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McCormick’s Cottage lost to arsonists
Media Release
25 September, 2007
McCormick’s Cottage lost to arsonists
One of Waitakere’s more historic buildings has been virtually destroyed in what appears to have been an arson attack over the weekend.
McCormick’s Cottage on Harbourview - Orangihina Park, was torched sometime on Saturday night, leaving only two chimneys, one badly charred wall of the cottage itself and the remains of a lean-to.
Police and fire investigators believe that an accelerant was used.
Waitakere City Council has posted security on the site and is seeking an urgent heritage assessment to see if the remains still have heritage value.
The cottage is believed to have been built in the 1880s by Henry McCormick, an immigrant Irish shipwright who worked at Calliope Dock, Devonport.
It is believed that at least some of the timbers were from an old scow, the “Stapha”, brought across the harbour in a rowing boat.
Thought to have been originally a summer cottage – or bach – the cottage eventually became the McCormick family home.
Waitakere City Council “inherited” the building, which is listed at a Category 2 heritage building under the District Plan, from the former Auckland Harbour Board at the time of the city’s formation in 1989.
Waitakere City Council plans to restore the cottage had been held up by a legal dispute over the land on which the cottage stood.
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