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Story: Wairarapa places

Riversdale beach house

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Riversdale beach house

Riversdale has several architecturally distinguished baches (holiday homes). Among them is the Maunsell beach house, designed by Derek Wilson and built in 1956. With its simple forms and easy indoor–outdoor flow, it is a fine example of the post-1945 quest to create the vernacular New Zealand house. Since it was built it has been heavily modified.

Using this item

Alexander Turnbull Library, Architectural Centre Collection

Reference: PA12-2142-3

by Derek John Wilson

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

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How to cite this page

Ben Schrader, Wairarapa places – Castlepoint, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/12012/riversdale-beach-house (accessed 8 June 2026).

Story by Ben Schrader, published 2 March 2009, updated 11 June 2015.