Sykes Residence (Dawson Street)

In February 1903 a permit was granted to Mr A.E. Sykes for the removal of a cottage from Town section 620. A little later on 7 April 1903 another permit was issued to A.E. Sykes for the erection of a residence on section 620 at an estimated cost of £938. The builder/architect is listed as L. Bullot. Mr A.E. Sykes was a well-known wholesale chemist whose company had premises on King Street.

It appears to have been owned in the 1930s and 40s by New Plymouth builder John Rowe.

Fred Butler, in his street index notebooks (Puke Ariki collection ARC2007-73), writes that the house was later bought by Lance Smith (no date) and that he named it the "New Aotea Guest House". It appears he also owned the Aotea Guest House on the corner of Young and Weymouth Streets - demolished in 2023. He appointed a Mrs Cleaver to look after the guest house.

By the mid-1950s it was known as the Ascot Guest House. In 1984 Gary Langley and his wife Pat spent $45,000 renovating the house and converting it to a seafood restaurant, Ascot Seafood Manor.

In March 1989 the house was moved from its Dawson Street site and replaced by an $800,000 office block built for the Probation Service.

At the time the Taranaki Herald reported that it was to be relocated just north of the Motunui synfuel plant where it was to become a farm homestead.