A 10-bedroom, five-bathroom house is for sale in Wellington — but it's not your average mansion.
Phoenix House, on the corner of Willis and Ghuznee streets, is 116 years old and well known to the city's residents due to its eye-catching and unusual Tudor-style architecture.
Lawyer Janet Mason KC has built her law firm, Phoenix Law, in the building, while also making it her home with husband Roger, and two children Roger (jr) and Alesiana.
Mason, a constitutional and public law expert, has to date had a storied career, including representing the family in the 2019 Oranga Tamariki Hawke's Bay baby-uplift case, and providing advice to the Great Council of Chiefs in Fiji, where she has heritage.
Similarly storied too, is the home of her law firm — Dr Donald McGavin — "one of Wellington's pre-eminent medical practitioners and surgeons" in the beginning of the 20th Century, bought the land in 1906 and by 1908 built the Tudor-style home, where he also practised, according to Heritage NZ.
McGavin died in 1960, but the house was sold to the New Zealand Red Cross Society in 1947 — giving it its official historic places name, "Red Cross Building (Former)" — one of its best known uses.
It was last sold in 2006 for $1,575,000 — and Mason and her family plan on moving on from the home that has brought them many fond memories.
She said the property had an air of mystery to those who had not been inside — she had certainly wondered before buying it.
"I just was struck by the beauty, the wood panelling, and how it had been preserved for that whole [at the time] 100 years.
"I thought this would be perfect for barrister's chambers."
The building has played host to Halloween parties, and even a horror short film.
"We've had cobwebs, witches, a smoke machine and lots of children screaming and running around — as well as this serious part of the work that I've done here in terms of my law practice.
"What happens when you do human rights law, is that you get all sorts of weird and wonderful people who are interested in human rights law, and one of my lawyers has an interest in films, so he made a short film here last year.
"It's had multi, multi purposes, it's served us really well ... there's really no better place that I could have thought of to bring up my family and my business."
Mason had also done significant work on the property, restoring it while maintaining its Tudor style, and undertaking earthquake strengthening.
But now, it's time to move on for her and her family, the business having outgrown the premises.
"As well as that I have increased the work I that do in Fiji. I have just taken over what used to be my parents' farm — so I have a large cattle farm there and a butcher's license, and so I'm quite busy over there now, which I hadn't been in the previous six years, so that's part of it."
The house will be sold by closed tender, closing on August 6.
In 2021, the property's CV was $2.89 million. Some estimates put its price range at about $2.43m — but it's likely this does not take into account the amount of work done on the property since Mason took it on.
She said with that work in mind she expected offers over $4m.
"You can see how beautiful it is, how valuable it is for anyone who's interested in the history of Wellington."
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