Historic buildings in the news

Adams Cottage

Mount News, 11 December 1986

THE oldest building in Mount Maunganui is being sold to a builder-developer.
The cottage in Adams Street has been the home for the owner of the Mount View Museum, Mr. Gordon Farrelly, and his wife Lena, for the past five years.

It was put up for sale this year when Mr. Farrelly decided to sell up his museum and collection.

The local builder, who did not wish to be named, is remaining tight lipped about the future of the cottage but assured the Mount News it would not be demolished.

Mr. Farrelly said he was pretty sure the cottage would not be destroyed but he added that he was not saying it would remain on the Adams Street site either.

An assistant research officer for the New Zealand Historic Places Trust in Wellington, Mr. Michael Kelly, said the cottage was not on its books as a protected historical site.

However, that does not mean it does not have any historical value.

The New Zealand Historic Places Trust does not have a regional committee in the Bay of Plenty and therefore does not know of many, if any, historic places in the area.

Mr. Kelly said it was quite possible that historic sites of some value were being lost because the trust did not know about them.

“There are only two areas in New Zealand that do not have a regional committee; the Bay of Plenty and Tongariro.

“It is just one of those quirks of history,” he said.

The director of the Tauranga District Museum, Mr. Russell Standish, said he would “hate” to see the cottage lost to bulldozers.

He added that he felt it was the Mount Maunganui Borough Council’s responsibility to preserve the museum for Mount Maunganui.

Mr. Farrelly wrote to the borough council asking them to consider purchasing the museum, but he claims to have never received a reply from them.

The Mayor of Mount Maunganui, Mr. Wayne Moultrie, said the council did discuss purchasing the museum.

“The major factor against buying the museum was cost and a general disillusionment with involvement with museums in general,” he said.

Kymin

Bay of Plenty Times, 2 May 1906

REV. W. BARNETT'S NEW RESIDENCE.

Some little time ago the Rev. W. Barnett, formerly of Riversdale Estate, Masterton, Wairarapa, purchased a block of town land fronting Cameron Road, and situated about a mile from the post office. The owner has just had erected thereon, at considerable outlay, a handsome and commodious villa residence, fitted with all the latest modern conveniences. The work of designing was done by Mr. A. Ager, of the School of Architecture, Canterbury College, while the construction was carried out by Mr. J. B. Chappell, of this town, and the workmanship is certainly a credit to the builder and has met with the undoubted approval of the owner.

After passing through the front door of the building, one finds himself in the entrance hall, 11ft 6in by 8ft 6in, with elaborate diamond pattern zinc ceiling (with beautiful 9in cornice), and having three diamond Murano windows, the last-mentioned being turned out from the contractor's workshop. Adjoining the east of the entrance hall is the drawing room, 16ft by 12ft 6in, with Venetian bay window, the ceiling matching that of the hall. Next, the study—13ft by 12ft—is entered, which, with the drawing room, commands a magnificent view to the northward. On the eastern side of the villa are three spacious bedrooms, which all open on to the passage. From the south of the entrance hall is the dining room, 18ft by 14ft 6in, lighted with an octagon bay window, commanding views to the north, west, and south, the windows being surmounted with amber Murano glass fanlights.

The stair hall adjoins the entrance hall and measures 12ft by 10ft, then comes a passage off which, on the left, is a pantry and another bedroom. To the right of this passage is a linen closet, and also the kitchen, 12ft by 11ft 6in, fitted with all necessary cupboards and one of Scott Bros.' tiled-back ranges; the kitchen is admirably lighted with an oriel window. Off the kitchen is the scullery, 11ft 6in by 9ft. From the study to the southern entrance extends a passage, on the left of which are the three bedrooms already mentioned, whilst on the right is the bathroom, 11ft by 8ft, fitted with porcelain bath, lavatory, and all necessary conveniences.

From the stair hall one ascends the staircase to the first floor and enters the tower, with circular head-lights to the north and west, from which is obtained a fine view of the whole neighbourhood. Upon ascending to the platform of the tower, surrounded by an ornamental iron railing, a splendid view of the town can be secured. The remaining portion of the first floor is set apart for two lofty bedrooms.

The fireplaces all contain tiled grates and hearths, with carved mantelpieces, and amongst the conveniences may be mentioned hot and cold water, generated from a high-pressure boiler, and leading to all parts of the house. On the north and west of the building is a columned verandah, whilst the outside wall consists of bevelled six-inch weather boarding, with block architraves, and embellished with various mouldings, brackets, and dentils. The body of the building is painted a stone colour, picked out with various shades of Venetian red, green, and slate. The papering, varnishing, etc., is all executed in a thorough and artistic manner, and the whole work redounds to the credit of the contractor and his staff.

Bay of Plenty Times, 22 October 1963

[Photograph] The old home on the Cameron Road-13th Avenue property on which Woolworths (N.Z.) Ltd proposed to establish a supermarket with car-parking facilities. 

Bay of Plenty Times, 26 December 1991

Owners to move historic house

By Phil Smith

"A HANDSOME and commodious villa residence" as it was described when built in 1906, will shortly leave its 5th Avenue site for a new life in Warkworth.

Former residence of late Tauranga businessman Maurice Munro, the two storey kauri home has been purchased by Jerry Guest and Cheryl Hindle, who plan to restore the building on their 10-hectare site overlooking the Mahurangi River.

"We've got a site worthy of the house," said Mr Guest, a surveyor, yesterday. "We hope it will be the pride of Warkworth."

"We've been told it will be transported in four pieces, and that when it has been put back together again you won't know it’s been cut apart."

Mr Guest and Ms Hindle, from Britain, bought the house from Glasgow Auctions owners Susan Oldfield and Brian Jones.

Ms Oldfield and Mr Jones in turn bought the house from Murray Gibson and his sister Barbara Leighton, who inherited the property from the Munro estate earlier this year.

The home was designed by Mr A. Ager, of the School of Architecture, Canterbury College, and built by Mr J B Chappell of Tauranga in 1906, according to Bay of Plenty Times records.

Built in the Victorian style, the house originally occupied the entire block bounded by 12th and 13th Avenues, between Cameron and Devonport Roads. It was built for the Reverend William Barnett who was the town's first Baptist minister.

The site is now home to the Tauranga Central Baptist Church, several car dealers, and houses.

In an account by Mr Barnett’s grandson, Bill, the house was described as “a rather imposing building with a distinctive turret that became a familiar landmark in the early days.”

The home was called Kymin and, according to a newspaper account, was “fitted with all the latest conveniences” including six-inch kauri bevelled weatherboards and block architraves, hot water from a high-pressure boiler, a tiled-back range, and columned verandas.

“The papering, varnishing, etc., is all executed in a thorough and artistic manner and the whole work redounds to the credit of the contractor and his staff,” the article said.

Kymin was purchased by Dr Thomas Stewart for whom Mr Gibson and Mrs Leighton’s cousin - Olive Davis - worked as housekeeper. Dr Stewart had no immediate family and when he died he bequeathed the house to Miss Davis, who later married Maurice Munro.

The Munros shifted the house to 5th Avenue around 1965 and renamed it Belvedere.

Mr and Mrs Munro were also childless. Mrs Munro died in 1988 and her husband two months ago. The property passed to Mr Gibson and Mrs Leighton, who retain ownership of the 1735 square metre site.

Overlooking Devonport Road and part of Memorial Park, the property is thought to be worth about $400,000. Mrs Leighton and Mr Gibson plan to keep part of the site to build on.

"We’re not sure what we’re going to do with it at present,” Mrs Leighton said. “We’re open to proposals.”

“We would need to hear $500,000 before we’d start talking.”

Bay of Plenty Times, 2 January 1992

Letter to the Editor

Old home

Sir — I write regarding the Bay of Plenty Times article of December 28 about the historical home Kymin. This house has family ties as my late aunt and uncle lived there, and as a young person my cousins and aunts and uncles spent many a happy time there, in its large grounds. This goes back into the early 1930s. Later when my aunt died, (William Barnett's daughter Annie) her husband remarried and he built a new house on this same property and owing to hard times it was sold.

The late William Holland lived in it for some time, also his mother lived next door. My late father purchased three properties on this site, later two sections were sold to the Baptist union for a new church and complex including the house that is called Ross House.

The other properties on the corner of Devonport Road and 12th Avenue, where the late Fred Beazley built a home; my late father lived there until he died. The property was later sold to Bob Owens' sister who in turn sold it and the section was split in half. The original home has been modernised.

I am very sad to see another landmark removed from Tauranga.

I would be grateful if someone knows any further history related to this property.

Doug Isaac
Merivale

Bay of Plenty Times, 24 January 1992

Holy house on the move

By Ben Smith

The distinctive kauri house built by Tauranga's first Baptist minister, Reverend William Barnett, is on its way from its Fifth Avenue site to a new home in Warkworth.

The large two-storey house is being cut into sections and moved to a 10-hectare site overlooking the Mahurangi River.

House removal experts yesterday sliced off the turret and lifted it onto the back of a truck for transportation.

The remainder of the 86-year-old house will be shifted during the next two days. And during that time, the new owners, Jerry Guest and Cheryl Hindle, intend living in the home to look after the property till the final sectioning and removal is complete.

Although the house cost $42,000 to purchase, it would cost at least that much again for transportation, Mr Guest said.

The couple intend to restore the house to its former glory and have begun collecting samples of the original paint and wallpaper in order to match it during the renovation process.

They are interested to hear from anyone who has any knowledge or memories of the house.

“If there is anyone who knows how the house looked before it was cut down in size during the 1920s, then we'd be delighted to hear from them,” Mr Guest said.

“We are keen to get a photograph of Reverend Barnett. We’re very conscious of the fact that he built this magnificent house, and we've heard such good things about him that we'd like to give a photograph pride of place in the renovated homestead.”

Mr Guest, who is a surveyor, said they felt very privileged to have bought the house and wished to restore it to its former glory.

Bay of Plenty Times, 25 January 2008

Former local landmark seen for sale online

By John Cousins
john.cousins@bopp.co.nz

One of Tauranga's grand old houses, lost to the city about 15 years ago, has resurfaced in Auckland as a mortgagee sale.

Advertised for sale on the website TradeMe as a "whopperportunity," the 102-year-old house, originally named Kymin, was spotted by Steve Vergeest, a Tauranga resident with an eye for history.

Mr Vergeest, who owns a grandfather clock that once graced Kymin, said it was a shame that so much of the city's old colonial homestead heritage had been demolished or taken away.

He said Kymin was built in 1906 for Tauranga's first Baptist minister, Rev William Barnett. It originally occupied the entire block bounded by 12th and 13th Avenues, between Cameron Rd and Devonport Rd, a block now occupied by the Tauranga Central Baptist Church, car yards and homes.

Such was Mr Vergeest's interest in Kymin—renamed "Belvedere" when it was shifted to 5th Ave in 1965—that he made a trip to Auckland to see this link with Tauranga's early years. The mortgagee sale has revealed another chapter in Kymin's history.

After being shifted from Tauranga to Pulham Rd, Warkworth, it was relocated for a third time to its current site in Greenhithe, Auckland.

Described in 1906 as a "handsome and commodious villa," an account in the Bay of Plenty Times described it as being "fitted with all the latest conveniences including hot water from a high-pressure boiler, a tiled back range and columned veranda."

Kymin was later bought by Dr Thomas Stewart who, having no immediate family, bequeathed it to his housekeeper Miss Olive Davis. She later married Tauranga businessman Maurice Percival Munro. The couple remained childless and when Mr Munro died in 1991 aged 91, the house was inherited by Murray Gibson and sister Barbara Leighton.

It was then on-sold twice before being relocated to Warkworth.

Weekend Herald, dated 30 October 2010

Holy house on the move
9A Olwyn Pl, Greenhithe

Built in 1906, this enchanting home has a fascinating story to tell, finds Sandra Goodwin.

You’d expect a 1906 Second Empire-style villa to come laden with history, but this lovely specimen is also well-travelled.

Owner Shelley Bakhuizen has restored the home, which she knew she wanted to own "do or die" the minute she laid eyes on it. But it wasn’t until later that she found out about its diverse history and previous locations.

The home was built in 1906 for Reverend William Barnett on a large block of land fronting Tauranga’s 12th and 13th Avenues. Designer Mr A. Ager chose the Second Empire style, complete with a turret and "widow’s walk."

Woolworths wanted to buy the site, so in 1964 a subsequent owner of the villa moved it about a mile down the road in Tauranga.

However, relatives who inherited the property earmarked that land for other uses, and in the early 90s, the picturesque villa was relocated to its third setting in Warkworth.

Then, about a decade ago, it was relocated for the fourth time to its current 4029sq m section in Greenhithe, set back from the road down a driveway.

Shelley, who immigrated to New Zealand from South Africa with her son Luke, bought the house in March 2008.

“In South Africa, they build with brick and plaster, and I think some of New Zealand’s wooden homes have so much character,” she says. “And I loved this home’s look; it’s really unusual with its little turret. It’s so striking that strangers come down the driveway and ask if they can look through.”

She repainted the home in Resene “Tana” accented with “Alabaster,” giving the exterior an appealing and elegant look. The formal front path, flanked by standard topiary, was one of the landscaper’s recommendations.

The covered, columned veranda offers a welcoming entrance with a front door flanked by Muranese windows featuring diamond-shaped leadlight glass in soft pastel hues. The entrance hall is something special, with wooden wall panelling, polished kauri floors, interesting angles, and a diamond-patterned, pressed-tin ceiling.

Sunlight fills the formal lounge, which has bay windows and walls sheathed in wide wooden boards. The second living room, which Shelley and Luke use as their study, has French doors opening to a deck for outdoor entertaining.

Shelley has renovated the open-plan kitchen-dining room in an elegant country style, installing granite and kauri benches, a rectangular butler’s sink, and a heat pump.

On this level, there’s also a bedroom with its own deck, a family bathroom with a claw-foot bath and shower with an original copper floor, and a separate laundry.

An ornately carved newel post introduces the staircase to the upstairs area. The master suite features a private balcony, walk-in wardrobe, and a spacious en suite with a claw-foot bath. A third claw-foot bath is featured in the black-and-white bathroom off the upper hall. A nearby door provides access to generous attic storage.

Luke’s bedroom is the third bedroom in the house, and a pull-down attic ladder in its ceiling leads to a small room in the turret. From here, adventurous sorts can climb up to the turret-top “widow’s walk” and enjoy the outlook from behind its ornamental iron railing.

There’s a double garage alongside the villa, and both the local kindergarten and Greenhithe Primary School are within walking distance.

Property Details:

• Size: Land 4029 sq m; house approx. 198 sq m.
• Price Indication: Interest expected above $1 million; auction scheduled for November 24 (unless sold prior).
• Inspection: Sundays, 3pm-4pm.
• School Zones: Greenhithe Primary School, Albany Junior High School, Albany Senior High School.
• Contact: Clare Ellis, Bayleys North Shore, ph. 487 0618 or 021 614 778.

Shelley is reluctant to part with her special home, described in a 1906 Bay of Plenty Times article as “a handsome and commodious villa.” However, it makes sense for the Bakhuizens to move closer to Ardmore Flying School, where Luke is training to be a pilot.

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MAYFIELD HOMESTEAD

Bay of Plenty Mirror, 9 October 1973 

Settler recalls Bethlehem wilderness.

Bethlehem — The son of the man who used to own Bethlehem,  Mr. Harold Oliver remembers well the days when the now prosperous settlement was just acres of scrubland.

“My father came from New Plymouth in 1899 to spend a few weeks with a friend at  Ōtūmoetai,” said Mr Oliver. “While here he was asked if he would be interested in buying some land. As it was a large block, big enough to support the whole family, he bought it.”

The land in question was 820 acres at Bethlehem, owned by a Mr Gordon Cummings — “the nephew of the celebrated lion hunter” — who had let pieces to the local Maoris for crop growing. But the remainder was overgrown with ti-tree and fern.

“It was in a terrible state then so two of my brothers came up from Taranaki in 1900 to break it in.”

SCHOOL

The boundaries extended from the Tauranga end of the Waihī road, up to Cambridge road, Moffats road, down Bethlehem road to the sea on one side and to the Maori Pa on the other.
The Bethlehem School today stands on some of the original property.
Mr Oliver himself lived at the Bethlehem block with his parents in 1910. Each member of the family was given their own piece to develop, an elder brother milking 30 cows on land where Mr Athel Mayfield now lives.
The original Mayfield homestead was built by Mr Oliver’s brother, Colonel, by adding a wing, appreciated it.

ALLOTTED

Harold Oliver himself lived in one of the two cottages already on the block up where Farrelly’s place is now.

“That piece of ground was allotted to me,” he recalls, “and I ran a dairy herd. It was a hard life, but a happy one. There were no shops at Bethlehem then so we hitched up the horse and buggy and drove into Tauranga.

“We did our entire week’s shopping every Saturday, buying a great meat required for a large family for a week. How we kept it, I really don’t know, we didn’t have fridges or deep freezers then.”

Farming in those days was all done without mechanical help. Horses and shanks’ pony were the order of the day and Mr Oliver remembers long hours trudging up and down behind the horse and plow.

SUB-DIVIDED

Over the years the Oliver property was gradually sub-divided — the first shop opened in Bethlehem in the late 1930s — and now Mr Oliver’s son is the only branch of the family remaining in Bethlehem. But the ties remain on for he is orcharding on part of the original block.

Mr Oliver’s wife, Myrtle, was also one of the original settlers in Bethlehem. Then Myrtle Howe, she came to the area with her family in 1911. They developed 100 acres up Moffats Road, now the property of another family of Rowes, who are, however, no relations.  The Olivers married Bethlehem 53 years ago and now live in retirement in  Ōtūmoetai.

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Norfolk Hospital

Bay of Plenty Times (presumed) 14 June 1953

NEW PRIVATE HOSPITAL ON HISTORIC SITE

Old School at Te Renga Renga to Be Preserved

One of the oldest properties in Tauranga, Te Renga Renga, situated in Grace Street, has been taken over by a newly formed company which intends to build and operate a modern private hospital.

The chairman of directors of the company, Dr. H. Gilbert, stated today that it was hoped the hospital would be in operation within 12 months.

The growth and development of Tauranga and the district and the obvious future both possessed had influenced the company to proceed with the scheme, he said. There was an obvious need for a completely up-to-date private hospital, and the Te Renga Renga property was regarded as the most suitable, in a reasonably central position, for the purpose.

The property contains just over two acres and is situated on a small peninsula overlooking Tauranga harbour on three sides. It contains many beautiful native and imported trees, including Norfolk Island pines, a fine specimen of kauri, and several fine rimu. The trees are to be preserved intact when the new hospital buildings are erected.

The demolition of the old homestead, which was built in 1885 to replace the original homestead on the property (which was destroyed by fire), has already begun. It will be replaced by a main hospital building and a separate nurses’ home, both in brick veneer.

An old wooden building at the back of the homestead, once a mission schoolroom, is to be preserved because of its historical associations with early Tauranga.

The hospital is to be a medical and surgical hospital and will accommodate 18 patients. There will be 11 single wards, two double wards, and one containing three beds for child patients. Each ward will have direct access to terraces for outdoor treatment. The building will be centrally heated, and each ward will have hot and cold water connected with it. A spacious lounge is to be provided for patients, overlooking the harbour on three sides, and a radiological department, to be equipped with a modern X-ray plant, is to be incorporated.

The proposal to erect the hospital had the support of both the Minister and the Department of Health, stated Dr. Gilbert. The company was confident that it would provide for a need in growing Tauranga.

The new company, which purchased the property from Mrs. A. E. Mason, has been registered in Auckland as the Norfolk Private Hospital Ltd., Tauranga, with a capital of £25,000 in £1 shares. The shareholders are: Lucy S. V. Gilbert and H. H. Gilbert, 9000 shares jointly; R. H. Hay, D. S. Mitchell, and M. C. Walker, 2000 each; F. Porter, Helen Y. S. MacKenzie, A. Mountier, D. V. Bryant, V. Watson, G. D. Hynds, H. A. P. Jensen, and Beazley’s (Tauranga), Ltd., 1000 each; C. Webb, F. Webb, 500 each. The objects are to operate private hospitals, clinics, etc.

Bay of Plenty Times 16 October 1998

"Hospital Assures Respect for Pa Site"
By John Cousins

Norfolk Hospital has assured Tauranga historians that the last vestiges of the pre-European pā site that once occupied the land will not be lost to development.

Tauranga District Council has lifted the heritage order that marked the hospital as an archaeological site, to the disappointment of the Historic Places Trust. Extensions planned to the front of the hospital were halted when the council listed the property on the heritage register of its draft District Plan. Norfolk Hospital spokesman Dr. Mark Fraundorfer said extension plans had subsequently been shelved, and they were looking at other options.

Prior to the District Plan being publicly notified, architects had been assured by the council that it was not a sensitive site and, consequently, a large amount of money had been spent designing extensions.

The Grace Road hospital sits on land that was once an extensive pā and later the site of Rev. T.S. Grace’s church mission house. Historic Places Trust BOP chairman Jinty Rorke said all that was left were defensive ramparts, and the lifting of site controls meant that even these were vulnerable.

When the hospital was built in 1953, foundations destroyed much of the old pā, although there was little public awareness at the time of the importance of preserving historical places.

Trust treasurer Lyn Harpham said Rev. Grace knew of the Māori burial ground and stipulated it was an urupā site when he sold the land, but the stipulation was ignored.

The pā had a good defensive position because the occupants could see up the Waimapu River and down the harbour. There were fresh water springs and large areas of fertile land. “It’s a shame there is very little of the pā left,” she said.

She said there was still a high pre-musket rampart at the Grace Road end of the site.

Dr. Fraundorfer said the site had enough protection under provisions of the Historic Places Trust Act. If any extensions were carried out in the future, they would have to go through archaeological processes.

Dr. Fraundorfer said the blanket heritage designation made it difficult to modernize the hospital. Current owners were very sensitive to the site’s history and they would be happy to preserve ramparts.

For instance, the shelved extensions would have been on piles rather than excavations. “We have no desire to cause anyone any concern. We do respect its history,” he said.

There was a terrace at the front of the hospital, with a bank that sloped down to a neighboring house.

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Carter-Vickery House

Bay of Plenty Times, 17 October 1963

The house now being demolished near the Cameron Road-First Avenue intersection must be one of the oldest in Tauranga, according to 86-year-old Mr. P. G. McIntosh, of Fraser Street, who owned it during the depression years.

“The late Percy (Skip) Carter’s mother, a Miss Vickery, was born in that house, and while stripping wallpaper, I found newspapers dated in the 1860s pasted to the walls,” he said.

Mr. McIntosh said he bought the house from Mr. Frank Mullins, owner of the surrounding sections, when he came to Tauranga in 1923.

It was old then and he had trouble with woodworm in the kauri timbers of the five-roomed structure. He said he believed that the place was originally owned by Harry Vickery, whose father owned a blacksmith’s shop on the corner of First Avenue.

Old Smithy

While gardening on the corner section Mr. McIntosh found pieces of iron from the old smithy. He also took over an adjoining shop, recently demolished to make way for a supermarket. The shop was originally built in two sections for the Misses Aitken who sold drapery and confectionery.

Mr. McIntosh closed down the drapery section and used it for Tauranga R.S.A. offices. The other section was supplied with fresh vegetables from the corner garden, cut as requested by patrons.

He was R.S.A. secretary throughout the depression and recalls the fights he had to get pensions for returned servicemen.

One case he recalls was of a man who came in to buy a banana with his last sixpence. When he found the man was a returned serviceman, Mr. McIntosh gave him orders for lodging, boots, and clothing, and when the man went to haberdasher Mr. Dick Rutter they found they had enlisted, trained, and fought overseas together.

Ill-fated voyage

Mr. McIntosh himself served on headquarters staff in New Zealand and did not get overseas until 1918 when he was ship’s sergeant-major on the Tahiti with the ill-fated 40th Reinforcements.

“We picked up an epidemic at Freetown, Sierra Leone, and about 20 soldiers and 20 crew died before we reached England,” he said, “The last man died as we entered Plymouth harbour after being diverted from London.”

He said that of the 111 soldiers on board, only 33 were passed fit for service. Soon after arrival 300 men were sent to hospital, and Mr. McIntosh found only last year that one of the men lives near him.

Originally trained for the furniture trade, Mr. McIntosh changed to boat building shortly after his marriage and worked first in Rotorua with his brother-in-law and later at Whangārei. When he came to Tauranga he took over the First Avenue slip and later built several boats at his Fraser Street home.

Several of the boats, including some built at Whangārei, are still in Tauranga.

Mr. McIntosh sold the Cameron Road house in 1941 and moved to Fraser Street, where on his arrival in Tauranga in 1923, he was offered sections at £75.

The accompanying photograph is of an account uncovered while the house was being dismantled. Dated November 1, 1879, it is for the carriage of two doors and two casks of wine.

Robinson House

Bay of Plenty Times, February 1966

It was the home of the late Mr Frank (Toby) Robinson and Mrs Robinson, and stood on the section next to the Odeon Theatre in Elizabeth Street. But although the house has been demolished it was not taken apart in quite the same manner as is usual with old buildings.

Mr D. McTainsh, a builder, bought the house and took it down very carefully so as to prevent the splitting or breaking of any of the remarkably sound kauri timbers.

Each board, as it was taken from the frame, had all the nails removed. The timbers are all to be sent to a treatment plant. They will then pass any building regulations.

Mr McTainsh has plans to keep the materials until a suitable site can be found and then rebuild the home to its original size.

“We have vintage cars, and people collect stamps or furniture, so why not a vintage house collection to show the young people how our old folk used to live?” he asked.

About 1920 the house had a room added and the frame, when exposed, clearly showed the different construction.

The original two rooms, with the front door giving direct access to one of them, had a shingled roof but this was replaced years ago by corrugated iron. Considerable skill was needed to remove the window and door frames without damaging them because all the joints were mortised and wedged.

Not all of the old house will be rebuilt into its original place. The front door and some of the windows have been taken to The Elms Mission House to be used in any repairs or replacements needed there. 

When removing some old floor covering, fragments of what appeared to be an old English newspaper were found by Mr McTainsh.

The date on the paper was September 1916 and a picture showed a war scene in which a tank was being used to haul a heavy gun.

The house was bought and the addition made in 1920 by Mr and Mrs S. Earl, who in their old age—they were nearly 90—moved from Waihī. Their three sons later inherited the property, which was bought a few years after from them by Mr Robinson, whose wife was their sister.

Mr and Mrs Robinson lived there until they died. Mr Robinson 10 and his wife three years ago. The property is now owned by Messrs Wright Stephenson. 

Mr Robinson planted the roadside verge with persimmon trees, and these are now flourishing in the grounds of the Tauranga Intermediate School.

He also planted several kauri trees. One is at McLaren's Falls and another is growing in the old garden in Elizabeth Street. If it can be moved without injury, Mr E. J. Holland, parks superintendent of the Tauranga City Council, will find another place for this fine specimen.

He examined the tree yesterday and said that a kauri was a difficult specimen to transplant even from a very small tree size. If any future building on the site did not crowd the tree too much it would be better left alone.

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Cnr Park and Cliff Road Weatherboard House

Bay of Plenty Mirror, February 17, 1971
HISTORIC LINK SEVERED

Making way for a new block of flats, an elderly weatherboard house on the corner of Park Street and Cliff Road is scheduled for demolition: workmen have already started to remove the roof, chimney and some interior walls.

During their work, it was discovered that the house, now reasonably modern in appearance, had been altered and extended many times.

The centre portion, it is thought, was originally part of one of the small cottages built around the Mission House during Tauranga's infant years.

The dividing walls had been built from studs panelled by transverse planks and a base support for the scrim had been provided by pasting sheets of old newspapers in the accepted method of those early days.

Several of the walls are covered with Australian newspapers dated May and December 1882 and there are sheets from the Auckland Weekly News (October 1884) and B.O.P. Times of the same year.

Recently, bowing to the march of progress, many houses that retain some historic link with Tauranga’s past have been pulled down and the stories they have to tell, gone unrecorded.

We cannot keep the old buildings forever, but there is a home for small items of craftsmanship of a bygone age and pieces of the original building materials that have special significance, at the Tauranga museum.

Part of this particular home is obviously one of the city’s earliest dwellings and the Historical Society are very anxious to hear from anyone who could give them more details.

Certainly, there are parts of it that appear worth preserving for the interest of future generations.

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Barbeck House

FAMILY’S HISTORY IS BROUGHT TO LIFE

Bay of Plenty Times 6 May 1972

A rich tapestry of family history, including piracy on the high seas, the discovery of gold in Australia, the first missionaries in the far north of New Zealand and the pioneering days of early Tauranga, was presented by Mrs A.A. McKenzie, a granddaughter of Captain Ebenezer Goddard Norris, about whom she spoke, at the general meeting of the Tauranga Historical Society this month.

Mrs McKenzie’s account is as follows:

"At a time in British history when the majority of families lived out their lives in the homes of their fathers, Ebenezer’s father, Gregory Norris, gave up a seafaring career and came ashore to become a minister. He married a Miss Clarke, a sister of George Clarke, who in 1824 had come out to New Zealand to join the Anglican mission there.

There were nine children of the marriage, Ebenezer being the eldest. The family Bible records that far from settling down in a clerical setting in England, Ebenezer’s father still had the yen to travel and several of the children were born in North America. The eldest, however, was born in Brixham, Devonshire, in 1830.

When Ebenezer was reaching his majority, his father died, and the paternal attitude he had adopted to his brothers and sisters took on reality as he became the ‘man of the house.’ George Clarke, now firmly established in NZ with a family of his own, wrote to his widowed sister offering to bring her and her family to NZ. Mrs Gregory Norris, a stout-hearted woman, accepted her brother’s offer and made preparations to go to a brother who had kept in close touch with England, even sending his sons back there for their education.

But Mrs Norris died before she could step on the boat, and Ebenezer, at just 20 years of age, took over the final preparations for the voyage. The next eldest brother, Gregory, was then about 15, the youngest, George, seven or eight years, and his sisters ranged in age from 9 to 16 years. In that Victorian age, they were more of a millstone around his neck than a help.

After the hardships of a voyage of which there are no historic records, the family arrived at their uncle’s residence at Kerikeri in 1851. Ebenezer had to find some way of making a living and he became the lessee-manager of the old Stone Store at Kerikeri, now saved for posterity.

Life in NZ then saw missionary-owned scows and cutters acting as a lifeline, together with other ships which plied the coastline. With their father’s seagoing blood in their veins, it was natural for some of Ebenezer’s brothers to turn to the sea for a living. First, there was Gregory, then William, then George, all of whom trained and eventually became deep-sea captains, Gregory and George at one time holding the records for the fastest passage from NZ to England.

Ebenezer looked after his sisters and was never tempted by the sea. Then his sisters married, some returning to England with their husbands, so that eight years after his arrival in a strange country, Ebenezer felt he too could marry, and so he met and married Charlotte, the youngest daughter of James Kemp, a missionary.

In 1863, Charlotte had a baby daughter, Ada Kate, born at Russell, and shortly after this the family moved to Auckland, which was now the home port of his seafaring brothers. Tragedy struck in 1865 when Charlotte died at Parnell at the early age of 27, leaving Ebenezer with a baby daughter two years old.

Having joined the Volunteer Militia, he was gazetted as a Captain after seeing action against the Māori.

But always he had felt strongly about Tauranga’s potential as a port—in his eyes a rival to Auckland, serving as it must a greater hinterland and acting as a gateway to the thermal attractions at Rotorua. In 1866 he established a store at Tauranga on the side of Wharf Street, facing west.

He was the first captain of the local volunteers and saw active service in that capacity in the following year. At this time, it was only two to three years after Gate Pa, Te Kooti was as yet unsubdued, and the whole question of Māori land was still unresolved.

He did not, however, completely sever his connection with Auckland, and there was a strong attraction at Parnell at the home of Captain and Mrs Colin Campbell—Miss Amelia Harriet Campbell.

Amelia, with a comprehensive education, married Ebenezer on July 21, 1868, at Parnell. The 38-year-old groom brought his bride of 22 to the lovely little bay off The Strand in Tauranga. There was no wharf then. The ship stood off, a horse and dray backed into the tide alongside the ship, and the passengers and their goods were driven onto dry land.

There they found a guard of honour drawn up of the local volunteers to welcome home their captain’s bride and escort them to their first home, ‘High Trees,’ in what is now Harington Street, on the site of what is now Mrs E. T. Baker’s flats.

Here it was that after Gate Pa, the success of Te Ranga, the Māori chiefs surrendered their arms on the lawn. To this now historic spot, Ebenezer brought his young wife and his little daughter Ada, and they lived happily there during some of the most eventful years in Tauranga’s history.

From the open gable windows of ‘High Trees,’ my grandmother released the first English birds in Tauranga—sparrows. This proved a disastrous move because the birds were so destructive. But she loved birds to the end of her long life and had her own aviary.

"These were the years of alarms and excursions, thanks to the Hau-Haus, or to Te Kooti, and in common with the other women of the little settlement, baskets were packed and the family fled to the safety of the Monmouth Redoubt, where her husband with his volunteers and regular soldiers organized their defences.

On one occasion, word was brought to my grandfather that Te Kooti, who had an eye for beautiful Pākehā women, had sworn to take my grandmother for his own. Her husband immediately tried to persuade her to take ship for Auckland. My grandmother didn’t see it his way. Whether it was faith in his ability to protect her—or just sheer feminine stubbornness—is not known, but she stayed—the rest is history. Te Kooti’s scouts got as far as Whakamarama, but Gilbert Mair and his Arawas stopped Te Kooti.

In 1872, their first child together, a son named Colin Campbell Norris, was the first child in the new family to be christened in old Saint Mary’s, by Archdeacon Maunsell.

Two years later, a red-haired daughter, Amy Marion, was born, and christened by Canon Jordan at ‘The Elms.’

With the vigour that he had applied to a flourishing business, Captain Ebenezer Norris became a civic-minded citizen. In 1870, both he and his cousin Samuel Clarke were elected to the first Tauranga District Highways Board.

He was chairman five times until 1881, when he and his board resigned as a move in the struggle to get the borough incorporated as such. When the borough was formed in 1882, he was a candidate for the mayoralty, but was defeated by Mr George Vesey Stewart.

For a period of some 11 years, Captain Norris led the community in its civic affairs. Then he did not again stand for public office.

He had been active in church affairs and agitated for what was to become Tauranga’s Holy Trinity Anglican Church. His second son, Gregory George, was probably the first baby to be christened in the church, as he was born on July 21, 1875, and the church was consecrated on November 14 in that year.

The Jordan and the Norris families were to become close friends, and years later Gregory George Norris was to marry Grace Jordan, youngest of the canon’s daughters.

It was during these years that Captain Ebenezer Norris built his own home—Barbreck House—first occupying it in 1874, and it was here that Gregory, the second son, was born.

Some years later, the two younger daughters were born—Jessie in 1881 and Connie in 1884.

Ebenezer’s much younger brother William was by now captaining a scow which ran up and down the coast, and when his wife died, his young son Fred was taken into the captain’s household and grew up with the family as an extra ‘brother.’

Colin, now in his teens, also wanted to follow the calling of the sea, and his father finally consented that he sail under his brother (Colin’s uncle) Gregory, with instructions that the boy be treated rough to knock such nonsense out of his system. His trip around the world in the course of a year only made him more keen to be a sailor. Because of poor eyesight, he was only able to obtain a limited master’s certificate for steam and sail and acted as mate to Captain William Norris.

Then into a placid life, tragedy struck. His brother, Captain William Norris, was lost overboard in heavy seas off Mercury Bay, and Colin at 19 found himself in charge of a ship out of control, a hysterical woman (his uncle’s bride) trying to throw herself overboard, one deck hand to help, and a storm brewing.

He had to batten the bride down below, bring the ship about (no easy task in a running sea), and sail back to Tauranga with the news.

This was the second brother the captain had lost. George, also a sea captain, had settled in South Africa and died there.

Captain Ebenezer Norris died several months later, just a few days over 60—the worries of the depression and an overstrained heart brought on a short illness from which he never recovered.

He was buried in the Mission cemetery, and on his stone is carved ‘Diligent in Duty, Fearing the Lord.’

These few words sum up the life and personality of one who helped shape the destiny of this city.”

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New Site for Old Cottage

Bay of Plenty Times 8 June 1972

Approval for the moving of an old fencible cottage from Third Avenue to The Elms property on Mission Street was granted by the Tauranga City Council town planning committee yesterday.

The old cottage, which has been at its present site since 1871 or 1872 when it was shipped from Onehunga, will be restored to its original condition.

Sash cords of the original design will be brought from Auckland, a chimney of contemporary design will be erected, and a partition wall removed. A lean-to and a porch are also to be removed.

The cottage will be used as a reading room and for storing furniture from the already overcrowded Mission House.

"This is a very generous donation by an individual interested in the preservation of historic places which I greatly appreciate," said Mr D. H. Maxwell, of The Elms.

OLD TREES

Included on the property are an old rimu tree and a 95-year-old walnut tree. It is hoped to retain these when the section is redeveloped.

There is also a grape vine on the section from which wine was made, the last bottle being laid down in 1878.

The cottage was originally bought from the Army by Henry and Maria Beckers, whose family owned it until 10 years ago when it was sold to the Intellectually Handicapped Children’s Society.

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Taiparoro House 

Bay of Plenty Times, 2 October 1973

Old house to fall under hammer

The historic home of one of the oldest families in Tauranga will be sold by auction on October 31.

The house, belonging to the Adams family, was built in 1882. Named Taiparoro, it stands on the site of a pre-pakeha Maori village, at the Devonport Road and 5th Avenue corner, with a commanding view across the harbour to Matapihi and Maungatapu.

The home is built on a half-acre section, among large trees, shrubs and a wide expanse of lawn—part of which once included a tennis court.

For Mr L. Adams, who still lives in the family home, it will be a nostalgic moment when the home falls under the auctioneer’s hammer.

Mr Adams’ father built the house in 1882, shortly after he arrived in Tauranga from England. The 10 Adams children grew up in the home. But in the days of their childhood, the lifestyle was quite different from today’s—as the house shows.

“In the early days, we had lamps and candles and then switched to gas lighting,” Mr Adams said.

Finally, electricity was installed, he said.

Mr Adams pointed out the old stables beside the house—which were converted to the present garage.

Inside, the house has six bedrooms and, true to the times in which it was built, a parlour and drawing room cum family room.

Mr Adams said he would not like to see the house pulled down.

“The whole house is still very sound,” he said.

“It is all built of heart kauri and the foundations are rock. Inside, the floors are all the original stained wood,” he said.

“I am naturally very attached to the property,” Mr Adams said.

“But it has just become too big to live in alone,” he said.

“I would like to see a family buy the house,” he concluded.

Bay of Plenty Mirror, 9 October 1973

Taiparoro, the historic Adams family house in Devonport Road on the Fifth Avenue corner, is to be sold by auction on October 31.

Mr Lionel Adams, one of the 10 Adams children to be born in and grow up in the old home after it was built by his father in 1882, is also the last of the Adams children to live there. He said last week that he found it too large to live in alone and that he hoped it would be bought by a family which appreciated it.

Bay of Plenty Times, 31 October 1973

Pioneer’s house sold

An historic 91-year-old Tauranga house situated near Fifth Avenue, in Devonport Road, was sold today for $75,000.

The six-bedroomed house on a site of 80-81 perches, classed as residential B, was sold on behalf of the estate of B.S. Adams by J.H. Evans, auctioneers, in conjunction with Dalgety NZ Limited.

The property, which fronts Devonport Road and has a commanding view of the harbour to Matapihi and Maungatapu, was bought on behalf of a Tauranga man whose name has not been disclosed.

Bidding started at $80,000 and dropped to $60,000 before the first offer was made. It rose slowly before it fell under the hammer for $75,000.

Built in 1882 and named Taiparoro, the house belonged to one of Tauranga’s earliest settlers. It stands on the site of a pre-pakeha Maori village.

A crowd of about 100 buyers and spectators attended the sale.

 Bay of Plenty Times, 16 September 1989

Family Christmases Recalled

A STREAM of open day visitors poured through historic Fifth Avenue house “Taiparoro” yesterday afternoon, oohing and aahing at the 1882 architecture.

But most possibly the most appreciative were first cousins Ruskin Clark of Otumoetai and Warwick Williams, of Te Puke. The pair remembered many extended family Christmas dinners in the grand old house from their youth as grandchildren of original owner/builder, and former Mayor of Tauranga, John Cuthbert Adams.

Memories of the old dining room were of a bigger room, but this was probably due to the old 20-seater plus family table missing from the picture.

People with an eye for yesteryear saw two rooms in the partially restored historic house during the two hours it was open to mark National Housing Week.

This afternoon, the Elms Mission House on Mission Street was open from 2pm to 4pm. Tomorrow afternoon, the Brain-Watkins House on Cameron Road opens, and Monday afternoon, Maungawhare at Otumoetai will be open for inspection.

The open days have been arranged by the Historic Places Trust, which has protective classifications on each.

All more than a century old, the four homes are regarded as prime examples of early New Zealand architecture.

Taiparoro was occupied by the Adams family for more than 90 years. It was sold in 1973 and modernised between then and 1984 by developer AK Garrity. The present owners are restoring it to its original interior charm.

Mr Clark is son of the second eldest daughter of John Adams. He recalled Christmas days in Taiparoro when the seven local grandchildren would be rowed across the Harbour to Mount Maunganui by an aunt following the main meal.

Back at the house, the men would wash the dinner dishes while the women rested, then they in turn had a nap while the women packed the car for the journey to Mount Maunganui, he said.

By the time the adults had driven to the base of the Mount where the Adams’ distinctive green holiday house was built on what is now Adams Avenue, the children would be finished their row on “Saucy Kate.”

Then the Christmas holiday would begin, he said.

But the strongest memories for both Mr Clark and Mr Williams, who was the son of the youngest Adams daughter, were “those big feeds at Christmastime!”

Taiparoro is at present owned by Mr and Mrs Craig Wallis.

Bay of Plenty Times,  8 May 1998

Taiparoro — an alternative welcome

By Sue Hoffart

WHEN Kevin Kelly first clapped eyes on Taiparoro, he suspected the grand old Tauranga homestead would demand formidable quantities of his time and money.

He was right.

But the former builder and his wife Lois have also managed to create a profitable bed and breakfast business in the historic home, which is drawing an ever-increasing clientele from New Zealand and overseas. The Kellys can earn up to $700 a night when each of their five renovated, redecorated guest rooms is occupied.

Six years ago, the Tauranga couple simply wanted a place to live and they were smitten with the house built by former mayor John Adams in 1882, on what is now the Devonport Road-Fifth Avenue corner.

Back when Mr and Mrs Adams and their 11 children inhabited its kauri corridors, the property ran down to the harbour's edge.

Whatever tempestuous past the house has weathered—its name means stormy waters—today's visitors are assured of tranquility and fine hospitality in the middle of suburbia.

The inn is not widely known in Tauranga but this is no part-time, spare-room-at-the-back-of-the-house operation. Mr Kelly has traded in his Bay of Plenty Polytechnic building tutor's job to make beds, prepare breakfasts, and meet his guests' whims before they even know what they want.

Mrs Kelly works full-time as a polytechnic senior manager and helps out during weekends. They share a separate wing of the house with their two children.

Since the inn opened about four years ago, visitor numbers have climbed from a few people a week to full beds in all five rooms more often than not. In the past four months, an average of 60 percent of their beds have been slept in every night.

Mr Kelly credits their success to a combination of good luck, good management, great timing, and smart marketing.

After two hours with Kevin Kelly, it becomes obvious the host himself is probably the single most important factor in the equation. He meanders around the kitchen, chatting and preparing the simple, fresh, tasty lunch he serves on the patio.

“We're not here to make money; we're here to make satisfied guests and, if you follow that, you make money anyway,” he said.

“It's a people business, and people know if you make it a priority to keep them happy.”

Organic produce and yoghurt, fine coffee, muesli, and freshly baked bread and croissants help keep them happy in the mornings. Breakfast is served in a purpose-built, skylit lounge and dining room decorated with beautifully restored antiques and wooden furniture.

Guests have a choice of five rooms, varying in size and price up to the $180 a night suite that offers harbour views, a balcony, and old-world charm.

The furniture and the renovations have involved years of labour and scouring demolition yards and auctions, turning wardrobes into ensuite bathrooms, recycling rimu, and painstakingly matching all additions to the look and character of the original home. After six years, there is still work to be done on the kitchen and construction of a parking area.

The bed and breakfast idea grew from a chance visit to a similar establishment in Auckland, when the Kellys realised they might be able to make a living from their home.

The first couple of years were tough, and every little bit of income from the business was poured back into the house. Now they are busy enough to justify hiring a part-time worker.

Most guests are well-off and include travellers from all over the world, business people, and women travelling alone or in groups.

Mr Kelly is working on a promotional package targeting big businesses in the Western Bay of Plenty, who bring guests into town on a regular basis.

“You get really nice people. I've had people apologise for backing on the lawn and we've had absolutely nothing stolen, not even a towel.”

International travellers tell them they are not charging enough.

Bayleys Auction Advert, October 2005

Once in a while — a very long while — a home comes on the market that is one of a kind. It's not a chance to let pass—wonder what if—or even reason about its worth. History is irreplaceable. In 120 years, Taiparoro House has been sold just three times. This is the fourth opportunity in the home's lifetime to own it. Taiparoro is not Tauranga’s oldest, but it stands among the rare handful still surviving. It’s more beautiful than ever—protected under the Historic Places Trust with a Category 2 grading and five protected trees, which grace the picturesque garden.

The home was built in 1882 by Tauranga mayor J.C. Adams. Taiparoro, at 11 Fifth Avenue, commands one of the Avenues’ favoured spots with its seven bedrooms, six bathrooms, and 400m² of home on a full site of 1135m². It is a short 10-minute stroll to the city square. There is virtually no through traffic, and the outlook gives clear vistas across the harbour to Matapihi, Maungatapu, and the hills behind Welcome Bay. The harbour’s shiny sand gave Taiparoro its name, and the tranquillity of the scenery certainly adds to the value of this site. This is a beautiful character home—with many stories to tell—and deserving of owners with an appreciation of history and the desire to be a part of it.

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Reverend Bakers House

Bay of Plenty Times, 5 April 1974 
Historic Home to Go Soon

One of Tauranga’s most historic homes will be demolished soon.

It is the property in McLean Street — commonly known as Ward’s Flats after a former owner, Colonel Arnold Ward.

The original house, which has been extensively added to, was built over a century ago for a Church Missionary Society assistant missionary, Rev. Charles Baker.

Mr. D. H. Maxwell, of The Elms, Tauranga, said today that the house appears in sketches which were published in the Illustrated London News during the land wars of the 1860s.

He said the original building could be identified by the gable still visible.

Miss V. Macmillan, of Tauranga, said the missionaries evacuated the house before the Battle of Gate Pā in 1864.

She believed it was occupied during the hostilities by Colonel Harrington of the 1st Waikato Regiment.

Tauranga estate agent, Mr. H. Iles, confirmed today that the property had been bought by a Palmerston North syndicate. He said the house would be replaced by apartment buildings, but the form these would take was still being planned.

Mr. Iles said negotiations for the demolition of the building were proceeding, and it was hoped the work would begin soon.

It was “most unlikely” that the building, or any portion of it, was suitable for removal for re-building, he said.

Bay of Plenty Times, 13 May 1974
Relics Behind Sealed Door

Two men dismantling an old house in Tauranga have found a cache of relics worth about $500 behind a sealed door.

The relics, which include convict’s leg irons, were found under a big staircase in the home formerly owned by Colonel A. G. Ward, in McLean Street. The original part of the house dates from 1860.

The discovery of the relics supports a legend that there is a fortune in hidden antiques somewhere on the property, said Tauranga antique dealer, Mr. Jim Flowerday. The legend says that a priceless collection of relics — mainly military equipment — was hidden after Colonel Ward died in 1925.

“I thought we'd found it when we bashed in this wall on Saturday night,” Mr. Flowerday said today. “I think there might be something in the legend after all.”

Mr. Flowerday and a business colleague, Mr. Barry Harnett, found the relics.

Mr. Flowerday has a contract to demolish the house for a Palmerston North syndicate which will replace the building with high-rise apartment buildings.

The relics under the stairs included several antique cameras, a silver banded officer’s cane engraved with “Capt Ward,” and a silver tankard dated 1888, estimated to be worth about $80.

There is also an antique candle-snuffer, Māori canoe anchors, a gaslight fitting, and other items yet to be identified.

TERMS

Mr. Flowerday said that under the terms of the contract, everything discovered belongs to him.

Last week he dismantled an ornate marble fireplace in the original part of the house, and found the date 1827 inscribed on the back of it.

“There are lots of sealed-up places in this old mansion, and what we're going to find yet could be most interesting,” he said.

Bay of Plenty Times, 26 April 1974
Sadness in Home's Passing

The most famous occasion in Tauranga’s history will be recalled in two widely different ways this weekend.

The bloody battle of Gate Pā will be remembered in a special church service at The Elms, and it will be associated, incidentally, with the continued dismantling of an old house in McLean Street.

The two activities will be similar in one way, however: each will cause some sadness.

The service will be on Sunday evening, the eve of the 110th anniversary of the battle, in which 111 Europeans and 45 Māori died.

It will be sad because the memory of battles is always so. The dismantling work on the old house will be seen with a different kind of sorrow.

The original portion of the building was one of Tauranga’s earliest homes. Apart from The Elms, it could even be the last of the Tauranga homes that existed when the battle was fought in 1864.

With The Elms, it seems to be the only survivor of the buildings shown in contemporary sketches and plans of the infant town—then hardly a village.

News that a Palmerston North syndicate had bought the McLean Street house was published earlier this month. It was announced that the big house, known as the Ward Flats, would be demolished and replaced by new apartment buildings.

Colonel G. Arnold Ward's Legacy

Article contains Photo 08-045

Captioned: Colonel G. Arnold Ward (centre) extensively reconstructed the McLean Street house when he owned it from 1893 to 1925. He is pictured with Admiral of the Fleet, Lord Jellicoe, the then Governor-General (left) and an aide at the memorial cross for sailors and marines killed at Gate Pā, 110 years ago next Monday.

Mr D. H. Maxwell's Findings

This week Mr D. H. Maxwell, of The Elms, said he was satisfied, after consulting old records, that the original portion of the McLean Street house was built in 1860.

The records established it was built for an assistant missionary, Rev. Charles Baker and his family.

"Baker came to New Zealand in 1828 and was appointed in May 1860 to be a teacher at the mission school here," Mr Maxwell said.

Contemporary journals show the Bakers arrived in Tauranga in August and stayed for some time with Archdeacon Brown at The Elms. By September 1860, the Bakers moved to their own home.

Mr Maxwell said the mission school was disbanded after the Waikato War began in July 1863. By April the following year, the Bakers returned to Auckland, and their house was later occupied by Colonel Harington, commanding officer of the 1st Waikato Regiment.

The house has been identified from sketches and plans drawn during the period.

Land History

The land on which it was built for Rev. Baker was part of the 1,333 acres bought by Archdeacon Brown from the Māori owners in 1839. The total purchase comprised almost the whole peninsula on which Tauranga was to be built. A Crown grant to the missionaries as trustees for the Church Missionary Society was issued by Governor Wynyard in 1852.

In 1867, four-fifths of this area was transferred to the Crown. The fifth remaining with the society included the site of the house built for Rev. Baker.

The earliest records pertaining to the property under the land transfer system begin in April 1875, when the owners are shown as Archdeacon Brown, Rev. Thomas Chapman, and Rev. Robert Burrows.

After the death of Mr Chapman in 1877, the property was transferred to Mr Hulme, by Archdeacon Brown and Rev. Burrows, and then back to the latter.

It is likely that during this time it was leased or otherwise let to various tenants. However, in 1893, the property was bought by G. Arnold Ward, co-proprietor and editor of the Bay of Plenty Times. Colonel Ward, commanding officer of the 4th Waikato Regiment, had trained in England as a civil engineer and architect.

Between 1893 and his death in 1925, he extensively reconstructed the McLean Street home. After being sold by the Ward family, the big house was converted into flats.

Today, the old building looks unkempt and ugly, with few traces of its former elegance.

But some elderly Tauranga people still sometimes refer to it as "Colonel Ward's." A few may even point out the small steep gable as the only sign left of when it was Colonel Harington's.

And even that rare and fragile link with the birth of Tauranga will soon be gone.

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Wrigley House

Bay of Plenty Times 18 November 1977

One of oldest homes comes down

ONE of Tauranga’s oldest houses, believed to have been built in the 1880s, is being demolished, but most of the timber and bricks will be saved for future building uses at the historic village.

Wrigley House, as it is known, was bought about 1917 by Mr J. C. Adams, who was one of Tauranga’s early mayors.

The city archivist, Mr W. E. Morris, said the house may have been built about 1880 by Mr Adams in partnership with a Mr Gray, who owned a timber yard.

It was later bought by Mr Jack Wrigley, who was a chemist in Tauranga.

Mrs Vera Cross, who lived in the house around 1914, remembers it as a comfortable old place, but it did not have a bath.

“It was about the only house on Devonport Road and still rural in those days,” she said.

“It was a spacious house, with six rooms, but I think two rooms had been added to it at some time.

“It had a very lovely lawn and a beautiful view, and a long path leading up to it because the other sections around it were all empty.”

Most of the timber in the house is kauri and still of good quality.

One of the features of the house was a kauri slatted roof, which had been covered with iron sheets. The roof is being dismantled in sections and will be used for roofing miners’ huts and bush huts at the historic village.

The timber and chimney bricks will also go to the historic village to be used for future building purposes.

Photo caption: BRIAN SHEPPARD (left) and Roger Best dismantling the roof and chimney at Wrigley House.

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Hamilton Street House

Bay of Plenty Times 30 January 1978

Old house keeps its past a secret

SOME of the materials from the old kauri house in Hamilton Street which the Greerton Lions Club demolished on Saturday will be used at the Ngatuhoa Lodge.

The club plans to use timber and iron from the house for a porch extension at Ngatuhoa during the next few weeks.

Other timber will be incorporated in the sawmill which the club is building at the Tauranga District Museum and other materials will be used in buildings throughout Tauranga.

Purchases

While club members worked on the house, many visitors bought doors, skirtings, iron, ceiling panels, and kauri timber.

Club members know little of the history of the house. They found a mirror which carried the date 1907 on its back. They would welcome further information on its past.

Some kauri timber and iron is unsold. What is left when the Lions complete their job this week will be destroyed.

However, the chairman of the fund-raising committee, Mr Neil Howard, said the club was happy with the result of Saturday's work. It would make about $300, to be spent on community projects as well as obtaining timber for two projects.

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Col Greer's House

Bay of Plenty Times, September 3, 1979

Old house on move

WHAT is probably one of Tauranga’s oldest surviving buildings is about to make a move.

A little, two-roomed cottage believed to have been built for Colonel H. H. Greer, colonel commanding the Tauranga district in the early 1860s, is to be moved to the Tauranga Historic Village.

The weather-board cottage stands behind the Tauranga Commercial Travellers Club, on the site where it was constructed, and it is being moved to make way for extensions to the club’s facilities, including a dining room, lounge and family areas.

The old cottage has historic links with Tauranga as it was on a nearby grassed area that the Māori warriors laid down their arms following the Battle of Te Ranga, which took place after the Battle of Gate Pā.

Mr. Doug McTainsh, who is supervising the removal of the cottage to the village, said today it had stood the test of time well.

“Lifting the building for transporting to the village has disclosed very little rot, and then only where it has been in contact with the ground,” he said.

It is believed that the cottage was built as temporary accommodation for Colonel Greer while a larger home was being prepared for him nearby.

At the historic village, the cottage will be part of a display commemorating the Battle of Gate Pā. ​

COLONEL Greer’s cottage jacked up and almost ready to go. Historic village staff members in the photograph are, from left, Mr George Edgecombe, Mr McTainsh and Mr Peter Ghinis. Mr Edgecombe is examining some old items uncovered during excavations for the lifting. They included old ink and medicine bottles, cutlery and fragments of glass and china.

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Topcroft

Bay of Plenty Times, 12 March 1983

Part of city history for sale

ONE of Tauranga's oldest and most gracious homes is for sale.

It is Topcroft, a solid kauri two-storey homestead built in Edgecumbe Road in 1870.

The house has been offered for sale by the Shearman family, which has owned it since the 1920s.

Topcroft was originally built for Mr Samuel L. Clarke, who was born in the Kemp House at Kerikeri in 1824, second son of the young colony's "Protector of Aborigines", Mr George Clarke, who had been appointed by Governor Hobson.

Samuel Clarke came to Tauranga in 1860 after selling holdings in Auckland, and leased land at Te Papa from the Church Missionary Society.

His home in what is now Edgecumbe Road was the homestead for a farm which extended beyond Gate Pa.

The name Topcroft came from the Clarke family's original home, Topcroft Hall in Norfolk, England.

The Tauranga estate was subdivided in 1882, and Topcroft was purchased by the Rev. Burrows, with the area now bounded by 11th Avenue, Cameron Road, 13th Avenue and Edgecumbe Road.

It changed hands again in 1897, when it was purchased by Mr Josiah Tutchen.

Still in estate

At this stage it was found the house was built across a public roadway and Mr Tutchen was required to move it.

In the process the original servants' quarters and utility areas were detached and sited on an adjacent section, which is still part of the estate.

In the move the main body of the house was turned through 90 degrees so the original east end faced north.

Topcroft was purchased by the late Mr R. B. Shearman, who was Tauranga's second town clerk, in the 1920s as a home for his bride-to-be. He was town clerk for 41 years and died in 1952.

The family has occupied it ever since though further modifications have been made, with the servants' quarters and some utility rooms being detached in the early 1930s and located on the adjacent section, where they were adapted to an independent house.

Unfortunately the association between the Shearmans and Topcroft must now end.

Iron on shingles

The homestead stands on a half-acre section and Mrs Shearman senior has been saddened to leave her beloved, gracious old home — the only one she has known since her marriage to the late Mr R. Shearman.

"None of us wants to see the house demolished," Mrs Shearman's youngest son, Mr R. Shearman said.

"We hope it will be bought by somebody interested in preserving it and the grounds. It has been planned accordingly.”

Mr Shearman said the entire house was of pit-sawn kauri, probably produced locally. It was originally built with a wooden shingle roof, but that was clad in iron many years ago. The present roof was the third the house had had.

“My brother was a builder, so any weak timber has been removed and replaced as necessary,” Mr Shearman said.

“The house has also been repiled with concrete blocks.

“Inside, any purchaser is certainly faced with much redecoration.

“Most of the wallpaper is on scrim. And I imagine most people would wish to make some alterations to the internal layout.

“But it is a very roomy house with three living rooms and a dining room downstairs, four upstairs bedrooms, and many interesting features.”

These include the original “swan-neck” staircase, much original joinery and several old gaslight fittings converted to electricity.

Two downstairs ceilings are of decorative pressed steel, and original fretwork copings still remain round the wide veranda.

Mr Shearman said the house was listed by the Historic Places Trust but was declassified at the family’s request.

Shift for old home

Bay of Plenty Times, 1 December 1987

A SIGNIFICANT piece of Tauranga's early history, the Topcroft home, will soon be relocated to a park-like estate on the outskirts of Tauranga.

The historic 117-year-old kauri homestead may be the first of several older houses to be shifted to Bridgevale in Welcome Bay.

Developer of the site is Tauranga solicitor Mr. Bill Taylor, who already owns an expansive home on the Bridgevale ridge-top.

He said Topcroft would be shifted soon after Christmas.

There was not enough time for the relocation before then, due to Ministry of Transport restrictions for big loads during the holiday period.

The home would be restored to its original state, using old photographs as a guide.

Topcroft's new site is 2460 square metres off Ranginui Road.

It is one of eight large residential sections in the Bridgevale Estate arranged in unit titles with shared recreation areas, tennis court, heated pool, bush reserves, access ways, and other amenities.

Mr. Taylor said Topcroft would probably be the first of several older homes of character and historical significance to be relocated to the Bridgevale Estate.

By shifting older homes and restoring them to their original glory, he could develop a unique property around his existing home.

Topcroft would be taken in five pieces for ease of transport and re-assembly.

The home would be offered for sale once it had been restored, he said.

An era of Tauranga history will end soon after Christmas when the 117-year-old Topcroft home is shifted from Edgecumbe Road.

Topcroft is one of Tauranga's most notable early houses. While it was once the homestead for a huge farm covering the area between what is now 11th Avenue and Gate Pa, the graceful old home is now surrounded by houses, units, and townhouses.

Its new owner, Tauranga solicitor Mr Bill Taylor, intends to shift Topcroft to a site more in keeping with its heritage — to a spacious ridge-top estate in Welcome Bay on the outskirts of the city.

Topcroft was built of pit sawn heart kauri in 1870, for a Mr Samuel L. Clarke. The house construction of which was delayed a few years because of the land wars is now on Edgecumbe Road between 12 and 13th Avenues.

It was once the homestead on a farm which extended beyond Gate Pa.

The name Topcroft came from the Clarke family’s original home, Topcroft Hall, in Norfolk, England.

According to notes in the Tauranga City Council archives written by long-time resident Mrs Brenda Shearman, Samuel Clarke was the first to use a plough in Tauranga.

Even Gate Pa owes something to the large estate.

At the southern end of the farm, Mr Clarke erected fencing with a large swing gate through which people travelling southward could pass.

When the land wars extended to Tauranga, the Maori used the fences and gate in constructing the Pa stronghold. Hence the name, Gate Pa.

The panelled living room is built of kauri slabs 21" wide, hand-hewn and hand-stained. This room and the sitting room have pressed steel decorative ceilings.

A swan-neck staircase is a feature of the house, giving access to the four upstairs bedrooms, complete with dormer windows.

Ownership records are not clear but it appears Topcroft changed hands about a dozen times.

Mr Taylor’s shift will not be the first time Topcroft has moved.

Servants

One early owner was Mr Josiah Tutchen who purchased Topcroft in 1897. It was found the house had been built across a public road and the borough council wanted it moved.

The original servants quarters and utility rooms were detached and put on an adjacent section.

The house was also turned through 90 degrees in the move back from the road.

Tauranga’s second town clerk Mr R. B. Shearman bought the house in 1920 and started the family’s long association with the gracious old homestead.

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Edgecumbe Road near Seventh Avenua

Relocated house brings life style for young couple

Timescan, 31 January 1984

By Valerie Bell

The house, once one of the most palatial in Tauranga, bent like a banana off the back of the trailers. The supporting steel girders sparked as they scraped along the road from Tauranga to Te Puna.

But both halves arrived relatively undamaged and now, 2½ years later, they are rejoined, perched on piles on a low pumice plateau at the end of a looped gravel drive.

Seventy-three years ago the elegant 325 square metres (3500 feet) house with verandah along three sides, was built on about one hectare in Edgecumbe Road near Seventh Avenue where it looked through tall ghost gums on the hill across the estuary to Judea and Mount Maunganui.

A young fireman in Tauranga who had his eye on it for some time eventually bought it, with his wife, and moved it to their rural site. The family does not want to be named.

“Mark always wanted to build a house on the land but it was expensive just to get specifications and this was a viable alternative,” said his wife, Dawn.

“The builder who owned the house was going to demolish it at one stage to sub-divide the property and build new homes. The labour cost of restoration was too expensive.”

Three large brick chimneys were dismantled for the move. They rose about two metres above the roof and were dug 1½ metres into the ground with concrete footings.

“We took them out by hand with a chain gang from the top down,” she said. “We had never done anything like this before. The hearths were very thin tiles with grouting between and they broke up. We could not save them. But we have saved some nice wooden mantels.”

Uncertain

The house was cut, longitudinally, down the wide hall which runs the length of the house. After a few weeks on the trailers, 1½-metre high jacks were slipped underneath, the trailers removed, and the house eased on to piles.

“I was uncertain about how well the move would come off. But I was excited, too,” she said. “They moved one half first and the other a few days later. The movers said it was easy in theory to load it but wouldn’t know how it would go until they started travelling. They found that each room was structured separately.”

After 10 months on piles with a tarpaulin spread across the gap between the halves, the building was rejoined. Once done “it was a very good job”, Dawn said. “Then we moved in.”

That was Christmas, 1982.

An initial budget was made to replumb, rewire, re-roof, lay drains (septic), and for removal. Dawn said they had not had time to do much else to the house, but envisaged many painstaking hours over the next few years, as she planned, too, to return part-time to nursing.

But the work would not be wasted. The person who moved it was impressed by the building’s solidness and commented it would stand for at least 100 years more.

Image 2
THE ornate plaster ceiling in the lounge and dark wood beams. The brass light with hand-painted, frosted china shades is a recent acquisition well suited.

tion enough for us because some of the modern houses wouldn’t last that long,” Dawn said.

A 3.35 metre stud (11 feet), three bedrooms, a large study and lounge, dining room with leadlight cupboards, scullery and family kitchen-room with walk-in pantry, two bathrooms and servants quarters — “it was one of the more palatial homes in Tauranga in its heyday with service bells and the back rooms less plush than the front ones,” she said.

It just feels like home to the young couple with their five-months old baby, Nicholas, and their dog, Ham.

“People ask how it feels living in such a big house. You get used to it. When we first walked through it we could not remember each room; but now living in it is like living in any other house.”

Good order

Most of the wood in the house was oiled heart rimu, not varnished or painted, and in good order with very little borer, she said.

But the tongue and groove verandah boards were rotten and its roof would soon be replaced with bullnose iron.

The interior was well-kept and is still virtually as they found it.

First the couple wanted to be sure their home was weatherproof and preserved before they did anything inside.

They are heating the water in their 200-gallon cylinder in the roof with a hefty wood-fired furnace which they plan to eventually use in winter and a solar-heating panel in summer.

Cool in summer and cold in winter, the high stud made heating difficult with the heat rising to the ceiling.

“We don’t plan any major renovations, we want to keep it fairly authentic as far as structure goes and have stockpiled a lot of materials,” Dawn said. “If you knew you would live in an old house like this you would keep all your grandmother’s old things.”

“We plan, very ambitiously, to put more rooms upstairs in time. In the meantime Mark has put light wells in the hall which has lightened the whole house.

“We have other ideas to finish it and improve it ... like a hidden staircase.”

Brass door knobs, stolen before the house was moved, have had to be replaced and some new fittings found. The couple had since had problems with tools and equipment stolen from the property.

“Many people rudely drive up to look at the house and drive out again without speaking to us. Others are interested and friendly and come and talk to us,” Dawn said.

“We have lots of aspirations for outside planting — quite a lot of lawn and gardens and a big orchard. Mark and I enjoy propagating plants. We want to make it a lifestyle and live here for ever or until the city moves out here and the rates get too high.

“We have contemplated moving if that happens, and taking the house with us

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Musical Memories of old home

Bay of Plenty Times 8 November 2013

Tauranga resident Jennifer Blakeley-Shugg remembers her mother playing music from the drawing room in her home — named Topcroft — when she was a child.

Her father Reginald Shearman — a town clerk at the Tauranga Borough Council for 40 years — bought the house on Edgecumbe Rd in the 1920s before he married Brenda Mountfort there in 1930. He lived there with Brenda and their three children: Jennifer, John, and Rodney.

Jennifer remembers her mother’s daily routine of playing music from the drawing room.

“My mother was a concert pianist. She used to sit in the drawing room, where she would play for hours and hours every day.”

When she lived in Topcroft, Jennifer says the house was adorned with “beautiful” wallpaper and five fireplaces, three of which were brought from Italy.

When her father died in 1952 — and her mother passed in 1990 — Jennifer and her brothers rented the house for about six years before the land was subdivided into about 14 sections.

Jennifer was given some land on the corner of 13th Ave, where she has lived for 40 years. Her brothers were given land next to her plot; and by 1976, Jennifer says all sections were either sold or up for sale.

According to Jennifer and Rodney, the house was moved from Edgecumbe Rd in the late 1980s to its current location on Welcome Bay’s Ranginui Rd.

Building of the house was delayed by the New Zealand Wars (known as the Land Wars), until 1870. Missionary Samuel Clarke built the home, and named it after his ancestral home, Topcroft Hall, in England.

Next week, The Weekend Sun profiles Tauranga’s War Memorial Gates, outside The Wharepai Domain, on Cameron Rd.

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Brain Watkins House

Timescan 24 July 1984

House gives peep into a past age

By Rob Hosking

A MEMORIAL to a less hasty age, the Brain Watkins historical house stands just a few metres from hurtling traffic on inner city Cameron Road.

The house, once the home of the Brain family, is now a museum and a base for the Tauranga Historical Society. Now 102 years old, the house was left to the society by Mrs Elva Watkins, the daughter of the man who built the house, Mr Joseph Brain.

"She kept the house much the same way it was at the turn of the century," says the society secretary, Mr Geoffrey Russell.

"When the society took over, we kept it pretty much as she'd kept it — we moved a few things around, and made the front room into an office," he said.

"We did a lot of work in the garden, and we now occasionally hold garden parties there."

The society took over the house in 1979, opening it as a museum on Sundays between 12 noon and 2 p.m. A caretaker lives in part of the building.

Mr Brain built the house from kauri timber, and he also built much of the furniture inside the house.

"He was originally a seaman," says Mr Russell.

"We don’t know exactly when he arrived in New Zealand, but we've got a testimonial from the Defence Department saying he served as a ship's carpenter and mate on the 'Pioneer' and the 'Rangiriri'."

The path from the front gate has a specially-designed brick mosaic, made at the same time the house was built.

A step inside the front door, and you're in a long, central passage, with a hatstand complete with boater, bowler, and a top hat. There’s also a display of lace collars, woollen gaiters, and similar items from the period.

The drawing room (living room to 20th century Kiwis) has a pressed steel ceiling, a marble fireplace, and a crystal chandelier. Spread out on the table are the family Bible and photo albums.

The parlour (a sort of afternoon tearoom) contains copies of old magazines and newspapers — the latest being 1946, and the earliest from 1899.

The 1899 paper, a Christmas edition of The Bulletin (an Australian paper) provides an interesting insight into how the Victorians viewed the South African Boers (the Boer War was on at the time).

An article describes the Boer as "a bitter satire on religion — the strictly parsonical kind."

It goes on to say that the Boer was "just about what the Briton and Australian would be if they took their religion as seriously as he did."

The venetian blinds in the parlour had special corrugated green slats, and many of them were damaged when the society took over the house.

"They're not available any more, and we thought we'd have to replace them with a different kind of blind, but we found a whole supply of them out the back," Mr Russell said.

Also found in the garage at the back of the house were old plans of bridges, from between 1906-08.

"Mr Brain did a lot of bridge building and repair work, in addition to running a boat-building business," Mr Russell said.

The bridges were in the Kaimais and on the Waihī Road.

He also built the first boat constructed in Tauranga after the coming of the European, the "General Gordon," which was launched in 1885.

His last public contract was the building of the memorial gates at the Tauranga Domain in 1921.

It was about the time Mr Brain had to make a choice between his house and his boat building business. The railway was being brought into the town, and the projected route ran right across the slipway to his boatyard. The alternative route was right past the old house. As he was reaching retirement age, he let the business go.

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Cedar Manor 

Bay News, 8 January 1992

"Little has changed for grand old house" 

ixth Avenue homestead was built in the 1920s

CEDAR Manor, today a home and hospital for the elderly, started life in 1920 as a company house for the Tauranga Rimu Company.

The company had a mill just out of Tauranga in the area which today bears its name — Tau-Ri-Co. The original spelling was corrected so that today the name of the area was spelled Tauriko.

Thinking milling had a bright future in the area, the company built a large home in Sixth Avenue for the use of its manager, David Cambie.

"But the timber ran out and the house was sold at the beginning of the depression," says the eldest of Cambie's nine children, Mrs Edith Faulkner.

The new owner was Tauranga draper Gilmore Rodgers. Mrs Faulkner remembers Rodgers made several alterations to the original house.

Some time later the house was again sold to become a private lodging house. The new owners named it Cedar Lodge after the large cedar tree which dominates the front yard.

In 1980 the home again changed hands. This time it was bought by the Craig Family Trust (involved in the development of retirement complex Greenwood Park and the Matua Home and Hospital for the elderly) who developed it into its present function as a home and hospital for the elderly.

Mrs Faulkner, now 93, says she lived in the house for only a year.

"I stayed in Rotorua where I had a job while the rest of the family moved to Tauranga," she says. "It was a big house, probably made from rimu.

"There was a tennis court in the front yard and a long wooden fence along the front. I had a go at those fence posts when I was learning to drive. I never did get my licence. I gave up trying to learn and my husband didn't like the idea of a 'hen' behind the wheel."

When she finally did move to Tauranga to join her family the journey from Rotorua took the young Miss Cambie a full day.

"We left Rotorua in the service car at 8.30 in the morning," Mrs Faulkner says. "We got to Te Puke at 1 pm and stopped for lunch at the hotel and then caught the train to Mount Maunganui. From there we took the ferry across to Tauranga, arriving in Tauranga at 6.30 pm."

A year later Miss Edith Cambie married the operator of the ferry which had transported her across the harbour — Mr George Faulkner.

The wedding took place in the garden of the home now called Cedar Manor, on November 1, 1923.

Today the old homestead provides the focus of the retirement complex which has grown up around it. In place of the tennis court and wooden fence along the front, a sweeping lawn and gardens slope down to the roadside while a curved driveway passes in front of the steps leading up onto the shady front veranda and the original front door. ​

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Taiparirua House

Bay of Plenty Times, 6 June 1992

Historic Home up for Auction

"One of Tauranga’s oldest—and most beautifully restored—homes, will be auctioned later this month. Taiparirua, the gracious 109-year-old homestead that stretches between Eighth and Ninth Avenue owes its rich history to its colorful owners. The solid kauri home was built in 1883 by Mr. James Alexander Mann, who had emigrated to New Zealand just two years earlier. In Tauranga he founded Mann & Co, direct importers, wholesalers and retail store keepers—a business he managed for more than a quarter of a century. In 1896, that Number 8, Eighth Avenue first changed hands.

The solid kauri home was purchased by Canon William Goodyear, who was the last of the missionaries sent to the Māori people of New Zealand by the Church Missionary Society in England. Goodyear had rather a rough time reaching the Bay of Plenty as soon after his arrival in New Zealand he was shipwrecked on Kawera Island. He finally made it to the mainland and worked with Māori people in the East Coast, Hawkes Bay regions, and in Maketu. Goodyear and his family named their new home "Taiparirua"—this, according to records, was the Māori name of the high land between Seventh and Ninth Avenues.

In 1920, six years after Goodyear's death, the homestead was sold to the solicitor Bruce Beale, and later to a Mr. Every, a former tea plantation manager in Malaya and accountant with the electric power board in Kuala Lumpur. For almost 30 years Taiparirua was the home of well-known Bay of Plenty orthopaedic surgeon Mr. H.B. Coates Milsom and Mrs. Milsom. Many years ago, an old, tiny church was brought down from the Kaimais and attached as an extra living area to Taiparirua.

Now, after three years of careful and thorough renovation by its present owners, the beautiful homestead is for sale once again. The church wing, with its high gable and rimu walls, is home to the spacious farmhouse-style kitchen, and the open-plan dining and family area. The kitchen retains the character of its bygone era, but now boasts all the features modern-day cooks have come to expect.

Five sets of doors open off the church wing onto a wide verandah that skirts most of the house and provides the perfect spot for outdoor living and to enjoy the harbour views. Five sets of Austrian curtains hang gracefully over the French doors. A strong sea green is the theme colour chosen for the family dining room. The lounge has an open fire, and a bay window with the original glass. Dado boards have been introduced to the room, and now, with its floral frieze and carefully chosen wallpaper, the lounge exudes the charm of yesteryear.

The listed historic home has a light, grand entranceway and sits graciously on land between Eighth and Ninth Avenues and enjoys panoramic harbour views. Should a visitor come to the front door, the original, working 1883 doorbell and knocker are there to announce their arrival.

Taiparirua has three bedrooms—the master bedroom decorated in shades of lemon with wallpaper bought especially for the room. French doors open off the remaining two bedrooms and look out over an olde-worlde garden. A pleasant surprise in an older house is a huge interior laundry with wall-to-wall storage space. The roomy bathroom has also been restored in keeping with the age of the homestead and features a leadlight window, claw-legged bathtub, shower, and vanity. A few steps away from the main house lies the former doctor’s surgery, now converted into a fully self-contained flat. It too has been redecorated and now has attractive polished floors in a sunny lounge. The flat has a bedroom, a small TV nook, a separate kitchen, lounge, and bathroom.

Taiparirua is being marketed by David Shaw of Harcourts Real Estate and will be open tomorrow and for the next two Saturdays from 1 pm until 2 pm."​.

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Former Waldgrave House

Bay of Plenty Times 8 May, 1997

"Historic home awaits new lease of life
By John Cousins 8/15/1997

AN HISTORIC Tauranga home is sitting in a yard in Te Puke awaiting a new beginning on a Western Bay lifestyle block.

The 6th Avenue villa dates back to the turn of the century, when Tauranga was a fishing village of about 1000 people.

It has been removed to make way for a new wing to the Cedar Manor home and hospital. A two-storied stucco house behind the villa will be shifted within the next fortnight.

Records showing the exact age of the villa have been lost, and opinions vary as to its age.

Brian Waldegrave, the son of its last owners, Enid and the late Frank Waldegrave, understood the house to have been built late last century — he believed it was 110 years old. His parents lived at 28 6th Avenue for about 25 years.

“It’s quite a charming old place, but it needs some restoring,” he said.

Cedar Manor manager Sam Bailey was told the house was 103 years old when the Historic Places Trust was assessing homes in the area. It did not qualify for protection.

Two front doors on the veranda indicate that the home was once two flats and, when it was lifted yesterday, the remains of separate foundations, suggesting an earlier house on the site, were discovered.

The house remover, John Anderson of Hamilton, believed the building dates back to 1905-1910 or earlier. There is an option on the house and its ultimate destination will most likely be a lifestyle block.

A gracious old Tauranga home has a section of its roof removed in preparation for being sawn down the middle and shifted from the site it has occupied for about 100 years.
Picture: Jimmy Joe D2555-15

A Tauranga historian, Lyn Harpham, said the original title deeds had been lost. The first recorded owner was Tauranga District High School headmaster WRC Walker, headmaster from 1919-27, but there was no record when he went into the house. The house was subsequently sold to the Tauranga Borough engineer.

Mrs Harpham said it looked about the same vintage as Tauranga’s old Presbyterian manse built in 1910, so it would be safe to say that it was built around the turn of the century."

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Steward House of Wharf Street

Bay of Plenty Times October 4, 1997

Section sale marks end of era
By Dana Kirkpatrick

THE sale of 0.2ha of prime real estate in Tauranga’s central business district signals the end of an era for a local family.

The Wharf Street property, originally owned by Artie Stewart, has belonged to the Stewart Estate for the past few years.

The house has been sold for $5000 and is due to begin a new life on Rocky Cutting Road, where it will be restored by a young couple.

One section is being offered for sale.

Mr. Stewart was the Tauranga fire chief and bought the house on its quarter-acre site in 1934.

His nephew, also Artie Stewart, understands it was originally the top storey of another house on the corner of Durham and Wharf streets.

“He paid between £600 and £800 for it and his sister, May Turner, bought the neighbouring section for another £600.”

Brothers Don and Artie Stewart are two of the four owners of the section.

They said in the past few years the house had been let out but tenants had wrecked it beyond repair and so the decision to sell had been made.

“We’re really rapt that the house is going to be restored.”

He said there was some talk of turning the house into a steak bar but that had fallen through.

Sale of the section is under negotiation and, while no price tag has been placed on it, Mr Stewart expected the settlement to be quite high.

In the meantime the section may be developed as a car park, for which the estate already holds the necessary consents.

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20 October 1997

Historic house fire investigated
By Frank Begley

AN historic house on Wharf Street has been gutted in a fire which police are treating as suspicious.

About 6.30am yesterday firefighters were called to a blaze at the house, which was on blocks ready for removal.

The fire was quickly extinguished but not before the house had been extensively damaged.

Police said indications were the fire started at the back door area and was most likely deliberately lit. Investigations were continuing today.

The house sits on 0.2 hectares of prime real estate in Tauranga’s central business district.

Bought by Artie Stewart in 1934, it has belonged to the Stewart Estate for the past few years.

Current trustee Don Stewart said it had been let out to tenants who wrecked it beyond repair and was sold for $5000 earlier this month.

The house was destined to be moved to a new life on Rocky Cutting Road where its new owners had plans to restore it.

Its future was now uncertain.

The Wharf Street site was expected to be sold for redevelopment.

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Crabbe family home

Historic house on move

Bay of Plenty Times, 18 July 2000

THE former Simons family home is to be relocated to Pyes Pa after more than 100 years on Cameron Road.
Picture: Ross Brown E5094-98

By Danya Levy

ONE of Tauranga’s oldest buildings is to be shifted from Cameron Road, where it has sat for the past 110 years, to Pyes Pa.

The former Simons family colonial-style home on the corner of Seventh Avenue was renowned for an antique rocking horse which sat on the verandah and became something of a landmark for drivers along Cameron Road.

Dianne Morgan bought the house four years ago from Violet Simons, who recently turned 100 and has lived at Edgecumbe House since 1993. "I saw the house and thought it was lovely and unique," said Ms Morgan.

The front of the house with the verandahs was the original part. The verandahs have been removed for relocation, to be added a little later.

The wooden rocking horse was stolen about 10 years ago, but its base still remained on the verandah, Ms Morgan said.