Porthcurnow East (14 Muritai Road)

Anglican Clergyman Reverend Edward Houchen bought 10 acres of land and built his family a simple double gabled house in the late 1880s. He called it Porthcurnow after Porthcurno in Lands End in southern England, where the family used to holiday. It was one of only two houses in the area and it is likely that one was built first for the family to live in while the other was completed. Once settled in, the Houchens began expanding, adding a veranda that encircled the house. When Edward died in 1903, his daughter Grace turned Porthcurnow into a convalescent home. The two gables were separated and a middle section inserted.

In 1911, the land was subdivided, split into two houses, and by 1940 sold to different owners. In 1949, Mary and Albert Nelson Duder, members of the well-known Devonport pioneer family, bought the Ocean View Road section of Porthcurnow. The house became known as both The Duder House and, for a short time, Warrawee. The Ocean View Road section was recently relocated to Laingholm in the Waitākere Ranges.

Continue walking down the road.