From cottage to villa, houses get bigger as Timaru expands
From the 1880s the population of Timaru really started to increase and people wanted more from their homes than the earlier single or two-roomed pioneer cottages provided.
The villa design arose as demand grew and it rapidly became the favoured style for new houses, filling the first suburbs in our colonial towns and villages. It remained the predominant style of house from the 1880s through to the World War I.
The earliest villas were quite simple in form but as people grew wealthier they wanted more from their homes than just practicality. Entertainment and leisure rooms such as a front parlour, a living room, larger kitchen and scullery areas, better bathroom and laundry facilities were required.
Villas grew in size and complexity, also becoming more decorative as the construction industry responded.
As our suburbs developed a number of villa homes would have been built ‘‘on spec’’. The prospective owner could build from a fairly standardised floor plan but personalise the home using accessories from a catalogue which would be assembled from prefabricated elements by the local tradesman builder.
Depending on local supply, a villa would be built almost entirely of timber including fixtures and fittings, the roof would be metal or, as you see often in Timaru, clay tiles. In areas where local native timbers were not readily available then brick was the preferred choice.
Many early villas still did not have bathrooms. Long-drop toilets were still located in separate buildings in the rear yard as was the laundry containing perhaps a kauri tub, and a copper for boiling water in.
Incorporated into these villas were features like two or four-pane double hung windows and perhaps a bay window on the street front, decorative timber elements, stained glass and a veranda.
These additions provided privacy to the dweller but displayed wealth to guests and passers-by.
Gradual improvements in public transport allowed towns to develop further from the centre to what was once the suburbs. Of course now these suburbs are seen as central city areas and a quiet drive around Timaru will reveal some beautiful villas still standing close to town.
– Karen Rolleston