"House at the Haven, Nelson, formerly Captain Wakefield's"
Painted by William Fox, its occupant at the time. Site today is 403 Wakefield Quay, though the current house is not the original, which later burnt down and was replaced with a new one.
Having made harbour with the three ships of his Preliminary Expedition sent out to establish the New Zealand Company's Nelson colony, it's recorded that on 6 November 1841 Captain Arthur Wakefield pitched his tent on the hill at the Port. Maybe the magnificent outlook inspired him to set up his house there, though as a naval man, he would of course have been aware of its perfect position as a lookout, a place to keep an eye on any shipping activity, whether it be friendly or hostile. Fox, later Sir William Fox, was appointed Nelson agent for the NZ Company following Captain Wakefield's untimely death at Tua Marina on 17 June 1843 during the Wairau Affray.
Fox noted that the house had been brought out from England, one of a number of homes which had their origins as prefabs made in England, carried out on board immigrant ships, and constructed on arrival in New Zealand.
This house would be home to two future Premiers of New Zealand - Fox himself and Sir Edward Stafford, Colonel William Wakefield's son-in-law, who bought it from the by then defunct New Zealand Company in 1849.
It was known as "Stafford House" when later bought by prominent early Nelson hotelier and businessman Edward Everett, Mayor of Nelson and founder of the long-running Everett Bros' all-purpose drapery store, which traded under the name "Victoria House" and had branches in Motueka and Collingwood.
Everetts' Nelson store was sold in 1913 to William McKay, an entrepreneurial Scottish tailor who in the 1860s had set up a successful business in Hokitika, getting his start by making sturdy clothing for the diggers, and later adding a branch in Greymouth. Everett's former store was then renamed "Wm. McKay & Son", though always known simply as "McKays". Said son, the equally entrepreneurial William Jnr, set up several branches around the South Island, the largest being in Christchurch where he lived, and put in reliable managers. Many years later, the Nelson branch of McKays would be taken over by yet another long-running Nelson institution, H&J's Department Store.
The property where Captain Wakefield once lived has stayed pretty much intact over the years and was the subject of much interest when it went up for sale in 2016.
See article at the "Stuff" website, published 1 Oct 2016 at the time of this sale.
Image credit: Hocken Pictorial Collections, ref.11,731 a3608
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