Chatsworth House/Clarke Memorial Hostel, Powderham Street (1916)

This building at 62 Powderham Street was built in 1916 for Mrs Caroline Ada (Adelaide) Howell (nee Gason). A permit was issued to her on 24 July 1916 for a boarding house on town section 679. The estimated cost was £2,500 and it was designed and built by the Whanganui firm Messrs. Howell Bros. 

The boardinghouse replaced a two-storey wooden building known as Chatsworth House which was destroyed by fire on 7 February 1916. This old building was once the Windsor Castle Hotel, located on Bulteel Street. Built in 1881, the hotel was transported from Bulteel to Powderham Street in August 1892 on a platform and rollers pulled by bullocks. The new owner, a Mrs Beeson, had the building renovated and it opened as Chatsworth House, a boarding establishment, in November 1892.

The Y.W.C.A. later purchased the replacement building and opened a hostel, which was officially opened by the Governor-General Lord Jellicoe on 28 October 1921. It was named the Clarke Memorial Hostel in memory of the former mayor, James Clarke, who was killed in a plane crash in November 1920. In 2011 Clarke's daughter, Zena Daysh (a world-renowned expert on social ecology and environmental issues) had her ashes returned to New Zealand to be interred with those of her parents at Te Hēnui cemetery. 

In 1955 the building was bought by Avery's and for some years was known as the Avery Press Building. In 1966 it was bought by Brookside Holdings Ltd. who planned to renovate the building and then lease it out the building to commercial tenants.

Apart from the external colour (2012), its appearance is little changed today. A matching fence along the street boundary (seen in an image above) has been demolished.

Related documents:

Y.W.C.A. Appeal to Citizens (Taranaki Herald 22 February 1933)

Y.W. - Y.M.C.A. Public Appeal (Taranaki Herald 13 June 1935)

NPDC 1995 CBD Heritage Study (Chatsworth House)

Famous daughter of former mayor returns to family roots (Daily News 23 October 2001)

Renowned Kiwi's ashes buried in NP (Taranaki Daily News 17 December 2011)