Hillsborough Cemetery

History of Hillsborough

Named for James Carlton Hill who left land to the City for use as public domains in his 1858 will.

The most interesting building in the area is Pah Homestead (or The Pah). This building was constructed for James Williamson by Thomas Mahoney on the 313 acre estate Pah Farm in 1877-9. Of plastered brick in the Italianate style it is based upon Queen Victoria & Prince Albert’s house Osbourne House in the Isle of Wight. It was allegedly the largest house ever built in New Zealand and certainly one of the most expensive.

The Pah was eventually purchased by the Roman Catholic Church in 1913 and renamed Monte Cecilia, Part of the remaining land close to the house was developed as a school and the house itself was used as emergency housing for many years. The Auckland City Council recently purchased the property. Its magnificent grounds contain a number of interesting specimen trees and is now part of a public park named Monte Cecilia Park. The house is now being used to display James Wallace’s extensive collection of New Zealand Modern art.
Surrounding the park are various established uses including Monte Cecilia Primary School, the Franciscan’s Friary, Marcellin College, Roskill Masonic Hospital, Liston Village including the historic Pah Stables.

Hillsborough Cemetery

The cemetery saw it’s first burial in 1916 and is still in use until this day. In April 2013 Haunted Auckland visited this picturesque resting place to document the local history on display.

2 Comments

    1. Thanks for your question! Out of respect for the local communities, and those interred, we generally don’t perform full paranormal investigations at cemeteries unless there are very specific claims made about certain areas. We often visit local cemeteries when we’re on the road as part of our historical research, and take the opportunity to photographically document them where possible. In the case of of Hillsborough Cemetery we are still working on gathering background information on this location.

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