A substantial Maori village was situated at Kaiwharawhara when a group of Scottish emigrants landed there in December 1840. A school was opened in January 1866, although there may have been one in operation earlier. It was re-established under the Wellington Education Board in 1872. This first school was located in what became School Road, on the banks of the Kaiwharawhara Stream.
Its location became less attractive as industry and the developing rail and road systems created hazards and nuisances. By the early 1900s the settlement was starting to be dominated by industrial development.
In the early 1920s the Railways Department built a railway settlement on the eastern side of the gorge. To meet new demand it was decided to close the school on the southern side of the stream and build a new school. The new site, purchased for £1,150, was in Fore Street, elevated above the major part of the settlement and slightly removed from adjacent industrial activities. This site was not considered ideal, but was the only one available in the area.
The school was opened in December 1925. It was built for the Wellington Education Board by G.H. Newson, of Dransfield Street, Newtown. Although the architect is not known, the finished building is probably standard Public Works design adapted to suit the steep site. Additions to the building were made as early as 1927. The piers under the school were strengthened and an earthquake shelter shed was provided in 1935.
The largest single source of pupils was the railway settlement, from which the majority of the school’s students came until the 1960s, when the settlement was abandoned and the houses demolished or removed. By 1972, when most of the houses were gone, the roll stood at 20. The rapid suburbanisation of Wellington also contributed, with people choosing to move to the new suburbs. As the school population declined, closure was mooted. The school and local community resisted this proposal. By this period the school had a fairly even mix of Maori and Pakeha students and the size of the school allowed it to have something of a ‘family’ environment not common in an urban setting. However, the Wellington Education Board voted 6-5 to close the school in December 1977.
In more recent years it has been rehabilitated for use as the Wellington Activity Centre, which caters for secondary school students at risk of dropping out of the mainstream education system. The property is still owned by the Department of Education.
Kaiwharawhara School is important from a heritage perspective predominantly due to its representative and rarity values. The school is representative of the type of educational building constructed in the 1920s. The school features stylistic touches typical of its time. The school has rarity value because it is one of the last remaining buildings from the original railway settlement at Kaiwharawhara, an area that has undergone considerable transformation since its establishment. Finally, Kaiwharawhara School has high value as an educational facility for the community for over eighty years.
