The Stables (17 Kitchener Road)

This simple cottage made of heart kauri was built around 1886 by Auckland businessman George Patrick Pierce. The land was bought with riparian rights, which means the buyers owned all of the land to the high tide mark on the shoreline. This included the basalt lava flow known on the beach. Pierce liked the idea of owning part of a volcano and he called his estate Black Rock, a name that has since become associated with the rock itself.

The house, while an adequate size for the large family as a summer cottage, was much simpler than some of the other grand mansions in the area. It passed out of Pierce family's hands after George’s death in 1891 and it wasn’t until the 1980s that it got its new name, The Stables.

Continue walking along Kitchener Road.