Number 8 Stewart Street is a grand old home with good bones and a few tales to tell.
Built around 1912, she’s seen the many changes in Raglan over the years and may be around to see many more depending on what the next owners want from the property.
The bones of the house are kauri and while there have been minor changes over the years, such as adding insulation, it has remained largely as it did back in the days of old.
Featuring the old scrim walls and rimu boards, beautiful wooden floors and trims throughout the home, this characterful home sits in a prime location close to the bustle of town.
Remnants of the past spill into the kitchen which still has an old fashioned food-safe, and in the laundry sits a fireplace to heat the old copper, which also came in handy for heating water for bathing, or boiling the Christmas ham!
The last person to permanently make this place a home was a champion for women’s equality, Miss Leila Browning, who bought the house in 1968.
She spent her working life in the Hamilton and Auckland Courts, joining the Justice Department in 1941.
She wrote the following for an article called ‘Women on the scene in the 1940s’ when the new District Court opened in 1993
The Second World War made it possible for women to join the Justice Department, Courts Division, as rather humble workers in a very narrow field. It was never envisaged that they should work in all sections – take Courts or become Registrars. Therefore, when I was put on the payroll in 1941 (at the age of 24 years old), I was classified as a permanent/temporary with my status of that as an office assistant – even though I was taking over all the duties of the ‘cadet’ role. My salary was 125 pounds per annum. At the conclusion of the war, I was politely told that although I had made a fine contribution, it was time to seek other fields of occupation. The men, you see, would be returning to their former jobs. Fortunately, I put off any frantic job-seeking as a little later I was put on the permanent staff as a clerk. I left in 1968 to take up the position of Deputy Registrar of Births, Deaths, and Marriages in Auckland.
It was around the time of her promotion to Deputy Registrar that Miss Browning purchased the Stewart Street house.
She continued working until 1971, when she retired from her duties at 55 years old to free her time to pursue her hobby of painting, and to travel New Zealand.
Many of her paintings hang in the Stewart Street home – depicting familiar places we know and love from around the district and wider motu.
Just like Narnia, an ordinary looking cupboard in the house opens to a ‘secret’ staircase up to the attic where Miss Browning loved to sit and paint.
She was a passionate Christian, and a stalwart of the Congregational Church on Stewart Street, just across from her home.
She lived there until 2013, when the house became too much to handle and her health deteriorated, moving in with close friends from her church, to whom she later bequeathed the house.
Miss Browning passed away on September 14, 2014, just short of her 98th birthday.
The couple she left her home to have made the difficult decision to put the property on the market.
Although the large (1012 m2) flat site will likely attract many with an eye for modernisation, the couple say there is ample opportunity for those who love the old, to split the section and make the front house a ‘project’ whilst developing the back for a money-spinner, or simply retain the back section as a green space in a busy town.
by Janine Jackson
