Woodcroft in Havelock North was referred to as "The Giant" by its architect James Chapman-Taylor.
Woodcroft in Havelock North was referred to as "The Giant" by its architect James Chapman-Taylor.
A historic Hawke’s Bay house designed by an architect to bring the “arts and crafts” home-design style to New Zealand is on the market.
The Havelock North home, known as Woodcroft, was designed and built in 1921 by renowned New Zealand pioneering architect James Walter Chapman-Taylor, who immigrated to New Zealand from the UK in 1880.
Arts and crafts period cottage homes around the world are typified by high roof lines, often with Marseille tiles, plain roughcast walls, small-paned windows, and hand-shaped timbers openly on display throughout interiors.
Most of Chapman-Taylor’s Hawke’s Bay residential creations survived the 1931 Hawke’s Bay Earthquake.
The artistically-inspired Chapman-Taylor moved to Hastings near the end of World War I, moving to Havelock North in 1919, where he lived for three years.
During an architectural and building career that spanned some 60 years, he designed and constructed 84 homes in Taranaki, Wellington, Hawke’s Bay and Hutt Valley.
He died in 1958, leaving a home-design legacy that lives on.
He was heavily influenced by the English arts and crafts movement, which included a nod to a simpler, traditional cottage style.
After being heavily influenced to use native Australian jarrah timber on his early projects, he moved to using honeycomb concrete walls in his structures, with his first building using concrete being Whare Ra.
Interestingly, because of the use of strong honeycomb concrete, most of Chapman-Taylor’s Hawke’s Bay residential creations survived the 1931 Hawke’s Bay Earthquake.
The revamped kitchen of Woodcroft in Havelock North.
Chapman-Taylor even personally visited Woodcroft after the quake to inspect the property.
He designed two particularly significant buildings in Havelock North – the first being the headquarters for the mystical Stella Matutina Jesuit religious order, also known as the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, which based its teachings on occult practices. Known for some 60 years as Whare Ra, the imposing temple and place of worship in Tauroa Rd is now a private dwelling.
His other prominent architectural creation is Woodcroft in Simla Ave in Havelock North, which he referred to as “the giant” because of its size, built for the distinguished Davidson family.
Sotheby’s International Realty Havelock North has the listing, with tender closing on April 30.
Salesman Darryl Buckley said Woodcroft was regarded as one of the architect’s finest buildings still standing in Hawke’s Bay.
The 238sq m, five-bedroom/three-bathroom dwelling is spread across two levels.
Downstairs, after entry through a reception foyer, is an enormous living room flanked by a porch and dining room, with the substantial kitchen having a dedicated bar space on one side and a spacious walk-in scullery on the other.
Upstairs contains the home’s four bedrooms – with the enormous master bedroom of almost 30sq m encompassing its own ensuite as well as two separate walk-in wardrobes.
Current owners of Woodcroft, Shannon Bray and Sue Whiteley, have painstakingly and lovingly spent the past three and a half years of their tenure modernising and renovating the dual-level home in conjunction with what were the horse stables being converted into a one-bedroom studio, remaining true to the arts and crafts period style as much as possible.
