121 Lemon Street (circa 1910s)

Little is known about this transitional style villa. Town section 1586 was given to Reverend Vesey Germain Hine in 1871 in exchange for section 1817, the land having likely been leased or rented for grazing following the collapse of the New Zealand Company in the 1850s, when the provincial or central government would have taken over ownership. Charles Brown resided on Town Section 1586 in the 1890s, with early photographs showing a small nineteenth-century board and batten cottage present on the section. Brown died in 1921.

It seems the section was later acquired by builder Percy Jury, who constructed neighbouring 119 Lemon Street that year. It also seems Percy carried out extensive alterations on this house at the time, with a permit granted to him by the Borough Council on 17th of April 1930 for additions to a house on Town Section 1586 - Jury was the builder, and the estimated cost was £400. It is possible the old cottage was shifted further east, and incorporated into the present building at this time. Subsequent owners have included war pensioner Frederick Kahui Crawford, nurseryman Robin Bracefield and house surgeon Michael King.

See: Taranaki Land Deeds Index I5, page 67