There is a sweet optimism in the rows of shiny new houses in the 1960s and 1970s in New Zealand.
The “Jetsons House”, featured on the cover of the latest OneRoof Property Report, represented the brave, new world of housing that was looking more to America than old England for style.
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It featured in a New Zealand Herald story in August, 1968, citing the owner Mr W.G. Archer’s search for the perfect view of Auckland.
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Archer was a builder who, along with companies like Neil, Beazley and others was opening up the new North Shore suburbs. His company, founded in 1956 operated for 50 years.
The Pupuke Rd home as it looks now. Photos / Ted Baghurst
Archer settled on the crest of Pupuke Road, that runs between Birkenhead and Northcote for his dream home, building two flats on the lower levels and the main house on top (his insurance, the story says, against the view from Tiri around to the upper Waitemata Harbour being built out).
Sadly there is no record of who designed the striking house, with its curved entry ramp, triangle of stonework to frame the carport and butterfly roof.
Mary-Rose Hall, who helped create the Christmas Wonderland for many years in Birkenhead, was one of the many fans who admired the house. She was out walking with her friend Ang Weir, a fellow wonderland creator, raving how she loved the place, when Ang revealed that she and her husband owned the place. Deal done, and Hall moved in in 2007.
By that time, there was only one picture window for that vaunted view, a few more flats and staircases, no deck. Hall’s year-long renovation, completed by 2009, enclosed the front deck and carports, rearranged the interior rooms to 21st century open plan and added walls of sliding glass and a deck to face the view.
The curved ramp was too damaged to repair, so a more prosaic internal stair now leads from street to house. The old butterfly roof is the only sign on the dramatic black exterior of the original Jetsons house.
“It would have been cheaper to bowl, but I’m glad I didn’t,” Hall says. “I love the history, the shape of the roof. It doesn’t matter what time of the day, there’s the bush and the water, and at night you’ve got the city lights. I can soak it in and be grateful for where I am.”
