Museum open 2 pm - 4 pm
on the 2nd & 4th Sunday of the month.
(on the second Sunday there is a speaker from 2-3pm, general admission from 3-4pm)
Weekday group visits by arrangement
phone 0274 282 007
Farrington House
Birkenhead Museum is housed in Farrington House, a beautifully restored historic villa on 44 Mahara Avenue.
The house was originally the home of the Farrington family, who lived there for four generations. When the building needed to be moved from its original site, the family generously gifted it to the Birkenhead Heritage Society so it could become the home of the museum.
With support from the local council, a site was leased just outside the gates of War Memorial Park at 44 Mahara Avenue, where the house could be relocated.
A Community Effort
In 1993, Farrington House was carefully moved to its present location. Over the following years, members of the Society and volunteers from the community contributed countless hours restoring the villa so it could become a home for Birkenhead’s history.
The building was named Farrington House in honour of Edward Farrington, a long-serving President of the Society and a passionate supporter of local heritage.
Opening the Museum
The restored house officially opened as the home of Birkenhead Museum on 21 December 1997.
Today, Farrington House continues to serve the community as a place where photographs, artifacts and stories from Birkenhead and Northcote’s past are preserved and shared with visitors.
Before the Museum
Before Farrington House arrived on the site, the Society’s first small museum operated nearby in Cliff Utting’s former dairy, about 50 metres up the road.
The surrounding area was once strawberry fields and gardens, long before the land was subdivided for houses, War Memorial Park, and the bush reserves that now border the area.
