Hulme Court is a category 1 historic place in Auckland, New Zealand. It is thought to be the oldest surviving house in Auckland and the oldest dwelling still standing on its original site.[1]
History
In 1843, Hulme Court was built for Sir Frederick Whitaker, later the Premier of New Zealand.[1][2][3] It is not known who the architect of Hulme Court was, however, suggestions have been made that it could have been an engineer that Whitaker was working with.[3][4]
It was later occupied by William Hulme, Commander of British Troops in New Zealand, after whom the house is now named.[1][3] He bought the home for £610 in 1846.[5][6] It was then sold following his death in 1855 to Thomas Russell and William Aicken who subdivided the land that the house was a part of.[6][7]
During the 1850s, it acted as a temporary Government House for Governor Thomas Gove Browne.[1] It was also rented for a time by Bishop George Selwyn.[1] His wife, Sarah, described the library as "the most pleasantest room in New Zealand."[8]
Sir Francis Dillon Bell bought three of the plots of land in 1863, including Hulme Court, and lived there until 1872.[6][9] In 1872, Bell sold the property to the family of Frederick Ireland, who lived there into the early 1900s.[10][11] In the early 1910s, it was home to Dr. Alexander Kinder, who also had his surgery based out of Hulme Court.[12][13] Later on in the 1910s, it was home to W. P. Goodhue, the chief teller of the Bank of New Zealand, who died at Hulme Court in 1919.[14]
In the 1920s and 1930s, it was the residence of Walter Joseph Macklow, one of the Macklow Brothers, timber merchants at Mechanics Bay.[15] In 1941, it was bought by the Clark family, immigrants from Glasgow.[16] From 1951 until its sale in 2011, it was owned by the Maguire family.[9] During the 1950s and 1960s, it underwent several modifications and, at one point, acted as a panel-beating and paint shop.[16]
In January 2012, a restoration project of Hulme Court was begun, and was completed in April 2013.[2][17]
Description
It is a single-storey Regency style plastered bluestone house.[1] The bluestone walls are 300mm thick that were originally plastered with lime.[1][3] It has a hipped slate roof, and shuttered sash windows.[1] On three of the four sides, there are trellised verandahs.[1][18] There is a cellar beneath the house and an attic space.[3]
There are stables and servants quarters at the side of the house, built from kauri timber.[3] The additions in the 1950s and 1960s were made in timber rather than stone.[3]
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