Maungaraupi is a wonderful example of the endurance of timeless beauty and function, quintessential turn-of-the-century New Zealand still enjoyed in the modern day.
The distinctive style of famous British-New Zealand architect Charles Natusch is stamped everywhere on Maungaraupi. Built in 1906 in solid rimu, matai and totara for 3000 pounds, immense effort and attention to detail went into the design and construction; for example, the timber was seasoned for three years. The magnificent home was built for William Swainson Marshall Esq and his wife Elizabeth by Marton local James McChesney.
Sitting on over 23 hectares of farmland, the spacious 836-square-metre property was designed in the popular Tudor and Elizabethan style favoured by the architect Charles Natusch, with characteristics of the growing Arts and Crafts influence. There is particular reference to Elizabethan styling in the pronounced gables, external timbering and tall chimney stacks. The ground-floor exterior is weatherboard, with the upper storey half-timbered using the “board and batten” method Natusch often employed. Upstairs also features gabled balconies jutting out over the ground floor.
Inside, on the lower floor, there is a beautifully panelled staircase hall, complete with a formal entrance hall and inglenook. Other main rooms included a stately dining room, drawing room-cum-library, smoking and billiards room, and schoolroom, as well as two verandahs. What is now the Cottage Wing on the southern side of the house was originally the single-storey store and service wing, with a dairy kitchen and knives and boots room.
With a lifetime of varied use, the estate has seen days as a working farm, iconic farm stay, private function centre and community centrepoint. One of New Zealand’s earliest female modernist painters, Edith Collier, painted several scenes and farm landscapes depicting Maungaraupi between 1927 and 1940. Only properly recognised posthumously, some of the Whanganui artist’s works showing the property are included in the Whanganui Sargent Art Gallery collection.
The New Zealand Heritage List (Rārangi Kōrero) identifies New Zealand’s significant and valued historical and cultural heritage places. In 1987, Maungaraupi Homestead was recognised as a Category 1 Historic Place.