Historic house to go under the hammer

By Graham Skellern
Over a period of two years builder Kevin Kelly spent countless evenings and weekends carefully renovating and preserving his historic home in central Tauranga.
He built a second dining room and conservatory; he filled in the upstairs area and fitted three bedrooms and en suites, making sure the additions were finished off in original kauri to fit in with the rest of the house.
Mr Kelly and his wife Lois were not about to change of the course of events. They were protecting a piece of Tauranga history that dates back 123 years.
The Colonial, gabled villa called Taiparoro (stormy sea), on the corner of Fifth Ave and Devonport Rd, is the third oldest home in Tauranga still standing, including the Mission House.
It has been the Kelly family home for the last 14 years, but the 400 sq m house - with seven bedrooms, six bathrooms, two lounges, two dining rooms, a farmhouse kitchen and office - has become too big for the couple and their family. The Kellys are putting Taiparoro - looking out over the inner harbour to Matapihi and Maungatapu - on the market for only the fourth time in more than a century.
The house will go to auction and is expected to reach a seven-figure sum.
It was built of rough-sawn kauri weatherboard by former Tauranga Mayor John Cuthbert Adams in 1882, and in 1988 the house was given an Historic Places classification.
Mr Adams and his wife Helen, a daughter of Rakapa Ngawai from Ngati Maniapoto, bought the vacant land that was once the site of a Maori village.
Mr and Mrs Adams brought up 10 children - four boys and six girls - in the house. The family also hosted many fine dinners and parties in the ornate ballroom, and adjacent parlour which became the Kellys' main bedroom.
A Tauranga Borough Council auditor, Mr Adams became a councillor in 1907, deputy mayor three years later and in 1917 was elected Mayor.
He was very active in the community, serving on the Chamber of Commerce, Harbour Board, the Cemetery trust and the Domain Board at Mount Maunganui. He improved the Mission Cemetery, erected the Rawiri Memorial and pushed for the development of the Mount.
Adams Ave and Adams track on Mauao are named after him, and he also owned the landmark Adams Cottage - it was his beach house - in the same street.
One of the Adams daughters lived in Taiparoro for more than 80 years and when she died in 1973 the house was sold for the first time. The Wallis family, the Garritys and the Kellys have owned the home - and they have all maintained the character and history.
The Kellys, who moved to town from an avocado orchard at Pahoia, ran a bed and breakfast in the house for five years and Governor-General Sir Michael Hardie Boys stayed there twice.
Sir Michael would have loved the ballroom with its parquet floor interwoven with kauri, matai, rewa rewa, tawa, totara and rimu pieces. The high, patterned kauri ceiling was tongue-and-groove, and fluted.
"Mr Adams must have been quite a craftsman," said Mr Kelly. "It has been a rewarding and interesting house to be involved with. You don't own a home like this; you look after it. It's been a privilege to live in it.
"The house is in top condition now and as long as it is maintained on a regular basis it will last forever," he said.