Caccia-Birch House (previously: Nannestad Homestead, Woodhey, Vice-Regal Residence, The Convalescent Home for Women of the Services) is a

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

colonial Colonial or The Colonial may refer to: * Colonial, of, relating to, or characteristic of a colony or colony (biology) Architecture * American colonial architecture * French Colonial * Spanish Colonial architecture Automobiles * Colonial (1920 au ...

homestead and a

Heritage New Zealand Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga (initially the National Historic Places Trust and then, from 1963 to 2014, the New Zealand Historic Places Trust) ( mi, Pouhere Taonga) is a Crown entity with a membership of around 20,000 people that advocate ...

Category I Historic Place. It is located at 130 Te Awe Awe Street in the city of

Palmerston North Palmerston North (; mi, Te Papa-i-Oea, known colloquially as Palmy) is a city in the North Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Manawatū-Whanganui region. Located in the eastern Manawatu Plains, the city is near the north bank of the ...

. Completed in 1892, it is named after William Caccia Birch and his wife Maude, who gifted the property to the government in 1941. The property, owned by Palmerston North City Council, is administered by the Caccia Birch Trust Board, and operates as a conference and events venue on a cost-recovery basis. The Coach House Museum includes photos of the property's previous owners.

History

The dwelling was designed by Danish-born architect Ludolph Georg West for Norwegian settler Jacob Nannestad and his wife Anna. In 1903, Englishman John Henderson Pollock Strang and his wife Mary purchased the property and named it "Woodhey". It became the temporary residence of the

Governor-General of New Zealand The governor-general of New Zealand ( mi, te kāwana tianara o Aotearoa) is the viceregal representative of the monarch of New Zealand, currently King Charles III. As the King is concurrently the monarch of 14 other Commonwealth realms and li ...

Lord Plunket Baron Plunket, of Newtown in the County of Cork, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1827 for the prominent Irish lawyer and Whig politician William Plunket. He served as Lord Chancellor of Ireland from 1830 an ...

, after a 1907 fire destroyed Parliament buildings. In 1921, Caccia Birch purchased the property; he was the adopted son of William Birch. In the 1930s, a portion of the property, the Hokowhitu Lagoon, was given to the Palmerston North City Council while the rest of the property was given to the government in 1941. The Caccia Birch House was used by the military during the Second World War and subsequently became a convalescent home for servicewomen and nurses. It was used as an educational institution during the period from 1960 to 1976. In 1983, it was given to the city council. The Caccia Birch Trust Board was formed in 1989, and in 1992, it was turned into a conference and function centre.

Geography

Caccia-Birch, Palmerston North, New Zealand (9)

The original property included a part of the Hokowhitu (Centennial) Lagoon. It is currently a public property that overlooks the lagoon. It is 10 minutes from the airport.

Architecture

The original Nannestad building was a two-storey dwelling constructed of native timber weatherboard with a corrugated iron roof and the exterior is of sunburst style. After 1903, two conservatories, two nurseries, servants’ quarters, and a coach house were added by Strang. Lord Plunket added a billiard room, now named the Lord Plunket Room, as well as extra servants quarters that were subsequently demolished.

Garden

The property includes a paved, sunken rose garden. It features a 100-year-old

wisteria ''Wisteria'' is a genus of flowering plants in the legume family, Fabaceae (Leguminosae), that includes ten species of woody twining vines that are native to China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Southern Canada, the Eastern United States, and north o ...

, as well as an

American tulip tree ''Liriodendron tulipifera''—known as the tulip tree, American tulip tree, tulipwood, tuliptree, tulip poplar, whitewood, fiddletree, and yellow-poplar—is the North American representative of the two-species genus ''Liriodendron'' (the other ...

, a

Himalayan cedar ''Cedrus deodara'', the deodar cedar, Himalayan cedar, or deodar, is a species of cedar native to the Himalayas. Description It is a large evergreen coniferous tree reaching tall, exceptionally with a trunk up to in diameter. It has a conic ...

elm Elms are deciduous and semi-deciduous trees comprising the flowering plant genus ''Ulmus'' in the plant family Ulmaceae. They are distributed over most of the Northern Hemisphere, inhabiting the temperate and tropical-montane regions of North ...

s, and

magnolia ''Magnolia'' is a large genus of about 210 to 340The number of species in the genus ''Magnolia'' depends on the taxonomic view that one takes up. Recent molecular and morphological research shows that former genera ''Talauma'', ''Dugandiodendro ...

s. The Manawatu Tree Trust planted native shrubs in the garden.

Tourism

Located in a residential area, the property can be rented for functions.

References

External links

Official website
{{coord, 40, 21, 59, S, 175, 37, 43, E, type:landmark_region:NZ-MWT, display=title 1892 establishments in New Zealand Gardens in New Zealand Houses in New Zealand NZHPT Category I listings in Manawatū-Whanganui Buildings and structures in Palmerston North 1890s architecture in New Zealand