This prominent bungalow, once located on the corner of Barrett and Morley Streets, was constructed in 1920 for Mr Hugh Fraser. The home was designed by well-known New Plymouth architecture firm Messenger and Griffiths.
A permit cannot be found for its construction, although copies of the plans, dated July 1920, are held by New Plymouth District Council. Fraser first appears as living in this location in the 1921 edition of the Wises Street Directory.
Hugh Fraser was born in New Plymouth and educated at Nelson College. He served with the New Zealand expeditionary force in WWI and gained notoriety on Armistice Day 1918 when he climbed on the base of Nelson's Column and delivered an impassioned speech to the crowd. A journalist, he worked for the Taranaki Daily News in New Plymouth after the war, before moving to Auckland and a job with the New Zealand Herald in 1926. He died in 1979, aged 88.
The exterior of the roughcast building was in largely original condition, and it retained its original wooden casement windows and chimney.
The house was demolished in 2023.
Town Section #548 (later 2389), Taranaki Land Deed Index I5 page 411.
Related plan:
Taranaki DP655 Sheet 1 Education Reserves (1894), ICS Pre 300,000 Cadastral Plan Index (Imaged by LINZ)
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