- An Auckland home built for the US Consulate during the Cold War is for sale.
- The St Heliers property, designed for entertaining, features four bedrooms, five bathrooms, and a large pool.
- Historically, it hosted US diplomats, serving as a venue for informal diplomacy and networking.
An Auckland home designed and built for the United States Consulate at the height of the Cold War is on the market for sale for the first time in over 20 years.
Start your property search
The home at 47 Fern Glen Road South, in St Heliers, was one of four built by the US Department of State’s Bureau of Overseas Building Operations in Auckland in the early 1960s to house the consul general and three other senior members of the mission.
Built for entertaining, the house, which now belongs to Auckland businessman Mike Gourley, would have hosted a who’s who over its more than 20 years in US ownership.
The property was designed to American standards of the day, Gourley told OneRoof. It’s light, airy and has grand proportions, at a time when post-war New Zealand housing was inward-looking and conservative.
The house has a Frank Lloyd Wright vibe and was designed to be grand and outward-looking. Photo / Supplied
The house would have entertained a who’s who of Kiwis during the 1960s and 1970s. Photo / Supplied
The Frank Lloyd Wright-influenced home still feels different five decades later, Gourley told OneRoof. “The design is much more contemporary than what you would have got [in New Zealand] in those days,” he said.
The original four US Government builds in the suburb varied in grandeur. One, which most likely housed the consul general, was grander than Gourley’s home.
His, however, was clearly built for entertaining. “When you walk in the foyer, it’s interesting because it’s a wide foyer for a house. Then there are sweeping wide steps going upstairs, which gives more spaciousness at a time when you would have had narrow staircases,” Gourley said.
Discover more:
- 'This wasn't a quick trip to Bunnings': What a $15m home makeover looks like
- 26 suburbs where homeowners are 'safe' - and nine at risk of new price slide
- Celebrated Kiwi photographer is selling his multi-million-dollar 'anti-villa'
“There are four [plus] bathrooms. You would never have got that in a house in those times. They put in a large swimming pool, which is American.
“It has large rooms opened up to the light from the north. In most of our houses [from back] then, you looked through a small window.”
The home has a large internal garage, when a carport would have been a mod-con for most new home buyers. “The swimming pool’s huge,” Gourley said. And deep.
“The other unique thing is duct heating coming up from the basement. It’s electric, with vents you can open or shut upstairs or downstairs. That would have been unique in those times.”
Retired academic Stephen Hoadley, who moved to New Zealand from the US in 1971 and taught politics at the University of Auckland, said the role of these homes would have been to house the mission’s highest-ranking staff somewhere secure, and to show off the prestige of the United States.
The north-facing home could have been used as a place to cover for espionage activities. Photo / Supplied
The St Heliers homes were likely used for informal diplomacy, a place where officials could host, entertain and reinforce ties in the living rooms, on the decks, and in the pool.
“Any entertaining [would be] to build prestige, to network, to make contacts, to maybe cover espionage, to make friends and win hearts and minds,” said Hoadley. “It’s also to build profile within the host country; to invite people to a cocktail party. [If] they feel good, it makes the diplomatic agency more acceptable and less prone for demonstrations and opposition.
“There’s the business side of it as well; the consul is trying to sell American goods and stimulate opportunities for American investment.”
47 Fern Glen Road appears to have been sold by the US for $500,000 when Ronald Reagan was the US president. Reagan was a Republican, and typically, Republican leaders were more free-market oriented than their Democrat counterparts and would sell off properties for that reason, Hoadley said.
That hasn’t been the case with the latest Republican occupant of the White House, former real estate mogul Donald Trump. His administration bought an $8m home in Auckland last year for staff.
Gourley’s home at 47 Fern Glen Road South, St Heliers, has four bedrooms, five bathrooms, sits on 1019sqm of land, and has an RV of $4.125m.
In their marketing for the property, Ray White listing agents Richard Lyne and Bryce Holmes write: “Originally built for the American Embassy, this 1960s contemporary designed residence is elevated, [and] sunny, with superb proportions throughout the home. There are echoes of Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired principles with its natural landscape setting. Sun-lit living extends to elevated decks, poolside terraces and lush sub-tropical surroundings – with an environmentally connected feel.”
At the time the home was built, Gourley was studying at Victoria University and playing rugby. He was a great fan of John F. Kennedy, the US President of the day. But the world around was changing rapidly.
The United States was flexing its muscles in the Pacific, and New Zealand was in its orbit. Towards the end of the decade, local protests against the US and the Vietnam War were gathering support. Marches in Auckland and Wellington resulted in violent clashes at the time when the Americans were living in their St Heliers enclave.
- 47 Fern Glen Road South, St Heliers, Auckland, is for sale, deadline closing June 4
