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The History Of Roselle House

September 27, 2021 at 11:06 AM

At 9am on the 1st February, 1959, the bell rang for the first time as 208 boys and 8 teachers gathered in the grounds of Roselle House, the gracious home that has become the heart of Saint Kentigern Boys’ School.

Built in 1876, only 30 years after the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, Roselle House was generously gifted by John Martyn Wilson to the St Kentigern Trust, a charitable entity with links to the Presbyterian Church.  He stipulated that his bequest was for the sole purpose of educating boys, bequeathing a further £5,000 pounds to develop the first classroom block. Generous of nature, Martyn also offered three acres of land in Shore Rd to the Council, expressing the wish that the School, when established, should have the use of the land for field sports.

To this day, Roselle House and Martyn Wilson Field are used by the Boys’ School for this purpose.

As one of the earliest established homes in Auckland, Roselle House has a long history; one that has been closely tied to a sense of family, philanthropy and the community. The land was originally bought in 1874 by Joseph Liston Wilson, the family synonymous with the New Zealand Herald. In 1876 Joseph instructed architect, Richard Keals to draw up plans for a grand home and by 1879, the Wilson’s Italianate mansion, Roselle, dominated the headland of Hobson Bay. Shortly after, he transferred the title of the property to his wife, Mary Ellen Wilson.

Befitting of a gracious home, the gardens were laid out beautifully and as the home and grounds were developed, the setting lent itself perfectly to lavish entertaining, particularly in the form of garden parties. Family gatherings, annual picnics for the Mothers’ Union, Bible Classes, Sunday School and the YWCA were regular occurrences.

Mary Ellen died in 1914, leaving the property in equal shares to her surviving four sons and daughter, but a month later, they each agreed to sell their share to their brother, John Martyn Wilson.

Martyn, as he was known, served with the New Zealand Infantry in France during World War 1 but was invalided home after being wounded at Passchendale. He lived a quiet life, marrying his house keeper at the age of 38. As no children resulted from the marriage, and as he became increasingly infirm, he worried about his estate. At the time, Neil Lloyd Macky was looking for a property to start a Presbyterian school for boys, and so it was that Roselle was offered to the fledgling St Kentigern Trust. When Martyn died in 1958, not only did he bequeath the property but he also left £5,000 to assist with the transition to a boys’ school.

Through Martyn Wilson’s generous benefaction, in 1959, the doors opened for the first time to the Foundation boys of Saint Kentigern School, as it was then known. In the early days, Roselle was filled with the noise of young boys as many of the rooms were given over to classrooms for ‘Primers 1-4’ and the Library. As the School expanded over the years, new classrooms were established elsewhere on the campus, the Library was moved to new building (now demolished to make way for the new Specialist and Senior Classroom building), and Roselle’s primary function was shifted to administration.

During the principalship of Jack Chalmers (1959-1978), Brian Irwin (1979-1993) and Geoff Burgess (1994 -2012), the top floor was assigned for residential use by the three successive Principals and their families, but following the Christchurch Earthquake in 2011, new, stringent guidelines around seismic safety were put into place. As a listed Category B Heritage building with significant heritage value, not just to the School but the wider Auckland community, there was major work to be done to strengthen the building - and it was time to step back and reconsider the best use of Roselle as a school facility.

ROSELLE ‘RE-INVENTED’
During the course of 2017, Roselle was fenced off, scaffolding went up and the magnificent house disappeared under plastic shrink wrapping! For a year, the stark, white plastic concealed a hive of activity as an extensive renovation project got underway out of sight. 

A year later, on February 9, 2018, a new moment in history for the Boys’ School was marked, as after months of work, the gracious house was once again ‘opened for business’ at a special service of blessing - and a new era for Roselle House got underway.

Foundation Old Boy No 20, Peter Nelson introduced fellow Foundation student and first Head Boy of Saint Kentigern School, as it was then known, Roland Lennox-King. Mr Lennox-King, along with Matthew Wilson, a prefect in 1986 and great-nephew of our generous benefactor, John Martyn Wilson, were to be given the honour of cutting the ribbon.

The renovation saw the former residential rooms on the top floor become transformed into a light and airy Learning Commons for the boys, with library nooks for quiet reading and open spaces for the boys to work collaboratively. Walls had been removed, a new stairwell and lift were installed, and the floor plan was reconfigured to maximise the available area. Each separate space now flows easily throughout the interior and continues out onto the wide verandas that were glassed in for the boys’ safety.

Whilst colourful, thought provoking artworks now adorn the walls, the eye can’t help but travel upward to the ceiling. As walls were removed, the original ceiling cornice and wall paper were revealed and a section of this, along with raw brickwork, has been left exposed as reminder of the room’s stately origins. Around the edges of each room, former floorboards have been incorporated as carpet edging to create another talking point. 

The ground floor of Roselle House, had long been the home of the administration team, including the Principal’s office and a traditional wood-panelled Board Room. During the renovations, the whole ground floor was also transformed, with walls moved and repainted and a striking Saint Kentigern tartan carpet laid throughout.

The renovation work that was required to be undertaken went far beyond cosmetic, involving major structural upgrading, alteration and refurbishment to a two storey building that has seen many changes over its life – well documented in Jane Mackie’s, ‘Sons of Kentigern,’ the History Book written for the 50th Jubilee in 2009. With one of the main drivers to ensure seismic safety under stringent new guidelines, an example of this particular work was the removal of the original, ornate heavy brick chimneys (a potential risk in a seismic event) and their replacement with lightweight replicas precisely matching the original structures. 

 

Now, almost 60 years after the School first opened, Roselle is a place of learning and discovery, alive to the sound of boys, and used according to John Martyn Wilson’s original bequest – ‘for the sole purpose of educating boys.’

Source: Sons of Kentigern. A History of Saint Kentigern School 1959- 2009, by Jane Mackie

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