Early history of the site
The northern shores of the Waitemata Harbour are of significance to several iwi, having been explored and occupied since early human arrival in New Zealand. According to oral tradition, the Arawa canoe under the navigator chief Tama Te Kapua investigated the Waitemata. The Tainui canoe also landed at Te Hau Kapua (Torpedo Bay) in present-day Devonport before travelling to its eventual heartland in the Waikato.
People are already said to have been living at Te Hau Kapua at the time that the Tainui canoe visited. Physical evidence of very early settlement has been found on the foreshore where adzes were manufactured on stone working floors. Recorded horticultural features in the Maunga Uika (North Head), Takarunga (Mt Victoria) and Takararo (Mt Cambria) vicinity, and evidence of terraces, pits and midden, indicate that Maori occupied the volcanic cones in later times. The beach at Te Hau Kapua was the site of a late eighteenth-century battle when a Ngapuhi, Te Kawerau and Te Parawhau alliance raided the Ngati Paoa pa, Takapuna, now known as North Head.
Following Ngapuhi incursions in the 1820s, much of the North Shore was depopulated, assisting its purchase by the British Crown after formal colonisation in 1840. A small Maori settlement at Te Hau Kapua remained until 1863.
Devonport emerged as a colonial settlement with its use as a British naval station from the 1840s. Crown land in the area was subdivided into suburban farms in 1850 and subsequently offered for sale. Although Devonport was subject to speculation and land subdivision in the 1860s, large-scale development emerged primarily during the economic boom of the 1870s and 1880s. With the establishment of good quality ferry services to and from Auckland, Devonport became a well-established residential suburb and significant seaside resort.
The site on which Goldwater House was constructed lay within Allotment 12A, which was issued as a Crown Grant in 1868. In contrast to land on the western side of Cheltenham Road, which was advertised for sale as small suburban plots in 1866, Allotment 12A remained unsubdivided until the 1880s. By 1905, the southern part of Allotment 12A incorporated a large residence with extensive grounds that contained a fountain, an orchard, vineries, a dairy and a washhouse. At this time, Cheltenham Road was considered to be one of the main residential streets in Devonport, which were collectively said to be ‘occupied chiefly by the families of city men who have made their homes there, as being entirely removed and differing in aspect from the scene of their labours.’
In December 1905, the southern part of the site measuring 60 x 125 feet (18.3 x 38 metres) was bought by Adelia Goldwater, wife of Albert Goldwater, solicitor, for the construction of a family home. A permit for the erection of a building had been previously issued in September of the same year. Albert Goldwater was a partner in the legal firm of Calder and Goldwater, which operated from offices in the Victoria Arcade in central Auckland. In 1897 he had married Adelia Dervan, and by 1905 the couple had several young children. In March 1906, a mortgage for £650 was officially registered against their property, possibly to pay for the construction of a house.
Construction of Goldwater House (1906)
The Goldwaters erected a comparatively large and ornate timber house, later considered to be one of the finest late villas in Devonport. It is likely to have been built by 1907, when the family is recorded in street directories and rates books as occupying the property. In July 1907 the Goldwaters also purchased land immediately to the north of the house which was used to form a side garden. The choice of site may have been influenced not only by the residential character of the immediate neighbourhood, but also its proximity to Cheltenham Beach and the Devonport Domain - both notable as recreational and sporting destinations by the early 1900s. Aside from his professional career, Albert Goldwater was a noted amateur sportsman who was a founding member of several significant swimming organisations in New Zealand.
Born in 1869, Goldwater was educated at St George’s Grammar School, Thames but learnt to swim in the Salt Water Baths in Customs Street, Auckland at the age of twelve. In 1888, he helped to found the Auckland Swimming Club, said to have been the third swimming club listed in New Zealand after those at Christchurch (1880) and Hamilton (1881) - although other early clubs, some possibly short-lived, are known. Goldwater was present at the inaugural meeting of the Auckland Swimming Club in October 1888, and was elected a committee member. By the following year, he was honorary treasurer of the organisation and also a committee member of the Auckland Amateur Athletic and Cycling Club. During the next few years, he took part in numerous sports in the tradition of the Victorian amateur gentleman, including swimming, water polo, the one mile walk, and rugby. During this period, New Zealand sport was predominantly urban-based and amateur, with its representatives primarily of a social background that allowed them the time and resources to take part.
In December 1889 Goldwater was one of six individuals who met to discuss the creation of a national swimming organisation, the New Zealand Amateur Swimming Association (NZASA), which was formally constituted in the following year. This occurred just four years after the Amateur Swimming Association had been established in England, and before national swimming organisations had been set up either in Australia or the United States of America. Goldwater participated in the gala that accompanied the first national championship event, which was held at Calliope Dock, Devonport, in January 1890 in front of more than 10,000 spectators as part of the colony’s jubilee celebrations. In 1898 following a split with associations from the South Island, Goldwater helped to found a rival organisation to the NZASA, the New Zealand Amateur Swimming Association Registered, and was a vice-president when discussions were being held to resolve the schism between the two bodies - resolved with amalgamation in 1904.
The Goldwaters’ new residence was erected as a single-storey timber villa of corner-angle bay type. Its design incorporated a return verandah on parts of its north and west elevations, looking out in the direction of Cheltenham Beach. Of ornate external appearance, the building encompassed a considerable amount of decorative detailing, including fretwork, turned verandah posts, balusters and finials; and fancy shingling on its gable ends. Its several brick chimneys were of tall, elegant type.
Internally, the building encompassed several bedrooms, a front parlour or lounge, and a dining room with an elaborate fireplace surround. Service rooms at the rear evidently included a kitchen, pantry, bathroom, laundry and lavatory. The latter was accessed via an outside door. Other rooms were reached from a central hallway, or a connecting side hall which also led to a side verandah towards the back of the house.
Internal décor included a papier-mâché dado of Art Nouveau design in the main hall. An elaborate fireplace surround in the dining room is said to be identical to an example in the Freemans Bay Hotel in Auckland, which had been established by Adelia Goldwater’s father Michael Dervan, and was run by her mother Winifred from 1898. The bathroom is believed to have contained a large, metal bath from the outset. Rooms also evidently contained gas lighting.
The bay villa style is said to have reached the peak of its popularity between 1895 and 1910. Many such structures were of ornate design, employing mass-produced joinery produced in local mills such as that of the Kauri Timber Company in central Auckland.
The architect of the Goldwater House is unknown, although the design has been attributed to Arthur Lewitt Ferneyhough (1872-1936) on the basis of visual similarities with known examples of his work. A plain frieze around the exterior of the house is also a feature of Ferneyhough’s designs at both Trentham (1906-7) in St Marys Bay and Florence Court (circa 1907) in Epsom. Goldwater House and Trentham similarly share the same chimney design; use of narrow weatherboards; distinctive stained glass windows with geometric lights; and ornate Eastlake-style brackets. Practising on his own account from circa 1899, Ferneyhough had previously served his articles with the prominent Devonport-based architect, Edward Bartley; and subsequently became known predominantly for his residential designs.
Subsequent use
Following completion of the residence, the Goldwaters participated in the social life of the area. In March 1909, a wedding breakfast was held at the house for a bridal party that had attended the marriage of P.J. Hackett and Margaret Donovan at All Souls’ Church, Devonport. In 1913, Adelia Goldwater also gave a ‘Kitchen Tea’ in the ‘pretty new kiosk at Cheltenham Beach’. Albert Goldwater retained some involvement in local swimming activities: in 1914, he was evidently auditor to the recently-formed Cheltenham Swimming Club, which is said to have been based at the opposite end of Cheltenham Beach from the older North Shore Amateur Swimming Club (1897). In 1923, the two clubs merged to form the Devonport Amateur Swimming Club. Goldwater’s sporting involvements also extended to lawn bowls, winning the Whole Day Pairs Tournament at Devonport in 1914.
Following C.M. Calder’s retirement in 1919, Goldwater continued to practise as a solicitor and had an office in the South British Insurance Buildings by 1932. In 1939, a garage was erected in the northwest corner of the property by the builder C.J. Peacock.
Adelia Goldwater died in 1943, followed by Albert Goldwater in 1948.
Conversion into two flats (1948) and reconversion to a single residence (circa 1984-6)
Following Albert Goldwater’s death, the property passed to his children, Bernard Eugene Goldwater solicitor, Winifred Mourya Pickthall widow, and Philip Charles and Dervan Albert James Goldwater hotelkeepers. In March 1948, an application was made to convert the house into two flats. The front flat was to be the smaller dwelling, encompassing the former lounge, two front bedrooms and a box room. One of the bedrooms was converted into a kitchen, and part of the box room made into a shower room. The rear flat was to retain three bedrooms, a dining room, kitchen, bathroom, inside toilet, pantry and laundry. Internal access between the two parts of the house was to be blocked.
During the following decade, the flats were occupied by residents of possible Eastern European background. From the early 1960s onwards, the two flats were respectively occupied by two of Albert and Adelia Goldwater’s sons, Philip and Dervan Goldwater. The brothers had previously been involved in running the Freemans Bay Hotel in Auckland, which had been erected by Adelia Goldwater’s parents in 1886. In the early 1980s, the rear residence continued to be occupied by a member of the Goldwater family, while the front part was lived in by a housekeeper.
In 1984, new owners purchased the property and re-converted it to a single residence and family home. Most of the 1940s modifications were reversed. Additional alterations included removing some internal walls in the northeast part of the house to create a large kitchen. New apertures have also been created to the side verandah. Pre-1948 corner steps to the front verandah were re-created using turned posts that had been stored beneath the sub-floor of the building. Brass gas lamp fittings found in the attic were also reinstated in some rooms.
Since its reconversion to a single dwelling, the villa has featured in publications on New Zealand’s architectural history, particularly in relation to its exterior and interior decor. In an article on Devonport architecture published in 1986, the house was referred to by architect Jeremy Salmond as ‘one of the finest late villas in the borough’, with particular mention made of its ‘carefully fretworked brackets in gables, under sunhoods and on the verandah.’ Another study referred to its well-preserved interior, including its fireplaces and papier-mâché wall dado. In 1992, the house featured on the front cover of Di Stewart’s history of the bay villa, The New Zealand Villa: Past and Present, and was referred to elsewhere in the same publication as ‘a mature corner angle bay villa with all the decorative elements intact.’
The property remains in private ownership.
