Big move secured city villa’s f Uture
This striking two-storey villa looks as though it could have been here on its elevated Bell Block setting at 30A Pohutukawa Place for all of its more than 120 years.
It’s a relative newcomer, though, moved out to Bell Block from its original city section at 16 Dawson St on April 29, 2009. That site is now occupied by The Dawson Motel.
The move was dramatic - the villa was lifted up and transported in one piece along the city streets and out along the main road to Bell Block in three two-hour stages. The dramatic sight of the building on its manywheeled trailer made the front page of the Taranaki Daily News the next day.
Owners Ian Carter and Enid Wells remember the attention the move attracted. “There were onlookers all the way from here to New Plymouth,” Ian says.
The couple felt the villa was worthy of the effort. “It was built about 1896 for Lydia Elizabeth Shaw, who came out to New Zealand on the Amelia Thomson with her family in 1841.”
Council records of the villa origins have been lost, he says, but an 1894 photo shows a bare Dawson St site, and one from 1904 shows the villa well-established. “It was built as a boarding house, and it spent a lot of its time as that. Lydia died in 1928 and the property was left to her niece and nephew.”
In 1930, the property was subdivided, leaving the villa on a section of about 500sqm. Ian and Enid saw it advertised for sale in 2003 and it caught their interest. “It seemed like a nice building to own,” he recalls. “We had a look ... it had nice bones. We made an offer the next morning.”
Some small changes had been made over the years, but the villa still retained much of its fine character.
Initially, Ian considered renovating it as a restaurant, even taking the step of buying adjacent property for customer carparking. Instead, they bought the former Asian Wok business on the nearby corner of St Aubyn St, renaming it the Roast House and ran that successfully for 10 years.
“We ended up living in the villa. We did a little bit of renovation inside then, but not a lot.”
About 2008, Ian and Enid considered a new future for the villa, deciding to move it to this section along the then main road to Bell Block - and to do that before the completion of the Bell Block bypass in 2010 could complicate the process.
The presentation of the villa today is a pleasing justification of that decision.
The house sits at the top of its concrete driveway, looking out west over a mix of rural and city landscape to a horizon marked by Paritutu Rock, the pencil shape of the former power-station chimney, and the Sugar Loaf islands offshore.
Back inland, there’s a striking view of Mt Taranaki and the Pouakai and Kaitake Ranges - you can even see the upper Wairau Rd area at Oakura. “It sits up here where a home like this should be,” Ian says. “This setting allows the house to breathe.”
Ian and Enid have carefully renovated and refined the house in the past 15 years here, and it now presents prospective owners with contemporary conveniences to complement the original character features.
Character stands out on arrival the weatherboard cladding, boxed corners, bay windows stacked up the height of the home, and ornate eaves brackets.
Convenience begins at ground level with the generous new garaging built to complement the house - easy accommodation for two cars with a spacious workshop area as well, or enough space to house three cars.
Space between the garage and house has been closed in with glass doors and panels and roofed with transparent polycarbonate to create a sheltered courtyard area for a spa pool. Behind the garage is a paved patio and a pizza oven, the area covered by a pergola frame carrying three grape vines. It’s a cool retreat in summer heat, says Ian.
The formal entry to the house is at its western end where a front door and side panels, detailed with leadlight glass, opens into the foyer and central hallway. Ian understands the name Wentworth set into the door’s leadlight pane refers to the Shaw family origins in Cornwall.
Interior character impresses with the first steps inside the home - the high ceilings lined with shiplap boards, polished timber floorboards, wide moulded skirtings and architraves, and a finely detailed timber arch halfway along the hallway. “The kitchen and bathrooms are new, but we kept the character where we could.”
To the left, along the sunny northern face of the home, are the main living areas - the open-plan family and dining areas, and the new kitchen beyond. The warmth of timber is a feature in the family area and dining space - seen in more polished boards underfoot, in the rich grain of tongue-and-groove boards rising part-way up the walls, and framing the striking bay window at the end of the room.
Technology keeps the home comfortable through winter months, with the installation of a ducted heatpump system.
A door opens from the dining area to the sun-soaked verandah, where Ian points out the full glass panels that fit cleverly and unobtrusively between the timber posts at the end of the verandah and create a conservatory effect. “We can sit out here in all weathers.”
Along the hallway behind the living areas are an original bedroom and closed-in verandah repurposed
as an office and children’s playroom, a formal lounge with another bay window and where an original fireplace has been updated with an efficient new woodburner, and a contemporary tiled bathroom with a shower featuring wall jets and a rain head.
Stairs lead up from the hallway to the bedroom level - presently set up for four bedrooms, but with the option of a sitting area off the master bedroom becoming a fifth bedroom. That extra space for the master bedroom makes it a real retreat area for this home’s owners, Ian says.
The ensuite bathroom is a luxurious space with a cast-iron clawfoot bath complementing the glass-walled shower. A second door out into the hallway makes it accessible from the other three bedrooms.
The elevation up here enhances the many views from the home. “You can see the mountain, Paritutu and the Sugar Loaves ... or watch the traffic out on the road or the cows grazing next door.”
The serious work has all been done here, Ian says, but there is still some potential for new owners to enhance life here, he suggests, pointing out a cupboard area off the upper hallway where a lift could rise from the office below.
This home’s solid bones have been beautifully refined by the thoughtful renovation. “This house is solid. It’s stood the test of time for 120 years, and with the renovation work done, it should see out another 100 years.”
Bayleys consultant Anna Straathof is marketing the home and expects it to generate a lot of enquiry nationally.
“The distinctive home is one that many locals will be familiar with,” Anna says. “It is built beautifully with layers of character that you just don’t see with a modern home. As Ian has said, it is built tough and can take the knocks. It really is a testament to the integrity and craftmanship of its age.”
Most of the existing furniture, chosen to complement the home, is also available for new owners to purchase with the property.