Registration Type
Historic Place Category 1
Register Number
259
Date Registered
28-Jun-1990
Legal Description
Secs 1091 1093 City of Nelson CT IC/201,IC/46,2D/185,2D/199
City/District Council
Nelson City
Region
Nelson Region
Summary
This historic place was registered under the Historic Places Act 1980. This report includes the text from the original Building Classification Committee report considered by the NZHPT Board at the time of registration.
Melrose was built for Charles Fowell Willet Watts who arrived in 1841 as one of Nelson's first settlers. He was granted town acres 1091 and 1093 in 1854, but the site on which the house was built was still vacant in early 1878. Watts died in 1881, a short while after the completion of the house.
Percy Boland Adams, his son-in-law and a noted Nelson solicitor, took it over and was responsible for developing the gardens. His son, Noel Percy Adams, inherited the property in 1932.
On his death in 1945, it was left to the Women's Division of Federated Farmers. Mrs Adams had a long association with the organisation, including a term as Dominion President. The WDFF used the house as a rest home for over twenty years, but by 1973 its use was no longer required, and the gift of the property reverted to the Nelson City Council. After much public debate the gift was accepted and the house is currently used as a venue for social functions. It is run by the Melrose Society which is restoring the interior of the house.
Historical Significance
This historic place was registered under the Historic Places Act 1980. This report includes the text from the original Building Classification Committee report considered by the NZHPT Board at the time of registration.
Melrose is a well preserved example of the grand houses erected in prominent locations by the wealthy and successful settlers of Nelson. C.F.W. Watts who commissioned the house was a wealthy early resident of Nelson, and his son-in-law, P.B. Adams, who developed the gardens, was a member of the influential Adams family of Marlborough. Many of these houses have now disappeared from Nelson, but Melrose remains as a valuable community asset for the future.
Physical Significance
This historic place was registered under the Historic Places Act 1980. This report includes the text from the original Building Classification Committee report considered by the NZHPT Board at the time of registration.
ARCHITECTURAL QUALITY:
Melrose is noteworthy for its scholarly Classical design, unusual at a time when High Victorian eclecticism was at its zenith. It is nevertheless a most successful adaptation to wood of Classical forms, normally built in stone Stone was considered to be a nobler building material and thus more appropriate for such a grand house, but the expense would probably have dictated that the more cheaply available wood be used. Few houses designed by Scotland now remain.
TOWNSCAPE/LANDMARK VALUE
Melrose was once a prominent 'building in Nelson but the trees planted around the grounds now obscure it from view.
Construction Professionals
Construction Dates
- Original Construction: 1881 (circa)
Construction Details
Timber framed weatherboard house. Corrugated galvanised iron roofing. Interior walls of lath and plaster.
Other Information
A copy of this report is available from the NZHPT Central Region office
Report Completed
5-Mar-1990
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