Background The first settler was
Rice Owen Clark, who bought 139 acres of land there in 1854. Clark found the land too wet to farm easily, so he started making drainage pipes from clay found there. By 1877 he had acquired more land, part of which would later become the Clark House residence. Clark initially made the pipes to drain his own property, then also to fill requests from other Hobsonville settlers. By 1862 he had expanded his operations, and in 1864 his pottery company had been officially established. In 1876 Rice Owen Clark II, at the age of 21, began working alongside his father on the business. By 1879 Clark's and other local potteries had made local headlines, and the area of Limeburners Bay became well associated with the pottery industry. The RNZAF used Clark House for Cold War meetings, hosting the
South East Asia Treaty Organisation conference at the property in 1955. In 2022, the RNZAF put the property on the market. ==Other buildings==