Page "Francis Petre" Paragraph 13

Petre's early specialty was his work in mass concrete, at the time a novel building material in New Zealand.

Widely used by the ancient Romans the formula for making it was lost and a new one only invented in the 18th century.

Three of Petre's earliest projects were all constructed in this material: Judge Chapman's house ( today known as " Castlamore "), the clifftop villa nicknamed Cargill's Castle in 1876, and St. Dominic's Priory in 1877.

However, according to the whims of his patrons, he did also work with more conventional building materials.