Draft:Melanesian Mission House
| Melanesian Mission House | |
|---|---|
 The Melanesian Mission House | |
| General information | |
| Architectural style | Tudor Revival |
| Address | 40-44 Tamaki Drive, Mission Bay, Auckland |
| Named for | Melanesian Mission |
| Year(s) built | 1859 |
| Owner | Heritage New Zealand |
| Technical details | |
| Material | Basalt |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect(s) | Reader Wood |
| Renovating team | |
| Architect(s) | Jeremy Salmond |
| Designated | 6 June 1983 |
| Reference no. | 111 |
The Melanesian Mission House is a Tudor Revival former educational building located in Mission Bay, Auckland, New Zealand. Formerly owned by the Anglican Church of New Zealand it is now owned Heritage New Zealand and registered as a category 1 building.
Constructed from local basalt, the building was originally used as part of St Andrew's College, an Anglican school for Melanesians. Following the Melanesian Mission moving to Norfolk Island the building served as a naval school, industrial school, Anglican Sunday school and place of worship, flying school, and museum before being owned by the New Zealand Historic Places Trust. Heritge New Zealand currently lease the building as a restaurant.
Description
[edit]The Melanesian Mission House is an L-shaped building constructed from basalt[1] held together with lime mortar.[2] The basalt came from the nearby Rangitoto Island. Designed in a Tudor Revival style, it's steep-pitched rooves and square-headed windows are reminiscent of educational buildings constructed during the late mediaeval and early modern periods in England—this period and it's educational expansion are connected with the English Reformation.[1]
Originally part of a wider complex, the mission house is the only surviving building.[1] The original complex included an 80 hectares (200 acres) farm.[3]: 33
History
[edit]The Melanesian Mission House was constructed in 1859 as part of St Andrew's College, an Anglican school for Melanesians.[1] With the purpose being to give Melanesian men an Anglican education before they return home.[4] The mission also taught agriculture and industry to the Melanesians.[3]: 33 The mission was established by the Reverend John Coleridge Patteson using land his father had donated and a gift of £400 from his cousin, Charlotte Yonge.[5] Yonge used the proceeds from The Daisy Chain for the gift. The name St Andrew's came from a church in the novel.[3]: 30 Upper-class residents of Auckland would visit the site and expressed admiration about both the work being done and the environment of the college.[3]: 33 In 1860 the complex was used to host the Kohimarama conference, an attempt to reduce tensions between Maori and the Crown because of the First Taranaki War.[6]
The building served as a dining hall, kitchen, and storeroom for the college. In 1861 the dining hall had a chimney added.[1] The deaths of many Melanesians due to illness, which was blamed on the climate being too cold for them, and the cost of having to transport Melanesians to New Zealand and back. This led to the mission moving to Norfolk Island in 1867. The school had grown to quite a large complex by this point. The new mission at Norfolk Island was designed in a similar style.[7]
After the mission moved to Norfolk Island, the complex served as a naval training school, then an industrial school, and later for Anglican services and Sunday school.[1] From 1915 to 1924 it was used by the New Zealand Flying School to train pilots for World War One.[1][5] Over the years parts of the complex were demolished until only the Mission House remained.[7]
In 1928 it opened as the Melanesian Mission Museum following a restoration which included the erection of an outbuilding.[1] This work was overseen by Arthur J. Palmer, an architect who grew up on Norfolk Island,[8] and whose father served at St Andrew's College.[3]: 33 The museum housed artefacts from the South Sea Islands.[9] It became owned by Heritage New Zealand in 1974, after it was considered ill-suited to hold artefacts and it's collection moved to the Auckland Museum.[1][5] In 1990 renovations were allowed by the Historic Places Trust to enable a restaurant to lease the facility. This involved the construction of another outbuilding.[1]
In 2017 the building was reopened following a $3 million renovation which included the restoration of the Mission House and a new restaurant outbuilding. During the renovation works foundations of the older buildings and a drainage trench were uncovered. A lime-based grout was used to strengthen the building against earthquakes.[4] The restaurant building was designed by Herbst Architects.[10] The restoration work was overseen by architect Jeremy Salmond.[11]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Jones, Martin (8 August 2001). "Melanesian Mission Building and Stone Garden Walls". Heritage New Zealand.
- ^ Walker, Megan (July 2019). "Historic Heritage Evaluation CAC Bulk Store (former)" (PDF). Auckland Council.
- ^ a b c d e Hilliard, David (1941). God's gentlemen a history of the Melanesian Mission, 1849-1942. St. Lucia, Q. : University of Queensland Press.
- ^ a b Douglas, Jamie. Skyes, Caitlyn (ed.). "Mission accomplished". Heritage New Zealand. Vol. Winter 2018, no. 149. Heritage New Zealand. pp. 8–9. ISSN 1175-9615.
- ^ a b c "Al fresco lease of life for historic building". New Zealand Herald. 2 April 2002.
- ^ Miller, Cory (December 2017). "Auckland's Melanesian Mission rejuvenated" (PDF). Touchstone.
- ^ a b Flexner, James L. (2017-02-20). "Reform and Purification in the Historical Archaeology of the South Pacific, 1840-1900". International Journal of Historical Archaeology. 21 (4). Springer Science and Business Media LLC: 827–847. doi:10.1007/s10761-017-0398-1. ISSN 1092-7697.
- ^ Cox, Elizabeth (12 December 2015). "Cox House (Former)". Heritage New Zealand.
- ^ Heerdegen, Richard Gregory (1966). "Foundation and Growth". In A. H. McLintock (ed.). Auckland City. Encyclopaedia of New Zealand.
- ^ Herdman, Rosie (31 October 2017). "New Opening: Mission Bay Pavilion". Viva.
- ^ Harvey, Justine (10 November 2018). "2018 Gold Medal winner: Jeremy Salmond". Architecture Now.