They moved to Auckland with two rules: No brick, and absolutely no church conversions. Then they walked inside

Tuesday, 30 June 2026

When Stephanie and her husband Len moved from Christchurch to Auckland after the earthquakes, they had two non-negotiables: no brick homes and no converted churches.

Then an agent persuaded Stephanie to step inside a former Brethren Gospel Hall in Devonport — and the couple bought it before it officially reached the market.

Fifteen years later, after years of life, loss and hosting friends, Stephanie is reluctantly leaving the home she says brought peace without ever feeling like a church.

When 79-year-old Stephanie May and her late husband Len May moved to Auckland from Christchurch in 2011, they had two strict criteria for their new home: no brick, and no converted churches.

Their brick home in Christchurch had been, in Stephanie's colourful description, 'munted' in the quakes. They didn't want to live in brick again.

As for the church thing, Stephanie says conversions are rarely done right and just weren't Len’s cup of tea. Instead, the couple were thinking of a nice villa. Something with stacks of character and charm.

So, when the agent suggested she visit a converted former Brethren Gospel Hall on Calliope Rd, she protested.

'He said, 'humour me, just come inside'. So, I walked in expecting it to be a church, and wow, it blew me away.'

Minutes later she was on the phone to Len telling him to drop everything and get the next flight up to Auckland. The couple bought the home before it had even come on the market.

'When something talks to you, you act on it, you don't wait,' says Stephanie.

Stephanie is at pains to point out a gospel Hall isn't really a 'church' in the strictest sense - it's more like a meeting house. But there's still something quite spiritual about the calm the home exudes.

Built in 1893, the hall was first converted by Geoff Richards in 1984 and updated in 2003. Rather than leaving the main hall as is, the interior of the building was completely remodelled to create a complete house inside the hall's triple-height space.

“It’s huge, but it doesn’t feel huge because it flows… I almost wish that people didn't think of this as a church, because it's not,' she says. 'Some people, like Len, say 'oh God, no churches', but then he walked in and it was instant. He said to me, 'you could have gone ahead and bought it without my say so'.'

The home is ranged across three floors. On the ground floor, there's a double garage and workshop, as well as a fifth bedroom, second lounge, full bathroom and separate laundry room.

The first floor is the living area, with a huge kitchen-dining room next to the formal lounge, which opens onto a deck with views over Devonport. There is also an office and a bedroom, which Stephanie uses as a reading nook. Upstairs are more bedrooms and bathrooms, including a master suite with its own balcony.

'That's heavenly,' Stephanie says. 'I can lie in bed in the morning in the summer with the doors open, and it's just divine.'

Hints of the home's spiritual past are everywhere, in the porch's stained glass, the library's leadlights, and the hall’s original organ by the front door. But there's nothing awkward, or unhomely, about the spaces inside.

'They made the most magnificent job of converting a church, a meeting hall, into a residence, so it doesn't resemble a church at all.'

Outside, too, there's little of the church about the place. There is a mature, private garden - so private Stephanie speculates you could do a spot of nude sunbathing if you were bold enough to - and a little 'gin pit', where she even planted a lemon, so you don't even need to leave your seat if you like your gin and tonic with a twist.

'It's lovely in the summer to sit down there in the afternoon.'

Sadly, Len died in 2014, and Stephanie has been alone in the home ever since.

'I spent a good 10 years looking for somewhere else to live, but ticking the boxes has been so hard,' she says.

'It's important to invest your happiness in something. It's good for your soul, in a way. I don't mean that in a religious sense, living in a church.'

It’s a place for friends to come and stay from Christchurch, and it’s Devonport.

'People love, as we refer to it, 'the Republic of Devonport'. We've got our own navy, you know,' Stephanie jokes, but the home’s location is 'one of the real pluses“.

“If I want to go into the central city, I walk down to the ferry. I'm 79. I can do it in six minutes, somebody else could do it quicker than that. Ten minutes across on the ferry, and I'm right at the railway station.'

She likes to think of Devonport as the Sausalito of Auckland, referring to the boujee little enclave across the bay from San Francisco. 'It's in that same isolated little situation.. a great village,' with a quaint, arty vibe, and lovely architecture everywhere.

Leaving will be hard, but it's time to downsize.

Stephanie imagines the home would be a wonderful place for a family - a previous owner raised three children there. She could equally see the ground floor being converted into a separate flat, pending council consents, with the laundry room converted into a kitchen. That would make the house ideal for multi-generational living, or as a possible Airbnb income.

But over all she hope the buyer will be someone who loves the home, and gets as much peace and enjoyment from it as she has.

'It's a huge wrench leaving here, I can tell you. It's a lovely space. There isn't a part of this house that you can't use.'

With a CV of $4,025,000, 10 Calliope Rd, in Devonport, Auckland, is for sale by negotiation. The listing is with Linda Simmons for Bayleys.