Amber House
Encyclopedia
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
's third founded city of Nelson
Nelson, New Zealand
Nelson is a city on the eastern shores of Tasman Bay, and is the economic and cultural centre of the Nelson-Tasman region. Established in 1841, it is the second oldest settled city in New Zealand and the oldest in the South Island....
in the top of the South Island
South Island
The South Island is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand, the other being the more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman Sea, to the south and east by the Pacific Ocean...
at 46 Weka
Weka
The Weka or woodhen is a flightless bird species of the rail family. It is endemic to New Zealand, where four subspecies are recognized. Weka are sturdy brown birds, about the size of a chicken. As omnivores, they feed mainly on invertebrates and fruit...
Street.
It is a traditional colonial-style construction using native Rimu
Dacrydium cupressinum
Dacrydium cupressinum, commonly known as rimu, is a large evergreen coniferous tree endemic to the forests of New Zealand. It is a member of the southern conifer group, the podocarps. The former name "red pine" has fallen out of common use....
and Matai
Prumnopitys taxifolia
Prumnopitys taxifolia is an endemic New Zealand coniferous tree that grows on the North Island and South Island. It also occurs on Stewart Island/Rakiura but is uncommon there....
with an external brick
Brick
A brick is a block of ceramic material used in masonry construction, usually laid using various kinds of mortar. It has been regarded as one of the longest lasting and strongest building materials used throughout history.-History:...
chimney
Chimney
A chimney is a structure for venting hot flue gases or smoke from a boiler, stove, furnace or fireplace to the outside atmosphere. Chimneys are typically vertical, or as near as possible to vertical, to ensure that the gases flow smoothly, drawing air into the combustion in what is known as the...
that originally served four large fireplaces.
The original, highly decorated, cast iron sewage
Sewage
Sewage is water-carried waste, in solution or suspension, that is intended to be removed from a community. Also known as wastewater, it is more than 99% water and is characterized by volume or rate of flow, physical condition, chemical constituents and the bacteriological organisms that it contains...
vent pipes are still intact and visible on the exterior of the building.
Cabragh House School
From 1906 until 1927 Amber House housed a "Boarding and Day School for Girls and Little Boys" known as Cabragh House SchoolCabragh House
Cabragh House is a late Victorian, timber house at 48 Weka Street in Nelson, New Zealand built circa 1897. It is an historic site for exemplarising late Victorian furnishings and provincial New Zealand vernacular architecture...
operated by the Hornsby family from Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
. Edwardian photograph
Photograph
A photograph is an image created by light falling on a light-sensitive surface, usually photographic film or an electronic imager such as a CCD or a CMOS chip. Most photographs are created using a camera, which uses a lens to focus the scene's visible wavelengths of light into a reproduction of...
s of both the scholars and the school have been preserved.
Original wallpaper
Because New Zealand has had for the last two centuries (and continues to have) the highest ultra violet exposure levels of any populated region on earth it is extremely rare to find used (as opposed to unused roll) examples of Victorian wallpaper in New Zealand that have not faded badly.
This remarkable state of preservation is rather ironic considering that Nelson yearly competes with its neighbours Richmond
Richmond, New Zealand
Richmond, the seat of the Tasman District Council, lies 13 km south of Nelson in the South Island of New Zealand, close to the southern extremity of Tasman Bay...
and Blenheim
Blenheim, New Zealand
Blenheim is the most populous town in the region of Marlborough, in the north east of the South Island of New Zealand, and the seat of the regional council. It has a population of The area which surrounds the town is well known as a centre of New Zealand's wine industry...
for claiming the highest number of sunshine hours in the country, with an annual average total of over 2400 hours. You can see the raw data here: http://www.niwascience.co.nz/edu/resources/climate/sunshine/
Earthquake resilience
There has been speculation that, because deep below Amber House are separate beds of shale
Shale
Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock composed of mud that is a mix of flakes of clay minerals and tiny fragments of other minerals, especially quartz and calcite. The ratio of clay to other minerals is variable. Shale is characterized by breaks along thin laminae or parallel layering...
and sand
Sand
Sand is a naturally occurring granular material composed of finely divided rock and mineral particles.The composition of sand is highly variable, depending on the local rock sources and conditions, but the most common constituent of sand in inland continental settings and non-tropical coastal...
, these strata have acted like a naturally occurring analogue of the earthquake resistant base isolators of the Parliament House in Wellington
Wellington
Wellington is the capital city and third most populous urban area of New Zealand, although it is likely to have surpassed Christchurch due to the exodus following the Canterbury Earthquake. It is at the southwestern tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Rimutaka Range...
to reduce the incidence of short periodicity lateral waves at Amber House during earthquakes.
The evident resilience of this old chimney means that it is even possible that it pre-dates the 1893 magnitude 6.9 Nelson earthquake that moved the spire of Christ Church Cathedral in Nelson nearly a metre out of the vertical plane.
Old English Walnut tree
Bonsai
is a Japanese art form using miniature trees grown in containers. Similar practices exist in other cultures, including the Chinese tradition of penjing from which the art originated, and the miniature living landscapes of Vietnamese hòn non bộ...
like effect.