Mission House. Kerikeri. New Zealand.
S 35° 13.050 E 173° 57.745
59H E 769648 N 6098814
The Kerikeri Mission House, Kemp House, is New Zealand's oldest standing building, erected in the Bay of Islands in 1821-1822 by the London-based Church Missionary Society.
Waymark Code: WM75VB
Location: North Island, New Zealand
Date Posted: 09/06/2009
Views: 3
Sole survivor of the Musket Wars of the 1820s, the Mission House is New Zealand’s oldest standing European building.
Kemp House was built by the Reverend John Gare Butler in 1821-22 as a mission house. Butler's Mission House was two-storyed of simple Georgian design,, weather-boarded and just one room deep, it was backed by two chimneys and a detached kitchen, and fronted by a broad verandah flanked by two little rooms at either end for guests or lodgers. From 1824-31 the house was occupied by the lay missionary George Clarke and from mid-1832 by blacksmith and lay missionary James Kemp and his family.
The mission was closed in 1848, but the Kemps stayed on, eventually buying the house from the CMS. Their descendants lived there until 1974 when Ernest Kemp presented the house and its contents to the New Zealand Historic Places Trust.
The Kemps' house changed little over time. James Kemp altered it at C.M.S expense in 1843, replacing Butler's front verandah with one returning round the end walls. As the years passed, and Kemps farmed and traded in land and kauri gum, the verandah roof was lowered and clad in pressed zinc, then in corrugated iron, whilst some windows were replaced. In the 1920's the main roof was also clad in corrugated iron, and a bathroom was built behind the kitchen. Further changes happened in the 1950's, and again in the late 1970's, when the house was returned fairly close to its 1843 appearance, except that the 1843 verandah was slung much higher, and had a shingled rather than a leaky and historically unknown board-and-batten roof.
The Mission house is now a museum open to the public.
Open: Daily 10am - 5pm (Nov - April) 10am - 4pm (May - Oct)
Address: 246 Kerikeri Road, Kerikeri Basin, Kerikeri.
Earliest Recorded Date of Construction: 01/01/1821
Architectural Period/Style: Simple Georgian design.
Type of Building e.g. Country House, Stately Home, Manor:
Mission house.
Interesting Historical Facts or Connections:
New Zealand’s oldest surviving building.
Completed in 1822 as part of the Kerikeri Mission Station by the Church Missionary Society.
Main Material of Construction: Native Timbers
Private/Public Access: Public
Opening Hours (if applicable): From: 10:00 AM To: 4:00 PM
Related Website: [Web Link]
Rating: 
Additional Dates of Construction: Not listed
Architect (if known): Not listed
Landscape Designer (if known): Not listed
Listed Building Status (if applicable): Not listed
Admission Fee (if applicable): Not Listed
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