile gabled roofs. It was built in 1929-30 for lawyer John Watson Cox and his new bride Helen (nee Maddox) in the prestigious Auckland suburb of Remuera. The house is architecturally significant as a work by notable Auckland architects Gerald Jones and Arthur Palmer, who had designed one of New Zealand’s most notable churches in the Arts and Crafts style - the Williams' Memorial Church in Paihia - a few years earlier. The place is also significant for its association with John Cox, who went on to have an influential planning career promoting inner-city high density housing in New Zealand.
Remuera has been associated with the settlement of rich and successful Aucklanders since the middle of the nineteenth century. From about 1900, the palatial houses of the wealthiest settlers of the 1800s made room for the smaller, but often grander townhouses of the city’s commercial and professional élite. The area where Cox House was later built was first subdivided into house sections in 1885. The 1920s were a period of suburban expansion, and Remuera became the home for many large new solid houses at this time, including many in the Arts and Crafts style.
John Watson Cox (1902-1984) initially lived with his parents at their house in Westbourne Road, Remuera, which they had owned since 1922. In August 1929, the year he graduated from law school, he bought part of their section. Cox had a considerable interest in architectural design: in later life, he was to become the first president of the influential Architecture Centre, one of two architectural associations founded in 1946 by young idealists who shared a common belief in the transformative potential of modern architecture; the need for urban development to be carefully controlled; and the desirability of planning for a better future.
Cox commissioned Auckland architects Jones and Palmer to design a new house, which was constructed by building contractor T. Anderson. Gerald Jones has been referred to as ‘Auckland’s complete Arts and Crafts architect’ and designed a large number of houses in Remuera. The new one-and-a-half storey timber residence was of Arts and Crafts-style and had a cruciform plan. Its north and south elevations were very similar to each other, although the north elevation also contained French doors opening from the dining room, and the south façade an entry porch. The ground floor contained a porch, sitting room, dining room, hall, kitchen and laundry. Upstairs were three bedrooms and a bathroom.
John Cox and his wife owned the property until the mid-1930s. In the year that the house was sold to mining engineer John Goosman (1936), a garage was added to the section. Later owners included Henry Gift Coldbeck, who carried out reconnaissance missions for the Royal Air Force during the Second World War (1939-1945). Coldbeck was a prisoner of war in Stalag Luft III after being shot down in 1942.
Commencing in 1968 with a sunporch, a series of sympathetic additions were made which extended the house eastwards. In 1974 John Gummer, a son of noted architect William H. Gummer, designed a family room with an overlying bedroom. Five years later the family room was further extended, with a flat roof balcony above.
In 2015, the house remained in use as a private residence.
Remuera has been associated with the settlement of rich and successful Aucklanders since the middle of the nineteenth century. From about 1900, the palatial houses of the wealthiest settlers of the 1800s made room for the smaller, but often grander townhouses of the city’s commercial and professional élite. The area where Cox House was later built was first subdivided into house sections in 1885. The 1920s were a period of suburban expansion, and Remuera became the home for many large new solid houses at this time, including many in the Arts and Crafts style.
John Watson Cox (1902-1984) initially lived with his parents at their house in Westbourne Road, Remuera, which they had owned since 1922. In August 1929, the year he graduated from law school, he bought part of their section. Cox had a considerable interest in architectural design: in later life, he was to become the first president of the influential Architecture Centre, one of two architectural associations founded in 1946 by young idealists who shared a common belief in the transformative potential of modern architecture; the need for urban development to be carefully controlled; and the desirability of planning for a better future.
Cox commissioned Auckland architects Jones and Palmer to design a new house, which was constructed by building contractor T. Anderson. Gerald Jones has been referred to as ‘Auckland’s complete Arts and Crafts architect’ and designed a large number of houses in Remuera. The new one-and-a-half storey timber residence was of Arts and Crafts-style and had a cruciform plan. Its north and south elevations were very similar to each other, although the north elevation also contained French doors opening from the dining room, and the south façade an entry porch. The ground floor contained a porch, sitting room, dining room, hall, kitchen and laundry. Upstairs were three bedrooms and a bathroom.
John Cox and his wife owned the property until the mid-1930s. In the year that the house was sold to mining engineer John Goosman (1936), a garage was added to the section. Later owners included Henry Gift Coldbeck, who carried out reconnaissance missions for the Royal Air Force during the Second World War (1939-1945). Coldbeck was a prisoner of war in Stalag Luft III after being shot down in 1942.
Commencing in 1968 with a sunporch, a series of sympathetic additions were made which extended the house eastwards. In 1974 John Gummer, a son of noted architect William H. Gummer, designed a family room with an overlying bedroom. Five years later the family room was further extended, with a flat roof balcony above.
In 2015, the house remained in use as a private residence.
