The building at 130A Abel Smith Street was originally sited at 278 Willis Street, but was relocated as part of the NZTA Wellington Inner City Bypass works in 2005 – 2006. It was originally located on a 1-acre site at the north-west corner of Willis and Abel Smith streets, on land that was owned by wealthy financier and landowner, the Honourable Algernon Tollemache, from at least c.1858 - 1875. An 1858 photograph shows the Tollemache house as a small single storey dwelling that has since been demolished. Tollemache sold the 1-acre site to Andrew Young (? 1833 – 1895), a local businessman and city councillor, in 1875 – at around the date when the grand new two storey house is likely to have been constructed. It is unclear whether Tollemache or Young commissioned the new house, but there are unconfirmed reports that the house was completed in 1873, the style of the building suggests a construction date of 1870 – 1914, and a photograph shows that it was complete by at least 1886.
The house is known to have been the Wellington residence of Andrew Young, who was once known as one of Wellington’s ‘wealthiest citizens.’ Young was born in County Tyrone in Ireland, and travelled to Melbourne where he was employed by Cobb & Co. as a coach driver on the route to Geelong and later Ballarat. Cobb & Co. sent him to Otago in 1863 and he later formed a partnership with W.H. Sheppard to run a coach line from Christchurch to Hokitika. Sheppard and Young came to Wellington in 1868 and ran a bi-weekly service between Wellington and Wanganui, this later expanded with routes to New Plymouth, between Wellington and the Hawkes Bay, and from Thames to Tauranga. He was a City Councillor for four years and came within 3 votes of winning the mayoralty of Wellington.
Young subdivided his site in 1893 and sold the large timber house to Richard Middleton Simpson (1877 – 1920) of the Phoenix Assurance Co. Ltd. Simpson was born in Lancaster, England and emigrated with his family to New Zealand via Melbourne in 1853. He was educated in New Zealand and worked as a shipping agent, for the Bank of New South Wales, in the sawmilling industry, on the Thames Gold Fields and as the accountant for the Fiji Banking and Commercial Company in Levuka, Fiji. He returned to New Zealand in 1876 when he joined the New Zealand Insurance Company, and went on to join the Phoenix Assurance Company in 1891 as its general manager for New Zealand. The Phoenix Assurance Company of London was originally founded as a ‘fire syndicate’ in London in 1782 and established a business in New Zealand in 1875. By 1897 the company had agents in all the cities and provincial centres from Auckland to Invercargill. Simpson remained as the company’s executive officer until his retirement in 1914. He was also a director of the Kelburn and Karori Tramway Company, and a Justice of the Peace.
The house was sold again in 1908 to Frances Levy (1866 – 1943). Frances was born in New Zealand and her father Benjamin Levy (? – 1888) was a passenger on the one of the first four New Zealand Company ships to arrive in Wellington in 1840. Her husband Abraham Levy was a wealthy local clothing manufacturer with premises on Manners Street. The house was later used by the Levy’s son, Louis, as an obstetric hospital from c.1921 – c.1949. Louis Levy (1888-1947) was educated in Wellington, graduated from Edinburgh University in 1914 and served in the RAMC (Royal Army Medical Corps) in WWI. He appears to have occupied the house in 1921 along with his wife, Nan (nee Whitehead). He was appointed honorary obstetrician by the Wellington Hospital Board in 1929 and consultant obstetrician on his retirement in 1945. He was chairman of the British Medical Association in 1933 and honorary treasurer of the New Zealand Obstetrical Society in 1939.
The obstetric hospital on Willis Street opened at a time when most married women gave birth at home. In 1905 the Government set up seven St Helen’s maternity hospitals around the country including one in Newtown, Wellington. These maternity hospitals were teaching institutions that trained midwifes and offered subsidised maternity care to private fee-paying patients. Free maternal medical care was generally only available for ‘complicated obstetrics’ cases at Wellington Hospital and for unmarried mothers at ‘rescue’ homes run by religious charities. This changed in 1939 when Wellington Hospital made a ward and support services available for ‘uncomplicated obstetrics’, and this was a free service where women could choose their attendant – generally either their GP or midwife. Many private maternity hospitals closed soon-after. Levy formed the Willis Street Obstetric Hospital Ltd as a private company in 1941 with shares held solely by Louis and Nan Levy. Nan retained ownership of the hospital following Louis’ death in 1947 and it continued to function as a hospital until c.1949 when the building was purchased under the Public Works Act.
Proclamation 4161 declared the land to be set aside as part of the Wellington Ngauranga to Basin Reserve motorway in 1950, and the house was then converted into a postgraduate nurses training hospital while it effectively awaited demolition to make way for the new road. Upper Willis Street had, for many years, been an enclave of doctor’s and dentist’s houses and surgeries, but by the 1970s most private surgeries had closed, and the grand house/surgeries such as 122 Willis Street, 200 Willis Street, 279 Willis Street were generally in commercial use (with the notable exception was the nearby Children’s Dental Clinic at 254 Willis Street that continued in its original function until the 1990s). The building at 278 Willis Street soon followed when it was converted for use by the ‘Catacombs’, a social services provider, in the 1970s.
The Catacombs originated as a ‘coffee club’ for teenagers and was associated with singers and bands, such as Ray Columbus. In the 1970s the club diversified to provide social services and hired the Willis Street building from the Health Department. By 1990 the ground floor of 278 Willis Street functioned as a drop in centre and social venue for inner city Wellington residents including homeless people and people in transit. The first floor was divided into two large flats, one with four bedrooms and one with five. These were let to refugee families and to the building’s caretaker.
By 1981, the National Roads Board had acquired ownership of all the buildings from 272 to 286 Willis Street for the purpose of constructing the Wellington Urban Motorway Extension. There was strong opposition to the bypass, particularly to the destruction of heritage buildings, and this led to an appeal to the high court Environment Court and then to the High Court. The final appeal was dismissed in December 2003.
The approved project included the relocation and “preservation” of thirteen heritage properties on the route of the new road, including the five on Willis Street. Transit New Zealand (later the NZTA) prepared the Willis Street properties for relocation in 2005. This property at No. 278 Willis Street was moved to 132A Abel Tasman Street with a frontage to Youngs Avenue, its neighbour at No. 272 Willis Street was moved to 130 Abel Smith Street, 282 and 284 Willis Street were moved to 274 and 276 Willis Street. 286 Willis Street (the former Bar Bodega) was prepared for relocation, and the rear (1990s) extension was demolished, before it was moved to 278 Willis Street.
The process of relocation of the Willis Street properties included repairs and redecoration of the building exteriors and this work was completed by 2009. NZTA sold most of the properties that it had acquired for the construction of Karo Drive in c.2010 and the house at 130A Abel Smith Street now appears to be in use as a private residential dwelling.
