Grand old house up for sale
The paint is peeling, but she’s as bright as ever. Once one of the grandest homes in Wellington’s Mt Victoria, this old lady is on the market after more than six decades.
The landmark property at 105 Brougham St, complete with ballroom and a stage, seven bedrooms, and a huge garden, has sat empty on a prominent corner for years.
Set among large trees and an established garden, the 420 square-metre house has likely seen many a party, and is now listed with a rateable value of $2,550,000.
It was designed by Thomas Turnbull and Son for Catherine Gray in 1910, and built by DD Bright, a local builder, on part of the last great subdivision in Mt Victoria.
The land was bought by William Gray about 1870, but he often travelled for his work with the Post Office, and died from illness overseas in 1874.
Catherine, now a widow with at least five sons to care for, sold some of the land, but kept a couple of Town Acre sections, and lived in the newly-built house for 10 years until her death at home in 1919, aged 95.
Real estate agent Paul Dickason said it had been in the family for at least 60 years.
It was ‘‘an honour and a privilege’’ to represent this house, he said, and it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the right buyer. ‘‘I don’t think a purchaser would be able to bump into one like this if they tried.’’
The property felt huge to walk around, especially compared to its cramped surroundings in Mt Victoria. ‘‘It’s got a grandeur to it that has to be experienced.’’
The house would sell to a buyer in the right place at the right time – a lucky person with the right money – but they would have to talk to the council to determine what they could and couldn’t do with a heritage building.
The house is an adaptation of the Queen Anne style, dominant in domestic architecture around 1900 as improvements to public transport meant families could more easily live out in the suburbs.
The exterior is still in its original form, minimal alterations made since it was built. In 1948, fire escapes were added, and a shed was built in 1959.
Turnbull senior was one of the most important architects in Wellington for much of the Victorian period. He designed the three great timber churches: St John’s (1885), St
Peter’s (1879) and Wesley (1880), all in gothic style, as well as the Old Bank Arcade.
From 1920 to 1945, James Paul, of the wholesale fish firm Townsend and Paul, lived in the house. It was bought by the Wellington Registered Nurses Club in 1948, before changing hands into the Papadopoulos family, who own it today.
The house is architecturally important, listed on Wellington City Council’s heritage inventory as ‘‘a fine example of a New Zealand adaption of the Federation Queen Anne style in timber’’.
But according to a newsletter from the Historical Society, the 909sqm section it sits on may put it at risk, an appealing prospect to a developer eager to make the most of the space and convert it into a multi-unit dwelling.