The brick building has a Heritage NZ Category 1 rating, the highest possible. Photo/Nick Reed
The brick building has a Heritage NZ Category 1 rating, the highest possible. Photo/Nick Reed
A $3.8 million job has begun to restore and upgrade a protected 130-year-old home, said by heritage architects to be Auckland inner-city's oldest continually-occupied residence.
Fences have gone up around St Patrick's Presbytery on the corner of Hobson St and Wyndham St, alongside St Patrick's Cathedral.
St Patrick's Cathedral Presbytery, where work has begun after years of fund-raising. Photo/Nick Reed
The distinctive red brick home, built in 1888, was designed by renowned Auckland architects Mahoney & Sons and has Heritage New Zealand's highest Category 1 rating because of its age, history, design and remarkably original condition.
Only superficial changes have been made to the building in the last 130 years, its heritage listing shows.
Inside the presbytery, showing its run-down state.
"The presbytery remains in quite original condition for its age and is reputed to be the oldest continuously occupied house in the CBD," said heritage specialists Salmond Reed Architects.
"It is considered to be a unique example of the strict Gothic Revival ecclesiastical work of Edward Mahoney & Sons and is said to be one of the most rigorous examples of ecclesiastical domestic architecture of its type to be erected in Auckland."
An Auckland Diocese spokeswoman said this week: "The land on which the Cathedral of St Patrick and St Joseph stands in Wyndham St was granted to Bishop Pompallier by Governor Hobson on June 1, 1841. The adjacent land where the presbytery stands was purchased some years later by [a] parishioner."
The building's fund-raising programme was prominently advertised. Photo/Nick Reed
Documents lodged with Auckland Council showed the Hobson St boundary retaining wall will be strengthened, an outbuilding beside the presbytery will be demolished, trenches dug for new utilities from Wyndham St, sub-floor ventilation will be improved, a brick boundary wall built in 1957 to the east will be demolished, paving from St Patrick's Square will be extended and a 1970s carport will be demolished, along with a trellis wall.
Inside, lowered or false ceilings will be removed, the kitchen extended, new bathroom and pantry built and plywood diaphragms installed on ground and level one ceilings for seismic strengthening, according to the documents.
Wall coverings inside the building show damage.
But raising the money for the work was not easy, the Givealittle page reveals: "Unfortunately, fundraising for the presbytery has been a much greater challenge than for the cathedral restoration and has taken more time than expected."
The Herald reported in 2015 that the project could cost up to $3.5m.
Gregory Shanahan, a lawyer and Cathedral Centre Board chairman, could not this week reveal the construction contract price because that was confidential to the builder.
But a large notice board outside the presbytery this week showed just under $3m of a $3.8m target had been raised.
Asked about that figure, Shanahan said: "Never believe what you read in the newspaper – in this case, the sign. The fundraising sign is out of date but is hopefully a continuing source to inspire further giving which is good for the soul.
Gregory Shanahan, involved in the project. Photo/Kellie Blizard
"We have raised all the funds we require to meet the costs of the project. Funds have been provided by parishioners; people throughout Auckland who have a close and in some cases special relationship with St Patrick's Cathedral, public charitable trusts including Hugh Green Foundation, Foundation North, Lotto, the Diocese of Auckland, the general public and visitors to Auckland," Shanahan said.
More than 5000 people go to the cathedral each week so it was a vibrant and dynamic place, he said.
The works are programmed to be finished in June next year, Shanahan said.
