NZ Visual Diary - entry 360
Highwic
Before our recent walk about the Auckland Domain and its Wintergardens conservatory, Randolph and I visited Highwic, a grand Carpenter Gothic home located in the Auckland suburb of Newmarket.
While Randolph attended a baking demonstration on the home’s 19th century iron cast stove, I wander around Highwic’s interior and captured a few photographs. The ambient interior light was so alluring that, in the time we had at Highwic, I never made it to the home’s exterior, although as noted below Highwic is an architectural treasure.
Heritage New Zealand extols the charm and architectural significance of this heritage site:
The main dwelling at Highwic is considered to be one of New Zealand's finest Carpenter Gothic houses, and is significant as a rare example of an architectural style more commonly found on the east coast of America.1
The Heritage New Zealand entry continues by providing some background about Highwic’s 19th century owners:
Highwic is a well-preserved Carpenter Gothic mansion, located on the fringes of colonial Auckland. Built for one of the wealthiest landowners in the region, it was erected in an elevated position looking out over the small nineteenth-century township of Newmarket. The earliest dwelling on the site may have been constructed soon after 1850 by William Hay (1805-1874), who was a member of the Auckland Provincial Council. In 1862, the land was sold to the Buckland family, who immediately built a new dwelling that was added to substantially over the years. Alfred Buckland (1825-1903) was an auctioneer with extensive connections in the wool trade, having arrived from Devon, England in 1850. In 1858 he held the first ever public auction of wool in New Zealand and by the 1880s was considered to be the largest private landholder in Auckland Province.2
Highwic | Heritage New Zealand website
< https://www.heritage.org.nz/list-details/18/Highwic >
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