24
DECEMBER 2014
WHANGAREI CITY
A SHORT HISTORY OF REYBURN HOUSE + THE SETTLER FAMILY R
eyburn House Art Gallery is Whangarei’s oldest Heritage homestead and Northland Society of Arts Inc. art gallery. A gracious colonial Kauri villa, with a category 2 NZ Historical Places Trust listing. Reyburn House has had a varied past, and at one time came close to being demolished before NSA bought it, and restored it to its present visual feast. The gallery has an active programme changing regularly and this includes work from the NSA extensive permanent collection of art. Also a gallery shop for a fine collection of Northland artists paintings, jewellery, pottery, artists cards, glass, sculpture, lithographs and much more. Robert Reyburn Senior came to New Zealand from Kilmarnock in Scotland in May 1859. He came with his wife Hannah and their two younger sons Robert Junior and John. In Scotland the Reyburn family was involved in the shipping trade and the wool industry. They were well known for the Glengarry bonnets they made. On his arrival in Whangarei in 1859, Robert Reyburn Senior bought 42 acres and 36 perches of land which stretched from the Hatea River bank as far back as Cameron Street,
across to Rathbone Streeet on one side, and Walton Street on the other. The house the family lived in when they first arrived was a little one-gabled cottage right on the riverbank. Over the next 30 or so years Robert Senior added extensions to the cottage till it became a large three-gabled house – one of the biggest houses in the pioneer town. The family had a big orchard and ran dairy cows. They were also involved in shipping in the new Whangarei settlement. Robert Reyburn Senior and his two sons Robert Junior and James (who came to Whangarei in 1867) all became very involved in community affairs, and quite important people in the growing town.
The Beginning of Reyburn House In about 1870, just before Robert Reyburn Junior married, he built the first part of his house on the riverbank, next door to his father’s house. It was a little single-gabled cottage with an attic. That little cottage forms the middle part of the Reyburn House we know today. Attached to the original cottage was a lean-to and out-house which may have been used as a wash house and toilet.
1880 Whangarei Town Wharf and Township buildings from left Whangarei Hotel, Sans Souci; GPO and Caflers Store on the corner and the homes of JT Reyburn, Robert Reyburn Snr and Robert Reyburn Jnr.(current Reyburn House) SS Argyle t the wharf. Native School and School house in the distance on Look Out Hill.
1900 - with the three -gabled mansion of Robert Reyburn Snr demolished, Reyburn House stands alone with James Reyburn’s home on the Walton Street side.
As Robert Junior’s family grew, so did his house. In 1884 the lean-to disappeared and a large extension was added onto the end nearest to the western hills. About 1895 a verandah was added across the side of the house facing the river. French doors were made to open onto the verandah. The final addition to the house was built about 1900. In 1892 Robert Reyburn Senior had died and in 1898 his house was pulled down. This meant that Robert Junior had extra space to add on two more rooms and a verandah to the side of his house which faces Walton Street. Robert Junior and his wife Jessie had five children: James, Stanley, Eliza, William and Lottie. Eliza’s wedding reception was held in the house in 1904. Lottie died as a teenager and is remembered today by Kap Pothan’s sculpture of “Lottie” which stands on the lawn outside the bay window of Reyburn House – where Lottie would have spent many hours looking out over the busy river. In 1910 when all the family had grown up, Robert and Jessie moved to Auckland. In 1919 Reyburn House was sold to Dr Ventry
Alexander John Smith, a Whangarei doctor. He owned the property for the next 20 years, when it was sold again in 1939. On the 17 December 1965, the Northland Harbour Board became the new owners of the property. It was not so much interested in the house, as the land on which it stood. The Board needed the land for future wharf improvements. In 1966 the Harbour Board allowed the Northland Society of Arts to rent the old house as its gallery and studio workshops. The house had been very neglected, but the Northland Society of Arts had lots of working bees and fixed it up. Then in 1984 the Harbour Board wanted to get going with wharf building and waterfront roading improvements. They sold Reyburn House to the Society of Arts who moved it to where it stands today. Once on its new site the Society began the long job of restoring the house to what it looked like in its pioneer days. Reyburn House now has Historic Places Trust Classification 2 and has become an important historic landmark in Whangarei.
NORTHLAND REYBURN SOCIETY HOUSE ART OF ARTS GALLERY Whangarei’s oldest pioneer house exhibiting New Zealand artists TOWN BASIN, WHANGAREI Open Tuesday to Friday 10am to 4pm Saturday and Sunday 1pm to 4pm Closed Mondays
Phone:
09 438 3074 Web: www.reyburnhouse.co.nz