Classic arts and crafts landmark house for sale
Lawyer Janet Mason was captivated the moment she set foot in the curious building on the corner of Willis and Ghuznee streets. The two-storey, 116-year-old, mock-Tudor building didn’t look like anything else in the vicinity.
Where the surrounding buildings were 1960s concrete, the building that would come to be known as Phoenix House, after Mason’s law firm, had a red brick tile roof, leadlight windows, a bulbous corner turret, and exposed black beams criss-crossing the white stucco walls. It stood out.
“It always looked so mysterious; you never quite knew what was inside.”
In 2016, the building came on the market at the perfect moment for her to find out.
Mason was looking for premises to run her law firm from, and also to live. At the time, she was senior legal counsel for Phoenix Law, and was living in Akatawara Valley, an isolated spot north of the city, between the Kāpiti Coast and the Hutt Valley, about a 52-minute commute from the city even in off-peak times.
Moses knew the building well from her commute, the motorway spilled out a block or two from the building, and it had intrigued her for years.
“Commuting in and out of town was just getting too much, so I thought, ‘well, I’d rather put that time into work’,” Mason says.
“The moment I opened up that front door, I fell in love with it, because it’s just got this beautiful woodwork. I thought, ‘This really suits lawyers’ chambers’. It seemed so English and so beautiful.”
Mason bought the building, and the ground floor became Phoenix Law, while she and her family lived upstairs.
Today, the building has 10 bedrooms/offices, five bathrooms and off-street parking for three cars. Only three bedrooms are currently configured as bedrooms, the rest are either offices or storage. There is also a full kitchen, with room for a dining table. What would have once been the dining room is Mason’s personal office. It is lined with wood panelling, as is the entranceway.
Mason’s children grew up in the home in the centre of town.
“It’s been a special place for them. So I said, ‘When you grow up and earn your own money, you can buy it back’. So that’s where we’re at.”
The home has been great for entertaining. She and the family have held many personal and professional events there, everything from big Christmas parties with live music, to hosting international dignitaries.
Mason’s children particularly loved to have Halloween parties, complete with cobwebs, witches and smoke machines.
“I think they’ll always remember those,” she says. “All of that energy remains in the house, and not just from the times we’ve had here, but from the previous owners. So, it’s got all this history, and I think you can certainly feel it when you’re sitting in certain spaces.”
Designed by William Turnbull in 1908, Phoenix House is a NZ Heritage Category 1 historic place. It was commissioned as a home and surgery for Dr Donald McGavin, who remained in the building till the 1940s.
Then known as McGavin House, the building was taken over by The New Zealand Red Cross Society after the doctor’s departure. The Red
Cross owned the building until 1981, when it was sold and became The Manor, offering long and short term accommodation.
When Mason bought the property, it was in shabby condition. She has since done a lot of work to the exterior of the building, including replacing the roof, and has restored the wood inside.
Now, her firm has almost outgrown the building, and her own work means she has to “commute” again, this time much further north of Wellington.
“We’ve lived here for 16 years, which is really a long time, and it was a big decision to put it on the market and to leave, but we’ve been spending quite a bit more time in Fiji, and that’s really been the driver.
“It’s just a very, very beautiful building, and there’s nothing else like it. I think it’s really the only house left in Wellington, because we’ve got apartment buildings all around. There’s nowhere in Wellington City that’s actually a house.”
Mason thinks the home would suit retirees who want to be close to the hustle and bustle but have a nice, dignified space to retreat to, another law firm, or even a high commission – she says she has had a couple of inquiries from high commissions already.
The building is a short walk to the centre of town, and a short bus ride to the CBD at the other end of Willis St.
“Sometimes I look out the window, down Willis St or Ghuznee St, and you can just imagine what it used to be like, when they had horses tied up outside. It’s a building full of history. I’ve had so many wonderful experiences here, many happy memories.”
After extensive strengthening work in 2020, the 2021 CV is $2.89 million. Homes.co.nz estimates the 400m2 property to sell for between $2.26 and $2.6m.
Phoenix House, 200 Willis St, Te Aro, is being sold by tender, which closes on August 6 at 3pm. It will not be sold prior. The listing is with Ben Castle and Tim Clark for Tommy’s.