Queen Margaret College
Part Of Early Thorndon
Originally Māori cleared the thick bush to use the land for growing kumaras. About 100 years before William Clayton built the house at 53 Hobson Street where Queen Margaret College was founded, it was a Māori trading ground used by the Pipitea Marae. The Pipitea Marae was the biggest marae in Wellington. The land above the marae is the site of the Pipitea Pa. The Māori traded possum furs, trees, fish and other foods with the Pakeha for more processed foods like sugar.
Opposite where the Junior School is now, on Fitzherbert Terrace there was a small Māori village, Raurimu. At the lower end of Hobson Street, there was a strongly defended pa, Pipitea. Pipitea was a traditional kainga (village) over looking the beach. It was close to fresh water and cultivation supplies. Although this area was considered a safe landing site for the canoes, it would have been hard to guard against war parties journeying over land from the north. The Ngati Mutunga who had journeyed south from Taranaki in the Nihoputu migration in 1824 first occupied this site. In 1835 they renounced their rites to the land and then left for the Chatham Islands. The pa occupied about 2 1/2 hectares of land and in the early 1840's it housed about 80 people. Much of this area was later claimed by settlers and the New Zealand Company’s purchase of 1839.
Later Sir George Grey bought the land off the Pipitea Pa to build a hospital. They cleared the land and designs were made for two hospitals but neither were built. The workers moved away and the ideas of the hospitals were forgotten.
In 1869 the colonial architect, William Clayton, asked permission to purchase the land. His request was granted, but the Pipitea iwi still owned the resources. Mr Clayton wanted to build a house on this land but first he had to remove the totara trees which belonged to the local iwi from whom he had to gain permission. The house was completed in 1874 and was the first concrete house in Wellington and the tower stairs were also the first wooden spiral staircase in New Zealand. The stumps remained as underground reinforcement piles to help hold the house up. Years later, the stumps were removed and replaced with concrete. Queen Margaret College still has some of the stumps which may later be carved.
William Clayton owned 53 Hobson Street for many years but eventually sold the house to Thomas Coldham Williams. In 1919, Queen Margaret College was founded by the Very Reverend Dr James Gibb and the Honourable J.G.W. Aitken.
