University House is a 19th-century building in

Auckland Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

, that originally served as the

synagogue A synagogue, also called a shul or a temple, is a place of worship for Jews and Samaritans. It is a place for prayer (the main sanctuary and sometimes smaller chapels) where Jews attend religious services or special ceremonies such as wed ...

for the

Auckland Hebrew Congregation The Auckland Hebrew Congregation is a Modern Orthodox Jewish congregation and synagogue, located at 514 Remuera Road, in Remuera, a suburb of Auckland, on the north island of New Zealand. The congregation previously occupied University House ...

. The building is situated on Princes Street, adjacent to Albert Park, and is now occupied by the

University of Auckland The University of Auckland (; Māori: ''Waipapa Taumata Rau'') is a public research university based in Auckland, New Zealand. The institution was established in 1883 as a constituent college of the University of New Zealand. Initially loc ...

History

A Jewish community had been present in Auckland since its founding in 1840. The synagogue building was designed and built by

Edward Bartley Edward Bartley (23 February 1839 – 28 May 1919) was a Jersey-born New Zealand architect. Beginning as a builder, Bartley transitioned into a career as an architect, not an uncommon occurrence in the 19th century. He is responsible for design ...

in 1884–1885 in a Romanesque style, incorporating

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, a Germanic people **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Gothic alphabet, an alphabet used to write the Gothic language ** Gothic ( ...

and

Moorish The term Moor is an exonym used in European languages to designate the Muslim populations of North Africa (the Maghreb) and the Iberian Peninsula (particularly al-Andalus) during the Middle Ages. Moors are not a single, distinct or self-defi ...

design elements. The foundation stone was laid by David Nathan (1816–1886), an early Jewish settler and founder of the L.D. Nathan chain of stores, and the synagogue opened on 9 November 1885. The building could seat 375 people. It was built on the site of an earlier military guardhouse associated with

Albert Barracks The Albert Barracks was a major British military installation that overlooked Auckland, New Zealand, from the mid-1840s to 1870, during the city's early colonial period. The perimeter wall was built between 1846 and the early 1850s, in the area ...

. In 1967 the congregation moved to larger premises on Greys Avenue, overlooking Myers Park, and the Princes Street synagogue was deconsecrated in 1969. The construction of the synagogue was a statement by the Jewish community in Auckland of not only status, but of their acceptance in the local community. In 1967, the congregation moved to a new premises on Greys Avenue. Ownership of the property reverted to

Auckland City Council Auckland City Council was the local government authority for Auckland City, New Zealand, from 1989 to 1 November 2010, when it and Auckland's six other city and district councils were amalgamated to form the Auckland Council. It was an elec ...

as part of the Albert Park Reserve following the deconsecration. The building was left vacant and deteriorated over the next two decades, until it was carefully restored under the direction of Salmond Reed Architects in 1989 to serve as a branch of the National Bank. The University of Auckland has leased it since 2003, and it now houses the University's Alumni Relations and Development department (formerly called External Relations). The building is listed by

Heritage New Zealand Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga (initially the National Historic Places Trust and then, from 1963 to 2014, the New Zealand Historic Places Trust; in ) is a Crown entity that advocates for the protection of Archaeology of New Zealand, ancest ...

as a Category I Historic Place.

References

External links

{{Synagogues in New Zealand 1880s architecture in New Zealand 19th-century synagogues in New Zealand Auckland CBD Buildings and structures of the University of Auckland Heritage New Zealand Category 1 historic places in the Auckland Region Former synagogues in New Zealand Learning Quarter Moorish Revival synagogues Neoclassical synagogues Religious buildings and structures in Auckland Romanesque architecture in New Zealand Synagogues completed in 1885 Jews and Judaism in Auckland