New Zealand’s original Lockwood house goes up for sale
One of the first Lockwood house built in New Zealand – and owned as the family home by company founder Jo La Grouw senior – has been placed on the market for sale.
Jo La Grouw senior built the Lynmore home in suburban Rotorua in the early 1950s as a prototype for what was to become the foundation of one of New Zealand’s most iconic companies.
Jo La Grouw senior died last year, aged 98. He was the inaugural inductee into the Rotorua Chamber of Commerce Hall of Fame, and featured on the National Business Review’s New Zealand Top 50 Rich List. An exhibition of the company and family’s roots and history has also been the centrepiece of a display in Rotorua Museum.
The name Lockwood was inspired by the revolutionary method of interlocking timber which characterised the company’s innovative and internationally-patented building methods.
Throughout his career, Jo La Grouw was an avid and passionate gardener – landscaping what was regarded as one of the city’s finest tree, shrub and flower plantings. The garden was visited annually by the Rotorua’s gardening club and was always open to public viewing by fellow horticultural enthusiasts – with Jo proudly walking around the garden describing the history of every plant.
Now the pioneering Lockwood residence is being auctioned on February 22. The property is being marketed by Bayleys Rotorua. Manager, Beth Millard said that in its own way, the home had as much history as many of the heritage-rated early pioneer cottages and homesteads around the region.
“When Jo La Grouw immigrated to New Zealand from Holland in 1950, he was a building visionary. Surrounded by a seemingly endless supply of wood in the region’s numerous forests, Jo saw the opportunity for this style of home in New Zealand, and built what was the prototype of his legacy,” Ms Millard said.
“Over the decades, and as the La Grouw family expanded in size, the original Lockwood home was added to and extended. Its look now is a contemporary version of what was first constructed more than half a century ago.”
The home sits on 2,226m² of land in two titles, and mirrors the design trends and typical heart matai wooden interior walls which went on to make Lockwood such a household name and style.
Rotorua-Manufactured Lockwood homes have been sold around the world, from Russia to the Middle East. The company was instrumental in helping rebuilding the Northern Australian city of Darwin following the destructive 1974 cyclone which flattened much of the area, and also inadvertently sold homes to former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003.
In 2006, then New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark said: ''Lockwood has earned a special place in our history, for its design innovation and for the scale of its business. It has contributed to New Zealand's economic growth, export earnings, and most importantly, provided that most essential product a decent home.''
Bayleys saleswoman Beth Millard said the La Grouw family home now being sold had seen four generations come through its doors, and while the home held many strong memories, Jo senior’s children felt it was “time to move on with their father’s legacy.”
Amid the lush tropical gardens is a landscaped in-ground swimming pool with a footbridge stretching across it. Right up until his death, Jo La Grouw senior would swim 30 laps daily.
