–Aspinall house, Maori Hill, 1922.
One of the final Dunedin houses designed by Hooper before relocating his practice to Auckland, the Aspinall commission was a storey-and-a-half bungalow of four bedrooms. The plan was conventional with the bedrooms lined up across the rear while a large upstairs room not described on the plan may have been developed later. While the drawings are not signed by Hooper, images of the house were published naming him as the architect. The Scottish place name Dunottar appears on the plan, after the house of early Dunedin lawyer Robert Chapman which stood nearby. The house has been extended but the right hand section with the arched verandah is much as Hooper designed it.
Statham House, Alva Street, 1923.
Photograph courtesy of Ralph Allen
Statham house is the last commission Hooper completed while living in Dunedin and was designed for a close friend of one of his first clients. Mr Statham had been a prominent accountant in Dunedin before he retired. He was also very active in the Church. Upon retirement he was ordained as an Anglican priest, appointed as Canon and served as Registrar of the Diocese of Dunedin. What was requested by Rev. C.H. Statham was a modest bungalow and that is what Hooper created. The building follows Hooper’s previously set pattern for a bungalow; rectangular in plan, hipped tiled roof and large partially enclosed verandah. While plain as a parson’s hat, it is also redolent of a Regency riverside cottage.
Auckland
‘Harptree’, Remuera, 1924.
Photograph courtesy of Ralph Allen
The Hooper family moved to Auckland in early 1923. After staying in a boarding house for a number of months they decided to build their new home in Remuera. The Auckland ‘Harptree’ is much less complex than its Dunedin namesake, suggesting that Hooper quickly became accustomed to the style and building materials of contemporary Auckland homes. Modern alternations and additions have greatly changed the house, though the original form is still clear.
Wallett House, Mt Albert, 1924.
Photograph courtesy of Ralph Allen
The timber bungalows of Auckland were subject to Hooper’s own desire for original details, as this entrance to a small suburban bungalow demonstrates. There was a renewed interest in early Victorian timber construction at the time, shown in the board and batten detail.
Lambourne House, Mt Albert, 1924.
Photograph courtesy of Ralph Allen
Elizabethan in the way of contemporary English suburban bungalows, Lambourne house shows that Hooper was not resistant to fashions in architecture. Diapered brickwork, jettied gables and half-timbering feature alongside a more typical Hooper bay window..
Holland House, Mt Albert, 1925.
Photograph courtesy of Ralph Allen
More vertical batten and board on a conventional bay windowed cottage captured the essential simplicity of early colonial Auckland building.
Odlin House, Epsom, 1925.
Photograph courtesy of Jeremy Ashford
Oldin house was designed in a ‘manner to take full advantage of the site from the aesthetic point of view as well as the practical’ states The New Zealand Building Record. Considered the largest Hooper domestic commission in Auckland and built for the Odlin family of timber merchants, Hooper borrowed elements from his other houses to make up the plan. The ‘rough rubble’ base is unique for Hooper in Auckland, but is nevertheless typical of houses built on the volcanic slopes of Mt Eden.
Buchanan House, Remuera, 1925.
Photograph courtesy of Jeremy Ashford
Buchanan House and Hooper’s other Auckland bungalows are considered by Jeremy Ashford as the closest we have in New Zealand to the original 1870s English bungalows of Westgate-on-Sea that so inspired Hooper. The similarities – a continuous horizontal sil-line, diamond motif, and gable-end brackets are remarkable.
Wellington
Hurst House, Bloomfield Terrace, Lower Hut, 1925.
The originally weatherboard and tile Hurst House is Hooper’s only known Wellington building. The five bedroom residence, which was recently up for sale displays many key Hooper trademarks. There are a number of bay windows throughout the building one of which is across a diagonal corner similar to a number of Hooper’s Dunedin designs. Recent alterations to the property have replaced the weatherboard with roughcasting and covered the open verandah at the side of the property.
Hooper's World 
