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Kinder House

The building

Kinder House was built in 1857 to a design by Frederick Thatcher, the architect of many Anglican buildings in Auckland, built in the then popular Gothic style.

The building was commissioned by Bishop G. A. Selwyn as a schoolmaster's house for the first headmaster of the Church of England Grammar School, now long since demolished, but which occupied the site directly opposite Kinder House to the south, where shops are now situated.

The schoolmaster's house is of rubble construction, basically using scoria from Mt Eden, with dressed stone at corners and openings thought to have been quarried at Mt Wellington. Michael Dunn wrote an article for the publication Art New Zealand which is available on the net at http://www.art-newzealand and incorporates a number of historic photographs. He notes that Kinder House was the grandest of three stone buildings constructed in Parnell by the master mason, Benjamin Strange, in 1857/8. It cost £1404.10.10, a considerable sum in those days. This was not surprising, as it was unusual to build in stone or brick at the time, particularly stone, there being a shortage of masons of sufficient skill. This is evidenced by structural difficulties which were experienced following the construction of a number of stone churches in the region at the time, namely the original chapel on the corner of Kohimarama road and St Helliers Bay Road and St James, Mangere.

John Kinder

Some brief autobiographical details are included in the article by Michael Dunn and a further article by Ross Frazer in another issue of Art New Zealand, which also concentrates on John Kinder as a painter and photographer. John Kinder's paintings and photographs provide a unique view of early Auckland and many other parts of New Zealand.

Further details concerning John Kinder are available on the Web and can for example, be obtained from the view Auckland site at www.viewauckland.co.nz, also the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography at www.dnzb.govt.nz. Various art galleries hold his works, mainly the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki and the Hocken library in Dunedin for his watercolours and the Auckland Museum Library for his photographs. Some Images can be seen, together with some biographical details, on their websites.

A good method of approach in directly accessing information concerning John Kinder and Kinder house is to put both names into a search engine such as Google. All the sites described above will appear.

John Kinder's name is commemorated in a number of places. Kinder House is the most well-known, as a gallery showing his watercolours and photographs, and Kinder memorabilia.

There is a street named after him in Meadowbank.

The library of St John's theological College in Meadowbank bears his name in recognition of his bequest to the College of his extensive library.

Kinder House

The schoolmaster's house, on the corner of Ayr Street and Parnell Road, was sold by the church and remained in private ownership through to the 1970s. On the death of the then owner it became available on the open market and it was then that Civic Trust Auckland first became involved with the property. Margaret Newman, a founder member of the Trust and a driving force in its early days, was particularly active in helping convince the Auckland City Council to purchase this particularly attractive heritage building and its garden surrounds. She was a friend of Sheila Horton, a City councillor and the founding chairman of the Kinder House Society, formed to manage the property and operate it as a gallery.

Margaret Newman is commemorated by a plaque located within the eastern part of the garden, as is Sheila Horton, by a plaque on northern part..

Kinder House has been used by various voluntary organisations for their meetings for many years.

In 2006 Civic Trust Auckland began using the house for its monthly board meetings. In early 2007 Civic Trust Auckland was invited to share the office (Study) with the Kinder House Society and this has now become its formal headquarters. Civic Trust Auckland's secretary, Carol Sanders acts as a voluntary tour guide of the gallery two days a week, on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. On these days there will be responses to any e-mails sent to Civic Trust Auckland, at its office e-mail address: cta@civictrustauckland.org.nz. Where urgent responses are required to e-mails, then it will be necessary to contact the secretary, or board members direct, at their individual e-mail addresses.

There is a very close working relationship between the Kinder House Society and Civic Trust Auckland. The two organisations share much in common and have similar ideals. Anyone wishing to contact the Kinder House Society may do so either directly or via Civic Trust Auckland.

The gallery is open to the public on weekdays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. There is a modest entry charge. Various booklets and postcards are on sale.

The house and gardens can be hired for private or professional use, for example small weddings and anniversaries, business functions, wedding photographs, fashion garment photographs and the like.

Contact the Kinder House Society for charges and other details.