Many New Zealand cottages and houses were added to, after they were first built, as families grew or became better-off. This cottage illustrates the “additive” nature of many New Zealand buildings.
The original cottage of around 1860 was a single-storey building with a verandah. It was built on land bought in 1860 by Joseph Deighton from its first European owner, William Aylmer (see Glencarrig). Deighton, constable and librarian for the Literary Institute (see Coronation Library) took out a mortgage in 1860 for £200, which suggests he built the cottage immediately after buying the land. During alterations in the 1980s, pages from a London newspaper dated 1860 were found attached to interior walls.
After Deighton’s death in 1867, the cottage was bought by Thomas Houghton, a carpenter. The second wing of the cottage, with a window in the gable end lighting the attic storey, was built in 1881. Members of the Houghton family owned the cottage until 1928.
