It was commissioned by Bishop George Selwyn and designed by Frederick Thatcher, architect of many Anglican buildings in Auckland.

The house is a Gothic-style, double-storey mansion built of grey volcanic stone quarried from nearby Mount Eden.

The house was the residence of London-born John Kinder (1819 – 1903), an Anglican priest, painter, photographer and headmaster of the Church of England Grammar School, Parnell.

He occupied the house with his wife and the six children of his brother Henry Kinder, who was murdered in 1865 by John's sister-in-law and her lover.

[4] Because of this, it was visited by a team of paranormal investigators in 2005 and featured on Ghost Hunt, a New Zealand television show.