[Fox, William] 1812-1893 :Wellington 1843. Mr Fox's first house - where Gen[eral] Assembly building now.

Looking up Molesworth Street showing Fox's house on left, by the intersection of Hill Street with a few other houses beyond, towards Tinakori Hill. The large house in the centre background with two wings belonged to H. W. Petre, then to Mr Chetham Strode, and beyond that to the right, the house with an attic was Dr Evans'. There is a tall rough paling fence on the right of Molesworth Street in the foreground. Two cows with two more visible, are being driven up the path that became Sydney Street West. Several people, including a Maori family with a dog are on the road. The properties are cleared and fenced but show no planting in the gardens. Several trees are by the road in the left foreground

Long thought to be a view up Hill Street, this work appears in fact to be looking up Molesworth Street, then known as Charlotte Street. Strode and Evans' houses have been identified from S. C. Brees' 'Panorama of Wellington, Port Nicholson', where these two houses are in the right foreground. The houses were on both sides of Hill Street; Fox's to the south, Petre's and Evan's on the north side.

Source of title: probably supplied by the original donor. Recorded as part of the cataloguing of the work from a 'note on original'. The work has been removed from its original mount and no longer has a written title. On the verso, in ink, are the trimmed remains of words, possibly 'buildings are now'. Below that are three tiny ink drawings of the main houses in the view, each marked below as 'Our house'; 'Mr Petre's' and 'Dr Evans'

Other Titles - Our house. Mr Petre's. Dr Evans'

Inscriptions: Verso - top left - Our house. Mr Petre's. Dr Evans' [beneath three tiny ink drawings of the main houses shown on the front of the work]

Quantity: 1 watercolour(s).

Physical Description: Watercolour 232 x 317 mm mounted 280 x 367 mm

Provenance: Donation to Alexander Horsburgh Turnbull in January 1912 by Mr E. Balcombe Brown of Upper Hutt. Probably the first landscape watercolour acquired by Alexander Horsburgh Turnbull (See McCormick, E. H. 'Alexander Turnbull, his life, his circle, his collections' (Wellington, 1974), p.235-236