Ponsonby: Be my guest

A huge old house on the Ponsonby strip is ripe with potential, writes Catherine Smith.

Awatea Guest House, 2 Ponsonby Terrace, Ponsonby.

Grand old ladies awaiting refurbishment are a rare find in Ponsonby these days, and old girls with full-sized sections, off-street parking, right in the heart of the cafe strip are even rarer.

But after 35 years in the same family, Awatea Guest House, on the corner of Ponsonby Terrace and Ponsonby Road is on the market.

Built in 1880 and altered in 1926 to accommodate a front porch and leadlighted bay windows, the house has operated as a boarding house since at least the 1950s. For many years it was home to the skilled men from around the world who came to Auckland to build the Harbour Bridge. When present owner Elle Ayers and her husband Arthur took it over in 1970, it still offered full board, three meals a day and all the laundry done.

"In those days I brought up two boys, and did the meals and housework for up to 20 men. I must have been mad, charging them only $7 a week," recalls Elle. "But it was a great business. We couldn't buy it quick enough when it came on the market."

Arthur was a seaman, so it fell to Elle to run the house. She has been on her own for the past 15 years and has story after story of the colourful characters who populated the house, and the area, from the 1970s. While full meal service is no longer on the menu, Elle still grows vegetables in the garden and runs a tight ship. Only the 11 single rooms downstairs are let to boarders, who provide their own meals from the kitchenette. Elle lives self-contained upstairs in the gracious old house, where she brought up her boys and had friends to stay in the three double bedrooms.

"It cost us $28,000 at the time. Now the business could bring in $2000 a week from rental," she says.

The upper floor boasts three reception rooms opening off a remarkably wide and gracious front hall.

The front room has a small library sunroom and an office tucked into the bay window. Two rooms have their original working fireplaces, and all the rooms boast original ornate plaster ceilings and original joinery. The front porch is the scene of many leisurely evenings watching the world go by, while the living rooms catch views west to the Waitakeres from the top of Ponsonby ridge.

Awatea means sunrise or day break, and is often used to describe a new beginning. Elle, who moved to Auckland from Dargaville to go to boarding school as a teenager, is ready to make her own new beginning. She is retiring to Glinks Gully, near Dargaville, a favourite weekend spot, with plans for regular travel to the sun in Fiji.

Vital Statistics

SIZE: Land 897sq m, house 219sq m.

PRICE INDICATION: Expressions of interest above $1.2 million. Tender closes July 21.

INSPECT: Sat/Wed 2-2.45pm.

CONTACT: Daniel Burrill or David Simons, Unlimited Potential, ph 361 6485 bus, 021 755 793 (Daniel) 021 2777 579 (David).

FEATURES: Residential 1-zoned, two storey 1880s house with 3 reception rooms, three double and twelve single bedrooms. Licensed to operate as a boarding house. Lawned back garden, garage and outbuildings with paved off street parking for up to 8 cars.