8 Patrick Street, Petone, Petone, Lower Hutt City
In 1905 the Liberal Government, led by Premier Richard John Seddon, undertook to provide low cost but quality housing to working families. The first state houses under the Worker's Dwelling Act 1905, were constructed here and opened by Premier Joseph Ward on 10th September 1906.
The building of the houses in this street, then known as the Heretanga Settlement, was part of the Seddon Government’s ambitious scheme, the first internationally, for a central government build housing for its own citizens. The aim was to provide low cost housing to maintain a stable workforce whose standard of living was not eroded by paying large rents.
Originally each house was to be built for 300 pounds. The final prices ranged up to 399 pounds. They were to be offered as weekly rentals, leasing or leasing to freehold but high rents and lack of access to local transport contributed to a low uptake.
Seddon’s plan of building 5000 houses in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin, then the four main cities, never eventuated. By 1910 only 126 had been built and only 657 by 1919 when it was replaced by a new government scheme.
Seven designs by prominent New Zealand architects were used as a result of a competition. The architects included Wellington architects William Gray Young, Penty and Blake, Joshua Charlesworth and, from Christchurch, Samuel Hurst Seager in partnership with Cecil Wood. The houses, whether single or two story, all had five main rooms. They were constructed using rimu, totara and kauri on a concrete pile base.
Each of the architects contributed a design which can be seen in the street.
Young New Zealander -W. Gray Young - numbers 2, 21, 24 Patrick and 54 Adelaide
Kia Ora - Jack Hoggard - number 14 and 47 Adelaide
Design no 3 – S. Hurst Seager and Cecil Wood - numbers 6, 16, 19 Patrick and 49 Adelaide
Spero - Francis Penty and Edward Blake - numbers 8 Patrick and 23 and 45 Adelaide
Domus - Joshua Charlesworth - numbers 10, 22 Patrick and 52 Adelaide
York - Francis Penty and Edward Blake - numbers 12, 18 and 25 Patrick
Two concrete and one wooden house - Woburn Temple - 11, 13 and 15 Patrick
Suburban - Francis Penty and Edward Blake – 43 and 26 Adelaide Street and 227 The Esplanade
In 1989 ten of the houses were registered as Category I and Category II by the Historic Places Trust and later that year the street was recognised as a special Residential Heritage Zone by the Petone Borough Council.
More reading
Seddon's state houses: the Workers' Dwellings Act 1905 & the Heretaunga Settlement (Barbara Fill, 1984, New Zealand Historic Places Trust)
We Call it Home: A History of State Housing in New Zealand (Ben Schrader, 2005, Raupo Publishing
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