Pompallier House facts for kids
Pompallier House is a very old building in Russell, New Zealand. It was built in the 1800s and used to be the main base for the French Catholic mission in the Western Pacific. The house is named after Jean Baptiste Pompallier. He was the first Catholic leader to visit New Zealand and started many missions in the North Island.
Today, Pompallier House is owned and looked after by Heritage New Zealand. It is open for everyone to visit. This special building holds a few records: it's New Zealand's oldest Roman Catholic building, its oldest building made from rammed earth, and its oldest industrial building.
You can visit the mission and printing house every day from 10 AM to 4 PM. You can only go inside with a guide, and tours run four times a day. If you just want to see the beautiful gardens, you can buy a garden ticket. These gardens are in the Victorian and Edwardian styles. There's also a lovely walk up a hillside with great views of the bay. A French Coffee House is also on site, open from 9 AM daily.
Contents
History of Pompallier House
Building the Mission Headquarters
In 1836, Bishop Jean Baptiste Pompallier and a new French group called the Marists were given a special job by the Pope: to start a mission in Western Oceania. In 1838, Bishop Pompallier and three brothers arrived in Hokianga, on New Zealand's west coast. They began their work there. Later, more members joined them, and they moved to the Bay of Islands. They set up their main base in Kororareka, which is now called Russell.
Bishop Pompallier bought land in Russell in 1839. The main building, Pompallier House, was built between 1841 and 1842. By 1842, the mission was already printing its first religious books translated into the Māori language.
The missionaries didn't have much money to buy timber. So, they used a building method common in their home city of Lyon, France. This method is called "rammed earth." They dug up earth from the site and added sand and rocks from nearby beaches. They even made lime by burning shells. The top floor was built with earth supported by wooden frames. An architect named Louis Perret oversaw all the building work.
There were other buildings on the site too, like a chapel, houses, and kitchens. But Pompallier House is the only one that remains today.
The Printing Press and Books
The original Gaveaux printing press was brought to the mission from France in the early 1840s. This amazing machine was very busy! Between 1842 and 1849, it printed over 30,000 books and pamphlets. Many of these were some of the very first books ever printed in Māori.
When the mission moved from Russell in 1850, the printing press was given to others. In 1857, the Waikato Māori people asked Bishop Pompallier for the press, and he gave it to them. The press was then used by Tāwhiao, the Māori King, to print a Māori-language newspaper called Te Paki o Matariki. The press stayed in Waikato until the 1990s. Then, the Māori Queen Te Atairangikaahu returned it to Pompallier House.
While the building was mainly for printing, it also had a tannery. This is where they prepared leather to make covers for the books they printed.
Changes Over Time
In 1850, the mission's main office moved to Auckland. In 1856, a man named James Callaghan took over the building. He changed it into a home and called it "Callaghan's Castle." The house then had several private owners, who made more changes to the original building. Finally, the Government bought the building in 1941.
In the 1990s, Pompallier House was carefully restored. It was made to look just like it did when it was first built. The original printing press is still there, and it has been fixed so it can work again! The gardens also remain, showing what Victorian and Edwardian gardens looked like when later owners lived there.
Images for kids
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Pompallier House and gardens.
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The Gaveaux printing press in the Pompallier House
