The house at 234 Oriental Parade is an attractive late Victorian villa, designed by Francis Penty, a significant Wellington architect, and that is a rare survivor of the type of building that was once popular on Oriental Parade.
The house was constructed in 1900 for John Knox Hamilton, and his wife Alice, two years after Hamilton purchased the property. The house was designed by Francis Penty, a prominent architect at the time who is best known for his design of the Hunter Building at Victoria University.
Hamilton passed away in 1902, soon after the completion of the building, and the house was inherited by trustees, including his wife Alice. She continued to occupy the house until about 1914 and thereafter the house was let out to tenants.
In 1920 the house was purchased by Annice Riddell, whose husband William Riddell, was a prominent Wellington lawyer and stipendiary magistrate and was active in musical societies and a number of sports. Annice Riddell died in 1928 and her husband William inherited the house. In 1931 William, now retired, transferred a third of the house each to Linda Robinson and Glendinning Riddell. By this time Linda Robinson and her husband were living in the house, as was Frederick Clayton, a draughtsman.
In 1935 William Riddell relinquished his share of the house, and soon after this it was sold to Sue Begley, a nurse who ran a convalescent home.
In 1948 the house was purchased by Joseph Brennan, a manager. He passed away in 1951, and the house was sold to Peter Moran, a draper, and his wife Mary. They have been the owners of the house since this time.
During this period a number of alterations have been made to the property. The upstairs door and window arrangement was changed in 1955, and the same year a retaining wall was constructed at the rear of the property. In 1984 an existing structure was demolished and two garages were built at the front of the property.
The house has had few exterior alterations since this time and has had a relatively typical history for a domestic building in Wellington City.
This house is typical of the period; it is a formal symmetrical bay villa and is set back from Oriental Parade. It is timber framed and clad with narrow rusticated weatherboards, and the roof is clad in corrugated iron. The front elevation of the house is dominated by a two storey verandah that features decorative timber joinery and is realistically the only ornamentation found on the building. The verandah frames the bay window and door arrangement on the ground floor, as it did the first floor prior to the alteration of the street façade in 1955. In front of the house, is a row of garages, which detract significantly from the overall view of the house from the street, and the place of the house in the streetscape. Between the garages is a gate leading to the house that features a timber archway that picks up on the detail of the timber decoration used on the verandah.
