St. Luke's Anglican Church

Fisheye lens view of St. Luke's Anglican Church in Manurewa.

I must admit to being more that a little intrigued with the history of my local town, Manurewa, here in New Zealand.  You may recall an earlier post about Orford Lodge?  Orford Lodge was the second home of the lawyer Mr. Edward Russell after whom Russell Road is named.  Mr. Russell's first home, "Sunlands", used to be accessed via a long driveway from Russell Road, but it now has a reduced section size and is just another house amongst many others in a South Auckland sub-division.  I was going to take some photographs of the building, but as it is now a private residence I wanted permission first.  It's certainly interesting to see the similarity in style between Orford Lodge and Sunlands.

Vertical fisheye view of St. Luke's Church

Besides having two houses built in a similar style there was also an Anglican church built that has a similar appearance.  I found it quite interesting to see the same style of exterior wall and window in the two houses and church.  This church still stands today and in this post I've added a few images for your amusement.  There is an early photograph of the church from the 1920's that may interest you.  The church seems very similar now to back in the 1920's.  The trees are considerably larger now and the building seems also to have grown in length!

I suspect there are a few more buildings of interest in Manurewa, but they're a little hard to find!  However, should I find anymore I'll be sure to post some images on here.

Orford Lodge

Orford Lodge, Manurewa

Quite a surprise to see such a lovely old building amongst the more modern buildings in the Hillpark area of Manurewa.  Built in 1910 by the lawyer Mr. Edward Russell this building carries the name of its 1928 purchaser, the Earl of Orford.  Interesting to note that the Earl of Orford was a descendant of Sir Robert Walpole, the first Prime Minister of England.  Not just an ordinary house then, but one with quite a bit of history associated with the people who have lived here as well as the structure itself!

The grounds to Orford Lodge were quite extensive at over 20 acres and a team of up to nine gardeners would maintain the immaculate grounds.  I'm not sure what happened to the gardens during the war as both the lodge and grounds were used by the US Army.  The gardeners cottage and "garage" was used as the officers' mess and apparently many of the officers' signatures remain on the fireplace.

The attached image to this post is a five shot HDR image processed in Photomatix Pro and then antiquated thanks to Silver Efex Pro.