- One of Waihi’s oldest homes, 30A Adams Street, is on the market for $1.345 million.
- The restored villa has a rich history, featuring seven fireplaces, a pool, and over 4000sqm of land.
- Agent Darren Perry noted the property, once owned by Rudall Hayward, hosted many notable figures.
One of Waihi’s oldest and grandest homes, with a rich history of music and arts, is on the market for $1.345 million.
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Darren Perry, of Perry & Co real estate, said 30A Adams Street, located in the Waikato gold mining town of Waihi, once hosted an array of politicians and musicians.
The house, a restored villa on more than 4000sqm of land, has seven fireplaces, a pool, and established trees which are over 100 years old.
“It’s one of the grandest homes you’ll walk into in Waihi. It was a house of some standing in its day.”
The house is understood to have been owned by Rudall Hayward, who, with his wife Adelina, was a member of a touring entertainment company called West’s Pictures and The Brescians, according to Te Ara.govt.nz.
Perry referred OneRoof to a 1974 article in the Ohinemuri Regional History Journal, which was written by the couple’s son, also named Rudall Hayward, who was a pioneering filmmaker.
The article describes Hayward Junior arriving in New Zealand from England as a youngster in 1905 and refers to his father as being a fine actor-singer who played the cello, and his mother as being a fine violinist.
“My parents decided to settle in Waihi, which was then the second largest town in the Auckland Province,” he wrote.
The property is one of Waihi’s grandest homes and comes with a rich history. Photo / Supplied
The homestead has over the years entertained “aristocrats, esteemed judges, and renowned scientists”, according to the listing. Photo / Supplied
“Around 1909 they bought a fine house on Riverbank Terrace and called it ‘Brecia’. It was a fine type of gentleman’s residence and the grounds were laid out in lawns, shrubs and an extensive flower garden, including a greenhouse.”
A long, winding path led to the front gate. Hayward reminisces in the article about how his father bought the Academy of Music in Waihi which he rebuilt and called the Academy Theatre.
The theatre was visited by many theatrical shows, such as Hugard the Magician “who had men bring their own rifles and ammunition and standing on seats in the back of the theatre fire at a piece of cloth he held over his heart! There is nothing like it today”.
“Shima the Japanese wrestler would take on anyone and beat them in a minute, and the first version of Alfred Hill’s famous Hinemoa Operetta visited with a Māori cast from Rotorua,” Hayward wrote.
“There was also a Hungarian Family who arrived with a child prodigy violinist. My mother, who took violin pupils, knew that he was clever but objected to his family exploiting him. [However, he became one of the world’s leading violinists].”
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Hayward wrote that his parents were “continually holding rehearsals at their home and many overseas artists came there, as did judges travelling in circuit, scientists, politicians and cranks of every colour and creed”.
“The billiard room used to be a very lively rowdy centre and the yard would be full of traps and buggies.
“My dad had an elegant Italian vehicle drawn by two roan mares, and also a three-horse brake that was used to convey projectors and equipment to Tauranga and the ‘Paeroa-Karangahake’ showing.”
Hayward described a wonderful old “bearded character named Newton” who looked after the horses. He was a self-taught intellectual of fine character who could quote the classics at length. “Life in Waihi in that period, looking back, seems to me a more liberal existence than we Live Today. There was less grubbing for money and more creative activity.
“But the old Waihi died when the strike [in 1912] split the town with bitter political strife. In this contest everyone lost, and my father suffered heavily. In the early twenties he decided to leave and I had taken up filmmaking.”
30A Adams Street has an asking price of $1.345m. Photo / Supplied
Perry said while Waihi had plenty of mining town houses, something of this home’s history and quality was rare.
Mining in Waihi began in the 1800s and the town had a deep mining heritage with the Karangahake Gorge mined for probably 150 years, Perry said.
Viewings at the homestead were by appointment only, and Perry said there had been a disproportionate number of overseas buyers looking, including from the United Kingdom and America.
“Normally when people from the States are looking they tend to be New Zealand expats coming back in some form or another.”
While the property was in Waihi’s top price range, Perry said the average home cost more in the $600,000s.
Around 55% of the Waihi population was over 55 and sometimes buyers were people looking to downsize.
Often people who came to the town had made their money elsewhere, he said, but the Waihi gold mine was still going and “our best incomes come out of the mining community”.
Also up for grabs in the town is a lifestyle property at 28 Lawrence Road with an asking price of $1.29m. Photo / Supplied
The property looks vintage but was actually built in 2006. Photo / Supplied
The town, at the base of the Coromandel, is a great place to live with a quaint heritage and in an area where New Zealanders love to play, plus it is only 13 kilometres to Waihi Beach.
Perry said the housing market in Waihi was performing well again after a flat few years and while prices were not rising, transactions were.
“Houses that have been sitting on the market for a while are suddenly selling so that’s very positive.”
Over at Waihi Beach, the market was slower, Perry said.
“It’s very driven by holiday makers and because of that we need the business communities in the cities to do well for people to buy beach houses, so the beach hasn’t really recovered yet but we are anticipating it will.”
Rosina Donnelly, of Barfoot & Thompson, also has a villa on the market in Waihi but said 28 Lawrence Street, for sale for $1.29m, was unusual because it was a replica built in 2006 on “park-like” grounds.
The owners were looking to relocate and downsize from the nearly three-bedroom, two-bathroom, 7344sqm lifestyle property close to town which had olive trees and paddocks perfect for goats and a pony or two.
There was a petanque court and a natural flowing waterway.
The villa is also priced at Waihi’s upper end but Donnelly said the housing market in general represented good value for money and plenty of first-home buyers were active.
“What you can buy in Auckland and what you can buy here for the same money is vastly different.”
Along with first-home buyer interest, there were older people wanting to reduce space and their rates and outgoings.
“We’ve got people that are wanting lock-and-leaves so they have got room for the motorhome and boat but they want to lock up and leave and travel around, so it’s a good location to do that from.”
Donnelly said Waihi was a bit overlooked: “It’s kind of that little hidden gem. The township itself is great – you’ve got cafes, you’ve got restaurants, you’ve got the beach which is close by.”
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