Amber House facts for kids

Amber House in 1897. You can see the Centre of New Zealand hill behind it!

Amber House is a historic two-story house in Nelson, a city on the South Island of New Zealand. It's located at 46 Weka Street. This old house was built in a traditional colonial style. It uses strong native New Zealand timbers like Rimu and Mataī. It also has a brick chimney on the outside. This chimney once served four big fireplaces inside the house.

You can still see the original, fancy cast iron pipes on the outside of the building. These pipes were part of the old plumbing system.

Cabragh House School

From 1906 to 1927, Amber House was a school! It was called Cabragh House School. It was a "Boarding and Day School for Girls and Little Boys." This means some students lived there, and others just came for the day. The Hornsby family from Ireland ran the school. Old Edwardian photographs of the students and the school still exist today.

Amazing Old Wallpaper

This "Artichoke" wallpaper was designed by John Henry Dearle around 1897.

Amber House has a special secret: a small piece of its original wallpaper from the late 1800s. This wallpaper is still bright and hasn't faded! It was found during recent repairs.

Finding old, unfaded wallpaper in New Zealand is very rare. This is because New Zealand has very high ultraviolet (UV) light levels. UV light can make colors fade quickly. Nelson is also one of the sunniest cities in New Zealand. It gets over 2,400 hours of sunshine each year! So, it's quite amazing that this wallpaper stayed so colorful.

Strong Against Earthquakes

How bricks were made a long time ago.

One of the most interesting things about Amber House is its tall brick chimney. This chimney has survived many big earthquakes without a single crack! Some of these earthquakes happened in 1929, 1968, and 1994.

Scientists think there's a reason for this chimney's strength. Deep under Amber House, there are layers of shale and sand. These layers might act like a natural shock absorber. They could help reduce the shaking from earthquakes. This might be similar to how modern buildings, like the Parliament House in Wellington, are built to resist earthquakes.

The chimney is so strong that it might even be older than the 1893 Nelson earthquake. That earthquake was so powerful it moved the spire of Christ Church Cathedral in Nelson almost a meter!

Old English Walnut Tree

An English Walnut tree in late summer with its fruits.

In the backyard of Amber House, there's a very old English Walnut tree (Juglans regia). It's the oldest one in the entire South Island! Even though it's old, the tree is quite small. This is because when it was first planted, it was very close to the ocean. The soil was sandy, and the tree didn't get enough water. This lack of water made it grow in a way that looks a bit like a Bonsai tree.