A literal walk down memory lane: Manawatū man’s heritage homes show ‘a timeline of life in NZ’

Meander through Alan Parker’s historic house walk and you’ll get bits and pieces of New Zealand life over the past two centuries.

The owner of the Manawatū company has opened a visitor attraction at The Woolshed Cafe in Sanson, moving seven houses from different eras onto his property, a project he’s been working on for nearly a decade.

There is an 1860s colonial cottage, an 1880s square villa, a 1900s bay window villa, a 1920s California bungalow, a 1930s art deco house, a 1940s state house, and a 1940s cottage. the 1960s with 1960s wood planks. Everything has been restored inside and out.

Parker wants to add even more houses from the other eras, but more modern buildings are harder to find and more expensive.

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Parker opened the café in 2012. A year later, he started moving houses from across the North Island to the property.

The first was the nearby art deco house in Halcombe.

The house styles are instantly recognizable all over New Zealand.

“We were farming in Central Hawke’s Bay and our children had left home. We were looking for a new challenge if you will.

“We came up with this concept of a timeline of life in New Zealand, which was the first spark of an idea.”

Parker has continued to acquire homes and the most recent, a Colonial Cottage, arrived last year.

“We initially planned to go as far back as possible. The earliest is currently 1860. We could go on to 1990, to 2000.”

He watches Trade Me like a hawk, either for homes that would suit his plans or for decor and furnishings.

“You can’t just go to Bunnings and buy a lot of this stuff.”

Each house is decorated with antique objects and authentic furniture, so that everyone looks good, right down to the wallpaper, the lighting or the beds.

Most of the houses would be torn down before Parker grabbed them.

“You hear about homelessness all the time. I have seven houses and no one lives in them, it’s a bit out of the way… I’m not in the business of banking land or trying to stop people from doing so.

“Generally these houses all come here because other people didn’t want them. It’s like a dog shelter.”

Before starting the project, he only had layman decorating skills, but he has since learned skills to restore the houses to their former glory, including building walls and stopping gibs.

“A lot of work has gone into getting to this point, but it’s not easy.”

All homes are licensed and have electricity, but there are no sanitary facilities.

Parker opened the houses for tours two weeks ago and people can walk in and walk around. An audio guide is included with details about the houses.

Another thing he had to learn is the history of the houses.

The work has taken up everything.

“When it was far from being finished, there was a period when there were four houses here and they were very rough inside.

“People just came out and shook their heads and said, ‘Do you really know how much work you have here?’ Which I more or less did.

“One thing I’ve learned is that you can only get so much done in a day.”

There is room for more homes. A 1950s house is hard to come by, and a 1970s A-frame house is another design he’d like to collect.

“The plans are that we should probably push back the housing market a bit to become a bit more cost-effective. It’s going to be very, very pricey to get your hands on them.

Parker said that when he started, it cost about $25,000 to $30,000 to get a house and have it moved on the spot. Now it costs three or four times as much.