Our motto encourages success through personal and group discipline and perseverance – if at first you don’t succeed, try, try and try again. Or as the boys sometimes say during cross-country training: “just keep running!”
Parnell House was established in 1924 with 27 Boarders under the name of Middlemore. In 1928, the change to the name of Parnell was made, to mark the affiliation of King's College with the old Church of England Grammar School in Parnell - the sale of which in 1893 produced funds later used in purchasing the present site of King's College.
Like School House and St John's, Parnell initially occupied a wooden building on the site of the present School House built as a 'temporary' measure in the early twenties. In 1969 the boys moved into their permanent home on the private road between School and Selwyn Houses.
The Cross on the Parnell House shield associates the House with Parnell, home of Anglicanism in Auckland and the former Church of England school in Parnell. The three stars used elsewhere on King's shields further link it with the Diocesan Coat of Arms.
Parnell is currently transitioning from a boarding house to a day house as part of the King's College Master Property Plan. Students have since been temporarily split into Parnell Boarding and Parnell Day groups. Remaining Parnell boarders are currently situated in the old Averill boarding house while Parnell day students will be situated in the newly built Parnell house in the Day House Precinct.
Housemaster: Harry Wichman
