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ELIZABETH BROWN’S COTTAGE

When first built, this cottage was the home of Elizabeth Brown, one of Akaroa’s respected and hard-working 19th century settlers.

Category: Dwellings
Date: 1868/70
Street Address: 42 Rue Balguerie
HPT registered? Yes
District Plan Listed? Yes

In 1867, Elizabeth Brown, who had first arrived in Akaroa in 1843, bought land on Rue Balguerie. She probably built this cottage on the land soon afterwards. It was certainly standing by 1876, when she sold the property to move to Church Street (see Fire and Ice).

Elizabeth Brown and her husband Peter had come to New Zealand in 1840, and moved to Akaroa in 1843, where Peter ran a bakery. The couple worked elsewhere on the Peninsula, but were back in Akaroa by 1856, in time for Elizabeth to become one of the founding members of Akaroa’s Presbyterian church. Widowed in the early 1860s, Elizabeth lived until 1901. She and some of her children ran various businesses in Akaroa.

The cottage is a classic example of the simple, gable-ended cottages built by New Zealand’s early European settlers from the 1840s until the end of the 19th century. Its attic rooms are lit by windows in the gable ends.

 

 
   
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