Valued at $1.13 million and built in 1910, the former tram driver's authentic three-bedroom weatherboard home is a relic from the past. Photo / www.realestate.co.nz
Valued at $1.13 million and built in 1910, the former tram driver's authentic three-bedroom weatherboard home is a relic from the past. Photo / www.realestate.co.nz
Family home on market for first time in 74 years after 'Mayor of Paice Ave' passes away.
He was known as the Mayor of Paice Ave, but now Dudley Watson's deceased estate in Mt Eden is on the market for the first time in nearly three-quarters of a century.
Valued at $1.13 million and built in 1910, the former tram driver's authentic three-bedroom weatherboard home is a relic from the past, complete with pink bathroom and axminster retro carpets.
Five generations of Mr Watson's family lived under its roof or have visited the humble home at 20 Paice Ave, which will go under the hammer later this month.
Mr Watson lived through many great moments in history during his time in Paice Ave, including the surrender of Germany in 1945, Queen Elizabeth's 1953 coronation, and the moon landing in 1969. Sir Robert Muldoon was still in power when Mr Watson retired in about 1980.
Dudley Watson, who died in March this year, with his wife Eunice who passed away in 1998. The couple had lived in the house since their marriage in 1941.
He moved into the property shortly after marrying his wife Eunice during World War II in 1941 and purchased it six years later from his mother-in-law. A head injury suffered while working at the sugar works prevented him from signing up for active service so he took a job with the Auckland Transport Board working on the trams.
Daughter Glenys Rive, 70, said tram workers had to be at least 23 and married, so her father "fast-tracked" his engagement and got hitched to secure employment.
He later wrote: "I can only assume that the requirement to be married was based on the premise that married men would be more stable and reliable."
The happy couple raised a family in the house, added a bathroom and chose the statement decor which has remained untouched to this day.
Eunice died in 1998 and Mr Watson passed away in March, aged 97, having lived alone in the house for 17 years.
Mrs Rive said her father was a "trammie" for nearly two decades until they were decommissioned in 1956. He then worked for Burns Philp in the grocery trade before retiring aged 63.
She recalls the neighbourhood being filled with families and kids playing together on the street.
"Dad was always helpful to his neighbours. At one stage he used to mow the berms for four or five houses. I believe they used to call him the Mayor of Paice Ave just because he'd been there so long."
Mrs Rive said the property's internal decor was "probably the height of fashion" in its day, but she admitted the house needed doing up. Putting the much-loved family home on the market was a huge wrench, but she and her two brothers hoped it would provide the same happy memories for a new family.
Bayleys agent Kirstin Collins said the house was pre-1940s and zoned residential one.
"So you won't be able to bowl it. The only option there is to renovate it and most people are looking at it as a renovation."
She declined to estimate what the property could fetch but said: "You kind of have to have fun with it."
End of an era
• Three-bedroom 114sq m weatherboard house at 20 Paice Ave, Mt Eden.
• Valued at $1.13m, on 587sq m of land and zoned for Mt Albert Grammar.
