inventory of buildings - Palmerston North City Council

Transcription

Palmerston North City Council
North West Square Heritage Area 2010
INVENTORY OF BUILDINGS
Page 18
Coleman Place, 1-3
Former Hallensteins and International Harvester Building
BUILDING DETAILS
Owner:
Owner’s Address:
Assessment Number:
Property ID:
Land Area:
Legal Description:
Certificates of Title:
PNCC Classification:
NZHPT No.
NZHPT Classification:
NZHPT Manawatu No:
Construction date:
Architect:
Original Owner:
Builder:
362 square metres more or less
Lot 1 DP 76119
WN43A/713
(1993);
prior
CT
WN252/194(1918), WN23/105 (1881)
Nil
Nil
Nil
152
1913
Stage 1 England Brothers, stage 2 Clere
and Clere
Joseph Edward Henrys
Stage 1 unknown, stage 2 H E
Townshend
PHYSICAL AND SOCIAL HISTORY
History
This building has adapted from an agricultural machinery showroom, to a
men’s wear store, and to a bar. Its first floor has been removed and much
of the interior is now open from ground level to the ceiling of the former
upper floor. It was also at the heart of a clash between the Borough
Council and a multi-national company - that included a ratepayer poll - in
the course of its construction in 1913.
Prior History
CT WN23/105, which was issued in 1881, transferred this property from
George Matthew Snelson to Charles Hosking, who is described as a local
settler. The property was then leased to various people before Charles
Hosking, who had a well-known blacksmithing business in The Square in
the early days, transferred it to his wife Mary Jane Hosking in 1900. She
Page 19
transferred it to Charles Robert Hewett in 1902, and he then transferred it
in 1903 to Joseph Henrys, who is described on the CT as a local settler.
him as ‘Henrys’ until 1907, although the Wises Directory had begun listing
him as ‘Henrys’ by 1902.
The section Joseph Henrys became the owner of in 1903, was responsible
for the bottleneck in Coleman Place, and A.G.S. Bradfield covered this
topic in his 1956 book Forgotten Days. He said that Coleman Place had
been developed some years after the original survey of the town, when it
was realised that there was a need for this cul-de-sac to join up with
George Street. Two small sections were in the way, and while the council
was able to buy one section, the owner of the other section (Charles
Hosking) wanted more money for it than the council could find. Bradfield
added that years later another attempt was made to buy the section, but
again the owner (Joseph Henrys) demanded too much for it.2 It was in the
course of the latter attempt - in 1913 - that this building has its origins. Six
decades later, in 1972, PNCC finally did become owner of the section for a
time as part of a land swap – along with its formerly unwanted building.
By August 1888, his shop had become the Empire Tobacconist shop,
complete with a billiard room. By October 1888, it was the Tattersall’s
Hairdressing Saloon and Tobacconist Shop, and a ‘reading and smoking
room’ had also been added. He had also employed a professional
hairdresser, and ladies hairdressing was a specialty.5 Possibly he left
Feilding soon after this, however, his handicapping activities continued
being reported in detail. The Mercury newspaper described him in 1892,
as “the handicapper of the North Island, and success has not spoilt him.
6
He is always modest, courteous, and obliging.” In 1893, the Feilding Star
stated that:
(His) ability as an adjuster of weights is undoubted, and he now
stands out prominently as by far the best handicapper of
racehorses in New Zealand. This position has been achieved by
sheer hard work on Mr Henry’s part, he having devoted all his time
and energies in order to qualify himself for the responsible position
he holds in the sporting world.7
Joseph Edward Henrys
J.E. (‘Joe’) Henrys became New Zealand’s best-known racing handicapper
over a 45-year period, eventually having handicapped races for some 80
racing clubs throughout the country.3 His first appointment as a
handicapper was with the Feilding Jockey Club in 1888, and he had been
a steward with the club prior to that time.
Joe Henrys lived in Feilding in the latter 1880s and his career thereafter is
covered extensively in the index of the Feilding Star, held at the Feilding
Public Library. He first appears in December 1887 opening the Empire
Fruit Shop and Confectionary, in Fergusson Street, Feilding, next to the
Empire Hotel.4 At this time his surname was referred as ‘Henry’ – including
in adverts he placed in the newspaper. The Feilding Star does not refer to
By 1894 he was handicapper for the following racing clubs: Canterbury,
Manawatu, Feilding, Rangitikei, Egmont, Nelson, Marlborough, Marton,
Turakina, Woodville, Warrengate, Sandon, Waverley and Waitotara,
Patea, Ashhurst, Otaki, Waitara, Lower Valley, Taratahi Carterton,
Pahiatua, Rowar Pass, United Hunt Club and Wairarapa Hunt Club. When
interviewed at Feilding in 1907, he said he was by then handicapping for
over thirty clubs, and was in his seventeenth year with the Canterbury
Jockey Club, then the country’s premier club.8 By 1909, he had been in
the business for 20 years and had been handicapper for 64 clubs. In this
time he had been subject to only eight written complaints, five being from
one wealthy Hawkes Bay owner. However, an investigation in January
Feilding Star 22 December 1887 3(2), 15 August 1888 3(5), 5 October 1889 3(2)
Feilding Star 5 January 1892 2(3)
7
Feilding Star 3 August 1893 3(4)
8
Feilding Star 20 July 1894 2(4), 2 December 1907 3(2)
2
5
3
6
A.G.S. Bradfield, Forgotten Days (P.N., 1956), p. 164
John Costello & Pat Finnegan, Tapestry of Turf: The History of New Zealand
Racing 1840-1987 ((Auckland, 1988), p.36
4
Feilding Star 22 December 1887 2(3)
Page 20
1909 found that man had no cause to complain. In explaining the process
at this time (as Henrys had just “exhaustively” done for the investigating
committee), the Feilding Star stated that one of the most difficult tasks for
a handicapper was to adjust the weights so that every owner would
believe that their horse would win the race handicapped. If that belief did
9
not happen “woe be to the reputation of the paid weight-adjuster.” It is
possible to question how this technique might have been applied in
Palmerston North in the lead-up to the 1913 Coleman Place issue.
Joe Henrys is said to have been linked to Cashel Street, Christchurch,
around 1913 and it was suggested that perhaps he had some connection
to the International Harvester Co. Ltd. However, the source of this
information has not been traced – and certainly it is clear that he lived in
Wellington.11 It is possible to speculate, however, that his links with the
Canterbury Jockey Club might have brought him into contact with the
Christchurch-based International Harvester Co. Ltd.
Joe Henrys does not appear to have lived in Palmerston North for long –
and certainly not around the time he became the owner of this property.
The 1887 Manawatu Electoral Roll lists him as a resident of Palmerston
North (spelt “Henry”), with his occupation given as a fruiterer. He and his
wife Nellie had their first son, John Louis Henrys, in Palmerston North in
about 1888. They moved to Wellington at some point after this, but had
probably lived in Feilding around 1887-88 as well. John Louis was later to
attend college in both Wellington and Sydney. However, Joe also paid
rates to the Palmerston North Borough Council between 1892 and 1901,
although the property concerned was not researched.
This Controversial Building
The Manawatu Daily Times of 23 April 1913 announced the pending
arrival of this building under the headline “Palmerston’s Progress:
International Harvester Coy to open here – in Coleman Place.”
We learn that the International Harvester Company has
acquired (through Mr Fred Herring’s Land Agency) Mr J. Henry’s
(sic) premises in Coleman Place and intends establishing a branch
here and erecting a large two-storeyed warehouse and showroom.
The section acquired is the site at one time occupied by Mr
Bunting’s studio.12
The Harvester Coy. is one of the largest caterers for farming
implements in the world. The New Zealand manager, Mr F.W.
Jones, selects Palmerston for its central position and its excellence
as a distribution centre. Mr Jones’ American business instincts tell
him Palmerston is going to be a boom centre. It is understood that
the Wellington agency is to be closed in favour of Palmerston. The
possibilities of this district, have, of course been tested by the firm’s
operations conducted on a minor scale, and the result is the
decision to establish a base here.
The 1902 Wises Directory lists Joe Henrys as a handicapper of Grant
Road, Wellington. However, by the 1905-6 Wellington North Electoral Roll,
the family lived in Thorndon Quay – where they remained until at least the
mid-1920s. Much of what little biographical information that is available on
Joe comes from reports of the death of his son, John Louis, who was killed
in a car crash at Eketahuna on 13 September 1918, aged 31. John was
also a handicapper (as well as being an agent for the Wairarapa Farmers’
Co-operative Association), and at the time of his death, he was the
handicapping for the Masterton, Opunake, Stratford, Avondale,
Marlborough and Rangitikei Racing Clubs. John and his mother Nellie
(who died in 1924, aged 56) are buried together at Karori Cemetery, while
another son Stuart Joseph Henrys died in 1928.10
9
Feilding Star 11 January 1909 2(7)
Karori Cemetery and Death Registration microfiche held at PN City Library.
10
11
David Dench. International Harvester: A New Zealand point of view, reunion
2002 (Palmerston North, 2002) p. 88.
12
CT WN23/105 records that William Bunting had leased the property for 7 years
starting 1 January 1895. However, Photo Sq142 (c1912) in the PN City Library’s
Photographic Collection shows large trees on at least part of the section.
Page 21
The building will be an imposing one and an ornament to
the town. The top storey will probably be let as offices or for some
other similar reason.13
On 25th April (the last meeting of the Council’s term), the Council’s Public
Works Committee discussed the situation in relation to its wish to widen
the street in this location, and passed a resolution:
That the Council be recommended to take steps to take a poll to
raise a loan to secure the land required to widen Coleman Place;
the amount of the loan is to be £3500, and the land is to be acquired
under the Public works Act; and that Mr Henrys be informed
accordingly.14
The tender notice for this building was duly advertised in the Manawatu
Evening Standard for the first time on 2 May 1913. The description was of
a “premises (in brick) at Palmerston North, for the International Harvester
Co.,” and the architects were England Bros., of Christchurch. The plans
and specifications were available to be seen at the Palmerston North office
of architects Messrs F. de J. Clere & Son.15 Tenders were to close on 19
May. This is the only England Bros. building listed in the Pam Phillips
Papers on the activities of architects in and around Palmerston North
between 1900 and 1950.16
The written application for a building permit received in early May, brought
the matter to a head for the newly elected councillors. The mayor
adjourned the initial meeting so the council could inspect the section. The
matter was then to come up at the first full Council meeting of the new
Manawatu Daily Times 23 April 1913 4(7)
Manawatu Evening Standard 26 April 1913 4(7)
15
Herbert Clere was involved with erecting a new building on the adjoining site for
Arthur Hopwood at this time, and its party wall also came under consideration as a
means to get rid of the planned International Harvester Coy.’s building [Ref: MDT
21 May 1913 3(5)]
16
Pam Phillips Papers, Ian Matheson City Archives, PN City Library
13
14
term, to be held the following Friday night.17 The day after that meeting,
the Standard reported that it had been resolved that the use of the party
wall by the applicants, would be refused, and that the plans would be
referred back to the Engineer. Another resolution was also passed to take
steps to hold a poll of ratepayers with a proposal to raise a loan for £3500
to acquire the Coleman Place section for street widening purposes.18
Both local newspapers covered the story with interest. The Times
interviewed Cr. Armstrong, who had been a councillor for about sixteen
years, and who was firmly against the polling of ratepayers before the
Council knew what the position was in respect of the land. Previously the
potential transaction had only been a question of the cost of the freehold
between Henrys and the Borough, but:
“Now the whole of the section of land has been leased by a most
powerful American company, the Harvester Co. That company has
entered into a contract for the erection of a building to cover the
entire space, the Coleman Place frontage being entirely reserved for
other purposes. Heavy shipments of goods are now either shipped
or in process of shipment. Every inch of the leased land is required,
and the representative of the Harvester Co. has declared his
determination to proceed with the building in its entirety and against
all opposition.”
Cr. Armstrong wondered what the ratepayers would face if they approved
the loan to pay for the land. He anticipated that this would include (1)
Paying for the freehold of the land. (2) Compensating Henrys for the loss
of the 10-year lease. (3) Compensating the Harvester Co. for the loss of
the lease. (4) Further compensating the Harvester Co. for its losses and
expenses through inability to store them in the building intended for them.
(5) Compensating the contractor. (6) Paying the architect’s fees and costs.
And finally (7) “heavy and costly litigation.”19
Manawatu Evening Standard 7 May 1913 5(1)
Manawatu Evening Standard 10 May 1913 5(1)
19
Manawatu Daily Times 26 May 1913 5(1)
17
18
Page 22
Despite the protests, the Building Permit Registers record that the permit
for this building, described as brick shops, was granted to J.E. Henrys on
28 May 1913.20 A letter published in the Times two weeks later stated that
the work involved was a £2,900 contract.21
Work began immediately and on 5th June, the Times reported that:
The contractor has made a start with the foundations of the
Harvester Coy.’s new building in Cuba Street (sic). Tonight in the
Municipal Hall at 8 o’clock, the Mayor (Mr J.A. Nash) will address
the ratepayers upon the question of the loan which it is proposed to
raise to acquire the section for street widening purposes22.
The Times editorial expressed concern that this meeting was being called
at such short notice – when ratepayers had not had time to understand the
complexities of the matter under consideration.23 The Standard’s editorial
added that when the problem had been discussed in the past - where the
public had been interested at all - opinions had been very divided. It added
that at least this opportunity would mean that in future, critics who only
partially understood the situation, could not say that the ratepayers were
ignored.24
The following day the two local newspapers reported extensively on the
meeting. The Times said that 43 ratepayers attended. The Mayor had told
them that Mr Henrys had offered to sell the council the section for £5,500,
and an exchange for a larger adjoining site (then leased to Arthur
Hopwood) had also been considered. However, the council considered the
asking price too high – given that Henrys’ land had a Government
valuation of £2,500. The Mayor explained that the need to widen the road
was because:
Building Permit Register, Vol. 1, PNCC Archives 4/13/1, Ian Matheson City
Archives, PN City Library
21
Manawatu Evening Standard 10 June 1913 5(5)
22
Manawatu Daily Times 5 June 1913 4(6)
23
Manawatu Daily Times 5 June 1913 1(4) & 4(6)
24
Manawatu Evening Standard 5 June 1913 4(5-6)
20
The corner was very dangerous, and if any of those present would
go between 12 and 2 o’clock and 5 and 6 o’clock in the evening they
would see for themselves by the amount of traffic that (passed)
around that way. Fully one-third of the population of the Borough
lived in the small area in the western side of the Borough. The
Council felt that full opportunity should be given to the ratepayers to
express an opinion as to whether the land should be taken or not.
In a lighter moment, the Mayor commented on the foundations of the new
building having been started, and how:
Personally he had seen men shovelling concrete as fast as ever
they could, and, in fact, he had never seen workmen working
harder. However, there was not much time for them to shovel
between now and the poll.
An audience member commented that these “would be good men to
employ as Borough staff – (laughter).”25
The Times’ editor reported that little additional information had been
provided on the matter at the meeting. The editor added that:
The demand for (Coleman Place) is not as great as has been urged
and it never will be, for there are too many other adjacent avenues
(for) traffic; and the street also is a chain wide at present.26
The Standard added that one questioner queried had asked if George
Street was the same width as the existing entrance to Coleman Place.
They were, but the Mayor said the crookedness made the road dangerous.
A number of shops were (years later) to face Coleman Place. One
suggestion was to buy the lease. Another was to take the whole property
and widen George Street as well. It was widely regretted that the matter
had not been attended to years earlier.
The Mayor said that Henrys had asked the council several times to buy the
property, but that he had always wanted to much for it. Henrys had told the
25
26
Manawatu Daily Times 6 June 1913 5(1-2)
Page 23
Mayor some 18 months previously that he was contemplating building
there. A councillor remarked that Nash had considered this a bluff – which
he denied. He added that:
Mr Henrys is a personal friend of my own, and a gentleman, and in
all matters I believe he will give a fair and square deal.27
One of the letters sent to the two newspapers, written by ‘Town Planner’,
agreed that the traffic through the Coleman Place ‘funnel’, was very great,
especially at Show times and on market days, let alone on ordinary week
days. However the writer also believed that the suggested damages to the
lessee at were “bunkum,” and that people who did not know the
thoroughfare’s importance, would oppose the loan.28 The Times’ editor
responded to the heavy usage viewpoint by saying that on Saturday
evenings the traffic flow was so light that street orators held lectures there,
and at other times it was the rendezvous point for military gatherings.29
‘Ratepayer’ defied anyone to state one accident that had happened on the
corner in the previous 25 years, and questioned the point of widening the
intersection and leaving George Street as it was. He or she suggested
other “fine, wide” alternative streets available to people wishing to avoid
Coleman Place.30
The Times of 18 June 1913 reported that the Harvester Coy. had applied
to the Council for permission to use Mr Hopwood’s wall on Borough
Council property as a “parting” wall for their new building. The Council’s
fortnightly meeting had referred the matter to the Works Committee to
consider the opinions of its engineer and solicitor, with power to act.32 This
appears to have ended the matter.
The property was leased to The International Harvester Company of New
Zealand Ltd., for a term of ten years starting 1 July 1913.33 A small strip of
the land was later transferred to the Manawatu Patriotic Society for the
Anzac building, including party wall rights.
The Ratepayer poll was held on Wednesday, 11 June, and the following
day the Times editor reported that the result was both decisive and as
expected. The loan would not happen. Of the 586 people who voted, 415
had voted against taking out the loan, 171 wanted it. There were also 12
informal votes.31
Manawatu Evening Standard 10 June 1913 5(5)
29
Manawatu Daily Times 11 June 1913 4(6-7)
30
31
Manawatu Daily Times 12 June 1913 4(5-6) & 5(2). The results by the three
polling places were Opera House: 92 for & 249 against; Oddfellows Hall, Cuba
Street: 57 for & 96 against; fire station, Main Street, Terrace End: 22 for & 70
against.
27
The building, with its original huge plate glass windows, as the International
Harvester Company’s showroom (probably the George St. frontage). Photo from:
28
CT WN23/105 records that this lease was in fact not entered on the CT until 15
December 1914, while a mortgage had been entered in March 1914 and this was
replaced by another in November 1914 – the first with the Bank of Australasia, and
the second with the Public Trustee.
32
33
Page 24
David Dench. International Harvester: A New Zealand point of view (P.N., 2002), p.
89.
The International Harvester Company
David Dench’s 2002 book, International Harvester: a New Zealand point of
view, includes a photo (above) of staff outside the Coleman Place building
in the latter part of the firm’s time there (between 1919 and 1923). At that
time the brickwork was unpainted and the building did not have a
verandah on its George Street frontage (the other two frontages would
have shown doors). Also, instead of the present substantial ground floor
concrete supports that date to 1998, the ground floor exterior walls of the
showroom section of the building, were primarily huge plate glass windows
with narrow supports – between the concrete pillars at each corner of the
showroom.
While this building was the International Harvester Company’s first
premises in Palmerston North, other local companies had sold its products
before that time. For example, Manson & Barr, in Rangitikei Street, sold
Keystone farm machinery in the early 1900s, and the International
Harvester Co. had bought the Keystone Company (Illinois, US) in 1904.34
replaced) was later re-established. During the time the firm occupied this
building, it sold a wide array of farm machinery and implements, including
reapers and binders, mowers, hay-rakes, tillage and seeding machines.35
The lease to the International Harvester Co. had been due to end in May
1923, and that year the company moved to Rangitikei Street, which was
the hub of farm equipment sales yards etc. rather more so than Coleman
Place - just as that area has continued to be identified with car sales yards
and the like ever since (although there was a blacksmith’s shop and a
stable across the road in George Street during this period). The firm was
issued a permit to build its new £6,100 brick building in Rangitikei Street
on 30 November 1922.
CT WN23/105 had been issued to Joseph Henrys, still erroneously
described as a settler of Palmerston North, on 12 February 1918, and this
lists the transfer of the property from Henrys to Hallenstein Bros. Ltd. in
late 1923.
The International Harvester Company had been formed the United States
in 1902, and it was a combination of other much older firms that were
producing agricultural machinery there. These included the Deering, and
McCormick firms, that are still well-known names in vintage machinery
circles. The firm, as The International Company of America, established its
first branch in New Zealand in 1905, choosing Christchurch for the branch
due to its principal machine being a reaper and binder, and Christchurch
being the area where there was the most demand for these.
The International Harvester Company of New Zealand Ltd. was formed in
Christchurch (where its head office was based) on 1 July 1912, and it soon
established branches in Auckland, Palmerston North and Dunedin. A
short-lived branch in Wellington (which the Palmerston North branch
David Dench, International Harvester, p. 41; Manawatu Daily Times 23 April
1913 4(7)
35
34
David Dench, International Harvester, p. 89
Page 25
These photos of the International Harvester Co. of NZ Ltd., building in Cashel
Street, Christchurch (built about 1912), show design similarities to the Palmerston
North building. The upper photo was taken in the late 1920s and the lower one
after 1945. This building’s current status has not been researched, however, it is
not on the Historic Places Trust’s list. Photo from: David Dench. International
Harvester: A New Zealand point of view (P.N., 2002), p. 42.
Hallenstein Bros.
The architectural partnership that drew up the plans – dated 28 September
1923 - for converting this building from a seller of agricultural machinery to
a seller of men’s clothing, signed its name on them as ‘Clere & Clere’.
Susan Maclean’s book, Architect of the Angels: The Churches of Frederick
de Jersey Clere, states that this partnership, between Frederick de Jersey
Clere and his son Herbert Clere, was formed in 1923 after Herbert Clere
left Palmerston North to live in Wellington. However, the book states that
he probably did most of the designing of buildings in and around
Palmerston North that were done in the Clere firm’s name between 1911
and 1923, including some 33 houses.36
36
Susan Maclean, Architect of the Angels: The Churches of Frederick de Jersey
Clere (Wellington, 2003), p. 24
Clearly, there was a relationship between the Clere firm and this building
from the start, even though another architectural firm originally designed it.
The plans for these alterations record that Permit 578 was issued for the
work on 26 October 1923, and that the builder was H.E. Townshend. The
Building Permit Register further added that the value of the job was
£2,559.37 The work included installing three pair of overhead electric light
pendants in back part of the shop (which also had two pits for working
under vehicles), a verandah around part of the building, two sets of double
front doors, removing internal partitions on the ground floor and replacing
them with an additional two cast iron columns (there were about ten others
already helping support the upper floor, as shown in the photo above).
Office space on the first floor was also altered and two 12ft wide arches
that perhaps had previously marked the division between International
Harvesters’ showroom and workshop, were now bricked up to form a party
wall. Window display cases were installed and the windows were altered
to include the familiar “HB” sign that identified this firm in those days. The
main upper façade of the building (the end facing Main Street) was also
decorated with the words “New Zealand HB Clothing Factory”, “Clothing,
Mercery, Hats, Boots”
H.E. Townshend also undertook unknown alterations to the building in
1934, this work being valued at £100.38 Further internal alterations also
occurred there in 1961.39
In 1968, the firm celebrated its 85th anniversary in Palmerston North,
having first opened in September 1883 in a building in Coleman Place
owned by the Waldegrave family – possibly on the site of the Union
Building (now Studio 31). In 1900, it had moved to a building next to where
Building Permit Register, Vol. 3, p. 219, PNCC Archives 4/13/1; Plan 207/11-31,
PNCC 4/13/6, Ian Matheson City Archives, PN City Library
38
Building Permit Register, Vol. 3, p. 406, permit issued 5 June 1934, PNCC
Archives 4/13/1; Plan 207/11-31, PNCC 4/13/6, Ian Matheson City Archives, PN
City Library
39
PNCC Building Permit file C70/1-3
37
Page 26
the Royal Hotel then was, and where the BNZ now is.40 It then moved to
this building, although the 1968 article erroneously states that the firm
moved to the building in 1921. In the early days, the firm – and this
building - was known as a branch of the NZ Clothing Factory, but the “HB”
on the exterior tied the building to the firm’s founders, Hallenstein Bros.
The Hallenstein brothers, led by Bendix Hallenstein, had opened their first
store in Dunedin in 1876. Another 35 branches opened around the country
over the next 25 years, and their familiar “HB” sign was displayed
prominently and through the country, including at such remote places as
the wall of Ormondville Railway Station (c1902).41
Hallensteins remained in this building until 1972, when, following an
agreement with the PN City Corporation (as it then was named) the
previous year, the corporation gave Hallensteins the old Midland Hotel
building three doors away, in exchange for the Hallensteins property. No
money changed hands, but Hallensteins then had to demolish the old hotel
(formerly ‘Everybody’s Picture Theatre’) and build their new premises (now
Trumps Fashions’ shop). Hallensteins’ new building opened on 17 October
1972. They intended to stay there “forever”, but thirteen years later, that
building was also sold to PNCC (which was preparing its pre-‘Rosco
building’ library relocation plans) and Hallensteins followed the pedestrian
traffic flow elsewhere in the CBD.42
The Manawatu Evening Standard of 22 April 1921 (p. 5[2]) records that the
tearooms above their shop (which was owned by the Waldegrave Estate) had
been gutted by fire the previous evening, and although they managed to salvage
their stock, there was a great deal of water and smoke damage.
41
Manawatu Evening Standard, 16 September 1968, p. 12; Records of
Ormondville Rail Preservation Group Inc (per V.A. Burr)
42
Manawatu Evening Standard 11 August 1971, p. 3; 16 October 1972, ‘opening
supplement’; 4 December 1990, p. 1; 5 December 1990, p. 12
The dark-roofed area is the former International Harvester showroom and
warehouse – by this time shared by Carl Neilsen’s car repair shop and
Hallensteins – photographed in about 1950. The Midland Hotel (which was later
swapped for this property) is in the upper left corner of the picture. Between this
building and the Midland is the former Hopwood building (later part of the Midland
Hotel) that the Council tried to use the party wall of, to block construction of this
building. Meanwhile the former RSA building is in the bottom left corner. Photo:
Whites Aviation Ltd., Palmerston North & District, New Zealand (Auckland, 1950),
p. 2
40
Occupants (to 1960)
Wises 1915-16 Coleman Pl. – International Harvester Co.; Cuthbertsen &
Spelman, coal merchant. Probably also A.J. Patterson,
civil engineer in 1915 only
Page 27
Wises 1920-22 Coleman Pl. - International Harvester Co.; E.J. Spelman &
Co., merchants; & possibly Fitt & King, manufacturing
jewellers in 1920; & Cliffe & Remington, manufacturing
jewellers, and J. King, jeweller, in 1922.
Wises 1925
Coleman Pl. – C. Neilson, motor garage; Hallenstein Bros.
Ltd., clothiers; Hume Pipe Co. (Aust.) Ltd. and possibly
others.
Stones 1933
Coleman Pl. – NZ (HB) Clothing Factory Ltd. (manager:
C.A. Bierre). George St. - ‘H.B. Buildings’: Miss Amy
Gertrude Low, dressmaker; Miss Molly Townsend, teacher
of dancing; Lionel Andrew Johnston, tailor; Robert A.
Bruce, tailor. Also Justice & Edmunds (used car dept.)
Wises 1936
Coleman Pl. – Hallenstein Bros. Ltd., clothiers. George St.
- Miss A. Low, dress specialist; Miss Molly Townsend,
teacher of dancing; Miss Margaret Stock, teacher of
dancing; Lionel A. Johnston, tailor; Robert Bruce, tailor
Wises 1939
Coleman Pl. - Hallenstein Bros. Ltd., clothiers. George St.
– HB Buildings – Miss Amy G. Low, dressmaker; Miss M.
Harper, fancy goods; Charles H. Salter, tailor. Also Justice
& Edmunds, used car depot.
Wises 1944
1 Coleman Pl. - Hallenstein Bros. Ltd., clothiers. George
St. – HB Buildings: Miss Amy G. Low, dressmaker; Miss
M. Harper, fancy goods
Wises 1950-51 1 Coleman Pl. - Hallenstein Bros. Ltd., clothiers. George
St. – Miss Amy G. Low, dressmaker; John F. Johnstone,
tailor; Mrs Georgina West. Also 11 George St. – Carl
Neilsen, motor engineer
Wises 1953-54 1 Coleman Pl. - Hallenstein Bros. Ltd., clothiers. George
St. – HB Buildings: Miss Amy G. Low, dressmaker; Reece
& Alcock, solicitors. Also 11 George St. – Carl Neilsen,
motor engineer.
Wises 1957
1 Coleman Pl. – Reece & Alcock, solicitors; Hallenstein
Bros. Ltd., clothiers. George St. – HB Buildings: Miss Amy
G. Low, dressmaker; Reece & Alcock, solicitors. Also 9-11
George St. – Syd Jensen Motors Ltd.
Wises 1959-60 1 Coleman Pl. - Hallenstein Bros. Ltd., outfitters. HB
Buildings: First Floor: Reece & Alcock. Also 9-11 George
St. – Syd Jensen Motors Ltd.; Aviation Sales & Service
Ltd.
Post-Hallensteins
The knitwear supplies firm Willie Weavers occupied the old building by
1990, but by 1992 and the purchase of the present library building, the old
Hallensteins building was no longer required by PNCC. The property was
then subdivided into two parts, and the part containing this building
received CT WN43A/713 in September 1993.
However, in 1992 this building had been sold for $300,000 to bar and grill
operator Dean Phillips, to be converted to Deano’s Bar & Grill.43 The
Building Permit records state that this work was complete by 8 December
1992.44 Although the transfer of the property on the CTs did not occur until
1995, Phillips had a caveat on the property from 1992.
Late on the evening of 9 March 1998, the unoccupied first floor of the
building caught fire in a “spectacular” blaze that drew six fire appliances
and 40 fire fighters. This was partly out of fear that the fire might spread to
other buildings, although the firewalls prevented this from happening.
However, damage to the upper floor was estimated at 80%, while
downstairs there was considerable smoke and water damage. A
spokesman for Deanos said that although they paid rent for the upper
floor, it was condemned and they only used it for storage.45
In mid-1998, the building was transferred to the present owner, the
Manawatu Development Co. Ltd. The firm then undertook a major
refurbishment of the building prior to The Loaded Hog bar opening there in
November 1998. This work included fire reinstatement and major seismic
43
Manawatu Evening Standard 5 December 1990, p. 12; 6 October 1992 p. 3
PNCC Building Permit file C70/1-7. C70/1-3 also relates to the property and
contains the 1923 alteration plan.
45
Manawatu Evening Standard 10 March 1998, p. 1
44
Page 28
strengthening work. The building was completely gutted back to the three
walls, and the present ‘ground floor’ concrete-work that was not present at
the time of the fire, appeared during that time. Most of the upper floor had
also gone, meaning that nowadays, the ground floor ceiling is effectively
now that formerly belonging to the upper floor. The Loaded Hog departed
about 2004.46
The last occupant was Bar Mode, which finally departed in 2009 after a
troubled tenancy.47 The building is now empty, but has recently undergone
some more renovations.
Comments:
David Dench’s book on the International Harvester
Company is not a ‘business history’ as such, focusing to a large extent on
its US background and products - and on the later years of Palmerston
North branch. Therefore, there may be more information to be found on
the management history of the firm in NZ, and also on senior personalities
such as the American Mr F.W. Jones. Joseph Henrys himself is deserving
of further interest. Council records will hold more specific information on
the long-running section issue – and also on the 1913 clash. The Building
Permit files state that this building is listed as earthquake-prone. Although
the note concerned is on a PNCC Building Permit file that is separate to
the one containing the 1998 strengthening work.
ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION
The building is designed in the Edwardian Stripped Classical style where
Classical elements and details are used in a simplified manner. The 1923
drawings available show the two-storied building with symmetrical façades
facing Coleman Place and the Square while the façade facing George
Street is not symmetrical.
The original drawings show the building with a central triangular pediment
to the parapet to the façade facing Coleman Mall with a cornice, and
46
Manawatu Evening Standard, 2 November 1998, p. 13; 6 December 1998, p. 1;
2004-05 phonebooks
47
http://www.bebo.com/barmode
pilasters, which break the façade into three equal bays. The façade facing
The Square also has a central triangular pediment to the parapet but is
divided into two equal bays with pilasters. The Cuba Street end of the
George Street elevation has a plain rendered wall with curved stepped
parapet with doors and windows on the ground floor only. The remainder
of the building has the same Classical language as the other façades but
with subtle difference. It has a parapet with a ‘pavilion’ pediment forming
one unequal bay with two other equal bays separated by pilasters. Each
of the pilasters extends to the parapet on all elevations and the cornice is
continuous.
The ground floor has almost continuous shop fronts with a corner entry
facing the C M Ross building, and another on the George Street/Coleman
Place corner. The plans show the shop fronts to be deeply recessed
display windows.
The ground floor plan is show as being a largely open space but with an
office and store to the rear. Stairs rise up to the first floor centrally on the
George Street wall. The first floor is shown as having a central ‘L’ shaped
corridor off which were a number of offices.
Most of the first floor has now been removed.
The verandah design is shown as incorporating the ‘HB’ sign on both
corners of Coleman Place.
The construction of the building is not shown on the available drawings.
STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE
This building has high local significance for historical and design
values, representivity of building style and level of external authenticity.
This building has high historic significance in its historic association with
the first occupier, International Harvester and a subsequent occupier, the
clothing firm Hallenstein Brothers. It is also associated with the well
Page 29
recognised Christchurch architectural form England Brothers who
designed the building and with the architects of later modifications, Clere
and Clere, a highly regarded architectural practice in the lower half of the
North Island from the late Victorian to the Inter-War period.
The building has moderate design values as a good representative
example of the Edwardian Stripped Classical style, a popular style for
commercial buildings in the period.
The building has high design values as one of a number of buildings in
the Cuba Street, George Street, Coleman Place, and The Square area
which, when considered collectively, form a coherent group of buildings of
a similar age, general style, form, use, and scale.
ASSESSMENT SUMMARY
Significance
Proposed category
PNCC District Plan Criteria
Cultural
Emotional
Historical
The building has high external authenticity.
Design
Technology
Spiritual
Sentimental
Symbolic
Political
People
Events
Age
Tradition
Continuity
Style
Materials
Group
Materials
Construction
high local
2
Contextual
Measure
Authenticity
H
Rarity
Landmark
Representative
Design
Setting
Materials
Craftsmanship
M
H
Page 30
H
H
H
Coleman Place, 2-6, George Street, 31
Former Rosco Tearooms
BUILDING DETAILS
Owner:
Owner’s Address:
Assessment Number:
Property ID:
Land Area:
Legal Description:
NZHPT No.
NZHPT Manawatu No:
Construction date:
Architect:
Original Owner:
Builder:
130 square metres more of less
Lot 1 DP81805
WN48B/603 (1997); Prior CT WN45D/111
(1996)48
Nil
Nil
Nil
151
1915-16
William Fielding, of Wellington
C.M. Ross & Co. Ltd
Unknown
History
While the Coleman Place façade of this building remains intact, the back
three-fifths of the building was sheared off in the mid-1990s as part of the
conversion of the old C.M. Ross Co. Ltd. (and successors) department
store, into the present library complex. The upper floors are now accessed
from the alleyway between The Square and George Street that leads to
the library’s main entrance part way between the two. The street address
to the upper floors is now 31 George Street.
An early CT connected to this property was WN8/199, which predates 1880.
However, none prior to 1996 were sighted for this study. The ‘historical CT’ of
WN48B/603 was also not sighted in relation to any ownership changes that might
have occurred between 1997, and Valmont Ltd.’s ownership of it.
48
Page 31
Prior History
George F. Roe purchased this property, as Section 331 of the Township of
Palmerston, from the Crown in 1867. Its CT prior to 1880 was probably
WN8/199. The portion of George Street between Main Street and
Coleman Place was then created from Section 331, with the land on either
side of the street becoming Deposited Plan 27. A.G.S. Bradfield, in
Forgotten Days, credits Roe, a building contractor, as the source of the
name ‘George Street’. Roe subdivided the Main Street end of the street in
1875 (DP27), while the Cuba Street end (DP155) was subdivided in
1979.49 Thus this property became Lot 8 of DP27. Lots 3-6 of DP27 (at
least) were bought by William Coombs in 1880 and 1881 (see the
‘Commercial Building’ in The Square re the Coombs Estate). C.M. Ross
also leased his original George Street property (Lot 7 DP27) in 1905, but
owned that by 1928. That property’s ‘prior CT’ is WN19/167, which
corresponds with Lot 6’s WN19/170 (1880) owned then by William
Coombs. By late 1914, however, this property was in the hands of C.M.
Ross.50
The business that became C.M. Ross Co. Ltd., began as John Fowler’s
Bon Marche drapery shop in The Square. Scottish immigrant Charles
Macintosh Ross arrived in the town in 1883, and purchased the Bon
Marche business. Thus from those relatively small beginnings, the present
set of Rosco buildings eventually grew. In about 1905, the firm built a
single storey brick building fronting George Street, which gave the building
a second street frontage, and also allowed furnishings to be added to the
firm’s product lines The George Street building was given a second storey
in 1927-8, thereby taking on its present form. The company was
incorporated on 4 September 1914.51
A.G.S. Bradfield, Forgotten Days (PN, 1956), p. 167
50
Wellington Provincial Government Gazette 1867, p. 19. Section 331 was
purchased for £25 and measured 1 acre, 1 rood. The remaining CTs referred to
are from the other library properties covered in this study.
51
Lesley Courtney, The House that Quality and Value Built: The C.M. Ross Co.
Ltd., Story (PN 2008), pp. 4, 6
49
The Building
The tender notice for this building was published in the Manawatu Evening
Standard on 23 December 1914 - the architect, William Fielding of
Wellington, seeking tenders for a steel-framed brick building to be built for
C.M. Ross & Co. Ltd., in the Square.52 The Building Permit Register
records that Permit No. 1998 was issued for this building on 16 February
1915. The permit covered both this building and a new one facing The
Square (Sections 255/6 and 331 Pt 7 & 8), and these were to be of brick
and were to cost £10,000.53
As preparations to erect the new building progressed, there was still the
matter of the attractive two-storied house, with an upstairs balcony for
enjoying the afternoon sun, which was already on the site.54 Accordingly
the Building Permit Register lists Permit No. 2007, dated 23 February
1915, which was issued to C.M. Ross & Co. Ltd. to remove a building from
Coleman Place and to take it to Pt. Section 645 in Main Street. The value
of the building was given as £130. Then on 26 April 1915, Permit No. 2050
was also issued to the firm. This was to reinstate the building on Section
645 in Main Street using timber, and the end value of the building was
£300. The house had gone to a property close to where Marece Court
(574 Main Street) now is, but clearly it is now long gone.
The Manawatu Evening Standard of 19 April 1916 reported the following
description of the Rosco premises as they were at that time – and as they
would be until the next major upgrade just over a decade later. Some
indication of the impact of the First World War then raging, is also
apparent:
52
Pam Phillips Papers, ‘Tenders in the Manawatu Evening Standard’, in PN
Architects 1900-1950, Vol.5, p. 58, Ian Matheson City Archives, PN City Library
53
Building Permit Register, Vol. 1, Permit 1998, PNCC Archives 4/13/1, Ian
Matheson City Archives, PN City Library
54
This house appears in Photo St10 in the Photographic Collection of the PN City
Library, and on page 4 of Lesley Courtney’s book The House that Quality and
Value Built.
Page 32
The C.M. Ross Co. Ltd.: Fine New Premises
Shortly after the C.M. Ross Co. Ltd., acquired the oldestablished business in Palmerston North of C.M. Ross and Co., the
directorate was faced with the necessity of enlarging the premises,
the business having grown to such proportions that it was found it
could not be handled satisfactorily under the old conditions.
Accordingly, the sections at the corner of George Street and
Coleman Place and a strip of land fronting the Square between the
then existing buildings and the Union Bank of Australia were
acquired and arrangements made for the erection of additional
suitable buildings. These have now been completed, making a fine
structure of steel frame with reinforced concrete, with imposing
frontages to the Square and George Street. The portion fronting the
Square is two-storeys, while that with a frontage to George Street
and Coleman Place is three storeys. Right throughout the buildings,
everything has been carried out on a generous scale, giving a
maximum of display space, and that important matter, light for the
interior. The floor space is very considerable, being in all very near
equal to an acre.
Entering through the four handsome arcade windows from
the Square, the Manchester department is reached, this having now
been in use for a few months. A panelled stairway leads to the flat
(floor) above which is given over to that important part of the
company’s business, dressmaking. The workrooms facing the
Square are lofty and well lit, and occupy the greater portion of this
flat, a suite of fitting rooms and ladies’ waiting rooms also occupying
a considerable amount of room. Along the corridor from the
Manchester department, and passing the commodious office the
furnishing department is reached, this department having also
entrances from George Street. Panelled and beamed ceilings, white
plastered walls, and the latest and best in composition flooring, with
plenty of light and space, make this a most desirable room in which
to select furnishings. A handsome staircase leads to the second flat,
which will at a later date be used as a tea room.
The third storey is for the present to be used to store the
large reserve stocks the company is carrying. The firm, having
command of ample capital, was able to place extensive orders for
all classes of drapery goods prior to the recent increases of price,
and they are thus in the fortunate position of having large stocks of
goods that at present can only, in some cases, be obtained at a
large advance in price – and in some cases cannot be obtained at
all. In this connection the large space at the company’s disposal will
be of extreme benefit, as it will enable it to carry exceptionally large
stocks, and give their customers the benefits of advantageous
buying. Apart from the possibility of supplies in many cases being
unprocurable consequent on the number of workers withdrawn from
their manufacture at Home on account of the war, a very serious
position is threatened, as in many cases “famine” prices are likely to
prevail.
Considerable alterations have been made to the interior
arrangements of the existing buildings, the display windows of which
have been modernised, and with their richly panelled backgrounds
present a handsome appearance. The boot department has been
enlarged, and is now better lighted, thus affording better
opportunities for displaying the goods.
The departments that cater for the etceteras of a lady’s
toilet, laces, gloves, hosiery, neckwear, etc., have been brought
together, and are all handy to the main entrance. The dress
department occupies three sides of a square, and in this spacious,
well-lighted room, ladies will be able to make their selections in
comfort. Alongside is the ladies’ underclothing and children’s
section, compactly arranged, yet sufficiently roomy. The showroom,
which has an entrance from George Street, is a most attractive
quarter of the premises. Carpeted and panelled in brown, it presents
a pleasing appearance with its fine display of millinery, costumes,
coats, etc.
A special feature about the firm’s premises is the ample
space afforded for window displays. These are particularly large,
giving opportunity to make displays that are both striking and
artistic. In all the company has for the display of their goods some
Page 33
18 windows that are tastefully dressed and enhance the general
appearance of the building. That full advantage is taken of the
space is evident by the fine result of the window dressers’ efforts.
The firm at present employs about 100 hands in the various
branches, and from time to time it is necessary to increase the
number as business increases –this also being the reason for the
large additions to the premises that has lately been made. The firm
is now in a position to satisfactorily display their wares and deal with
their steadily increasing business.
The firm invites the public and visitors to Palmerston to pay
a visit of inspection to their new premises.55
women under the name of “The Manawatu County Club,” and at last
their labours have nearly reached completion. The clubrooms are
situated in the huge, well lit room that was formerly the C.M. Ross
Co.’s tea room, with its entrance on Coleman Place. This has been
divided so as to form a lounge and reading room, tea room, rest
room, card or tearooms, and big entrance lobby where members
can read the latest periodicals, entertain a friend to afternoon or
morning tea, or while away an hour in comfortable idleness. A big
membership is already making the committee’s effort worthwhile
and naturally, as the membership grows, so will the comforts and
advantages of the club keep pace.57
Lesley Courtney, in her book, The House that Quality and Value Built,
writes that not long after the new buildings opened, a tea and luncheon
room was established on the first floor of the new Coleman Place building.
This room not on a grand scale, but was convenient for shoppers and
could be hired for functions. The tearooms were not a great success,
losing money from the start. This was blamed on poor management, but
changing that in the early 1920s did not resolve the problem. In 1922, the
tearooms were re-equipped and re-established. When the new building
facing The Square was complete in 1928, the new Rosco tearooms were
on the second floor of the building overlooking The Square. The old
tearooms then closed, and a week later - on 13 September - reopened in
their new location as the ‘Rosco Luncheon and Tea Rooms’.56 However,
the old tearooms soon had a new tenant that remained for the next five
decades.
The following day, the club held its first meeting, the report duly featuring
in the newspaper the day after:
At half-past two yesterday afternoon the Manawatu County
Club held its first general meeting in its newly established
clubrooms, Coleman Place. A big muster of members turned up and
everything helped to make the occasion a great success. Mr W.L.
Fitzherbert kindly presided at the meeting and at the end auctioned
the periodicals for the ensuing year.
After the meeting the president and committee of the club
entertained the members and friends at an afternoon tea and the
clubrooms were most beautifully decorated for the occasion. The
entrance lobby is done in blue and gold, with all woodwork stained
dark walnut, which shows up the curtains of gold striped silk and the
chair cushions of gold. Three small card rooms and a tea room open
off the lobby which has a big blue and rose Malabar rug on the floor.
The tea tables this afternoon were dainty with Iceland poppies and
bowls of yellow irises and antirrhinums were placed on tables and
ledges to complete the colour scheme.
Swing doors lead from the lobby to the lounge which has
large Malabar rungs in soft shades of pink and maize and blue.
Comfortable chairs and roomy sofas have cushions of blue and gold
and the softest pink and the curtains of maize coloured net at the
Manawatu County Club Inc.
On 28 November 1928, the Manawatu Evening Standard’s reporter,
writing under the non-de-plume ‘Germaine’, wrote in her column ‘Women’s
World’ of a new club that had arrived on the local scene:
For several weeks past an energetic and well organised
committee has been working and planning and forming a club for
55
56
Manawatu Evening Standard 19 April 1916 6(2)
Lesley Courtney, The House that Quality and Value Built, pp. 8, 11
57
Manawatu Evening Standard 28 November 1928 11(4)
Page 34
windows match the colouring of the long cretonne ones. Here,
artists in floral decoration had placed large bowls of pink and white
Watsonias, blue delphiniums and larkspurs, catmint and lupins and
roses, and again roses.
The article then went on to describe in detail the clothing worn by the
president (Mrs Putnam), the vice-president (Mrs Fitzherbert), the
Treasurer (Mrs Davis) and the six committee members. In addition to
adding that the rooms were filled almost to capacity, and that the
daughters of the committee members served the afternoon tea, the report
named some 128 women who were present, before finishing the list with
the words “and many others”.58 The club was duly incorporated on 5
December 1928.59
Club members accessed the clubrooms through the entrance on the left
side of the building’s Coleman Place façade. At the top of the stairs, they
turned right to the club, or left to visit the various tenanted offices in the
Norfolk House building. If they needed to use a lift, they used the
department store lift to the first floor and came into the clubrooms through
the back way.
Noticeable amongst those present at the first general meeting in 1928 was
Mrs J.A. Nash, owner of the Nash Building across the street in George
Street. Also present was Mrs Relling, who five years later bought the (yet
to be so named) Norfolk House building. It must have been with some
relief that the women found they now had some control over future tenants
of that building, and therefore whom they might meet in the staircase. For
example, this study has shown that there were probably enough billiard
parlours in the immediate vicinity already.
Local historian Noeline Penny, who has been a member since the 1950s,
said that country women would spend time at the clubrooms when they
came to town with husbands who were going to stock sales, or to conduct
business, etc. A 1992 article on the club said that it was originally formed
after several women had felt the area had a need for a women’s social
club. The resulting club had been based on an English idea in which
members took part in ‘circles’ or interest groups. At that time, the circles
included bridge, arts and garden circles.60
Plans dated February 1967 in the PNCC Building Permit file for this
building, are for alterations to the Manawatu County Club’s rooms. At this
time, the room inside the bay windows transformed from a library to being
a powder room, with two toilets being installed there. Meanwhile a small
lounge became an enlarged office and the new library. The kitchen was
also upgraded and the old toilet area was remodelled into a small lounge.
Thus the clubrooms now had two toilets, instead of previously just one.61
The Manawatu County Club occupied the first floor of this building until
1980, when the building’s current owners required the space for
themselves. The club had learned that it was to lose its home in 1979, and
the following year, after almost 52 years in the building, it relocated to the
Grand Hotel building. A short time later it moved to the Manawatu (men’s)
Club on the corner of Linton and Church Streets. The club stayed there
until 1992 when it purchased its present rooms, the former Salvation Army
Hall on the corner of Fitzroy and Main Streets.62 At present the club is in
the process of compiling its history by taping interviews with older
members for eventual deposit in the city’s community archives. 63
Owners
The C.M. Ross & Co. Ltd. department store, popularly known as
“Rosco’s”, became Milne & Choyce in 1959, and then the D.I.C. in 1966.
Manawatu Evening Standard 2 September 1992, p. 14
PNCC Building Permit file ‘C70 County Club’
62
63
Personal interviews with Judy Yates (current president) and Gregor Yates, 6
March 2010, and Noeline Penny, 5 March 2010.
60
61
58
Manawatu Evening Standard 30 November 1928 8(5). Also 1 December 1928
18(2)
59
Companies Office website. No. 215589
Page 35
The D.I.C. group was sold to the Arthur Barnett firm in 1987, and then in
1989, the building was rebranded as an Arthur Barnett store. The store
closed in August 1991, and the Palmerston North City Council then
purchased the property in 1992 for conversion to the present city library.
The new library opened on 25 May 1996.
Following the subdivision of the former Arthur Barnett store property, this
property (Lot 1) was sold, while the balance (Lot 2) is now the library land.
Lot 1 is now owned by Valmont Ltd.
Additions & Alterations
Leaving aside the dramatic library alterations to the back of the building
(these being covered in PNCC Building Permit file C70/10-16), a
noticeable change is to some of the building’s first floor windows. The bay
window and left side window appear to be the same as original, however,
the pair of triple windows on either side of the bay window had an upward
rise at the centre of the cross bar below the fanlights. This rise affected the
middle panes only. The first floor windows on the George Street façade of
this building were identical, as was the main window above the George
Street entrance (now the library’s George Street entrance). The latter
window and the two side windows closest to it (of four, the remaining two
being new) were recycled from the 1916 building in The Square during the
1927-28 rebuild. The windows in the building being studied here were still
present around 1950, but were gone by the 1980s, and different ones still
are there now.64
(Left) This (partly obscured) view of the building shows one of the original first floor
windows, with the rise in the centre of the cross bar still apparent. (Right) The
remaining portion of this building after library conversion work. (Sources: Whites
Aviation Ltd., Palmerston North & District, New Zealand (Auckland, 1950), p. 2;
and Geo-guide photo from PNCC website)
Occupants
The above 1916 article refers to the other George Street entrance (now
the library’s George Street entrance) as being the main one to the store
from that street, and it is unclear as to activities on this building’s ground
floor. Early photos of the building only show signage for the tearooms. By
the 1980s it housed the DIC’s home appliance department.65
Ground Floor
Now
Angkor Family Restaurant, (4 Coleman Place)
First Floor
1916-1928
Rosco Tearooms
1928-1980
Manawatu County Club
Now
31
George
St.
Black
Sheep
www.blacksheepdesign.co.nz
64
Lesley Courtney, The House that Quality and Value Built, pp.12, 35
65
Design
Lesley Courtney, The House that Quality and Value Built, pp.12, 35
Page 36
Second Floor
1916
Rosco storage space for stock
Now
Unknown
Directories (Coleman Place entries only, some certainly in the next
building)
Wises 1922-25 C.M. Ross tearooms; C.M. Ross & Co Ltd, drapers
(branch)
Stones 1933
Rosco Buildings: John King Watchmaker etc; Bradfield’s
Florist Studios (Miss Joan Bradfield, manageress); Grover
& Whitehead (Frank G. & Miss Elsie W.), pram &
seagrass furniture; Williams & McKegg (Amos R. McKegg
& O.H. Williams), dentists (who are understood to have
been upstairs in the Norfolk House building, but using the
staircase in this building); Manawatu County Club (Mrs
Madge Harman, secretary); C.M. Ross & Co. Ltd,
furnishing depts.
Wises 1936-54 10 Coleman Pl. - Williams & McKegg, dentists; Manawatu
County Club; C.M. Ross & Co. Ltd., furniture dealers
Wises 1957
10 Coleman Pl. – Mrs H.M. Foster’s dressmaking service
depot; McKegg & Andrews, dentists; Manawatu County
Club; C.M. Ross & Co. Ltd., furniture dept.
Wises 1959-60 10 Coleman Pl. - H.M. Foster Ltd., dress accessories;
First Floor: McKegg & Andrews, dentists; Manawatu
County Club; C.M. Ross & Co. Ltd., furniture dept.
Comments: Only limited CTs were sighted relating to this building - during
this study of what is a complex collection of library-land CTs prior to the
current ones. For the purposes of assisting future researchers of this site,
some additional background detail has been supplied above. When the
history of the Manawatu County Club is compiled and/or deposited in the
Ian Matheson City Archives as is planned, it should contain some very
useful social history relating to the club’s time in this building. C.M. Ross &
Co. Ltd. records held by the Te Manawa Museums Trust, would also add
to the story.
The building is designed in the Inter-War Free Classical style where
Classical elements and details are used in the elevation design in a nonacademic manner. Above the verandah is an asymmetrical façade design
including a parapet with pilasters, a curved pediment with apron panel with
AD 1915 inscribed, an exaggerated cornice with dentils, giant ordered
pilasters with panels and brackets in an Art Nouveau style, and a bay
window with a half domed roof in an Arts and Crafts style.
The ground floor shop fronts have been modified significantly.
The description of the planning and construction of the building are given
above.
This building has high regional significance for historical and design
values, and representivity of building style.
This remaining building has high emotional and historic values in its
association with the CM Ross and Co. department store and its successor,
Milne and Choyce. The store was regarded as an institution in the city.
The 1927 building was the firm's crowning achievement and at the time
the grandest department store yet erected in Palmerston North. It is also
associated with the Manawatu Country Club a tenant for over 50 years.
The building is also historically associated with its architect, William
Fielding, who maintained a successful practice in Wellington in the first
half of the twentieth century.
The original and later ownership and tenants reflects moderate continuity
as a typical pattern of similar commercial buildings throughout the city.
The building has high design values as a rare and successful example of
Free Classical design, which incorporates elements of Art Nouveau and
Page 37
Arts and Crafts and which gives the building landmark significance in the
Coleman Place and George Street areas of Palmerston North.
The building’s above verandah street façade design has moderate levels
of authenticity.
ASSESSMENT SUMMARY
Significance
Proposed category
Cultural
Emotional
Historical
Design
Technology
Spiritual
Sentimental
Symbolic
Political
People
Events
Age
Tradition
Continuity
Style
Materials
Group
Materials
Construction
high regional
1
Contextual
Measure
H
Authenticity
H
Rarity
Landmark
Representative
Design
Setting
Materials
Craftsmanship
H
H
M
H
M
H
H
Page 38
Coleman Place, 8-14, George Street, 33
Norfolk House
BUILDING DETAILS
Owner:
Owner’s Address:
Assessment Number:
Property ID:
Land Area:
Legal Description:
NZHPT No.
NZHPT Manawatu No:
Construction date:
Architect:
Original Owner:
Builder:
Pt Lot 1 DP 3075
WN329/71 (1925); prior CT WN229/280
(1914)
Nil
Nil
Nil
150
1915-16
H.L. Hickson & A.R. Allen
The C.M. Ross Company Ltd.
Unknown
History
This building was designed as four small ground floor shops, with office
space upstairs that was accessed through a front door and staircase
inside the adjoining Rosco Tearooms building. When buildings in the
vicinity were adapted to suit the new library, a new entrance to the first
floor was opened up at the back of the building, leading up from the
library’s alleyway. This floor now has a George Street address.
Prior History
This building was part of the C.M. Ross cluster of buildings for its first
decade. The site was the former back garden of the Union Bank of
Australia – which included a residence for bank managers and their
families - and C.M. Ross Co. Ltd. purchased the site in late 1925. The
Union Bank had been enlarged to its present form in 1925, and thus the
garden was already surrounded by buildings at least two stories in height.
Page 39
CT WN329/71 reveals that the bank even provided the C.M. Ross Ltd. with
a mortgage for it.
In her book The House that Quality and Value Built, on the history of C.M.
Ross Co. Ltd., Lesley Courtney notes a memo from the ailing Charles
Ross that was read at a Director’s meeting in August 1924. This
suggested that the firm purchase adjoining properties and that it plan a
further rebuilding programme. The architects H. L. Hickson and A.R. Allen
were appointed to be part of the programme. This building was the first
project they were to work on, and it was intended to be leased out to
commercial tenants, rather than become part of the main department
store.66
The Building
C.M. Ross Ltd. applied for a permit to erect this building in August 1925,
and the new building was to cost £6,000.67 H.L. Hickson & A.R. Allen duly
published the tender notice relating it in the Manawatu Evening Standard
of 1 August 1925. It was described as being built of concrete, steel and
brick.68
Norfolk House overshadows by its neighbours in about 1950. Photo: Whites
Aviation Ltd., Palmerston North & District, New Zealand (Auckland, 1950), p. 2
The building was sold in 1933, which might have been an economy
measure during the Depression, as the firm was also cutting salaries
around that time.69 The new owner was Edith Sylvia Relling, a married
woman of Palmerston North.
Lesley Courtney, The House that Quality and Value Built: The C.M. Ross Co.
Ltd. story (PN, 2008), p. 12
67
Building Permit Register, Vol. 3, p. 381, PNCC 4/13/1, Ian Matheson City
68
Pam Phillips Papers, PN Architects 1900-1950, Vol. 5, p. 32. Ian Matheson City
66
Mrs Relling was the wife of Thorsten Frederick Relling, a local solicitor. He
died on 29 August 1939, aged 59, and his obituary reveals that he had
been a solicitor in Blenheim until moving to Palmerston North around
1922, where he also worked as a barrister and solicitor. His fellow legal
practitioners thought highly of him. He had served in the New Zealand
Forces in the South African War, and had been keen on athletics, rifle
69
Lesley Courtney, The House that Quality and Value Built, p. 21
Page 40
shooting and racing. He had also been the honorary solicitor to the Plunket
Society for some years. Amongst his pallbearers were J.A. Nash MP and
L.A. Collinson (owner of Collinson & Sons). Edith Relling died on 22 July
1963, and nothing more was traced on her during this study.
CT WN329/71 reveals that in 1963, the building was transmitted to
Alexander Thorsten Relling, a solicitor, and Robert Hamilton Grey Connal,
a retired bank manager, both of Wellington. In 1964, it passed to the
Norwich Union Life Insurance Society. The next owner was Westmark
Holdings Ltd. of Whangarei, who bought it in 1986. The present owner,
Donald Justin Pescini, a local stock agent, bought it in 1989.
The Name: Norfolk House
Early post-1928 photos of the building (i.e. showing the present main
Rosco/library building in place) show no apparent signage on the
building’s façade, while its western neighbour is clearly identified as a
Rosco building. Similarly, neither photo Sq267 (c1932) nor Bc200 (1937)
from the PN City Library’s photographic collection, show anything apparent
in the spot where the building’s name now is. However, Photo St69, taken
in February 1973, does show the name, which inspection reveals is metal
and is bolted to the building. Therefore the name almost certainly relates
to the Norwich Union Life Insurance Society’s ownership of the building, as
the city of Norwich, where the society (now part of Aviva) was founded in
1808, is in the English county of Norfolk.
A Geo-guide version of Norfolk House with the library alleyway now behind it, from
the PNCC website.
PNCC Building Permit file C70/10-16 includes plans of the offices for the
Norwich Union Insurance Society, drawn up by architect David Taylor and
dated 5 February 1965. Architectural firm Gillman Garry Clapp & Sayers
drew up more floor plans dated October 1980, showing the existing and
new (relatively open plan) layout on the first floor.
The permit file contains plans of the new layout at the time of the floor’s
conversion to the art gallery, including the new access from the area of the
library’s main entrance, including occupants in the downstairs shops that
coincide with 1995 phonebook entries
The file also contains a permit application for the strengthening and
upgrading of the building, dated 20 December 1995 – coinciding with the
new library’s development behind the building.
Occupants
Due to repeated numbering changes in this vicinity – and often no street
numbers used at all in the Wises and Stones Directories - it is not possible
to conclude with any certainty who was in which shop, and which might
Page 41
have been empty (or using two shops at the same time) at any given time.
Also, upstairs occupants of both this building and the former Rosco
Tearooms building next door, all used the same street access and
therefore all shared the same street number. Contributing to this is the
Union Bank extension that also dates to 1925, and the occupants of one of
its shops are not certainties either. It is, however, possible to conclude that
one shop in this building was a stationery shop, while the others included a
jewellery shop and a florist, during the period 1933 to 1960.
Shop 3- 14 Coleman Pl.
Plan c1995
14 Coleman Pl. - Empty
Now
Bruce McKenzie Booksellers, Discounted Books
The 1933 Stones Directory lists Colin McTurk’s stationery shop; John
King, ‘watchmaker etc.’; and Miss Joan Bradfield’s ‘Bradfield’s Florist
Studios’, while Grover & Whithead sold pram and seagrass furniture
somewhere in the vicinity of the building. By the 1936 Wises Directory,
C.M. Hastings had the stationery shop, while the other three remain (also
though the florist shop is now A.C. Bradfield’s). By 1939, Ronald K. Beale
had the stationery shop; and E.D. Bennett is now the florist, but King the
jeweller remains. In the 1944 Directory, only Beale remains. However,
Salon Marlene’ beauty specialist, has arrived. By the 1950-51 Directory,
Thomas Devine has the stationery shop, and while G. Simes, chiropodist
is new, the salon remains. By 1953-4, W. Knight & Son Ltd., jewellers &
watchmakers, have joined Devine and Simes. By 1957, Heaphys (PN)
Ltd., have the stationery shop, while Simes and Knight remain, and the
three are still there in the 1959-60 Directory. It is also possibly that one of
the two shop occupants attributed in this study to the neighbouring Union
Bank building, might instead have been in this building. It is certain,
however, that the Scotch Wool Shop was in the Union Bank, as its
advertising appears there on signage shown in photos.
Upstairs – Now 33 George Street
1964-86
Norwich Union Life Insurance Society
1980 plans
L.W. Pirie, registered surveyor (office at back left corner of
building)
Now
Taylor-Jensen Fine Arts
Shop 1 – 14 Coleman Pl. (The Square end of building)
Plan c1995
18 Coleman Pl. - Playthings Toy Shop
Now
8 Coleman Pl. - Your Top Drawer- Lingerie on Coleman
www.yourtopdrawer.co.nz
Shop 2 – 12 Coleman Pl.
Plan c1995
16 Coleman Pl. - ‘Cable Reskery Company’ (?)
Now
Generate
Shop 4 – 8 Coleman Pl. (George Street end of building)
Plan c1995
12 Coleman Pl. - Glassworks
Now
14 Coleman Pl. – Personage clothing
www.personage.co.nz
shop
The style of the building is Edwardian Stripped Classical, which has
stylistic references to the main C M Ross building including swags and
triangular pediments. This was a popular style for commercial buildings in
the Edwardian and Inter-War periods. The characteristics of the style as
seen in the building include symmetry, shallow triangular pediment,
parapet, cornice, and subtle steps in the façade breaking it into three bays
with implied pilasters.
The ground floor plans show four shops with the two central shops being
of equal size and smaller than the two outer shops. The central shops
have a square ingo, while the outer shops have angled ingos. Toilets are
at the rear of the two central shops in a light well. The shop fronts appear
to be original with granite spandrels and steel window frames.
Most of the partitions to the upper floor have now been demolished and
the original stair access has been blocked off. Access to the upper floor is
now by way of an external stair from the George Street entry to the library.
Page 42
This building has high historic values in its historic association with the
CM Ross and Co. department store. The store was regarded as an
institution in the city and has high emotional values for residents. Their
1927 building was the firm's crowning achievement and at the time the
grandest department store yet erected in Palmerston North. Following its
sale in 1933 the building has been associated with the Relling family.
The building is also historically associated with its original architect, A R
Allen, a Palmerston North architect of the mid twentieth century who
designed buildings in Napier, Gisborne and Palmerston North. H L
Hickson, with whom Allen designed the building, practised for a period up
until 1935 with Rotorua architect H E Goodwin.
The original and later ownership and tenants reflects a moderate level of
continuity as a typical pattern of similar commercial buildings throughout
the city.
ASSESSMENT SUMMARY
Significance
Proposed category
Cultural
Emotional
Historical
Design
Technology
Spiritual
Sentimental
Symbolic
Political
People
Events
Age
Tradition
Continuity
Style
Materials
Group
Materials
Construction
high local
2
Contextual
Measure
H
Authenticity
H
Rarity
Landmark
Representative
Design
Setting
Materials
Craftsmanship
M
H
H
The building has a moderate level of representivity as a good example of
the Edwardian Stripped Classical style, a popular style for commercial
buildings in the Edwardian and Inter-War periods.
The building’s street façade design has a high level of external
authenticity, particularly the shopfronts.
Page 43
M
H
H
Coleman Place, 19-21
“The Arcade” (latterly Noodles ‘n Dumplings)
BUILDING DETAILS
Owner:
Owner’s Address:
Assessment Number:
Property ID:
Land Area:
Legal Description:
NZHPT No.
NZHPT Manawatu No:
Construction date:
Architect:
Original Owner:
Builder:
Part Lot 3 Section 257, Town of
Palmerston North and Lot 2 DP 33477
WN10C/692 (1972)
Prior
CTs
WN282/160 (1922), WN24/199 (1876)
Nil
Nil
Nil
Nil
1906
Chas. Blackbourn
Mrs F. (Mary Emma) Mowlem
Chas. Blackbourn
History
In 1906, the new building at 19-21 Coleman Place and the nearly new
building at 256 Cuba Street were linked together by the firm J.A. Nash &
Co. Ltd. and christened ‘The Arcade’. Later this half of The Arcade
appears to have been converted to two shops, and these were
amalgamated into one shop again sometime since the 1970s. The upstairs
hall has been used for social gatherings and also as a billiard room. Its
current use is uncertain.
The Designer: Charles William Blackbourn
This building was designed by Charles William Blackbourn, a builder and
contractor who had studied architecture and who designed most of his
largest building contracts. He was born in Okato, Taranaki, in 1876, before
serving a building apprenticeship in Palmerston North and Wanganui
under Mr Coupe. He worked as a journeyman until starting his own
Page 44
business in Palmerston North in 1900. By the time Volume 6 of the
Cyclopedia on New Zealand was published in 1908, Blackbourn employed
forty staff in relation to his business and his contracts. Another of his
buildings that survives is the façade of the former His Majesty’s Theatre
(later Ballroom Astoria) in George Street, built in 1910.70
Prior History
The land, upon which this building stands, was granted on 15 November
1876, as CT WN24/199, to James Harris, a settler of Palmerston North.
He leased it to Andrew Steven Bentley for a 7-year term starting 1 March
1883, and in turn the lease was passed to William Bentley, a draper, in
1885, before Harris sold the property to William Gardner, a farmer, in
1889. The property then passed through the hands of Mary Lang of
Wellington (1891), Samuel Gardiner (1895), and then in 1897 to Mary
Emma Mowlem, wife of Fred Mowlem, a commission agent of Palmerston
North.
The property also passed thought the hands of a number of tenants over
the years. After Mary Emma Mowlem purchased the property, she leased
it to William Murrell Jamieson for a 5-year term starting 8 May 1897. The
following year this was transferred to Edwin Grove. In 1903 Grove’s lease
was renewed for seven years and four weeks, starting 14 December 1903,
before being transferred in 1904 to John Reid Graham. This lease was
then surrendered early, presumably in anticipation of the new building. The
next activity on CT WN24/199 was the Mary Emma Mowlem’s 15-year
lease of the property to J.A. Nash & Co. Ltd., starting 1 May 1906.
The Bentleys traded as Bentley Bros. and were a drapery firm. They
leased the two-storied wooden building shown on the site in early photos
of this part of The Square, until William Bentley moved the business in
1886. However, the building was not present when the well-known 1877
Cyclopedia of New Zealand, Vol. 6, (Wellington, 1906), pp. 674-5, ‘Blackbourn,
Charles William’
70
panorama set of photos was taken.71 Edwin Grove, the second to last
lessee of this building, was a grocer according to PNCC burial records.
‘The Arcade’
Built in 1906, both this building and the one behind it at 256 Cuba Street
had a shared history for their first fifteen years. At the start they were
leased to the firm J.A. Nash & Co. Ltd. and were known as ‘The Arcade’.
Customers could walk the length of the two buildings between Cuba Street
and Coleman Place, with Cuba Street being a very busy shopping street in
those days.
Although the previous building on this site had probably simply outlived its
usefulness and been demolished, the new Cuba Street building was
erected to replace its old wooden predecessor that had been burnt out on
16 August 1905. Although the insurance companies concerned tried to
have the damaged building repaired with wood, it was evidently
considered too badly damaged - and new buildings in this area were now
required to be built of brick.72
Property owners in this block had graphic evidence in the form of the first
Hotel Royal fire in 1895 and the major Clarendon Hotel fire in 1904, that
fires in this block had a history of causing a great deal of damage to more
than just the building where the fire started. The 1924 fire that destroyed a
number of buildings in the block was to emphasise this. However, there
was nothing in the reports on the aforementioned 1905 fire to suggest the
old building in this site had been damaged by that fire.
1877 photo is G.C. Petersen, The Pioneering Days of Palmerston North
(Palmerston North 1952) Photo between pages 76 & 77. Also SQ112, (c1889)
Photographic Collection, PN City Library. The building is the dark building third on
the left side of the Theatre Royal; and Manawatu Evening Standard 12 March 1886
3(1)
72
Manawatu Evening Standard 16 August 1905 5(2), 17 August 1905 5(1);
Manawatu Daily Times 21 August 1905 1(3)
71
Page 45
J.A. Nash & Co. Ltd. – the original tenant
On 1 December 1902, the new firm J.A. Nash & Co. made a special
announcement that it had taken over the “old-established firm of F. Ireland
and Co., wholesale and retail merchants of Palmerston North.” The firm
was to be run by James Alfred Nash, who had already been manager of
the Ireland business for many years – on behalf of the estate of Mr F.
Ireland, who had died in 1893.
began working for F. Ireland & Co. Porteous’ obituary described J.A. Nash
& Co. Ltd. as having been a wine and spirits merchant.75
Nash had arrived in Palmerston North (from Foxton), and in reports on the
1902 takeover, both local newspapers recorded that (at age 13) Nash had
“first joined the trade in 1882, when he entered the service of Messrs J.
Nathan & Co at the Ready Money Store in Palmerston North, which has
since developed into that important institution, the U.F.C.A. After nine
years’ service with that firm, Mr Nash accepted a position as manager for
the late Mr F. Ireland, and since the death of that gentleman in 1893, has
carried on the business for the executors of the estate. The business
under Mr Nash’s watchful care has grown from small things to great, until
the firm has become a household word throughout the district.”73
The Wellington and Manawatu Hardware Company
The Manawatu Daily Times of 26 October 1905 published J.S. Watchorn &
Co.’s notice advising that they had purchased the business of Wilson,
Thompson & Co., and that they would begin selling that company’s “full
range of general ironmongery” from that same day. The new Watchorn
business was described as “wholesale and general ironmongers, of
George Street.76
Nash’s obituary later added, in relation to J.A. Nash & Co. Ltd. that “A
store in Bunnythorpe was conducted in conjunction with it (i.e. the main
shop in The Square) and branches were also opened in Coleman Place
and in Foxton.”74
Nash’s partner in the new business was Irelands’ long-time
Henry Stratford Porteous, who had arrived from England in
aged 16 and settled in Collingwood, where he farmed and
schoolteacher. He arrived in Palmerston North in 1890, and
accountant,
about 1878
was later a
before long
73
Manawatu Daily Times 1 December 1902 2(4 & 6), Manawatu Evening Standard
1 December 1902 4(2), however, the latter is barely legible. Presumably this was a
press release by the company.
74
Manawatu Daily Times, 25 July 1952, p. 8. Nash is also the subject of a
biography in Vol. 4 of The Dictionary of New Zealand Biography (Wellington, 1998)
pp.370-371, however, this devotes only about four lines to Nash’s extensive
business career.
The Arcade, however, was an amalgamation of J.A. Nash & Co. Ltd. and
the firm The Wellington and Manawatu Hardware Company. This firm had
leased the new Cuba Street building about three months before The
Arcade development was complete.
The Evening Standard of 17 March 1906 then announced that Watchorn’s
business, the Wellington and Manawatu Hardware Company, had landed
150 bedsteads and cots, and “being short of room in our present premises
we shall be showing and offering these tomorrow & following days at the
NEW BRICK PREMISES opposite (the) Working Men’s Club, Cuba
Street.”77
Watchorn and Sutton leased the property in their own names for about six
months, before the lease was transferred to Messrs J.A. Nash & Co. Ltd.,
which then leased the property its own name until 1908.
The 1902 Wise’s Directory lists Leonard Sutton as a storekeeper at
Collingwood and Golden Ridge. He had previously lived in Palmerston
North, before being “in business in Nelson, Woodville, and other places,
and until (May 1906) represented the well-known firm of J.H. Cock and
Co., of Wanganui.” Sutton was to manage the new shop. Possibly he was
Manawatu Evening Standard 28 August 1948 5(4)
Manawatu Daily Times 26 October 1905 1(7)
77
Manawatu Evening Standard 17 March 1906 4(1)
75
76
Page 46
also the person of the same name who was a Rongotea storekeeper by
1914.78
John Samuel Watchorn was a very well known early resident of
Palmerston North. He had been apprenticed in the drapery trade in
England and arrived in New Zealand in 1880, aged 22. He settled in
Palmerston North in 1883, and began working for Messrs Joseph Nathan
& Co.’s Ready Money Store. This firm became the Manawatu Farmers’
Co-operative Association in 1893, at which time he became manager of
the firm’s drapery, clothing and boot departments. His 1933 obituary
recorded that many of the town’s prominent businessmen of that time had
received their early training under him.
In 1899, he and his family returned to England to settle, but two years later
had returned. He then set up the Victoria House Co. in The Square, on the
future site of (the former) PDC department store. He duly disposed of this
business and later started another millinery and drapery in a different
building that came to be associated with this family for some years, before
giving that up also in 1917. His obituary did not mention his connection to
the firms The Wellington and Manawatu Hardware Co. and J.A. Nash &
Co. Ltd., or to The Arcade.79
The Official Opening
‘The Arcade’ was officially opened by the Mayor, Maurice Cohen, on 6
June 1906. The upstairs area of the end Coleman Place building had been
converted into a tearoom for the occasion, and had been decorated with
flags and other such trappings. A “very large number of people” were also
present to witness the event, including many Borough Councillors.
Wise’s Directories of 1902 and 1914; Manawatu Evening Standard 7 June 1906
7(3-4)
79
Manawatu Evening Standard 9 May 1933, 6(7); Cyclopedia of New Zealand, Vol.
1 (Wellington, 1897), p. 1190. See also the PDC department store history
published in the (unnumbered) book From Swamp to City (Palmerston North,
1937).
78
The “commodious two-storied brick structure” had been built for Messrs
J.A. Nash & Co. Ltd., and during the ceremony the mayor praised Mr Nash
for his achievements, including that his role as president of the local
Chamber of Commerce. Nash, in turn, explained the current structure of
the business and the backgrounds of his business partners. The new
business was an amalgamation of those previously carried on by Messrs
Watchorn & Sutton (the Wellington & Manawatu Hardware Co.), and Mr
Porteous and himself. After all the praise was duly bestowed, a “dainty
afternoon tea was served to those present on a lavish scale. As its
consumption was to the seductive strains of music (provided by Messrs A.
McMinn and F. Meyrick), a highly enjoyable time was spent.” The new
building was then described:
The new structure is on one of the best ‘stands’ in the town
from a business point of view. Its chief frontage (83 feet) is to
Coleman Place, but as it runs right through to Cuba Street its value
may be easily estimated. The total length of the shop from street to
street is some 155 feet. The Coleman Place end is two stories in
height, the remainder of the building being one storied.
The principal end is, of course, that nearest the Square.
Here the passer-by is struck by the two great plate-glass windows,
which afford an unexampled opportunity of displaying various
wares. One, that on the left of the entrance, is at present devoted
entirely to the firm’s famous ‘Temple’ brand of tea. This window has
been most artistically dressed by one of the employees, Mr Barron,
there being a figure pushing a barrow full of tea and bearing the
appropriate legend ‘We push tea.’
The other window contains a very fine assortment of
building tools, clocks, lamps etc. The front shop itself contains two
departments, the grocery being on the left and the ironmongery on
the right. The fixtures are well designed and substantially built, and
appear most suitable for the purpose. A good effect is produced by
the insertion of mirrors at intervals. Midway along the grocery side is
a desk for the cashier, being provided with all the necessary
openings for working from various parts of the shop. The
accountant’s office is placed at the end of the ironmongery
department. The display of goods coming under the latter heading is
Page 47
undoubtedly one of the most extensive in town. It will be under the
control of Messrs W. White and E.W. Simmons, who recently had
control of the Hardware Company’s business in George Street.
Upstairs there is the spacious apartment wherein the firm will store
its groceries. Here also the tea packing, quite a big affair, will be
conducted.
The Cuba Street end will at an early date be utilised for the
crockery part of the business, and also for the storage of the heavy
lines of bulk ironmongery. The whole structure is in the form of an
arcade, as customers may walk uninterrupted from street to street.
The establishment is under the experienced management of Mr L.
Sutton, a former resident of Palmerston. Latterly he has been
engaged in business in Nelson, Woodville, and other places, and
until last month represented the well-known firm of J.H. Cock & Co.,
of Wanganui. The establishment next to Mr Pegden will be
conducted as hitherto.
The front of the shop (the two-storied portion) is the property
of Mrs F. Mowlem, and has been taken on a lengthy lease by the
firm. The contract for its erection was placed in the hands of Mr
Chas. Blackbourn, the well-known local builder, and has been
carried out in an eminently satisfactory manner by him. Mr
Blackbourn also constructed the numerous and intricate fixtures in a
good style and with commendable promptitude.
Mr James Nash, the managing director of the firm, will remain
in charge of the old premises, together with Mr Porteous, the
secretary.
Altogether the new structure is a credit to the town, and one
of which Palmerston may well be proud. The enterprise of its
owners will doubtless be amply rewarded.80
Despite his plans for the new Coleman Place-Cuba Street shop in June
1906, Nash sold his shops in 1907 and became a valuer, estate and
insurance agent for a firm entitled Messrs Nash & Lovelock. His biography
in The Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, Vol. 4, mostly follows his
80
subsequent extensive career from Palmerston North Borough Councillor
(1907), to Mayor 1908-1923, and then Member of Parliament (191981
1935).
The cause of the business’ sudden demise has not been researched,
however, in January 1908, the firm L.D. Paterson announced that it had
taken over J.A. Nash & Co. Ltd’s Wine and Spirit business. At the same
time, J.A. Nash & Co. Ltd. still advertised its ‘Temple’ brand of Ceylon tea
82
on sale at its ‘Arcade Stores’.
Leases and Sub-leases
CT WN24/199 records that J.A. Nash & Co. Ltd. leased the property for a
fifteen-year term starting 1 April 1906, and this lease follows a very similar
pattern for both ends of The Arcade.
In June 1908, H.S. Porteous announced that he had commenced business
as a grocer in the premises in The Square formerly occupied by J.A. Nash
& Co. Ltd. At the same time, J.H. Gilchrist, of ‘The Arcade’, announced he
had taken over from J.A. Nash & Co., selling groceries and tea in the firm’s
former Coleman Place shop.83 Accordingly, CT WN24/199 records that the
lease was transferred from J.A. Nash & Co. Ltd. to James Henry Gilchrist
in July 1908 (Note that the transfer dates are when the records were
amended on the CT, and not the date when the transaction actually
occurred). Gilchrist later became a land agent according to his cemetery
record.84
‘Nash, James Alfred,’ in The Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, Vol. 4, 19211940, (Wellington, 1998), pp. 370-371; Manawatu Evening Standard 7 June 1906
7(3-4), 9 May 1933, 6(7); Manawatu Times 25 July 1952 p. 3.
82
Manawatu Evening Standard 15 January 1908, 2(1-2)
83
Manawatu Evening Standard 1 June 1908 2(1-2) & 4(7)
84
Gilchrist died on 20 September 1938, however, no obituary was traced. PNCC
Terrace End Cemetery online record. He was possibly part of the hardware firm
Permain & Gilchrist in 1902 (re Manawatu Daily Times 1 December 1902, 1(5)
81
Page 48
Then in June 1909 the lease was transferred to John Samuel Watchorn.
The lease of the Cuba Street end of The Arcade was transferred to him
that month also. In October 1909, Watchorn transferred both leases to a
partnership of Hugh Duncan Buchanan, Thomas Thompson Hillas and
Frederick William Henry Kummer. T.T. Hillas died on 4 May 1915, aged
65, and was replaced within the partnership by his wife Agnes. The Hillas’
were from Mauriceville and are buried at Masterton Cemetery, which also
contains many members of the Krummer family. However, their connection
85
to Palmerston North is unclear. This partnership leased the property until
the 15-year lease ended in April 1921, at which time the property returned
to its owner, Mary Emma Mowlem. Various members of the Mowlem
family then owned it until 1966, and no subsequent tenants were listed on
the relevant CT WN282/160.86
Australian-born Mary Emma Mowlem was the widow of prominent local
businessman, Fred Mowlem, who owned buildings nearby at the time of
their deaths on 26 August 1926 (aged 76) and 22 November 1925 (aged
79) respectively. Described as being “of a quiet and shy disposition”, but
with “time to do those many deeds of kindness which endeared her to all
who knew her”, and as someone who “found opportunity for quiet and
unobtrusive service” as a member of the local Methodist Church, there is
little in her obituary to explain her ownership of this building. However,
records from the era show that businessmen often put homes and
properties in their wives’ names, in order to protect these properties in the
event of financial problems with their own businesses.87
85
Manawatu Evening Standard 12 January 1934 1(1); Headstone at Masterton
Cemetery per Cemetery microfiche, PN Public Library.
86
Note that CT WN282/160 was not sighted for this study (its number is misrecorded on the subsequent CT). However, its contents are listed as part of the
1980 study by Victoria University students in Research File A175/154, George
Street-Cuba Street-Coleman Place, Ian Matheson City Archives, PN City Library.
87
Manawatu Evening Standard 23 November 1925 7(2), 26 August 1926 7(1)
Nonpareil & the Pees family
The next known occupant of the building was the Nonpareil Cycle & Motor
Co. - the word ‘Nonpareil’ meaning “a person or thing having no equal.”
According to CT WN24/199, Eric Stanley Pees, co-owner of the Nonpareil
Cycle & Motor Co., leased this building from 1 November 1911 until 29
April 1921 (the existing 15-year lease was set to end on 30 April 1921.
The Cyclopedia of New Zealand, Vol. 6, published in 1908, provided a
description of the firm. However, at the time Nonpareil occupied the
neighbouring building on the western boundary of this building. The
aforementioned article reads:
The Nonpareil Cycle and Motor Company (E.S. Pees and
C.S. Pees): The Square, Palmerston North. Branch business at
Wellington and Newtown.
This firm, which now stands well to the front in the
Wellington province, was established in Ghuznee Street, Wellington,
in the year 1902, and the Newtown branch was opened in 1905.
In November 1906, the firm bought out the retail cycle
business of Messrs J.B. Clarkson and Company, Limited88, of
Palmerston North, and removed the headquarters of the firm to that
town. The premises are amongst the finest in the town; they have
2000 square feet of floor space, are fitted up and appointed in the
most up-to-date and attractive manner, and comprise a
commodious showroom (capable of displaying 100 machines), a
suite of offices, and large workrooms.
This firm make a fine display in their showrooms of the
‘Nonpareil’ cycle (their own manufacture), also the ‘Centaur’ and
‘Premier’ cycles, for which they are agents. A large stock of
accessories is kept, and repairing is also done on the premises; in
which latter connection the firm have a good reputation for reliable
and trustworthy workmanship.
The Wellington and Newtown branch shops are also
spacious and up-to-date, and both carry a fine stock of bicycles, etc.
88
Refer to the ‘Pink & Collison Building’ at 260-262 Cuba Street, which the
Clarkson firm later occupied.
Page 49
The firm do an extensive trade in all parts of the North Island, and
employ twenty-five persons. Agencies have been established in
89
Foxton, Otaki, and Shannon.”
The article also includes biographies on the owners, London-born brothers
Eric Stanley Pees (born 1882) and Charles Sydney Pees (born 1880). E.S.
Pees emigrated to New Zealand aged 16 (c1898), being joined by C.S.
Pees, an engineering draftsman, in 1902. They established their business
in Wellington in 1906, before acquiring the Palmerston North branch and
turning it into their head office, with E.S. Pees moving to the town. C.S.
Pees remained in Wellington, where he managed the Wellington branch.90
The firm held its official opening in this building on the evening of 17
November 1911, during which, Mr E.S. Pees described their “new and
commodious brick business premises,” as “one of the largest (premises) of
their kind in Australasia.” In the course of the evening, the Mayor, Mr J.A.
Nash, complimented Pees on “acquiring such fine premises.” The
newspaper did not comment on Nash’s former association with the
building.91
There is no corresponding entry on the CT for the other end of The
Arcade, although that lease covers only the land (it was on a Borough
Council reserve). The 1911-16 Wises Directories list other firms with links
to J.A. Nash & Co. as occupying that building. However, Nonpareil
occupied it as part of what then became 7,500 square feet of showroom
arcade, from mid-February 1914. The 1920-22 Directories state that
Nonpareil Motor Co. had its motor garage there.92
The firm probably remained in this building until its lease ran out in 1921,
and its departure marked the end of the two buildings being operated
together as an arcade.
Subsequent occupants
One early tenant that still exists is Goldfinch & Cousins. Its founders were
Vic Goldfinch and Fred Cousins, who had learned their trade at McGruers
Ltd. and Collinson & Cunninghams, before enlisting for service during
World War One. They opened the shop soon after the war, and remained
there until about 1925, when they moved to a shop in the former
Clarendon Hotel building. When that building was demolished in 1975, the
firm moved to its present location, still in the same part of The Square.93
Another well-known long-time local firm was Arthur J. Berryman’s music
shop, which was described as “The Home of Music” and later of radio.
Berryman bought the firm in 1920 and had moved it into this building by
1925. C. Tilleard Natusch & Sons drew plans dated March 1928 for the
Mowlem Estate. A note on the back said that these were for Berryman’s
Music Shop. They show the shop fronts and entrances to the building were
being significantly altered from an inverted ‘V’ shape that had doors
opening on an angle to the road. The new doors to the two shops were
side by side and parallel to the road, but were still set into the building as
far has they had previously been. At that time there were no other doors at
the front of the building, as there are at present.94
Manawatu Evening Standard 16 July 1972, p. 6
Natusch plan dated March 1928, misfiled as Plan 530/196-198, PNCC 4/13/6,
Ian Matheson City Archives, PN City Library. Earlier in 1928, Natusch designed the
Mowlem building in Cuba Street (latterly Costa’s) on behalf of the (Fred) Mowlem
Estate, resulting in the filing error, as these alterations were for the (Mary) Mowlem
Estate.
93
Cyclopedia of New Zealand, Vol. 6, Taranaki, Hawkes Bay, Wellington
(Christchurch, 1908), p. 685
90
Ibid. p. 685
91
92
See also: ‘The Arcade – Cuba Street’s’ history, and also the plan of DP 2639
89
94
Page 50
When in 1932 Arthur Berryman realised that Broadway was becoming one
of the city’s chief shopping areas, he relocated there, where his former
95
building and Berrymans Lane still survive.
Triggs & Denton (Nth. Is.) Ltd. occupied the building for at least thirty
years, before moving to Cuba Street. Subsequent tenancies appear to
have been relatively short-lived.
It is not known when the upper floor began being used as a billiard room.
However, the door on the left side of the building that gives it separate
street access does not appear to have been present in photos dating from
the mid-1960s (i.e. Photo Ho14). The Deluxe Billiard Room last appeared
in the phonebook in 1991 after at least two decades. However, it may have
spent its last years in the neighbouring Union Building. The name
McConachy Hall, that was associated with the building in the early 1990s,
was perhaps in memory of Clark McConachy MBE (1895-1980), who is
described as New Zealand’s greatest billiards and snooker player.96
In 1966, the Mowlem family sold the building to Peter Nicoletatos, a local
fish shop proprietor, and his wife Eva. He died in Greece on 23 April 1982,
and accordingly in 1983, the property was transmitted to Eva Nicoletatos
as survivor97, and then transferred to Ruapapa Ltd., in 1984. It was sold to
Cecilia Mary Stewart, company director of Levin, in 1989. Then in 1993 it
was sold to the current owners, Hoi Chi Lee, restaurateur, and Joe Woo
Sing, photographer (jointly inter se ½ share) and Cheng Yun Kam Lee,
restaurateur, and Joe Woo Sing, photographer (jointly inter se ½ share),
as tenants in common.
Shop nearest Rangitikei St
Wises 1922
Coleman Pl. - Warren & Ganderton, cycle
engineers
Wises 1925
Coleman Pl. - Arthur J. Berryman, music dealer
Wises 1936
Coleman Pl. – E.B. Borham, radio dealer (left
98
1935)
Wises 1939-44
27 Coleman Pl. - H.H. Blandford Ltd, furriers
Wises 1950-60
27 Coleman Pl. – F.G. Everson Ltd, furriers
Photos Stc39 & Ho14 27 Coleman Pl. - Smiths Women’s Wear
Specialists (moved out late 1970s)
Phonebook 1991-94
27 Coleman Pl. – Vegas Video Games
1996-c1999
27 Coleman Pl. - Sun Sing Restaurant
2009
27 Coleman Pl. – Le Petit Bistro (since closed)99
2010
Noodles ‘n Dumplings
Shop nearest George St.
Wises 1922-25
Coleman Pl. -Goldfinch & Cousins, drapers
Stones 1933
Coleman Pl. – Mrs Mabel Isabel Lewis, arts &
crafts shop
Wises 1936
Coleman Pl. – nil
Wises 1939-60
25 Coleman Pl. – Triggs & Denton (Nth Is) Ltd.
leather goods
1968-late 1970s
25 Coleman Pl. – Athenia Milk Bar (Bdg Permit
records & phonebook)
By 1996
The two shops amalgamated as a restaurant
Upstairs
Photo ST67
Phonebook 1992-94
95
Robert H.Billens & H. Leslie Verry, From Swamp to City (Palmerston North,
1937) ‘Berryman’s Radio & Music shop’ article (no page numbers in this book)
96
N.A.C. McMillan, ‘McConachy, Clark’, in The Dictionary of New Zealand
Biography, Vol. 5 (Wellington, 2000) pp. 307-8
97
Manawatu Evening Standard 27 April 1982, p. 23
Deluxe Billiard Room (1973 - phonebook c1991,
but possibly in the Union Building next door by
1985)
McConachy Hall
98
A regular advert in the Evening Standard of 30 July 1935 1(3) advises that
Borham’s Radio Service is relocating from Coleman Place to The Square.
99
Le Petit Bistro: http://www.stuff.co.nz/manawatustandard/news/2287228/Eateries-flourish-despite-gloom
Page 51
2010
unknown
Photographic Record
This building appears in a number photos held in the Photographic
Collection at the PN City Library. These show changes of occupancy and
signage over the years, but the only noticeable differences relate to the
verandah.
Sq142 - Nonpareil Cycle & Motor Co., in a photo taken from the old main
Post Office Clock Tower. A sign consisting of very large (tin?)
letters on an open framework runs along the length of the roofline
reading “NONPAREIL CYCLE Co”. The photo was taken between
late 1911 when Nonpareil took over the shop and when work
started on the 1913-built (former) Hallensteins building on the
corner of George Street and Coleman Place. Visible on the
immediate left of the Nonpareil building is its previous building,
formerly occupied by the Clarkson firm. Mr C. Giorgi, a cabinetmaker and upholsterer, moved into that building in 1912 after
Nonpareil moved into The Arcade.100
Bc431 – Nonpareil Cycle & Motor Co. No signage indicating any other
occupants. This is a Nonpareil promotional photo and about 15
motorbikes and their ‘riders’ are lined up in front of the building,
while five carts and horses are lined up behind the motorbikes.
Signage on the carts says “Indian”, as does a sign on the
building’s upper facade. The verandah has four verandah posts
and name sign on the front of the verandah has three posts
protruding almost a metre above Nonpareil’s sign. Presumably a
previous occupant had a much larger sign. The photo was taken
between 1915, when the Everybody’s Theatre was built next to
this building, and 1921, when Nonpareil’s lease ended.
Sq388 - Nonpareil Cycle & Motor Co. A postcard showing neighbouring
buildings. Signage on the building is the same as Bc431. The
verandah is the same as Bc431 and the roofline signage is still
present. The photo was taken between 1915 when the
100
Everybody’s Theatre was built and 1920 when Hopwood’s
Hardware left its nearby building.
Bc127 – This is a ‘portrait’ of the building and its staff. “Berrymans Home
of Music” is the main signage on the upper façade of the building,
and the firm occupied the shop closest to Rangitikei Street.
Goldfinch & Cousins occupied the other shop. Photographed
about 1925 – the point where both these businesses were present
together. Photo T28 shows a wider view of this scene. Meanwhile
Ho12 shows the same façade alongside the new Midland Hotel in
1928 – although Goldfinch & Cousins was theoretically long gone
by this point. The verandah has been changed and is now
suspended from above and the verandah posts gone.
Stc39 & Ho14 - (both around 1960-65) show the building occupied by
Triggs & Denton Ltd. and Smiths Women’s Wear Specialists.
There is no signage on the upper façade, which looks tired.
ST67 - Coleman Place from the Manawatu Evening Standard of 26
February 1973, shows Smiths still in its shop, while the other shop
occupant’s name is illegible. The upper façade is headed “Deluxe
Billiard Room”, which occupied the first floor.
PNCC’s Building Permit records (file C70/27) on this building relate to the
conversion in 1996 of what appears to have already been by then a single
shop (as it also appears to have been before 1921) into the short-lived
Sun Sing Restaurant. The cost was $64,000, and the designer was Theos
Design & Draughting. The work included installing the kitchen and other
restaurant trappings, removing the former window display area inside the
front windows, and changing the front double doors so that they swung
outwards instead of inwards. This modified the Natusch alterations dating
from 1928.101
Natusch plan dated March 1928, misfiled as Plan 530/196-198, PNCC 4/13/6,
Ian Matheson City Archives, PN City Library. Permit No. 431 dated 29 May 1928
covered these alterations, which were undertaken by H.E. Townsend.
101
Manawatu Evening Standard, regular advert 16 October 1912 1(3)
Page 52
An item in the Building Permit file for the neighbouring building (C70/2931) is an application dated 1 February 1968 to convert a shop to a milk
bar, snack shop and cafeteria for P. Nicoletatos. This was identified as the
Athenia Milk Bar, although it soon became the Athenian Lounge. This was
at 25 Coleman Place until at least the 1977 phonebook, but by 1980 was
102
listed in the phonebook as 29 Coleman Place . It therefore appears to
have moved to the neighbouring building.
The building is designed in the Italianate Palazzo style with symmetrical
façade, Classical details such as a pediment as part of the parapet,
pilasters on opposite corners, an ornate cornice, and vertically
proportioned windows with architraves all on the above-verandah part of
the façade. The below verandah has been modified from the original.
A ground floor plan available from the PNCC archives shows a stair to the
first floor on the Hallenstein’s side with access from the street. The
remainder of the ground floor plan shows an open planned restaurant with
kitchen and toilet facilities at the rear.
Square. It is one of the few buildings in the central city over 100 years old
giving it high age value and it also has high historic values as an early
mall.
The building has moderate design values as a representative example
of the Edwardian Italianate style, a popular for commercial buildings in the
late Victorian and Edwardian period.
the city.
The exterior of the building has moderate levels of authenticity.
The exterior is cement rendered and newspaper descriptions state that it
was constructed of brick.
This building has moderate local significance for historical and design
This building has moderate historic values in its associations with
builder/designer, Charles Blackbourn, a successful local building
contractor, who built a number of buildings in the city with the former
Ballroom Astoria being another surviving example of his work. The building
is associated with the Mowlem family who also owned 161-163 The
102
The intervening phonebooks (1978-79) were not available.
Page 53
ASSESSMENT SUMMARY
Significance
Proposed category
Cultural
Emotional
Historical
Design
Technology
Spiritual
Sentimental
Symbolic
Political
People
Events
Age
Tradition
Continuity
Style
Materials
Group
Materials
Construction
moderate local
group
Contextual
Measure
Authenticity
M
H
Rarity
Landmark
Representative
Design
Setting
Materials
Craftsmanship
M
M
H
M
M
H
Page 54
Coleman Place, 23-25
Former Union building (now Studio 31)
BUILDING DETAILS
Owner:
Owner’s Address:
Assessment Number:
Property ID:
Land Area:
Legal Description:
NZHPT No.
NZHPT Manawatu No:
Construction date:
Architect:
Original Owner:
Builder:
253 square metres more of less
Lot 1 Section 257 Township of
Palmerston North
WN 684/80 (1955) Prior CTs WN485/13
(1941), WN384/274 (1928), WN25/220
Nil
Nil
Nil
Nil
1922
E. Larcomb
J.M.W. Rhind, H.R. Waldegrave, C.E.
Waldegrave estate & F.G.B. Waldegrave
Unknown
History
This building is one of a number around the central city (past and present)
built by the Waldegrave family and the Waldegrave estate. Its main
occupancies have included teaching, producing and retailing as part of the
clothing industry, garden supplies and books and stationery. In recent
years, its primary focus has been in the personal appearance industry.
Prior History
This property was originally granted to Robert Johnson, a tailor of
Palmerston North, in 1876. He leased it in 1877 to Thomas Moffatt, a
butcher of Palmerston North, and thereafter the original two-storied
wooden building on this site appears to have been occupied by butchers
for its first several decades. Johnson sold it to John James Waldegrave in
Page 55
1880, and thereafter the property remained in the Waldegrave family until
1955.
After Thomas Moffatt, the property was leased to Joseph Dinsdale
(occupation unknown, 4-year lease from 23 October 1883) and then
Robert Bryant (butcher, 5-years, from 1 September 1892). Notes referring
to this building on PN City Library photo SQ112 describe this building as
the ‘City Butchery’, which business was owned by Mr Miller when the
photo was taken. The firm was then sold to William Reed by early 1886103,
and in due course he went into business with Frederick Bryant (almost
certainly the brother of Robert Bryant), who subsequently became a
property developer in post-1900s Palmerston North.104
The Wises’ Directories of 1914-1922, advise that during the last few years,
this building’s two shops were occupied by cycle shops in the shop on the
right, and by initially confectioners and then a Chinese fruiterer in the shop
on the left.
This Building
The tender notice for this building was published in the Manawatu Evening
Standard of 17 June 1922. Architect E. Larcomb sought tenders for a brick
building to be erected in Coleman Place, and these were to be addressed
to the owner, H.R. Waldegrave, care of Dempsy & Litchfield. This was the
second attempt at seeking tenders for the building. The original notice a
few days earlier did not include the location or the owner.105
Manawatu Evening Standard regular advert including 10 March 1886 1(3)
Manawatu Evening Standard, 19 June 1939 8(2); See also the Bryant buildings
at 201-207 Cuba Street. An item published in the Manawatu Daily Times of 17 May
1922 4(2) describes F. Bryant’s beef prices in that newspaper in 1897. The Times’
for the period 1885-1899 were destroyed about ninety years ago.
105
‘Palmerston North Architects’, Pam Phillips Papers, Vol. 5, p. 32, Ian Matheson
City Archives, PN City Library. Manawatu Evening Standard 12 June 1922 6(6), 17
June 1922 6(4).
103
104
No indication has been located to explain why this building was given the
name ‘Union Buildings,’ however, the name appears in the Wises’
Directories from 1925 to 1960 (at least). Most likely it relates to the
presence of the Union Bank of Australia which was (and its former
premises still is) on the opposite side of Coleman Place.
The Owners
When John James Waldegrave (who bought the property in 1880) died in
1891, the property was transmitted to his children, Julia Mary Waldegrave
(later wife of Flinders Scott McRae, of the still-extant McRae Homestead,
Napier Road), Henry Richard Waldegrave II, Charles Edward Waldegrave
and Frank Geoffrey Burton Waldegrave. However, Julia died in 1894, four
days after giving birth to her only child. In 1919 her share was transferred
from trustees to her by now adult daughter, Julia Mary Waldegrave Rhind,
nee McRae.106 Then Charles died on 24 August 1920, aged 65, and two
of his six children received his share.
Henry Richard Waldegrave, whose name is listed as owner in the
building’s 1922 tender notice, died aged 70 on 18 December 1923. Two of
his sons and a son-in-law, G.C. Keeble, (of his six children) inherited his
share. As at 1923, Frank Waldegrave was living in retirement in England.
Although his date of death in not apparent, his name was substituted with
that of the Public Trustee in 1927.
The Waldegrave family were farmers. John James Waldegrave arrived in
New Zealand in 1855 (from England, via Sydney), and eventually arrived
in Palmerston North in 1872, and took up land at Fitzherbert East
(opposite Te Matai). His sons H.R. and C.E. Waldegrave also farmed very
successfully in the area, with H.R. Waldegrave developing a very good
farm at Awapuni. He retired in the early 1900s.107
106
Julia senior died of pleurisy on 22 August 1894, four days after giving birth to
Julia junior (Ref: ‘Notes on the McRae Homestead, Napier Road’, September
1997, by Val Burr)
107
Manawatu Evening Standard 24 August 1920 5(1), 19 December 1923 5(2)
Page 56
By 1952, Julia (by then of Auckland) owned a quarter of the property, with
the rest held by the Public Trustee and the NZ Insurance Company. Then
in 1955, her share was also transferred to the Public Trustee (⅔ share)
and the NZ Insurance Co. (⅓ share), and these two organisations ran the
property until it was sold to the Bares family in 1973.
The new partnership comprised of John Bares (restaurateur ½ share),
Peter Bares (retired restaurateur ¼ share) and Maria Bares, married
woman ¼ share). The Bares partnership also adapted to
departures/deaths of members and their replacements by other members
of the family. By 2001 it was solely owned by John Bares. It was
transferred to the current owner, Melville House Ltd., in 2003.
Occupants
Occupancy of this building has included a number of retailers and others
involved in the clothing industry. As well as an “outfitter,” a milliner and a
“costumer,” the building accommodated furriers between at least 1925 and
1960, dressmakers in the 1930s, and a school of dressmaking throughout
the 1930s.
The two furriers traded from this building for around forty years. The PNCC
cemetery records list Henry Herbert Blandford, a furrier, who died on 27
August 1948, aged 57, and Muriel Irene Scoble, who died on 23 March
1973, aged 81. Miss Scoble lived in a flat in the Nash Building in George
Street in the 1930s and 1940s, but lived in Rangiora Ave. at the time of her
death. The cemetery records list her occupation as ‘spinster’, despite her
having still apparently been working as a furrier until at least 1960, by
which time she would have been aged about 68.
The two shops also had long histories with single lines of business. The
shop on the right has been a bookseller and/or stationer from the 1930s to
the present, albeit with the occupancy in the mid-1990s not having been
traced. The 1967 phonebook lists both Fox’s Stationers and Wills
Bookshop as being at the same address and with the same phone
number. However, E.J. & A.E. Wills Ltd. had occupied this shop since at
least 1963 when they had the front of the shop altered.
By the early 1930s, the shop on the left side was occupied by R.E.
Harrison & Co. This firm – which later had a well-known garden centre in
Albert Street - used this shop as a retail outlet until about 1965. The next
occupant was Garden Supplies, which already had a garden centre at
Avon House in Broadway (about where Downtown now is), and the
Coleman Place Garden Supplies shop last appeared in the phone book in
1973.
Occupancy of this shop was not again traced until 1986, when Studio 31
was first listed in the phonebook, with separate phone numbers for the firm
Golden Tan Solarium Ltd., Reflexions Hair Design and Super Nail. The
Studio 31 website108 does not provide any background to the business, but
does list other present-day Studio 31 shops in Feilding, Taihape, Foxton
and Wanganui.
Additions & Alterations.
PNCC Building Permit file C70/33 for Wills’ Bookshop includes the March
1963 plans by Durrant & Cantlon for changing the front entrance of the
shop from the old style deeply stepped-in central entrance, to a sliding
door on the right side of the frontage, and sited near the edge of the
footpath. This work included re-using existing glass and installing glazed
tiles beneath the window.
The PNCC Building Permit file C70/29-31 includes a permit application to
convert a shop into the Athenia Milk Bar for P. Nicoletatos, dated 1
February 1968. However, this appears to be for the neighbouring building,
which Nicoletatos then owned – although his restaurant, then called the
Athenian Lounge, moved into this building in about 1980. This business
appears for the last time, still in this building, in the 1983 phone book.
Nicoletatos had died in 1982.109
108
109
www.studio-31.co.nz
Page 57
In 1981, the Scotch Wool Shop applied for a permit for a new shop front
for their shop at 31 Coleman Place. The phonebook lists their address as
31A Coleman Place, and so it is not clear where in the building this shop
was located. Previously this shop was at 18-20 Coleman Place, and later
(from the 1992 phonebook) it was as at 198 The Square.
The main information recorded in the file relates to alterations to the
building done for the C.A. Thompson Family Trust in 1985, by Ormond
Stock & Associates, Consulting Engineers. A permit application in
February 1985 sought to alter the shop at 29 Coleman Place. This
involved striping out all electrical work back to the main board under the
stairs, while leaving intact all wiring to the upstairs tenancy, which was a
billiard saloon. The upper floor was to be propped up to ensure that the
floor did not sag. The central partition and a partition across the back of
the building were to be demolished. A new steel support beam was to then
be installed to support tie upper floor. The kitchen area of the previous
coffee lounge was also to be thoroughly cleaned.
In June 1985, Golden Tan Solarium Ltd. applied to undertake internal
alterations to the upper floor of the building. This work appears to have
involved installing a shower, three hand basins, a sink and a hot water
cylinder.
Shop nearest Rangitikei Street
Wises 1925
Mrs M. Bevan, outfitter
Stones 1933
Martin Leonard, stationer
Wises 1936-54
33 Coleman Pl. – Martin Leonard, stationer
Wises, 1957-60
33 Coleman P. – Fox’s Stationers Ltd.
Bdg Permit file 1963
EJ & AE Wills Ltd change shop front (file C70/33)
Phonebook 1967
phone number
Photo ST67 ES 26/2/1973
Fox’s last entry & Wills’ first entry - same
Wills Bookshop
1991 phonebook
The Square)
About 1998-now
Wills Bookshop last entry (1992 only at 1
now 25 Coleman Pl. - The Bookshelf
First Floor (was 31 Coleman Pl.)
Wises 1925
Macpherson & Randle, milliner; Jno King, watch
specialist; Miss Evelyn Trask, costumer
Stones, 1933
Miss Muriel Irene Scoble, furrier; Mrs Annie
Maclean, school of dressmaking; Purser & Martin
(Misses Annie Amelia Purser & Barbara B.Martin),
dressmakers
Wises, 1936
Ms Murial Scoble, fur representative; Mrs Annie
Maclean, teacher of dressmaking
Wises, 1939
Ms Murial Scoble, fur representative; Ms E.
Pavelka (sic), teacher of dressmaking
Wises, 1950-60
Miss Muriel I. Scoble, furrier;
1981-91
31A Coleman Pl. – Scotch Wool Shop (Bdg
Permit file & phonebooks)
c1985
An unidentified billiard saloon (perhaps Deluxe
Billiard Saloon displaced from the neighbouring
building)
1986 - now
Studio 31 and/or Golden Tan Solarium Ltd.
Shop nearest George Street
Wises 1925
Henry H. Blandford, furrier
Stones 1933
R.E. Harrison & Co., seedsmen
Phonebook 1965
R.E. Harrison & Co., nurserymen (last
entry – also of Albert St.)
Phonebook 1966
Garden Supplies (first entry – also Avon House,
Broadway))
1973 phonebook
29 Coleman Pl. - Garden Supplies, D.H. Trim,
proprietor
Phonebooks 1980-83 29 Coleman Pl. – Athenian Lounge, coffee bar
1986-now
Studio 31
Page 58
Comments:
Most notable and most confusing amongst the occupants
of this building are the number who have come and gone between other
buildings in and close to Coleman Place. The Scotch Wool Shop was in
three different buildings over the years, while Wills Bookshop and the
Athenian Lounge were each in two different buildings. The Deluxe Billiard
Saloon may have relocated to this building from its neighbour, along with
the Athenian Lounge. Deluxe Billiard Saloon is the only one advertised in
the phonebook around 1985 as being in Coleman Place.
The building is designed in the Inter-War Free Classical style where
Classical elements and details are used in the façade design in a nonacademic manner. The façade design has a parapet with pilasters, a
highly ornate and exaggerated cornice with central pilaster in the first floor
and large windows either side. The windows and pilaster are framed with
Classical mouldings. The below verandah design has been modified so
that its original design cannot be determined.
and later ownership and tenants reflects moderate levels of continuity in
being a typical pattern of similar commercial buildings throughout the city.
The building has moderate historic values in being associated with
locally significant architect, Ernest Larcomb.
example of the Free Classical style of the inter-war period.
Drawings available from the PNCC archives do not show overall planning
or construction so that no comments can be made. The exterior is cement
rendered.
The architect, Ernest Larcomb , designed a number of significant buildings
in Palmerston North. These include the main public hospital, many shops
around the Square, and several large houses such as the Wattles, the
Empire, Albion and Occidental Hotels.
values, representivity of building style and type and level of external
authenticity.
This building has moderate historic associations with the Waldegrave
family, who owned and built a number of buildings in the city. The original
Page 59
ASSESSMENT SUMMARY
Significance
Proposed category
Cultural
Emotional
Historical
Design
Technology
Spiritual
Sentimental
Symbolic
Political
People
Events
Age
Tradition
Continuity
Style
Materials
Group
Materials
Construction
moderate local
group
Contextual
Measure
Authenticity
M
H
Rarity
Landmark
Representative
Design
Setting
Materials
Craftsmanship
M
M
H
M
M
H
Page 60
Cuba Street, 137-143
Elgin Buildings
BUILDING DETAILS
Building’s Address:
Owner:
Owner’s Address:
Assessment Number:
Property ID:
Land Area:
Legal Description:
NZHPT No.
NZHPT Manawatu No:
Construction date:
Architect:
Original Owner:
Builder:
Cnr Cuba & Bourke St., 137, 139, 141 &
143 Cuba St.
Pt Lot 34 DP 22
WN451/166 (1936), prior CT WN5/191
Nil
Nil
Nil
Nil
Stage 1: 1923, Stage 2: 1929
O.A. Jorgenson
Messrs A. & W. Clark
Stage 1 (1923): Hudson & Williamson
Stage 2 (1929): Anderson & Williamson
History
This building began in 1923 as a single storey set of three shops, and then
in 1929 a fourth shop and three flats upstairs were added. It was built for
Messrs. A. & W. Clark - a partnership consisting of Alexander Clark, a
company manager of Palmerston North, and his brother William Clark, an
engine driver of Blenheim. The Clark family owned this building until 1958,
at which time it was bought by Selkirk Building Ltd. It was then purchased
by the neighbouring Boniface Bros. (PN) Ltd. bakery firm in 1963, and that
firm owned it for 22 years. At present only one shop is tenanted, while
another contains display items from nearby shop. The flats appear to be
tenanted.
Page 61
Prior History
CT WN 5/191 (issued 1875) indicates that the building is sited on part of
what was Section 305, Lot 34. This property was owned by Erik Magnus
Johansen, a local labourer, between 1878 and 1891 when Jens Carl
Hansen, a journeyman, became its owner. He was followed in 1892 by
labourer Jens Wilhelm Larsen. What was possibly a simple cottage on the
site was then sold in 1905 to Penelope Fraser, wife of William Fraser, a
local settler110, before becoming the property of the well-known Dr.
Frederick Rockstrow in 1910. However, Jens Wilhelm Larsen, a gardener,
still had money tied up the property at the time of his death aged 54 on 31
July 1911. Larsen’s estate passed to even more Scandinavian settlers, the
Lutheran pastor, Rev. Mads Christensen and Anders Nielsen, before Dr.
Rockstrow (another Lutheran) evidently gained clear title to the property
(by transmission) in late 1913 – albeit that he had in fact died some
months earlier on 30 May 1913, aged 78.
The history surrounding this site is in itself a matter for curiosity, especially
given the presence of a kindly old German-born doctor noted for accepting
produce (potatoes, bacon, etc.) for his fee rather than concern about
personal gain.111 Until 1892 – just after the arrival of the somewhat noisy
railway station near its front door - the Danish Lutheran Church had been
nearby on the corner of Main and Domain Streets. This was clearly always
a working class area, and the type of early occupations of tenants at the
Elgin Flats (and one part-owner) indicate that that continued, with NZ
Railways employees being well-represented.
In 1914, Rockstrow’s estate sold the property to a partnership of Charles
Fairweather Russell, a commercial traveller of Wellington, and Alexander
Clark, painter and paperhanger of Palmerston North. It is noteworthy that
William Fraser, a former goldminer in NZ, Australia and the US, ran a
storekeeping and carrying business after moving the Palmerston North in about
1889. The couple’s obituaries: Manawatu Evening Standard 14 August 1912 5(1),
16 August 1912 5(1), and 1 July 1935 8(4).
111
‘Dr. Rockstrow’ in Cecil & Celia Manson, Pioneer Parade (Wellington, 1966). P.
78-9.
110
both Alexander Clark and his wife Florence were also eventually listed as
Lutherans on the Palmerston North cemetery records database.
In 1919 Russell and Clark ‘sold’ the property to Clark’s company,
Alexander Clark Ltd., albeit that Rev. Mads Christensen and Anders
Nielsen still held a mortgage over the property until 1923. A month after
that mortgage was settled, the property was again transferred, this time
from Alexander Clark Ltd., to the partnership of Alexander and William
Clark - otherwise known as Messrs A. & W. Clark
Elgin Buildings & the Clark family
Permit 511 was issued on 25 August 1923 to build a single storey threeshop brick building on the site. This £1,922 block was to become the first
stage of the present building. ‘Shop No. 1’ had the present angled door
opening out toward the intersection, while ‘Shop No’s 2 and 3’ faced Cuba
Street. The plans show that the year “1923” was to be placed on the
building’s parapet. The architect was O.A. Jorgenson and the plans were
drawn up on 20 August 1923 for Messrs A & W Clark. The builders were
Messrs. Hudson & Williamson. Permit 1048 was then issued on 27
November 1924, for a room to be built at the back of Shop 1. The architect
again was O.A. Jorgenson and the builder was F. Needham Ltd.
Permit 152 dated 7 November 1929 added the second floor to the building,
as well as adding Shop No. 4 to the Cuba Street frontage. The upstairs
addition consisted of three two-bedroom flats. The plans, again by O.A.
Jorgenson, showed panels left for the building’s name on the upper portion
of the building. The builders were Anderson & Williamson.112
Although no direct references to this building appear in available
biographical information relating to the once well-known city businessman
Alexander Clark, he had clear connections to the immediate area. Born in
Plan 141/135-141, and Building Permit Register, Vol. 3, p. 375 (25/8/1923), Ian
Matheson City Archives, PNCC. Note that the names of the builders are
handwritten on the bank of the plans.
112
Page 62
Dunedin and the son of a plumber, he had begun work as an apprentice
with a firm of painters, sign writers and decorators in Dunedin in 1896, for
a pay of five shillings per week. He remained there for six years until he
finished his apprenticeship, before working as a journeyman for another
Dunedin firm. He also found time to serve in the South African War in
1902.
Once Clark came out of his time, he visited the North Island for a holiday.
He liked Palmerston North, and so moved here a month later and lived in a
boarding house at 6 Waldegrave Street. Initially he worked for a builder,
but in 1905 he began his own business after buying a packing case for two
shillings and sixpence and stocking it with paint!
Later that year he opened a small shop in front of the Oddfellows Hall113 in
Cuba Street, which he stocked with £50 of paint. The business grew
rapidly and early the next year he relocated his shop to George Street - to
about where the present entrance to the Harvey Norman shop now is. In
1907 he took a business partner and the firm became Messrs. Clark &
Thompson. The firm continued growing rapidly and in 1919 they moved to
the Fitzherbert Avenue building that his business became best associated
with. Clark duly bought out Thompson in 1919 and the firm became
Alexander Clark Ltd. The same year Alexander Clark Ltd. bought out
Clark’s partner (C.F. Russell) in the land now occupied by the Elgin
Buildings.
Alexander Clark’s business thrived. His main shop still exits at 27
Fitzherbert Avenue, and is now occupied by the firm Lotz of Potz. A 1967
article on Alexander Clark Ltd. recorded that it then sold mirrors and
pictures, did picture framing, and exhibited the work of artists in their
upstairs showroom, in addition to the usual sales of an extensive array of
paint and wallpaper. Alexander Clark died in 1971 aged 90, after a long
career of community roles. His former company’s name continued to
appear in the phonebook until the mid-1980s.
There is nothing clearly apparent as to the origin of the name ‘Elgin
Buildings’. It is possible that Clark’s or his Dunedin-born wife’s forebears
(they married in 1908) trace to the town of Elgin in Moray, Scotland. This
town is the origin of Elgin place names throughout the world, including in
Gisborne and in Mornington, Dunedin. Certainly the Christian name
‘Alexander’ has had great prominence in Elgin, with the Scottish
monarchs, including Alexander II and Alexander III holding their courts
there and hunting in the royal forests. Alexander II was Elgin’s greatest
benefactor, giving the town its royal charter in 1224.114
The Elgin Buildings property was subdivided in 1936, with the back half of
the section going to James Osborne Boniface and Walter Amos Boniface
for their Boniface Bros. bakery. That firm had been on the neighbouring
property since 1924.
A new CT, WN 451/166, was then issued for the portion that included this
building, and this shows that in 1959 the property’s ownership was altered
to Alexander and William Clark owning a 46% share in the property each,
while Ian Clark (a Wainuiomata carpenter) and Lancelot Hugh Hills
(bookseller of PN) each receiving a 4% share, all as tenants in common. In
1958 the property was transferred to Selkirk Building Ltd., and then in
1963, it was transferred to Boniface Bros. (PN) Ltd., which owned the
surrounding land. That firm owned it until 1985, when it was transferred to
Commercial Nominees Ltd. In 1987 that company changed its name to
Elgin Investments Ltd. The present owners Filip and Carla Van Den Hout,
farmers of PN, then bought it in 1994.
Manawatu Evening Standard 15 May 1967, p. 8 ‘Firm’s founder started in 1896
as apprentice’; 29 November 1971, p. 2-5-9 ‘Obituary: Mr Alexander Clark’. Also:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgin,_Moray & http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgin
114
The Oddfellows Hall is now the Watson & Eyre Printers’ building at 184 Cuba
Street.
113
Page 63
Shop No. 4. The 1929 plans shows that two flats were accessed through a
door alongside Shop No. 4. However, the staircase to the flat overlooking
Bourke Street was accessed from inside Shop No. 2. In November 1982,
Boniface Bros. applied for a permit to cut a doorway between two shops
within the building.
A great deal of renovation appears to have been done during Commercial
Nominees Ltd’s ownership. For example, a plan and documents in the
Building Permit file from October 1985, shows a doorway between Shops
2 and 3, near the back of the shops. The verandah was refurbished at this
time, along with the installation of new aluminium shop fronts and doors,
the floor was levelled in Shop 2, and new stairs were installed. Alterations
to the flats were also to be undertaken relative to fire protection.
Documents relating to remodelling the “Cuba Street Market” (at 135-141
Cuba Street) from September 1986, do not correspond with a phone book
entry, and it is possible this refers to the whole building’s identity at that
time.116
Boniface Bros. also sold the land they bought from the Clarks in 1936, to
Commercial Nominees Ltd. in 1985, and this was bought by the Van Den
Houts in 1994 as well. The couple also own the adjoining property, 145
Cuba St. (now the Rainbow Mart), which for many years was the Boniface
Bros. shop and offices. When that company published an article in the
book From Swamp to City in 1937, they included a photo of their vehicle
fleet outside their shop (built 1930), with the Elgin Buildings shown
alongside it (see above). The old Boniface shop is still single storey,
however, it now has a very large upper façade making it appear to be of a
similar height at the Elgin Buildings.115
Alterations
The PNCC Building Permit records for this building include the original
plans for the three shops, dated 20th August 1923; the addition to Shop
No. 1, dated 20th November 1924; and the plans for the 1929 flats and
‘New Zealand’s Model Bakery’ in Robert H. Billens & H. Lesley Verry, From
Swamp to City: Commemorating the Diamond Jubilee of the City (Palmerston
North, 1937) un-numbered 8-page history of Boniface Bros..
115
Tenancies
The following list gives an indication of occupants of the shops downstairs
and the three flats upstairs. The 1925 Wises Directory shows what
appears to be residential property on this site, and the information was
probably recorded prior to this building being erected. Also the street
numbers seem to have been quite erratic with this building – in addition to
the various street number changes affecting Cuba Street over the years.
It is noteworthy that the dairy in this building seems to have begun in Shop
No. 2, and then expanded into Shop No. 3. Also, Frank Adams who ran
the dairy in the 1950s, also lived in one of the flats. As his dairy was in
Shop No. 2, he perhaps lived in the flat accessed directly from his shop.
Corner shop - Shop No. 1 (built 1923)
Stones 1933
87 Cuba St. – Ernest Westley Walters, butcher
Wises 1936-39 87 Cuba St. - S. Rush & Co, coal merchants
116
Page 64
Occupants not confirmed in this period as either Cuba or Bourke Street
listings.
Wises 1957-60 141 Cuba St. – Aero & General Instruments Ltd.
PNCC Building Permit file: 1983 – 137 Cuba St. - Ray’s Brunch Bar
2009
Totara Ridge New Zealand (out-door clothing)
http://www.totararidge.co.nz/
Shop No. 2 (built 1923)
Stones 1933
89 Cuba St. – William John Wright, dairy
Wises 1936-39 89 Cuba St. - William J. Wright, confectioner
Wises 1944
143 Cuba St. – William J. Wright, dairy
Wises 1950-54 143 Cuba St. – L.J. Heayns, dairy
Wises 1957-60 143 Cuba St. – Frank P. Adams, dairy
Manawatu phonebook 1973 143 Cuba – Civic Dairy & Grocery Ltd.
2010
138 Cuba St - shop vacant
Stones 1933
91 Cuba St. – Nothing recorded
Wises 1936-54 91 Cuba St. – Nothing recorded
Wises 1957
145 Cuba St. – S. & A.M. Rose, grocers
Wises 1959-60 145 Cuba St. – Margaret E. Maidens, grocer
Phonebook 1973 145 Cuba – Sandra’s Cake Decorating Studio
2010
139 Cuba St. - shop vacant, signage indicates formerly a
food shop
Three upstairs flats (built 1929): Nowadays numbers 1/141, 2/141 &
3/141
Stones 1933
93 Cuba St. – (a) Mrs Jean Lemont; (b) William Somerville
Farland, engine driver; (c) Herbert Henry Diamond,
labourer
Wises 1936
93 Cuba St. – Mrs Jean Lemont
Wises 1939
93 Cuba St. – “Elgin Flats”: (a) Basil C. McNabb, driver;
(b) Joseph H. Rashleigh, painter; (c) Percy Colville,
mechanic
Wises 1944
147 Cuba St. – “Elgin Flats”: (a) Basil C. McNabb, driver;
(b) Norman Irvine, airman; (c) Henry D. McManaway (no
occupation given)
Wises 1950-1 147 Cuba St. – “Elgin Flats”: (a) E. Jenkins, dental
mechanic; (b) E. Higginbottom, driver
Wises 1953-4 147 Cuba St. – “Elgin Flats”: (a) E. Jenkins, dental
mechanic; (b) Rex E. Andrews, teacher; (c) Michael E.
Hayman, dry cleaner
Wises 1957
147 Cuba St. – “Elgin Flats”: (a) Donald E. Macdonald,
upholsterer; (b) Frank P. Adams, dairyman; (c) Jack R.
Buxton, land agent.
Wises 1959-60 147 Cuba St., - “Elgin Flats”: (a) Brian N. McChesney,
clerk; (b) Frank P. Adams, dairyman; (c) Stan Wells,
salesman.
2009
141 Cuba St. - Three flats
Stones 1933
95 Cuba St. – Mrs Skinner, frock shop
Wises 1936
95 Cuba St. – Mrs Jessie Skinner, dressmaker
Wises 1939
95 Cuba St.- Nil
Wises 1944
149 Cuba St. – Ms K. Needham, dressmaker
Wises 1950-54 149 Cuba St. - Weightman’s Cake Decorations (A.E.
Wood, prop.)
Wises 1957
149 Cuba St. – Howard Jones, auto electrician
Wises 1959-60 149 Cuba St. – Auto-Electrics Ltd., auto-electricians
2010
143 Cuba St. - part of Mike’s Panel Shop (scooter display
area)
The building is designed in the Inter-War Stripped Classical style, which
was a common commercial style in the period between the wars. The
façade has the characteristic simplified or implied Classical elements, with
the vertically and horizontally stepped parapet with shallow triangular
pediment, simplified cornices, implied pilasters keystones and apron
designs. It is apparent that the shopfronts have been modified.
Page 65
No plans for the building could be found in the PNCC archives and
therefore a description of the plan and construction of the building cannot
be given.
The exterior of the building has moderate levels of authenticity,
particularly the above verandah design.
ASSESSMENT SUMMARY
authenticity.
This building has moderate historic values in its connection to a wellknown city identity in Alexander Clark, and therefore to his other building in
Fitzherbert Avenue. It also has connections to the Boniface Bros. bakery
firm, in terms of shared ownership and as its neighbour. The early tenancy
of the flats is linked to the railway history of the area. One (or probably
two joined together) of its shops served as a local dairy for many years,
and accordingly was an important feature of its community in the days
before weekend shopping.
The building is historically associated with its architect, Oscar Jorgenson
a well-known local architect, in whose practice R Thorrald-Jaggard first
served. Jorgenson also designed 34-40 George Street, another building in
the proposed North West Heritage Conservation Area.
Significance
Proposed category
Cultural
Emotional
Historical
Design
Technology
Spiritual
Sentimental
Symbolic
Political
People
Events
Age
Tradition
Continuity
Style
Materials
Group
Materials
Construction
moderate local
group
Contextual
Measure
Authenticity
M
H
Rarity
Landmark
Representative
Design
Setting
Materials
Craftsmanship
M
M
H
example of the Inter- War Free Classical style.
Page 66
M
M
H
Former Carlton Hotel (now Travelodge)
BUILDING DETAILS
Owner:
Owner’s Address:
Assessment Number:
Property ID:
Land Area:
Legal Description:
NZHPT No.
NZHPT Manawatu No:
Construction date:
Architect:
Original Owner:
Builder:
Lot 1-2 DP 352 (PNCC Schedule: Lots 1
& 2 DP 352 & Lot 1 DP 22)
WN27Z/783
(1985),
prior
CTs
WN430/122 (1931), WN107/175 (1900).
Category II117
Nil
Nil
143
1927
L.G. West & Son
John Lowbridge Bennett
unknown
History
Built in 1927, the former Carlton Hotel is one of Palmerston North’s oldest
hotels still operating as such. Other clearly older hotel buildings have
been converted to taverns, offices, shops, etc. The recently expanded and
updated Carlton Hotel building itself is now a key part of the Travelodge
Palmerston North complex, and accordingly it is part of the Travelodge
hotel chain.
Prior History
The Carlton Hotel was built on the site of a block of four small singlestorey shops that appear in a pre-1910 photo of Cuba Street.118 According
to the 1925 Wises’ Directory, this block was by that time occupied by a
117
118
PNCC Schedule of Buildings and Objects of Cultural Heritage Value
Photo STC 14, pre-1910, PN City Library photographic collection
Page 67
lingerie specialist, a boot maker, a confectioner (dairy), and Francis S.
Birch, a baker. Coincidentally, Francis S. Birch bought land on the corner
of Cuba and Waldegrave Streets in early 1927, and tenders were
advertised to build his new shop there a week before tenders were
advertised to build the Carlton.
CT WN107/175 (issued 1900) records the various owners of the block of
shops, none of which seem to have also been occupants. In 1911, it was
sold to three members of the Mason family, who in turn sold it in 1923 to a
partnership of Ada Needham, wife of Frederick Needham, contractor of
PN; Margaretta Anne Florence Oram, wife of (later Sir) Matthew Henry
Oram, solicitor of PN; and Harry Burrows, land agent of PN, as tenants in
common.
In 1925, Harry Burrows’ share was transferred to George Ennis McGregor,
a PN solicitor. Then in 1926, Ada Needham’s share was transferred to
William Keeble Welch, a surgeon dentist of PN. The new partnership of
Oram, McGregor and Welch then sold the property to John Lowbridge
Bennett, a hotelkeeper of PN, in early 1927.
Prior to purchasing the Clarendon Hotel’s licence, John Lowbridge Bennett
had an auctioneering, land agents and produce merchants business called
“The Mart”, on the corner of Rangitikei and King Streets in Palmerston
North. For a while he also had a butcher’s shop next door to The Mart, and
he still operated The Mart after building the hotel. He previously had the
Wolsley Hotel at Winchester, Canterbury, and later had the Warners Hotel
in Christchurch.119
Ownership History
Local architectural firm, L.G. West & Son, designed the Carlton Hotel.
Tenders were called to construct the three-storey brick and concrete
Wises Directories, 1925 & 1929; Ian Matheson’s interview with J.A.L ‘Jack’
Bennett, 16 August 1999, in Carlton Hotel Research File A175/164/9, Ian
Matheson City Archives, PN City Library.
119
building in January 1927.120 Built at a cost of £13,725, at the time it was
one of the largest hostelries in Palmerston North.121
In late 1929, the hotel was sold to Robert Porter, an Auckland hotelkeeper;
however, John Lowbridge Bennett’s direct and indirect involvement in the
hotel was to remain for at least another three decades. The CT
WN107/175 reveals that Bennett briefly held a mortgage (No. 202090)
over the property in late 1929, and this was then transferred to the BNZ. In
1931, Bennett (by then a hotelkeeper of Christchurch) again took over this
mortgage from the BNZ. The same mortgage then shuttled back to the
BNZ in 1932, to Bennett in 1936, and then back to the BNZ the same day.
The property itself was then transferred from Porter to Bennett (described
again as a PN hotelkeeper) in 1937. The 1937 From Swamp to City article
below, and the 1939 Wise’s Directory indicate that George V. Simpson
was managing the hotel at that time, while the 1944 edition lists Noel K.
Beveridge as the manager.
The hotel remained in Bennett’s name until 1955, when it was transferred
to Carlton Hotel (PN) Ltd. Then, starting 15th December 1955, the hotel
was leased for a three-year term to Norman Charles Currie, described as
a PN hotelkeeper, and his wife Muriel Amelia Currie. The Wises’
Directories indicate that Currie was running the hotel by 1950 and that
publication further suggests that he did so for the next decade.
Bennett retained a mortgage over the property until 1960, when he
transferred it to his son John Alexander Lowbridge (Jack) Bennett. In
1963, ownership of the property was transferred to Eric Newton Franklyn,
a Wellington company director. This transaction included a mortgage from
Manawatu Evening Standard, 26 January 1927, in ‘PN Architects 1900-1950’,
Vol. 5, p. 35, Pam Phillips Papers, Ian Matheson City Archives
121
Building No. 13, Carlton Hotel, Ian Bowman & Michael Kelly, Palmerston North
CBD Heritage Inventory for PNCC, 1994. Note that the PN Borough Council
Register of Building Permits, Vol. 3 (p. 560) gives the cost as £13,300 and the
discrepancy has not been researched. PNCC 4/13/1, Vol. 3, Ian Matheson City
120
Page 68
NZ Breweries Ltd and T.G. Macarthy (Wanganui) Ltd., and the start of a
relationship of this nature with this brewery – later renamed Lion Breweries
Ltd., and then Lion Nathan Ltd. In 1965 the hotel again changed hands,
this time to R.M. & A.J. Higgins Ltd, of PN. – these being Alyn James and
Rubina Margaret Higgins.
D.E. & V.C. Fraser Ltd. of Lower Hutt, took over in 1978, and Lion
Breweries then leased the hotel for a 20-year term starting 29 April 1978.
In 1979, hotel was subleased for a 15-year term to Halcombe George I--(illegible). However, this was almost immediately surrendered and the
sublease taken over by Carlton Hotel Palmerston North Ltd.122
Ownership of the property was transferred in 1989 to Kent King Lambert
and Dianne Leslie Lambert, company directors of PN. Then in 1992, it
again changed hands, this time to John Russell Forsythe, a PN chartered
accountant. The former Lion Breweries, by now Lion Nathan Ltd., then
surrendered its lease in 1992, and immediately took out another 20-year
lease, starting 1 January 1992. Corresponding with this, Luke David
Walding also subleased the hotel for the same 20-year period. The
property’s ownership was transferred to Walding Properties Ltd. in 1996,
to Cuba Street Holdings in 2003, and then to the present owner, Trust
Company Ltd., in 2008.123 The CT does not indicate any adjustment to the
status of the 20-year Lion Nathan Ltd lease taken out in 1992.
General History
The 1937 book From Swamp to City: Commemorating the Diamond
Jubilee of the City124 contains a brief history of the hotel to that time. It
states that:
“The Carlton Hotel has the distinction of being associated
with the earliest days of Palmerston North as it is holding the licence
of the Clarendon Hotel which was situated for many years on the
corner of the Square and Rangitikei Street. The present location in
Cuba Street on the edge of the business area, handy to the Square,
is far enough away to escape all street noises. Rebuilt in 1927, a
reinforced concrete structure, it is equipped with every possible
modern convenience such as automatic elevator, central heating,
bath and shower rooms, and hot and cold water in every bedroom.
One of the main features is the spacious lounge. The Carlton is an
A.A., C.T. and Civil Servant house and is largely patronised by the
tourist trade,
Mr G.V. Simpson, the proprietor, can claim to be one of a family of
the old pioneers. His father arrived in New Zealand in 1854, and his
mother, who is still living, was born in the Nelson district 81 years
ago. He is well known to all residents in the Southern part of the
North Island, as a commercial representative of one of the largest
wholesale houses for the last 20 years. He will be well known to old
Palmerstonians as in 1916-1917 he was the organiser for the
Crippled Soldiers’ Hostel Art Union, the funds from which did a lot to
help make comfortable our crippled boys.
With a hotel and popular proprietor such as this visitors to
Palmerston North can rest assured of every detail of their personal
comfort being attended to.”
The original wooden Clarendon Hotel, referred to above, was established
in 1873. That building burnt down on the night of 28 January 1904, and
was soon replaced by a three-storey brick building. The Clarendon’s
122
The Companies Office website records that No. 35271 Carlton Hotel
Palmerston North Ltd. was incorporated on 8 March 1979 and struck off on 20th
June 1990.
123
CTs WN107/175 (1900), WN430/122 (1931) & WN27A/783 (1985)
124
Robert H. Billens & H. Leslie Verry, From Swamp to City: Commemorating the
Diamond Jubilee of the City (Palmerston North, 1937), unnumbered page: ‘The
Carlton Hotel’.
Page 69
licence was transferred to the new Carlton Hotel in 1927, and the
Clarendon was converted to shops. Renamed the Clarendon Buildings, its
third storey was removed after the 1931 Hawkes Bay earthquake, and the
building was eventually demolished to make way for the present buildings
on the site.125
The Carlton also contained a shop on the Campbell Street side of the
building. The typical barber’s shop stripes of Bert Haybittle’s hairdresser’s
shop are visible in the c1950 photo of the hotel. The shop was done away
with and the space absorbed into the hotel bar area in 1955. Fortunately
there had also for decades been a second barber’s shop next door to the
Carlton, on the opposite side of the building at 191 Cuba St., and its
barber’s shop stripes are also visible in the aforementioned photo.
The Carlton was yet another building in the area to experience fire, albeit
two minor ones in the incident known of. On 10 October 1986, an 18-yearold city youth lit a fire in a toilet and minutes later another in a storeroom.
However, these were soon found and extinguished without any serious
damage. The youth was arrested.126
Additions and Alterations
Photographic evidence shows that the upper façade of the building has
undergone at least three significant changes. The photo published with the
above article in From Swamp to City in 1937, shows the words “Hotel
Carlton” painted onto the roofing tiles, while a pair of pilasters protrude
through the roof at each end of the building. Another photo taken around
1950 shows that the same words were still painted on the roofing tiles,
however the pilasters were gone and only a plain front wall appears below
the roofline. The most recent alterations have included a pair of semicircular decorations protruding from the locations that once carried the
pairs of pilasters. The two sets of plain pipe balcony railings and the
emergency ladders have also disappeared from the front of the building
since the 1990s.127
PNCC’s Building Permit files contain a significant amount of information on
the building, especially in relation to the recent redevelopment of the hotel
complex. However, earlier work includes altering a shop (formerly
Haybittles’ barber’s shop) to a bar in 1955, at a cost of £600. In 1963, the
building’s new owner, Mr Franklyn, erected a new bar at a cost of £1,100.
Permits for further additions and alterations were also applied for in 1973
and 1987.
The records cover the 1991 renovation of the lounge bar to resemble the
atmosphere of a London tube station bar. It was renamed the Carlton
Underground. The intention, Luke Walding said, was also “to use as much
as possible of the Carlton’s original character.” In its previous guise, the
hotel had apparently become something of a “notorious meeting place,”
and the intention was to attract back some of its former patrons. In earlier
times stockcar and sports crowds had packed the hotel after events, but
by 1991 it had become known as a students’ bar, with an array of negative
effects.128
In 1995, permission was applied for to remove the verandah with reasons
including that there was no evidence to show it was original (although the
1993 photo of the verandah looks very similar to the 1937 and c1950
photos – the latter pair appearing identical). Permission was also sought to
remove brewery signs on both sides of the building, aimed at improving its
appearance.
Part of the planned work had apparently included the Carlton Hotel’s then
owner, Walding Properties Ltd., leasing the neighbouring shop at 195
Cuba Street for use as a bottle store. However, a letter to PNCC dated 30
127
125
126
Photo Ho33, Palmerston North City Library photographic collection
Manawatu Evening Standard 11 October 1986, p. 3
Photos Ho38 (1937); Ho59 (c1950); 1993 photo in Palmerston North CBD
Heritage Inventory for PNCC, 1994, building No. 13; Plan in PNCC Building Permit
file C100/175-193.
128
Manawatu Evening Standard, 19 June 1991, p. 22
Page 70
November 1995 from the shop’s owners, claimed that the hotel owner had
reneged on the deal, apparently after gaining their permission to undertake
his hotel alterations.129
Preparations then proceeded toward building the new multi-storey block
alongside the hotel to add 65 rooms to the 20 the Carlton already had. The
hotel was then to be rebranded as Novatel Palmerston North.
Work undertaken in the 1995 upgrade included upgrading the façade, the
public bar and the back bar as part of the renovations that had been going
on since the Walding family took over in 1990 (evidently prior to their
formally taking over the lease in 1992). Until that time, the public bar,
which was renamed The Local, had not undergone a major renovation
since the hotel opened in 1927.
Other impacts on the immediate area were the purchase of the single
storey block of shops (Harris Meatmarket & others) on the corner of Cuba
and Lombard Street adjoining the hotel, in early 2004, and land behind the
present Crankit shops on the opposite side of the Cuba-Lombard
intersection, which was previously owned by auto-electrician Mike Murphy.
This latter land was to become part of the hotel’s carpark.132
The hotel has undergone significant expansion and several name changes
in recent years. In April 2002, management of the Carlton was taken over
by Accor Hotels and the hotel renamed the Mecure. However, in October
2002, it again became the Carlton and Accor Hotels was gone. This was
the result of a split with the hotel’s owners, the Walding family, who were
not prepared to build the extra 60 rooms Accor wanted to add to the
Carlton’s existing 20 rooms, in the immediate future. Explaining the
decision, Accor’s regional general manager said that they did not manage
hotels that small. The hotel was to continue operating as an independent
four-star facility however. And the expansion process was intended to
continue.130 In June 2003, the hotel was in receivership and its ownership
company, Walding Properties Ltd., in liquidation and owing millions of
dollars. The following month the hotel, which was still trading, was
advertised for sale.131
Construction of the new tower block was formally launched on 29 April
2004. It was due for completion in February 2005 and to be officially
opened on 4 March 2005.133 The hotel has subsequently been renamed
Travelodge Palmerston North, and has been owned by Trust Company
Ltd. since early 2008.
The hotel was bought by Hanover’s property development and investment
arm, Axis Property Group and the hotel was duly transferred into the name
of Cuba Street Holdings Ltd. in November 2003. Hanover’s hotel
subsidiary Accor then returned to take over the management of the hotel.
Noted Heritage Features
While undoubtedly the hotel has a number of features that can still be
traced to its 1927 beginnings, two are singled out for specific mention
here. The first is the hotel’s nameplate on the centre front of the hotel’s
facade that still reads “1927 Hotel Carlton,” despite all the recent name
changes. The second is its elderly lift. In 2005, promotional material noted
that: “as the original cage lift clanks up the lift shaft on its original weights
and pulleys, the discerning guest is left in no doubt that the Novatel
Palmerston North is a unique combination of heritage building coupled
with a contemporary blend of four-star hotel rooms.”
Described as “an automatic elevator” on the list of modern conveniences
noted in the 1937 From Swamp to City article above, present day guests
give it mixed reviews. Online feedback from a Tauranga guest who stayed
129
Manawatu Evening Standard 5 March 2002, p. 3; 17 October 2002, p. 1; 18
October 2002, p. 2.
131
Dominion-Post 26 June 2003, p. C2; Manawatu Evening Standard 2 July 2003,
p. 1
130
132
Manawatu Evening Standard 27 April 2004, p.3; Harris Meatmarket et al CT
WN43A/857
133
Manawatu Evening Standard 27 April 2004, p.3; 30 April 2004, p. 3; 19 October
2004, p. 15; 13 January 2005, p. 4; 24 February 2005, p. 12.
Page 71
in the hotel in October 2008, noted that she found a special excuse (to see
one of the 1927 rooms) to have to ride in the old lift, as she “just HAD to
have a turn” in it.
Another feedback, from August 2006 was less flattering. The guest noted
that the first thing seen after checking in was that as “part of the
refurbishments the management have elected to leave the original 1900’s
Elevator in. While the staff eagerly advise you that it is one of only two left
in the country, what they don’t tell you is that it regularly fails to operate.”
Evidently this guest was then forced to carry his/her belongings up four
flights of stairs.134
Finally comes the startling story told to late City Archivist Ian Matheson by
a shocked Carlton Hotel cleaner about an incident involving the lift in the
early hours of Thursday, 23 July 1998. The resulting (1999) interview with
Jack Bennett by Ian Matheson has contributed significantly to this study,
but did not resolve the 1998 incident.135
People associated with the hotel
John Lowbridge Bennett was the original owner of the hotel in 1927. He
and his family lived in the hotel, however, following the sale of the Carlton
in 1929, he bought the Warners Hotel in Christchurch. Presumably that
was where he was hotel keeping at the time he took over the Carlton’s
mortgage again in 1931. The family was back living at the Carlton in
September 1932, when their 8-year-old daughter, Gloria, died suddenly of
a brain infection.
He continued to be involved with the hotel in various ways until 1960,
when his son John Alexander Lowbridge (‘Jack’) Bennett, a solicitor, took
over from him. The hotel was then sold out of the family in 1963. After the
sale of the Carlton, John Lowbridge Bennett bought the Empire Hotel (now
Cobb & Co.), which he later sold to Ollie Galpin.
John Lowbridge Bennett was also interested in Jersey cattle and had a
farmlet on the corner of Manawatu and Pahiatua Streets, called
Winchester Jersey Stud, after the town in Canterbury where they
previously lived. Winchester School is so named after the farm, as a result
of the family’s suggestion.136 He died on 27 October 1978, aged 84, and is
described as a publican on the Kelvin Grove Cemetery records.
George Henry Vernand Simpson managed the hotel in the latter 1930s (at
least). He died, aged 81, on 16 July 1979, and is described in the Kelvin
Grove Cemetery records as a publican.
Norman Charles Currie managed the hotel throughout the 1950s and he
and his wife Muriel Amelia leased it for at least three years from 1955. He
died on 8 January 1974 aged 67, and is described in the Kelvin Grove
Cemetery records as a retired publican. Muriel Amelia was not traced.
Herbert William Haybittle occupied the shop in the Carlton Hotel building
from the 1930s until about 1955, when the shop was incorporated back
into the hotel as part of the bar. Haybittle was a hairdresser and was aged
about 63 by the time the shop ceased operating. He died on 5 January
1963 aged 71.
The Walding family’s background in the local catering industry includes the
well-known firm of its day, Smith & Walding, of which Joe Walding (PN city
councillor and MP) was a partner. Joe Walding’s son Luke, along with
Peter, Charles, Anne and Catherine, leased the hotel from 1990. CT
WN27A/783 indicates that Luke Walding formally leased the property for
20 years in 1992. Ownership was then transferred to Walding Properties
134
www.tripadvisor.com -Travelodge Palmerston North: Traveller Reviews; Novatel
Palmerston North insert, in Manawatu Evening Standard, April 2005.
Carlton Hotel research file A175/164/9, Ian Matheson City Archives, PN Library
135
136
Ian Matheson’s interview with J.A.L ‘Jack’ Bennett, 16 August 1999, in Carlton
Hotel Research File A175/164/9, Ian Matheson City Archives, PN City Library.
Page 72
Ltd. in 1996. This firm was placed in liquidation in 2003 and the property
sold by the receivers to Cuba Street Holdings Ltd. later that year.137
Known Occupants
Shop on Campbell Street side of hotel building (1927-1955)
Stones 1933
141 Cuba St. – Sydney Raymond Greer, taxi proprietor
Wises 1936
Nil
Wises 1939-54 141 (later renumbered to 181) Cuba St. – Bert Haybittle,
hairdresser
Carlton Hotel (proprietors, where known138)
Stones 1933
143-7 Cuba St. – Carlton Hotel, John Lowbridge Bennett,
proprietor
Wises 1936
145 Cuba St. – Carlton Hotel, John. L. Bennett
Wises 1939
145 Cuba St. - Carlton Hotel, George V. Simpson
Wises 1944
185 Cuba St. – Carlton Hotel, Noel K. Beveridge
Wises 1950-60 181 Cuba St. – Carlton Hotel, N. Currie (3 year lease on
CT from 1955)
1963-1965 (CT) Owner: E.N. Franklyn
1965-1978 (CT Owner: R.M. & A.J. Higgins Ltd.
1978-1992 (CT) Lessee: Lion Breweries, later renamed Lion Nathan Ltd.
(then renewed 20 years)
1979-1992 (CT) Sub-lessee: Carlton Hotel Palmerston North Ltd.
1978-1989 (CT) Owner: D.E. & V.C. Fraser Ltd.
1989-1992 (CT) Owner: K.K. & D.L. Lambert
1992.1996 (CT) Owner: J.R. Forsythe
1990-2003
Sub-lessee, later owner: Luke Walding and the Walding
family (CT and newspapers)
2003-2008 (CT) Owner: Cuba Street Holdings Ltd.
2008-now (CT) Owner: Trust Company Ltd.
137
Manawatu Evening Standard 19 June 1991, p. 23; 7 December 1995, P. 20.
Dominion-Post 26 June 2003, p. C2;
138
This tangled list is incomplete as it is unclear in later times what owners were
also the hotel managers, the latter being the main target of this list.
Comments:
This building has impacted significantly over its lifetime
on some of the other buildings involved in this study. In 1927, when the
hotel was built, it displaced the Birch Automatic Bakery shop, which
relocated to the corner of Cuba and Waldegrave Streets. In 1928, at least
three of the four shops in the block between the hotel and Lombard Street
were built, and as the hotel owners now also own it, its future will probably
be decided by the hotel’s progress. The back portion of the Crankit
buildings across Lombard Street, which is likely to have included early
bakery buildings, now serves as part of the hotel’s carpark.
The building is consistent with L G West’s free ranging use of architectural
styles. In this case the building loosely uses the Spanish Mission style
with overhanging eaves, supported on brackets, Marseille tile roofing,
gables, but with a sense of Neo-Georgian in symmetry and fenestration.
The interior ground floor has bars, management and service areas, with
the upper floor bedrooms located off an ‘L’ shaped corridor. The stair is
centrally located on the south wall and winds around a wire-caged lift.
Interior joinery is oak, with dado panelling to the stair and ground floor.
1991 floor plans for the hotel show a central entry from Cuba Street with
bars either side, leading to a central reception area with lift and stairs. The
dining room and kitchen are opposite the entry. The first floor plan shows
an ‘L’ shaped central corridor access from the stairs and lift with rooms off
and a lounge opposite the stairs. 2001 plans show a significant
rearrangement of rooms and corridors on the first and second floors.
No construction drawings are available.
authenticity.
Page 73
This building has high historic values as one of the oldest extant hotels in
the city and its association with publicans and customers. It is also
associated with the architect, L G West, who, in conjunction with his son
Ernst Vilhem, he was responsible for a large number of Palmerston
North's buildings. Among those still standing designed by the practice are
the Former Club Hotel (1905), the Manawatu–Kilwinning Masonic Lodge
(1908), the Old Soldiers Club (1917), and the Church of Christ. Scientist
(1931) and Ward Brothers Building (1935).
ASSESSMENT SUMMARY
Significance
Existing category
Cultural
Emotional
The building has high design values as an individual and rare
interpretation of the Spanish Mission style, which has good but simple
detailing on the interior and exterior. Because of its scale, form and style
the building is a landmark in Cuba Street.
Historical
Design
The building is largely authentic on the exterior and interior, and is
significant in its style, and contribution to the streetscape.
Technology
Spiritual
Sentimental
Symbolic
Political
People
Events
Age
Tradition
Continuity
Style
Materials
Group
Materials
Construction
high regional
I
Contextual
Measure
Authenticity
H
H
Rarity
Landmark
Representative
Design
Setting
Materials
Craftsmanship
M
H
Page 74
H
H
H
Snelling Building (now Harris Meatmarket and others)
BUILDING DETAILS
Owner:
Owner’s Address:
Assessment Number:
Property ID:
Land Area:
Legal Description:
NZHPT No.
NZHPT Manawatu No:
Lot 3-4 DP 352
WN43A/857
(1993);
prior
WN88/159(1897)
Nil
Nil
Nil
Nil
Stage 1
Construction date:
Architect:
Original Owner:
Builder:
1902-3 rating year (or early 1928)
Unknown
Herbert R. Brewer (or G.L. Snelling)
Unknown
Stage 2
Construction date:
Architect:
Original Owner:
Builder:
1928
Unknown
G.L. Snelling
N.M. McLean
CT:
Description: The exterior of Stage 1 (butcher’s shop) has white tiles,
while Stage 2 has grey tiles.
History
It is not clear who built the first stage of this building – the butcher’s shop
on the corner. However, it is likely that it was built during the 1902-3
Rating year, and then has been modified gradually to the stage it was at in
Page 75
1928, where it appears on the plans for Stage 2 as an “existing shop”. A
very similar building to the present one appears on this site in the pre-1910
photo STC14 of Cuba Street held by the PN Library. The building has the
(painted over) words “Snelling Buildings, Est. 1920” on the upper façade
above the butcher’s shop door. However, in light of no corresponding
increase in value to the property in the c1920 Rate books, this date is
probably only applicable to the year the business was formed.
Prior History
CT WN88/159 was issued in 1897 to Rose Mary Aisher, the wife of
Frederick Aisher, described as a fruiterer139 of Palmerston North. The
1897-98 Rate Books reveal that at that time, the two properties concerned,
Sections 303 Lot 3 and 303 Lot 4, were both bare land. The butcher shop
was to be sited on Lot 4.
The 1898-99 Rate Book shows Lot 4 has gained a £4 improvement (a
shed perhaps), while Lot 3 has increased in value by £340. The
aforementioned photo shows a house on that site (the future site of Stage
2), and this seems likely to have been the Aishers’ new home as certainly
they lived in Cuba Street. The Aishers were Irish and had migrated to New
Zealand in about 1879. They settled in Palmerston North in 1888 and soon
established a business in The Square, manufacturing confectionery in a
shop between Coleman Place and The Square.
During the 1880s and 1890s, Frederick Aisher was the sole manufacturing
confectioner in Palmerston North. His obituary in 1933 stated that his shop
was “well remembered by many people. As was not unnatural the
premises were the rendezvous of the majority of the young folk in the
town.” The Aishers disposed of their business in 1900 and later Frederick
undertook an array of community and public roles, including serving as a
139
The term “fruiterer” seems to have meant more than just selling fruit in earlier
times, and he in fact made and sold lollies etc.
PN Borough Councillor. It seems likely that the property being studied here
was also disposed of as part of this transition.140
First Stage? (1902-1928)
CT WN88/159 records that property was sold in 1902 to Penelope Fraser,
wife of Palmerston North storekeeper, carrier and former goldminer,
William Fraser.141 Within about a month, she had sold it to Herbert Richard
Brewer, whose occupation was not given other than he was a “settler” of
Palmerston North. In mid-1903, Brewer sold the property to Joseph
Johnson, who was described as a “gentleman” of Palmerston North.
The 1902-03 Rate Book records the transfer of the property from Rose
Aisher directly to Herbert Brewer. It also records that something valued at
£150 had been added to the now combined property (Sec. 303, Lots 3 &
4), and this subsequently appears as the increased value of Lot 4. Given
the amount, this is almost certainly the shop shown in the c1910 photo
STC14. The 1903-04 Rate Book records the transfer from Brewer (of Cuba
St.) to Joseph W. Johnson, who is usually referred to as Joseph Webb
Johnson. The two sections are valued separately from this point onward,
with the house section having a significantly higher value than the shop
site.
Joseph Webb Johnson, of Broad Street, sold off some of his properties
during the 1905-06 rating year, which is probably when he left Palmerston
North. However, he retained this property, the 1906 Wises Directory listing
George Cotton, butcher, as occupant of both the shop and the house next
door.142 Joseph Webb Johnson then leased it during the 1906-07 rating
year to Patrick O’Connor. O’Connor, who the 1908 Wise’s Directory also
140
Manawatu Evening Standard: Obituary R.M. Aisher, 6 April 1923 4(8); Obituary
F. Aisher, 26 May 1933 6(7), 27 May 1933 2(4).
141
Manawatu Evening Standard: Obituary W. Fraser, 14 August 1912 5(2), 16
August 1912 5(1); P. Fraser 1 July 1935 8(4)
142
Possibly this is George Cotton, farmer of Bourke St., PN, who died on 12 April
1943, aged 83. Ref: PNCC cemetery records & Manawatu Evening Standard 12
April 1943 1(1)
Page 76
lists as a butcher (the latter volume adding that his private residence was
next door), retained it until the 1908-09 rating year, at which time it passed
to Henry Couper, another butcher. Patrick O’Connor had earlier taken on
Henry Couper as a partner in a firm they named ‘O’Connor & Couper’, and
the regular notice to this effect that they published in the Manawatu
Evening Standard for their ‘Cuba Street Butchery, dated the event as 1
August 1907.143
The CT records that Joseph Webb Johnson died on 28 December 1911,
and as his death is not on local records, it is likely that he was in Auckland.
The property was transmitted in 1912 to Johnson’s widow Eliza Jane
Johnson; Joseph Kew Hartz, insurance manager; John Peter Heaton,
merchant (all of Auckland) and John Howe Oscar Colby, gentleman of
Onehunga. Mrs Johnson must have died around 1924, as that year the
property was transmitted to the other three as survivors.
The 1914 Wise’s Directory records that Henry Couper’s butcher’s shop
was then numbered 60 Cuba St. The rating records state that he remained
the occupant of the property for rating purposes until the 1924-25 rating
year, however, this seems unlikely.
Work valued at £45 had been done on the shop site during the 1914-15
rating year, meaning that it had almost the same value by then as the
house section (the shop section had a higher unimproved land value). In
the 1921-22 rating year, the house section received a £93 increase in
value due to unknown work being carried out.
CT WN 88/159 records that the property was leased in 1920 to Edsel
Charles Gray and George Lelliott Snelling for a 5-year period starting on
1st February 1920. Local cemetery records reveal that both of these men
were butchers, however, their relationship with Henry Couper is unknown.
The 1922 Wise’s Directory lists “Grey & Snelling”, butchers, as occupants
of this shop, now 65 Cuba St. Meanwhile the house next door at 63 Cuba
St., was listed as occupied by Sidney William Jones, another butcher. The
1927 Directory lists Snelling as at the shop’s occupant, while the house
was now his private residence.
In 1922, Snelling took over the lease from Gray, and then in 1924 he took
over ownership of the property from Hartz, Heaton and Colby. The 192425 Rate Book notes the transfer of ratepayer from Couper to Snelling The
house site also receives more work to the value of £43. Its capital value is
now £1073, while the shop site’s capital value is £920, their sections
having an unimproved value of £530 and £660 respectively.
Stage 2 (1928)
The next improvement activity on these two sections was in the 1927-28
rating year. This saw the shop property’s capital value increase by £200.
It is possible this was a rebuild of the shop, or more likely it was additions
and alterations. The next rating year, 1928-29, saw the house section
increase by £1,100. A pencilled note in the rate book says that this was
“four shops”. The buildings on the property were then more or less as they
are now in terms of their street appearance.
The PNBC Register of Building Permits, Vol. 3, records (p. 393) the
application for a permit to build something to the value of £200 on the shop
section in March 1928. The register then records (p. 395) G. Snelling
being granted Permit No. 496 on 12 July 1928 to build the shops in brick to
the value of £1,100.144 The architect is not identified on the plans held by
PNCC, however the builder of these shops was recorded on the plans as
being N.M. McLean.
George Snelling died on 21 July 1946, aged 59, and in 1947, the property
was transmitted to his wife Rubina Adeline Snelling, and Cecil Grant
Wood, a Palmerston North farmer, as executors. Rubina Snelling died on
20 December 1950, aged 61, and in 1956 the property was transmitted to
Cecil Grant Wood as survivor. On the same date (15 March 1956) Wood
144
143
Manawatu Evening Standard, this copy 5 October 1907, 3(2)
PN Borough Council Register of Building Permits, Vol. 3, PNCC 4/13/1, Vol. 3,
Ian Matheson City Archives, PN City Library
Page 77
transferred the property to Marjory Sophia Hall (married woman of PN);
Duncan William Snelling (dental surgeon of London); Kate Rebecca
Tankard (married of Browns Bay); Patricia Ayson Snelling (spinster of PN);
Peter George Snelling (dental surgeon of Browns Bay); and Peggy
Winifred Donaldson (married of PN) as tenants in common. These people
probably constitute the ‘Snelling Trust’.
After more than six decades in the Snelling family, the property was sold in
1987 to Avedon Holdings Ltd. It was then transferred in 1992 to Garry
Wong, a market gardener, and his wife Kaye Wong. Ownership was
transferred to Cuba Street Holdings Ltd. (then owner of the neighbouring
Carlton Hotel as part of Axis Property Group) in 2004 and then in 2008 to
the current owner, Trust Company Ltd., which also owns the former
Carlton Hotel.
When work to enlarge the Carlton Hotel began in 2004, this building was
also mentioned: “The hotel expansion leaves Lombard corner shops intact.
Axis Property general manager Patrick Daly said that while Axis now
owned the property there was an agreement in place that protected the
current residents. Some retail space not in use will become the builders’
site office. At some future stage, Mr Daly said, the corner block may be
considered for redevelopment.”145
The PNCC Building Permit file on 199 Cuba St (C100/199) records that in
1959, the Snelling Trust applied to alter the butcher shop for Snelling Bros.
Then in 1969 the Trust applied to build a new verandah and to add an
extension to the rear of the three shops.
Building Permit file C/195-197, entitled ‘P.O. Fish Supplies’ outlines the
conversion of the two shops nearest to the hotel into the Post Office Fish
Supply shop, in early 1988. This involved removing much of the wall
between the two shops. As the altered shop was considered large enough
145
to hold more than 30 people, the doors were also required to swing
outward to permit an easier exit in case of emergencies. This shop last
appeared in the phonebook in 1994.146
The building permit file also records that the building was re-roofed in
2006. Of note are the loss of the caps from three of the pilasters. These
were still present in a 1950 photo of the Carlton Hotel.147
Known Occupants
Shop nearest Carlton Hotel148
Stones 1933
147 Cuba St. – Ernest Williams, hairdresser
Wises 1936
147 Cuba St. – Edward Wilkins, hairdresser
Wises 1939:
147 Cuba St. – Edward Williams, hairdresser
Wises 1944-54 191 Cuba St. – Bernard C. Williams, hairdresser
Wises 1957
191 Cuba St. – Jack O’Leary, hairdresser
Wises 1959-60 191 Cuba St. – Basil J. Parkinson, hairdresser (last entry
in phonebook 1987)
1988-c1994
195 Cuba St. – Converted to part of the Post Office Fish
Supply shop
2010
(former 191 Cuba) - No signage on this shop
Middle Shop
Stones 1933
Wises 1936
Wises 1939
Wises 1944
149 Cuba St. – Arthur James Pascoe, herbalist
149 Cuba St. – Oliver P. Liddell, pastry cook
149 Cuba St. – Mrs Mary Tongs, pastry cook
193 Cuba St. – Ronald K. Beale, dairy
146
Note that the Post Office Fish Supply shop was then moving from 489-491 Main
St. The photo of the demolition of the original Post Office Fish Shop, sited between
the old main Post Office and Princess Street and built before 1900, was published
in the Manawatu Evening Standard on 16 August 1966 (p.3, [1-4])
147
Photo Ho59, Photographic Collection, PN City Library.
148
Note that until 1955, the Carlton Hotel’s shop, on the opposite side of that
building, was also a men’s hairdresser. So the Carlton’s patrons were well
provided for should they be in need a quick trim.
Page 78
Wises 1953
193 Cuba St. – Howard Rowland, radio manufacturer
(Phonebook: moved c1988)
1988-c1994
197 Cuba St. – Post Office Fish Supply shop
2004
Builders’ site office during Carlton Hotel upgrade (MES
30/4/2004, p. 3)
c2005-now
195 Cuba St. - Westside Foods
The shop fronts are tiled with black trim to grey tiles in the two central
shops and white with black tiles forming a panel in the spandrel of the
butcher shop on the corner. It appears that the tiled surfaces are of a
similar period to the construction of the building. The two central
shopfronts are timber with toplights over the shopfront and entry doors.
There are clerestory windows above the verandah.
Shop nearest Butcher’s Shop
1933-mid-‘50s 151 (later 195) Cuba St. – Joe & Joe, fruiterers
Wises 1957-60 195 Cuba St. – Joe Wah, fruiterer
c2003-now
199 Cuba St. - Hana Mart Asian Grocery Shop
1928 plans for the shops show the layout of each shop with an open space
facing the street with an angled ingo on one side and corridor with room to
the rear. The exterior appears to have been all tiled except for the
pilasters.
Known occupants of the Butcher’s shop
Ratebooks c1902-4
Herbert R. Brewer (occupation unknown)
Ratebooks c1904-6
Joseph Webb Johnson, “gentleman” (occupation
unknown)
Wises 1906
George Cotton, butcher
Ratebooks c1906-8
Patrick O’Connor, butcher
Ratebooks c1908-c1920
Henry Couper, butcher (still charged the
rates till 1924??)
Lease (CT) 1920-2
Edsel Charles Gray & George Lelliott Snelling,
butchers
Lease (CT) 1922-4
George Lelliott Snelling, butcher
Owner 1924-46
George Lelliott Snelling (died 1946)
Wises 1950-c1975
V.J. Toohey, butcher (at least)
Phonebook mid ‘70s
Harris Meatmarket (to present day)
This building has moderate historic values as the butcher’s shop in this
building seems likely to be one of Palmerston North’s oldest (if not the
oldest) butcher’s shops still in continuous operation for at least 105 years.
Further investigation of the period 1902-5 could reveal that it was always a
butcher’s shop.
The building has moderate design values as a very
representative example of the Inter- War Free Classical style.
The building is designed in a very simple version of the Inter-War Stripped
Classical style, which was a common commercial style in the period
between the wars. The main indicators of the style on the building are the
pilasters on the above verandah section of the building, which project
beyond the parapet. The pilasters are repeated in the below verandah
section of the building and coincide with the shop divisions.
simple
The building’s street façade design is largely authentic.
Page 79
ASSESSMENT SUMMARY
Significance
Proposed category
Cultural
Emotional
Historical
Design
Technology
Spiritual
Sentimental
Symbolic
Political
People
Events
Age
Tradition
Continuity
Style
Materials
Group
Materials
Construction
moderate local
group
Contextual
Measure
Authenticity
M
H
Rarity
Landmark
Representative
Design
Setting
Materials
Craftsmanship
M
M
H
M
M
H
Page 80
Bryant Building
BUILDING DETAILS
Stage 1
Owner:
Owner’s Address:
Assessment Number:
Property ID:
Land Area:
Legal Description:
Construction date:
Architect:
Original Owner:
Builder:
Stage 2
Owner:
Owner’s Address:
Assessment Number:
Property ID:
Land Area:
Legal Description:
Construction date:
Architect:
Original Owner:
Builder:
207 & (upstairs) 205 Cuba St. (shop
nearest Rangitikei St.)
Part Lot 6 DP 352
WN220/118 (1913); prior CT WN96/294
(1898)
1905
unknown
Frederick Bryant
unknown
203 Cuba St. (middle shop)
Michael David Murphy & Jan Marie Murphy
Part Lot 5-6 DP 352
WN220/117 (1913); prior CT WN96/294
(1898)
1911
unknown
Frederick Bryant
unknown
Page 81
Stage 3
Owner:
Owner’s Address:
Assessment Number:
Property ID:
Land Area:
Legal Description:
Construction date:
Architect:
Original Owner:
Builder:
NZHPT No.
NZHPT Manawatu No:
201 Cuba St. (shop nearest Lombard St.)
Michael David Murphy & Jan Marie Murphy
Part Lot 5 DP 352
WN220/119 (1913); prior CT WN96/294
(1898)
1915
F. de Jersey Clere & Son, Wellington
Frederick Bryant
unknown
Nil
Nil
Nil
Nil
History
This block of three two-storey shops appears at first glance as being likely
to have been built together. However, early photos held in the Palmerston
North City Library’s photographic collection reveal otherwise. At present
the three are leased as a single shop, and possibly two of them have been
operated as one shop for many years. The upper floor is understood to be
rented as flats, and this area, numbered 205 Cuba Street, is accessed
from Cuba Street via a stairway in (but walled off from) the oldest of the
three shops.
Prior History
CT WN96/294 was issued in 1898 to Carston Jesson Hansen, a draper,
and the pre-1910 photo of Cuba Street (STC 14) reveals a two-storey
building on the site that appears to have been a pair of shops. This
building occupied the space now occupied by Stages 2 and 3 of the
present building – and Stage 1 of this building is already present in the
photo.
In 1899, the property, Lots 5 & 6 of DP 352, was transferred to Frederick
Bryant, a butcher, and the Bryant family was to own two-thirds of the
property until 1960. The remaining third belonged to Frederick Bryant’s
wife until her death in 1929, and then passed to a woman in England, who
owned it until 1971.
Frederick Bryant
Frederick Bryant was born in Auckland in 1860, to parents from Bristol,
England. He later lived in Thames before moving to Palmerston North in
1883, where he soon established himself in business, buying Joseph
Beale’s butcher shop in 1885, then the town’s oldest butcher shop. His
business partner in Palmerston North was William Reed, who eventually
predeceased him by a few months. In 1899, Bryant began farming and
took up a large acreage at Shannon. He was still one of the largest
landowners there at the time of his death.
His obituary states that although not involved in municipal affairs, he had
substantial property interests in Palmerston North, including business
blocks in The Square, Rangitikei Street and Cuba Street. He had also
owned a large area of land in the vicinity of Bryant and Chelwood Streets,
as well as land in Roslyn opposite Featherston Street. He was responsible
for subdividing and roading these areas for residential sections. Bryant
had bought the Roslyn land during the 1903-4 rating year and subdivided it
between 1911 and 1913. He bought the Bryant-Chelwood area land during
the 1910-11 rating year, and subdivided it between 1911 and 1915.
Possibly these sales influenced his decision to build this building in stages
and at the times he did. Of these streets, Bryant Street was obviously
named after the family. Chelwood Street was named after Chelwood,
Tunbridge Wells, his wife Mary Ann Bryant’s home village. Kingswood
Street was named after Kingswood Road, Tunbridge Wells and Lyndhurst
Page 82
Street traces to Lyndhurst Gardens, Tunbridge Wells. In Roslyn, Keith
Street was named after his son Keith.149
Frederick made 16 trips to Tunbridge Wells, where his family was raised.
His business interests ensured, however, that New Zealand was really his
home. Mary Ann Bryant died at Tunbridge Wells in 1929. The couple’s son
Frederick William Bryant, then 41, had also died there in 1927.150 Frederick
Bryant senior died at his Wood Street home aged 74 on 18 June 1939.
The couple were survived by sons Dr E.H. Bryant, a medical practitioner in
Auckland; A.G. Bryant, a partner in the legal firm Roche, Neale & Son, Old
Jewry, London; and Keith Bryant, who was then a commercial artist in
Sydney.151
Stage One
The first stage of this building appears in the aforementioned photo STC
14, taken from the old fire station bell tower in Coleman Place, which was
removed in 1910. The streetscape in the photo includes many shops, and
the dozens of people strolling individually and in small groups down along
Cuba Street at the time, suggests that they are probably heading for the
showgrounds.
While no specific information has been found in relation to the actual
construction of this building, the 1904-5 Rate Book shows that at the time,
Section 303, Lot 6, was bare land, having the sum of £214 as both the
unimproved and the capital values. Meanwhile, Lot 5 (the corner section
with the older shop on it) had an unimproved value of £231 and a capital
value of £531.
149
A.G.S. Bradfield, Forgotten Days (Palmerston North, 1956), pp. 162-176.
151
Manawatu Evening Standard, 19 June 1939 8(2); F. Bryant file, Ian Matheson
City Archives, PN City Library. ‘The Manawatu Meat Market Co. Ltd’ in Robert H.
Billens & H. Leslie Verry, From Swamp to City (Palmerston North, 1937) page
unnumbered; I.R. Matheson, ‘The Birth of Palmerston North’, Manawatu Evening
Standard supplement, 13 March 1971, p. 69.
150
The 1905-6 Rate Book, however, shows two additional sums written in red
ink (i.e. new entries) for Lot 6. The greater of the two is £1080 – being the
value of this new building – and a further £250, which could relate to the
construction of a bakery elsewhere on the property.
CT WN96/294 records the lease for seven years of this building, starting
on 20 October 1905, to Walter Thomas Cotton. The 1906-7 Rate Book
then records the lease of the new building to Cotton, described as a baker.
Thereafter for the duration of this lease, the tenant had responsibility for
the rates. The 1908 Wises Directory lists Walter Cotton, baker and
confectioner as occupant of this shop. However, he may have moved on
early, as the 1911 Wises Directory lists William Everitt, baker and
confectioner, as the shop’s occupant.
There are no other entries on this CT except those relating to the
subdivision of the property into three parts in 1913, by which time planning
for the third stage was probably in progress.
CT WN220/118 was issued to Frederick Bryant in 1913. It records the
transfer of this property in 1921 from Frederick, to his wife, Mary Ann
Bryant. Doubtless this was to protect it from potential loss in the event of
any business failures he might experience – as was often the case when
land was transferred into the names of businessmen’s wives. However,
she predeceased her husband in 1929.
In 1933 the registered mortgagees exercised the power of sale in
Mortgage 98423 on the property (the mortgages had undergone a lot of
activity since 1930), and the property was sold to Nellie Stevenson, a
spinster of Tunbridge Wells, who was probably a sister or niece to Mary
Ann Bryant (nee Stevenson). The property remained in her name until
1973, when it was transmitted to Laurie Laurenson as executor, before
being transferred to Peter Bares, retired restaurateur, the same year. It
was then transferred to Alan Terry Ibbotson, a Nelson businessman, in
1987, at which time the three titles came under the same ownership again.
Page 83
Stage Two
The first evidence of the arrival of Stage 2, the middle section sited on
both Lots 5 and 6, is also photographic. This is PN Library photo Sq 142,
taken from the old main Post Office Clock Tower This photo was taken
about 1912, based on the presence or otherwise of buildings shown, and
certainly the future site of the (former) Hallensteins building, built on the
corner of Coleman Place and George Street in 1913, still has trees
standing on it.
In the background of this photo are the upstairs windows of the two
buildings, with visibility that was previously blocked by the older building,
now being unobstructed.
The 1910-11 Rate Book records the property’s changed value and so
indicates the construction of Stage 2. With the rates due on the Stage 1 of
the building now charged to W. Cotton, the rest of Lot 6, plus Lot 5, are
now rated as bare land with both their unimproved value and a capital
value being £528. Noted in red ink with the entry are the sums of £600 and
£250 (presumably caused by the boundary line this building sits on), and
the following year the capital value is £1,378. A further £40 was added to
the property’s capital value the 1912-13 rating year.
CT WN220/117 was issued to Frederick Bryant in 1913. It was duly
transferred in 1931 to his son, Keith Bryant, then an artist of Tunbridge
Wells. He retained it until 1960 (with the help of a mortgage from Nellie
Stevenson in 1950), when it was sold to Peter Bares, retired restaurant
proprietor of PN. It was then transferred to Alan Terry Ibbotson, a Nelson
businessman, in 1987, at which time the three titles came under the same
ownership again.
Stage Three
The third stage of this building has a little more known detail. Tenders to
build it were called by architects F. de Jersey Clere & Son, of Wellington,
in the Manawatu Evening Standard of 1 June 1914. The building was
described as being two-storied and of brick.152 Given that architectural
firm’s prior involvement with the Manawatu, it is likely that the other two
buildings had the same origin. The 1914-15 Rate Book then shows an
additional sum of £1,088 being added (in the usual red ink) to the
property’s capital value. With the lease of Stage 1 to Cotton and later
Everitt now apparently over, and the presence of Stages 2 and 3, the
property now had an unimproved value of £988 and a capital value of
£4,326.
A plumbing plan for this building, dated 10 October 1914, survives in the
Plans section of the Ian Matheson City Archives. This shows the plumber
to have been C. Whithers, and that the bakehouse was directly behind the
“new shop”. However, it is not clear if the bakehouse and shop were built
at the same time.153
The 1915-16 Rate Book records the five-year lease of Part Lot 5 (Stage 3)
to baker and confectioner William B. Everitt, of an area some 22 feet by 99
feet. As he had been listed in the 1911 Wises Directory as an occupant of
this shop, he evidently switched from his original shop (Stage 1) to the
new shop. Things did not go as well as expected though, and by June
1917 he had gone. The Manawatu Evening Standard duly announced that
William Benjamin Everitt, of Pokeno, Auckland, had been adjudicated a
bankrupt on the petition of Wellington and Palmerston North creditors, and
that the case was being transferred from Auckland back to Palmerston
North.154 This shop was by this time leased to by the bakery firm Boniface
Bros.
CT WN220/119 was also issued to Frederick Bryant in 1913. It too was
transferred in 1931, along with the Stage 2 shop, to his son, Keith Bryant.
He retained it until 1960, when it was sold to Peter Bares, retired
restaurant proprietor of PN. It was then transferred to Alan Terry Ibbotson,
152
Pam Phillips Papers Vol. 5, p. 35, Ian Matheson City Archives, PN City Library.
Plan 141/205-7, PNCC 4/13/6, Ian Matheson City Archives, PN City Library.
This plan was for Permit 221, 10 October 1914.
154
Manawatu Evening Standard, 12 June 1917 4(6); 4 July 1917 8(7)
153
Page 84
a Nelson businessman, in 1987, at which time the three titles came under
the same ownership again.
Combined Ownership
In mid-1987 all three properties again came under single ownership, that
of Nelson businessman, Alan Terry Ibbotson. They were then immediately
transferred to Brian W. Donnelly of Palmerston North, and he duly sold
them in 1995 to Malcolm Henry Johnson, a PN clinical psychologist, his
wife Marion Ethyl Helen Johnson (being a half share), and Stephen
Raymond Rowsell, a PN builder, and his wife Bridget Meryon Joan
Rowsell (as the other half share) as tenants in common in equal shares.
The property was then transferred to current owners Michael David
Murphy and his wife Jan Marie Murphy, in 2004.
Some Occupants
Stage 1 – 207 Cuba Street
Shop nearest Rangitikei Street (1905)
1907 (CT)
Leased for 7 years to William J. Cotton, baker
Wises 1911-14 56 Cuba St. – William B. Everitt, baker & confectioner
Wises 1916-20 56 (later 71) Cuba St. – United Friendly Societies’
Dispensary
Wises 1925
71 Cuba St. – Louis Noedl, fancy goods
1933-44
161 (later 207) Cuba St. - Hugh Olliver, store (ref.
Stones & Wises)
Wises 1950-60 207 Cuba St. – Cuba St. Consumers Co-op (Manawatu)
Ltd., grocers
c1998-2008
Housing Advice Centre
Now
Part of Crankit Cycles shop
Upstairs – 205 Cuba Street - unknown
Middle shop (1911)
Currently wall open between this and 1915 shop – these two having
always had the same owners.
Wises 1914
58 Cuba St. – Percy Morgan, store
Wises 1916-20 58 Cuba St. – William J. Horn, grocer
Wises 1925
William J. Wilby, grocer
Stones 1933
Nil
c1989-c1992 Trenz Cycles & Mowers (phonebooks)
c1993-c2006 Affordables /Methodist Social Services (phonebooks)
c2007-now
203 Cuba St. - Part of Crankit Cycles shop
www.crankitcycles.co.nz
Shop nearest Lombard Street (1915)
1916
Leased for five years to William B. Everitt.
Wises 1916
58a Cuba St. – William Everitt, baker & confectioner
Wises 1920-25 67 Cuba St. – Boniface Bros., bakers
1933-36
157 Cuba St. – Sid Clarke, confectioner (ref:
Stones & Wises)
Wises 1939
157 Cuba St. – Whitcombe & Son, bakers
Wises 1944-54 205 Cuba St. - Baigent & McKenna, pastry cooks
Wises 1957-60 205 Cuba St. – The Larder, pastry cooks
c1989-c1992 Trenz Cycles & Mowers (phonebooks)
c1993-c2006 Affordables /Methodist Social Services (phonebooks)
c2007-now
Part of Crankit Cycles shop
Significant Tenants
During its first half century at least, this building had two especially
noteworthy types of occupants, namely a bakery lineage that began in one
shop and then swapped to another. The second noteworthy line of
occupants is the series of grocers that culminated in the arrival of a branch
of the well-known community grocery store of its day, the Consumers Coop (Manawatu) Ltd.
Page 85
A third occupant of note in this study is the presence of the United Friendly
Societies’ Dispensary in the Stage 1 shop around 1916-1920 (based on
the Wises Directory dates), and possibly until about 1923 when that
organisation bought the property at part Lots 2 and 4, of DP 6285
stretching between The Square and Cuba Street. They later built the
U.F.S.D. building at 153-154 The Square that is also part of this study.
Boniface Bros. Bakery
The most prominent business known to have traced to this building was
Boniface Bros. Ltd., which occupied the Stage 3 building, and the
outbuildings (i.e. the bakery itself) once behind it, from 1916 until 1930,
when the firm completed a gradual move to its long-term premises near
the corner of Cuba and Bourke Streets (see also the Elgin Buildings).
The brothers John and Amos Boniface who formed this business were the
Australian-born sons of an English farmer who migrated to Australia and in
due course built an oven to supply his family with bread. As the
neighbours came to like the bread also, the Boniface family began
supplying them too. John Boniface came to NZ in 1904, and by 1910 he
was back in the baking trade. He and Amos purchased a farm in Taranaki,
but when the First World War broke out in 1914, Amos left for the front.
John then set about looking for an occupation with more scope for the pair
when the war ended.
Seeing Palmerston North as a suitable business possibility, on 31 July
1916 John purchased the small bakery and confectionary business of the
soon-to-be-bankrupt William Everitt. At the time there were five bakeries
in Palmerston North and this was the smallest. However, by the firm’s 50year jubilee celebrations in 1966, it was the only one that remained.
When Boniface Bros. took over the bakery, the deliveries were done by
pushbike. The bakery premises had no real place to stable horses and so
in order to make the deliveries, John bought a model T Ford in November
1916 - the first of many Fords the company was to own. This was the first
delivery van to be used in Palmerston North, and other businesses soon
followed his example. When Amos returned from the war in 1918, it was
soon necessary to find increased accommodation for the rapidly growing
business. Consequently the two main sections of the business were
separated, with the pastry-cook and confectionery portion being continued
in the Cuba Street premises (wedding cakes being a specialty), while the
bread making was removed to Waldegrave Street, where a bakehouse
had been acquired.
Before long, even the two sites were too small for the business and in
1924, the firm acquired its future site near the corner of Bourke and Cuba
Streets. In 1929 they built their new bakery there. They retained their shop
in the original building for a further year, by which time a new shop and
offices had been built at the new site – adjoining the Elgin Building.
The firm continued to grow at its new premises and in 1935 John Boniface
became president of what subsequently became the NZ Association of
Bakers Inc. He was later to recall that this “was a crucial period for the
association as Palmerston North was in the middle of a bread war. A chain
of recently established grocery stores were being supplied with bread on
contract from a baker and they were in some cases selling this for less
than what it cost them in an effort to capture a share of the market.” In
November 1935, the Labour Government took office and set out to end the
war by stabilising prices.
By the time of the 50-year Jubilee in 1966, the firm was producing many
types of bread, rolls and fancy breads, buns, pies and cakes. At that time,
the firm also donated £500 to build a pergola in the rose garden at the
Esplanade “in gratitude to the city for 50 years of successful trading.”
In 1969, the firm opened a new bakery in Tremaine Avenue and
production was due to end at the Cuba Street site on 15 May 1970. The
firm was taken over by Quality Bakers of NZ Ltd. in August 1970, and then
the Palmerston North bakery merged with A.S. Paterson & Co. Ltd. in
Page 86
1973.155 The subsequent history of the Tremaine Avenue bread factory
has not been researched. However, it is understood that the last baking
occurred there in late 2008 and that it is now a distribution centre.156
In their 1937 article in From Swamp to City, Boniface Bros. published a
photo (above) of their Balmoral Tea and Luncheon Rooms in Cuba Street.
This shop was in this building, but changes since that time cause some
identification problems. The Balmoral Luncheon Rooms were advertised in
1916157 as serving morning and afternoon teas, arranging wedding
breakfasts, and preparing wedding and birthday cakes, etc. Possibly it
operated in this building until Boniface Bros. left in 1930. That year another
new shop was started at the site of their new bakery. In 1935, they opened
the Pink Cake Shop in The Square.
The Cuba Street Co-op
The Stage 2 shop very likely started as a grocery shop, and sometime
between 1925 and 1933 (these dates based on the Wises’ and Stones’
Directories) this business appears to have shifted into the Stage 1 shop.
Hugh Olliver ran the grocery store throughout the 1930s and into the mid1940s, before selling out to the Consumers’ Co-operative Society
(Manawatu) Ltd. (generally known as ‘the Co-op’). As a result, the Cuba
Street Co-op opened for business in September 1945. The company also
purchased Anthony’s Butchery as a going concern and renamed it in June
1947 as the Cuba Street Butchery. This is possibly the Co-op Butchers on
the corner of Bourke Street opposite the Elgin Buildings, according to the
1950-51 Wises’ Directory. However, the butchery shop had already closed
in August 1949.158
155
Manawatu Evening Standard 17 December 1930 19(5-8), 19 August 1966 p. 67, 16 August 1966 1(2), 5 November 1969 3(6-7), 11 May 1970 3(1), 28 August
1970 p. 1, 5 June 1973 p.1; ‘New Zealand’s Model Bakery’ in Robert H. Billens &
H. Leslie Verry, From Swamp to City (Palmerston North, 1937) eight un-numbered
pages.
156
Personal conversations on 12 January 2010 with Steve of Steve’s Bulk Barn,
Midway Plaza; and Paul Burr of Manawatu Hydraulics Ltd., whose firm maintained
the bakery’s equipment and overhauled its oven three weeks before the decision to
stop baking in November 2008. He said the small goods baking had stopped there
a few years earlier - VAB
The Consumers’ Co-operative Society (Manawatu) Ltd. was founded in
1935 with the aim that the customers owned the business; that no
individual or firm could take it over; and that no person could profit at the
expense of another. By the end of the Second World War, the Co-op had
established seven grocery shops, seven butcher’s shops and a bakery.
After continuing growth, the Co-op then bought the PDC department store
in 1956.
157
Manawatu Evening Standard, regular advert 2 September 1916 1(2)
‘Jubilee & History Notes’, in Consumers’ Co-op Society (Manawatu) Ltd., Folder
5, Box 2, Series 26, Ian Matheson City Archives, PN City Library.
158
Page 87
After twenty-two years, the Cuba Street Co-op had evidently outgrown this
shop. As a result the neighbouring property was obtained and a purposebuilt Co-op building was erected there. This single-storey building, now
Moose’s Sports shop at 211 Cuba Street, was designed by David Lough &
Associates, the plans being dated 7 March 1967.
By the 1980s, the Co-op was under increasing pressure from supermarket
chains and high interest rates, and began selling off its satellite stores. The
Cuba Street Co-op last appears in the phonebook in 1982, and the Co-op
in due course went into voluntary receivership in 1988. A brief
administrative history of the business written in 1993, notes however, that
“The Co-op played an important part in the development of Palmerston
North and the life of its citizens, as it was often the establishment of a Coop store in a suburb which led to the growth of a suburban shopping
centre.”159 Correspondingly, the failure of the very influential Co-op to
establish a Co-op store in a new suburb was also attributed with stunting
the growth of suburban shopping centres in some places.160
The PNCC Building Permit records (C 100/203-207) are fairly limited. The
earliest application, by Cameron Investments, is dated 14 September
1987, involves refurbishing the building. Next is an application from March
1989, to erect new shop fronts and upgrade the interiors to a value of
$5,500. The plan of this shows the three shops, plus the single-storey
159
Plans for new shop at 215 Cuba St., dated 7 March 1967, Building Plans,
Folder 1, Series 33, Misc Building Plans; Penny Allen, ‘Consumers’ Co-operative
Society (Manawatu) Ltd.: Administrative History’ (1993) Preamble to the
Consumers’ Co-operative Society (Manawatu) Ltd.: Administrative History files in
the Community Archives Series List, Vol. Co-Cy, Ian Matheson City Archives, PN
City Library.
160
Personal conversation with former PNCC planner Ken Tremaine around 1990,
who said that the Co-op had actively prevented any small grocery shops being
established in Kelvin Grove suburb between the suburb’s beginnings in the mid1960s, and the early 1980s (when the present two shops were built), by which time
he had acted to end this Co-op position - VAB
Shop 4 and the two-storey Shop/Studio 5 both facing Lombard Street.
These were part of the old bakery dating to between 1905 and 1915.
Cameron Investments has not been researched, however, at the time
Brian W. Donnelly owned the building.
Finally in 2004 permission was sought to demolish the buildings previously
listed as Shops 4 and 5, as their sites were to become park of the Carlton
Hotel’s carpark.161
Comments: The foundations at the front of this block show some
evidence of their having been constructed in stages. Other variations
beneath the verandah might also reflect this, with the first stage building
having original-type windows directly beneath the verandah roof. It also
has an old-style tiled floor inside the entrance that the other two shops do
not have. The rear of the building shows the outlines of the demolished
buildings.
The building is designed in the Edwardian Italianate Palazzo style with
symmetrical façade, Classical details such as a parapet, and pilasters to
the full height of the building, a cornice with modillions and flat pediments
over the windows. The timber verandah appears to be original although
shopfronts are not.
The available plan of the buildings of 1987 shows three similar sized open
shops on the ground floor with toilets at the rear and two further shops on
Lombard Street. These shops now no longer exist.
No construction information is given on the drawings. The description
above states the building is of brick construction and from observation it
has a timber framed verandah and timber joinery.
161
Page 88
This building has high historic values in its connection to Frederick
Bryant, a businessman with significant property interests in Palmerston
North as well as being the largest landowner in Shannon at the time of his
death. Reflecting a high level of continuity is the continuous tenancies of
bakers from 1907 to 1957. The building has high age value as is one of
the few in the central city over 100 years old.
Contributing to high historic values is the likelihood that all stages of the
building were designed by F de J Clere and sons, a highly significant
practice in the lower half of the North Island from the late Victorian to the
Inter-War period.
ASSESSMENT SUMMARY
Significance
Proposed category
Cultural
Emotional
Historical
The building has moderate design values as a representative example
of the Late Victorian/Edwardian Italianate style.
Design
Technology
Spiritual
Sentimental
Symbolic
Political
People
Events
Age
Tradition
Continuity
Style
Materials
Group
Materials
Construction
high local
2
Contextual
Measure
Authenticity
H
H
Rarity
Landmark
Representative
Design
Setting
Materials
Craftsmanship
H
M
H
authenticity, particularly above the shopfronts.
Page 89
M
H
H
Ward Brothers Buildings
BUILDING DETAILS
Owner:
Owner’s Address:
Assessment Number:
Property ID:
Land Area:
Legal Description:
NZHPT No.
NZHPT Manawatu No:
Construction date:
Architect:
Original Owner:
Builder:
Lot 2 DP 53140 (PNCC Schedule Lot 2
DP 53140; Pt Lot 9 DP 352)
WN27D/944 (1985), prior CT WN522/280
(1947), WN 104/256 (1900)
Category II162
7360
Historic Place – Category II
144
1935
L.G. West, Son & Hornibrook
Ward Bros. (W.E. & E.E. Ward)
A. Holmes
History
This building is considered one of the finest Art Deco buildings in
Palmerston North, and has Category II listings with both PNCC and the
Historic Places Trust.
Prior History
The site of this building, Lot 8 DP 352, belonged to Arthur Edward Clausen
in 1900 according to CT WN104/256. In 1905, he sold it to James Miller, a
storekeeper of Glen Oroua, and in turn Miller leased part of the property to
William James Horn (a grocer, according to PNCC cemetery records) for a
five-year period in 1909. It was then leased to property developer
Frederick Bryant in 1914 for another five years with a purchasing clause.
162
PNCC Schedule of Buildings and Objects of Cultural Heritage Value
Page 90
Miller evidently died later in 1914 and the property passed first to the
Public Trustee in 1914, and then to Miller’s widow, Catherine Miller, in
1917. In 1921, the property was transferred to William and Edward Ward
as tenants in common. However, the pair had leased the building from
1919, presumably after Bryant’s lease ended, and certainly they are listed
163
there in the 1920 Wises’ Directory.
The Ward family
William Ercott Ward and his younger brother Edward Ercott Ward were
respectively the fourth and sixth sons of George and Eliza Ward, who had
emigrated from England aboard the Lady Jocelyn in 1875. At first George
ran a carrying business at Akaroa, before the family moved to the
Manawatu in 1887, where he took up a block of standing bush near Linton.
The family turned this property into a prosperous farm. George was a
member of the first Linton School Committee in 1888, and three of the ten
Ward children (Albert, Alex and Isabella) are thought to have been first day
pupils at the school the following year.
The couple raised nine sons and a daughter at Linton. Their eldest son
George Jocelyn Ward, who was born on the immigrant ship after whom he
was named, was very active in the development of the Linton community
in the early 1900s. He also established the Linton Public Store in 1904.
This was sold in 1911 and by 1937 he lived in Auckland.164
who died in July 1914 after an operation, having become ill at a military
training camp.165
While no information was traced for William that indicated his training for
his future occupation, Edward’s obituary records that he was apprenticed
to Messrs. Osgood & Hancock, painters, of Rangitikei Street. That firm had
been established in 1896 and undertook the same type of work (painting,
wallpapering, glass, picture-framing etc.) that the Ward brothers later
166
did.
On 10 May 1911, William and Edward went into business together as
painters and paperhangers, starting their business in the washhouse of
William’s Bourke Street home. Noticeably this was the same year their
older brother sold up at Linton and also that their father died, but what
significance if any this timeframe had is not known.
It was not until 1919 that William and Edward moved their business to the
Cuba Street property where the present building now stands. However,
one imagines that this belated decision to leave her backyard was
applauded by William’s wife, the former Lillian Gordon Beattie, whom he
had married in 1908. Edward married Ada Lewer in 1912 and doubtless
she sympathised with her sister-in-law.167
George and Eliza moved to Frits Street (now Russell Street), Palmerston
North, in 1905, and it was there that they were living when George died on
17 October 1911 aged 59, after a brief illness. Eliza moved to Auckland in
1914, following the death of her 18-year-old eighth son, Stanley Arthur,
The New Building
Plans to build a workshop on this property were drawn up by architect O.A.
Jorgenson in 1923. Then in January 1935, the architectural firm L.G. West,
Son & Hornibrook (then comprising of architects Ernst West and Francis
Hornibrook) called for tenders to build the present retail showroom building
in reinforced concrete.168
163
165
Manawatu Evening Standard 24 March 1943 2(6)
Cyclopedia of New Zealand, Vol.6 (Christchurch, 1908), p. 689; W.J. Lauridsen,
Linton 1889-1989: A School and District Centennial History (Palmerston North,
1989), p.126. Note that the index of the latter book mixes up George Ward senior
and George J. Ward junior.
164
Manawatu Evening Standard 17 October 1911 5(1), 8 July 1914 5(2), 10 July
1914 5(2), 21 August 1937 2(7)
Cyclopedia of New Zealand, Vol.6 (Christchurch, 1908), p. 677
167
Manawatu Evening Standard 15 October 1908 5(1) & 13 July 1912 7(4)
168
Manawatu Evening Standard 31 January 1935 2(1)
166
Page 91
The building permit (No. 701) was issued on 4 March 1935, with the
building costing £2,214 to erect. The builder’s name has in the past been
read on permit documentation variously as AG Holmes or AC Holmes.
However, no-one with those initials appears in the local Electoral Rolls
around that time, and the only ‘Holmes’ traced who was connected to the
building industry at that time was Arthur Edward Holmes, variously
described as a carpenter and a builder. He died on 23 April 1961, aged
73, however, no obituary was published.169
The CT shows two party wall arrangements with neighbours that
correspond with the construction of the new building – one with Andrew
Ruthven Buchanan and Lionel Martyn Abraham, and the other with Walter
Henry Franks, a fruiterer.
PNCC Building Permit records for this building (C100/213-217) contains
L.G. West, Son & Hornibrooke’s original specifications for this building.
Although they are difficult to read, they indicate that the property was to be
cleared of the previous building by the firm’s employees prior to
construction of this building.
The ground floor of the new building was designed as two shops. The
original plans show Shop 1 on the Lombard Street side of the building was
the larger of the two and that the stairs ran upstairs from it. This was the
Ward Bros. shop, and the upstairs area served as the firm’s wallpaper
showroom. The showroom was dominated by leadlight windows and by a
large and elaborate domed leadlight skylight.
169
Building Permit Register, Vol. 3, p. 405; ‘Art Deco Jewel in Manawatu’ in
Community Manawatu, April 1998, Vol. 2, issue 4 (Ward Bros., A175/381
‘Businesses.’, Ian Matheson City Archives, PN City Library. PNCC Cemetery
online records. Ian Bowman & Michael Kelly, Palmerston North CBD Heritage
Inventory (1994), No. 14. 1931, 1935 & 1938 Palmerston North Electoral Rolls,
1935 & 1938 Manawatu Electoral Rolls.
The 1937 book From Swamp to City: Commemorating the Diamond
Jubilee of the City170 includes the above photo of the near new building,
and also an article entitled: “Ward Bros.’ Record of Progress”. This states
that:
Few businesses in Palmerston North afford an example of
consistent progress so striking as that of Ward Bros. Briefly, a
business started in a washhouse twenty-six years ago today has
one of the most architecturally modern premises in the whole of the
city.
It was in 1911 that Mr W.E. Ward and his brother, Mr E.E.
Ward, commenced in the washhouse of the former, who was living
in Bourke Street, a humble business as painters and decorators.
The reliability of their workmanship soon won them some credit, and
about eighteen years ago they were able to move to premises in
170
Robert H. Billens & H. Leslie Verry, From Swamp to City: Commemorating the
Diamond Jubilee of the City (Palmerston North, 1937), unnumbered page: ‘Ward
Bros.’ Record of Progress.
Page 92
Cuba Street. There they set to work to cater for diverse decorative
needs, and two years ago had the pleasure of opening up the
modern shop and showroom which they conduct today. The building
itself is designed on most unusual lines, and is an asset to the
architecture of any city.
There is also a workshop attached to the premises,
employing a considerable staff of highly competent men. Painters
and decorators carry out skilled work of many kinds, for Ward Bros.
are, among other things, mirror-makers, brilliant cutters, and picture
framers.
In the showroom itself, there is today a very large range of
English wallpapers. An important and popular agency is that for
Berger’s paints.
An important department of the business is that devoted to
the provision of plate glass, while all classes of glass for motorcars
are also stocked, including triplex glass.
Carrying stocks to suit all tastes, with a large following of
satisfied customers, Ward Bros. occupy a position in the community
which can be attributed only to the absolute integrity of their trading,
the courtesy of their business conduct, and the readiness with which
at any time they advise all who wish to avail themselves of their
accumulated knowledge.
Ward Bros. (P.N.) Ltd. in 1947, and a new CT was issued the same year WN 522/280. In addition to the original property, this CT added part of the
back yards of the Lombard Street Sections 9, 10 and 11 of DP 352, and
also a right of way to Lombard Street through Section 9.
William subsequently married Vera Isabel Mary (previous surname
unknown), and they had a son, Raymond, born when his father was aged
57. William then died on 22 March 1950 aged 65, his death notices
sharing the same newspaper column as the seventh anniversary
memorials to his brother. Edward’s widow Ada, by then of Manawatu
Heads, Foxton, died on 6 June 1951, aged 59.172
Despite the setback of losing its founders at relatively young ages, the
business continued. Raymond Ward, known as ‘Ray’, began working for
the business in 1956.173
In 1969 an article in The Tribune outlined the firm’s history and its current
activities. It undertook all kinds of glazing work; did safety glass work on
cars; reinstated shop fronts, contract glazing and picture framing. Staff at
this time included: Mr M. Howell, who was the manager, Ray Ward, who
was a director, and his mother Vera was also still active in the business.
Other staff members were Mr I. McRae, Mr W. Bethell and the apprentice
Mr H. Hughes.174
The business grew considerably and by the time the Second Word War
broke out, they had a staff of 22. However, not all ran smoothly. Firstly,
Eliza Ward died in Auckland on 17 August 1937, aged 84171, followed by
William’s wife Lillian, who died on 29 September 1937 aged 56. Then
Edward died suddenly on 23 March 1943, aged 51.
In 1972 the firm added a new glass store to their buildings. This was
located at 87 Lombard Street, and the extension traced to a plan devised
by William Ward years earlier. It then gave the firm a total storage and
work area of 4,100 square feet.175 The Building Permit records state that in
In 1944, Edward’s share of the partnership was transferred to his wife Ada,
who was to act as administrator. The property was then transferred to
172
171
Manawatu Evening Standard 21 August 1937 2(7) Note that George, Eliza and
Stanley Ward’s grave at Terrace End Cemetery is decorated with a tall monument
and a black and white rectangular tile mosaic covering half the plot, that resembles
a large leadlight window or perhaps more correctly a ‘skylight’.
Manawatu Evening Standard 30 September 1937 1(1); 23 March 1943 1(1); 24
March 1943 2(6); 23 March 1950 1(1); PNCC Cemetery records.
173
Unsourced and undated notes in HPT Manawatu file No. 144 on this building,
which are probably information obtained from Ray Ward.
174
The Tribune, ‘Central City Review’, August 1969, p. 7
175
Manawatu Evening Standard 8 June 1972, p. 10
Page 93
1975, a wall was added to the premises at 217 Cuba Street, at a cost of
$2,000.
Shop 2
W.A. Pickup, a manufacturer’s agent who was listed at 175 Cuba Street in
the 1939 Wise’s Directory, possibly occupied Shop 2 (Ward Bros.’ address
was then 173 Cuba Street). By the 1944 Directory, the National Cash
Register Company N.Z. Ltd. occupied the shop, and that company
remained there until the 1950-51 Directory. Thereafter there is no separate
occupant listed for Shop 2.
After NCR’s departure, Ward Bros. opened up the wall between the two
shops and used the whole area. The paint department was in the Shop 2
area, while the mirrors and the picture-framing area were in Shop 1. The
façade downstairs was also altered then.176
Changes of use
Vera Ward died on 21 April 1980, and this timeframe also marked a
change in the story of the firm and this building.
The business was sold in 1981, with the paint and wallpaper section of the
firm going to the PWF Home Decorating Centre, which remained in the
Ward Bros. building. The glass section of the business was sold to Keith
Seiverts, and the 1982 phonebook lists it as Ward Glass of 85 Lombard
Street. Ray Ward continued working as a picture framer upstairs. The
PNCC Building Permit files include a 1981 application to repair the wall
between the building’s two occupiers.
The property was subdivided in 1985 and the portion containing this
building was issued CT WN27D/944, being Lot 2 DP 53140.
176
Unsourced notes in HPT file No 144
PWF moved out of the building in 1987 and then Wilson’s Army & Navy
Store leased the premises. Unsourced notes in the Historic Places Trust
file on this building (probably an interview with Ray Ward) say that around
this time (c1987), the partition between the two former shops was
reinstated, with Wilson’s have one side and Ray Ward the other. However,
that might be the aforementioned 1981 repair work.
In 1990, an application was made to fit out the upper floor of the building
as a restaurant for B.J. Meekings. A permit was also applied for relating to
access/egress for the restaurant. The stairs were to be moved from the
middle of the showroom, to a set of stairs on either side of the building,
where restaurant customers would have direct access from the road. The
entrance to the ground floor shop was also to be altered.
The phonebook listings indicate that in about 1991, Ray Ward established
his furniture shop called ‘Leonardos’ on the ground floor, selling furniture
made from new and recycled timber. This business relocated from the
shop in about 2004, doubtless coinciding with the sale of the property in
2004. Star Secondhand Books & Music then moved into the shop, where it
remains. The Spostato Italian restaurant was listed in the phonebook at
this address between 1991 and 2008, and it has recently reopened under
new management.
The Ward Bros. building was awarded Category II status with the NZ
Historic Places Trust on 13 December 1996. As a result, the Manawatu
Evening Standard interviewed Ray Ward about the building in January
1997. At the time his intentions were to restore the entire building to its
original splendour, including the frontage. He stated that he “remembers
now with sadness when the ground floor frontage was being redesigned
and seeing the original bevelled glass doors and windows being removed
and taken to the dump.”177
177
‘Inbusiness’ supplement, in Manawatu Evening Standard 27 January 1997.
Page 94
However, this goal was not to be in Ray Ward’s time. The property was
transferred to the present owner, Raymo Properties Ltd. in 2004. Raymo
Properties Ltd., in turn, is owned by Maurice Lionel Ray and Moreen Janet
Ray, and was registered as a company on 16 April 2004.178
This building has high historic values in its associations with the Ward
family who established their painting, glazing, and paperhanging business
in the building and who worked from it from 1935 to 1981 and one
member, Ray, operating again from it 1991 to 2004.
The old firm Ward Bros. still exists, although whether or not it is still trading
has not been researched. It is owned by Ray and Nesta Ward, now of
Masterton. It was first registered on 17 September 1946 as Ward Bros PN
179
Ltd., however, the name was altered to Ward Bros. (PN) Ltd. in 1999.
The building also has high historic values in its historical association with
the architect, L G West, who, in conjunction with his son Ernst Vilhem, he
was responsible for a large number of Palmerston North's buildings.
Among those still standing designed by the practice are the Former Club
Hotel (1905), the Manawatu–Kilwinning Masonic Lodge (1908), the Old
Soldiers Club (1917), and the Church of Christ. Scientist (1931) and the
Carlton Hotel (1927).
The building is designed in the Inter-War Art Deco style with a
symmetrical, shallow stepped façade, horizontal stepped parapet style,
sunburst, linen fold, and zigzag decoration on the exterior. The first floor
has a central stepped bay window while the ground floor has two timber
framed shop fronts.
The original drawings show the ground floor divided longitudinally into two
shops with a chamfered ingo serving both shops. Both shops are divided
into a front display area and smaller working area and toilets at the rear.
The east shop has central stairs leading to the first floor, which is divided,
centrally into two spaces
The building has high design values as a an exceptional example of the
Inter- War Free Art Deco style, which is rare in Palmerston North.
authenticity, particularly above the shopfronts.
The drawings shows the building being constructed of reinforced concrete
and cement render and timber joinery. The bay window has leaded
toplights.
178
179
Companies Office website: Company No. 1505173
Companies Office website: Company No. 4949.
Page 95
ASSESSMENT SUMMARY
Significance
Existing category
Cultural
Emotional
Historical
Design
Technology
Spiritual
Sentimental
Symbolic
Political
People
Events
Age
Tradition
Continuity
Style
Materials
Group
Materials
Construction
high regional
1
Contextual
Measure
Authenticity
H
Rarity
Landmark
Representative
Design
Setting
Materials
Craftsmanship
H
H
H
H
H
H
Page 96
Cuba Street, 227
Former Beattie and Proctor Ltd. building
BUILDING DETAILS
Owner:
Owner’s Address:
Assessment Number:
Property ID:
Land Area:
Legal Description:
NZHPT No.
NZHPT Manawatu No:
Construction date:
Architect:
Original Owner:
Builder:
Pt Lot 3 DP 36
WN245/213 (1916), prior CT WN29/122
(1882)
Nil
Nil
Nil
Nil
1919
Unknown
Beattie & Procter Ltd.
Unknown
History
This small shop was designed as the showroom and workshop of a small
plumbing business. Its frontage appears to be fairly original.
Prior History
There is nothing recorded in the 1914 and 1916 Wises’ Directories for this
site. At the time, the property was bounded on the Lombard Street side by
Mrs Elizabeth Barnett’s Temperance Hotel, and on the Taonui Street site
by grocer George G.H. Miller and Sam Lee’s laundry, both of which shared
a property.
The property belonged to William Sykes, described as a settler, from 1882
until 1885, when it was transferred to his wife Emma Ann Sykes.
Thereafter it was transferred in 1888 to Mary Ann Tarrant, a widow, and
then in 1897 to Elizabeth Miller, wife of George Miller, a Palmerston North
Page 97
settler. In early 1916 it was transferred to George Clisham Keeble, an
accountant, with a right of way over the adjoining property to Taonui
Street, and a new CT (WN 245/213) was issued180
personal supervision of Mr A.N. Beattie, who holds the City and
Guilds of London Institute certificate.182
Keeble was from a very well connected local family and had a successful
future ahead of him, while his wife Beatrix was a member of the prominent
Waldegrave family. However, whatever plans he might have initially had
for this property, they were probably disrupted by World War One, where
he saw service in the infantry in France.181
Although the original plans of this building survive, there is no indication on
them as to who designed or built the shop. The property was transferred
into the name of Beattie & Procter Ltd. in December 1919, and the building
was probably constructed soon after. This agrees with the above 1927
article. An entry on the Certificate of Title in January 1920, in relation to a
party wall between this property and its western neighbour, supports this
as its time of construction.
The property was next transferred in late 1919 to Beattie & Procter Ltd.,
and the Beattie family was to own it until 1977.
Beattie & Procter Ltd.
An article in the 1927 Manawatu Standard describes the early years of this
firm. It was entitled: “Beattie and Procter Ltd.: A progressive firm”
To commence in a small building with a staff of only two,
and to grow to the extent of having 14 hands, in seven years, is a
fair criterion of good service to the public and the gaining of their
confidence. This has been accomplished by Messrs. Beattie and
Procter Ltd., plumbers, gasfitters and sanitary engineers.
In 1917 they commenced business in a shop of modest
dimensions but soon – the inevitable reward of expert workmanship
and reasonable rates – the business dealt with began to expand
rapidly, and in order to cope with the expansion up-to-date and
more spacious premises were necessary. Accordingly, in 1919, Mr
G.B. Cope joined the firm, and it was made a limited liability
company; spacious premises were secured in Cuba Street, and a
fine modern building erected. Expert workmanship and considerate
attention is the slogan of this enterprising firm. All work is under the
180
181
CT WN 29/122
Manawatu Evening Standard 21 August 1912 5(7), 7 March 1973, p. 3
Noticeable on the building’s upper façade in the aforementioned plans, is
the spelling of the surname of Arthur Nelson Beattie’s original business
partner. This is spelt “Proctor” on the plans, while the name on the upper
façade of the building itself is spelt “Procter”. The spelling is also “Procter”
in the property’s CT, as part of the company’s registered name.
It is known that the partnership split in difficult circumstances at a very
early stage – probably about 1919. While this person has not been
identified in this study, it is noteworthy that there was a plumber named
‘Proctor’ in Palmerston North in 1919, while another plumber named
‘Procter’ was advertising regularly in the local newspapers in the 1930s.183
The 1920 Wises’ Directory lists two properties in Cuba Street as occupied
by the partnership. Both are spelt “Beattie & Proctor”. One is the building
being studied here, while the second is on the other side of the road and
on the corner of Cuba and Andrew Young Streets (on the side closest to
George St.). This is thought to include land still occupied by the plumbing
182
Manawatu Evening Standard, 26 February 1927, p. 31 (4) ‘Beattie and Procter
Ltd.: A progressive firm’
183
Ref: 1919 Palmerston North Electoral Roll (re Proctor), and a regular daily
advert that was sighted during this study in 1930s local newspapers, but the date
was not noted (re Procter). Probably this person also appears in the Palmerston
North Electoral Rolls around this time.
Page 98
firm trading as Beattie & Horne (founded by Arthur Nelson Beattie’s son
Joseph, known as ‘Joe’), the address of which is now 8 Andrew Young
Street.
grandsons has just joined the firm as an apprentice, thus becoming the
fourth generation of Beattie plumbers in Palmerston North.186
Arthur Nelson Beattie (of Ngaio Street) died suddenly on 1 September
1941, aged 55, and his obituary described him as having been one of
West End’s most ardent supporters. He had done a great deal to further
the interests of the suburb during the 31 years he lived there. He was a
member of the West End School Committee for 15 years, and was one of
those mainly responsible for the provision of the school’s tennis courts and
swimming pool.
This building appears to have ceased being used as a plumbing shop in
about 1958, by which time G.B. Cope was aged about 75. CT WN 245/213
records that the building was leased for a period of ten years with right of
renewal, to Auto Electrics Ltd., the lease beginning on 1 November 1958.
In 1959, the property was transferred from the name of Beattie & Procter
Ltd., and into the names of Joseph Powick Beattie and Arthur’s widow
Delpha Beattie as tenants in common in equal shares. The former
manager of Beattie & Procter Ltd., Gerard Brentnall Cope (an accountant),
died on 17 July 1971, aged 88, after some four decades with the firm
Born in Denniston and educated in Westport, Arthur was subsequently
apprenticed to the plumbing firm Larsen Bros. He later worked for the
same firm in Greymouth. He then came to Palmerston North in 1910,
where he worked for W.A. Kyle Ltd. until 1917, at which time he entered a
business partnership with Mr Proctor.
Delpha Beattie died on 1 March 1974, aged 85, and Joe Beattie died on 2
September 2003, aged 87.
Joe Beattie was at an Air Force training camp at the time of Arthur’s
death.184 He had done his plumbing apprenticeship with A & T Burt in
Wellington, as his father had not wanted him to do his apprenticeship at
Beattie & Procter Ltd. When Joe returned from the Second World War, he
discovered that there was still no place for him in his late father’s firm, now
managed by G.B. Cope185. So he and an ex-Air Force friend named Horne
established a new plumbing firm called Beattie & Horne in Andrew Young
Street. Horne returned to the Air Force several years later, however, his
name remains with the present firm.
Arthur’s ‘City and Guilds of London Institute certificate’ still hangs on the
wall at Beattie & Horne, and Joe’s well-known brown and cream 1947
Chev Thriftmaster ‘one-owner’ plumber’s truck is still in daily use around
the city on behalf of the firm, and driven by one of his sons. One of his
184
Manawatu Evening Standard, 4 September 1941 6(6); 11 September 1941 2(6)
‘Obituary’
185
1944 Wises’ Directory, p.568
The property was transferred to Wai Buildings Ltd., in 1977, and then to
Roger Edgar George Holmwood, company director of Palmerston North, in
1978. In 1985 an undivided half share of the property was transferred to
Vera Lily Holmwood, married woman, of Palmerston North. A subsequent
unclear transfer that evidently occurred in 2007187 moved the property
entirely back to Roger Edgar George Holmwood’s ownership. The building
was then sold in late 2009 to a partnership of Filip Van Den Hout, Carla
Van Den Hout and Ian Gordon Stuart Donald.
The building was tenanted by auto accessory businesses for over forty
years. Auto Electrics Ltd. that leased the building in 1959, was in due
course replaced by Auto Electrics 1973 Ltd. In the latter 1970s the shop
became the Auto Accessory Centre. From around 2003 the building was
occupied by Dynamic Computer Solutions. That firm left in late 2009, and
186
Interviews with Roger Beattie (10 January 2010) and Drew Beattie (November
2009)
Note that the entry on CT WN245/213 is in fact dated “20.11.1007”.
187
Page 99
the removal of its signage revealed the old Beattie & Procter name on the
concrete façade. Its new tenant is Livingstone Business Equipment.
The frontage of this building appears to be generally unaltered from the
original plans, other the altered spelling of the word ‘Proctor’, a
replacement verandah, and some differences to the two central pillars.
However, the present verandah may be covering some of the original
decoration in that area. An old gantry behind the building is thought by
Roger Beattie to date to the Beattie & Procter business.
The original drawings of the building show the façade style as symmetrical
Art Nouveau with shallow curved parapet, central projecting parapet
supported on bracketed pilasters with a projecting fine cornice and
matching pilasters projecting above the parapet, also with projecting fine
cornices. The below verandah designed shows the pilasters with tiled
panels and a wide shallow chamfered ingo .
It is not certain whether this was built, but what survives today is a very
simple Stripped Classical styled building lacking the central pediment and
Art Nouveau detailing.
The plan shows the single storeyed building with the shallow ingo leading
to an ‘L shaped building with an open shop with two office on one side at
the front and a narrower work room at the rear. The work room has large,
possibly steel windows and a sliding timber door.
This building has moderate historic values in its association with Beattie
and Procter Ltd who owned and built the building, using it for their
plumbing business. The building continued to be owned by the Beattie
family until 1977.
The building has moderate design values as a representative example of
a simple version of the Inter- War Stripped Classical style.
The building’s above verandah street façade design is largely authentic.
ASSESSMENT SUMMARY
Significance
Proposed category
Cultural
Emotional
Historical
Construction appears to be concrete with timber roof framing and timber
joinery.
Design
Technology
Spiritual
Sentimental
Symbolic
Political
People
Events
Age
Tradition
Continuity
Style
Materials
Group
Materials
Construction
moderate local
group
Contextual
Measure
Authenticity
M
Rarity
Landmark
Representative
Design
Setting
Materials
Craftsmanship
M
H
Page 100
M
M
H
Cuba Street, 233
Former Cosmopolitan Club
BUILDING DETAILS
Owner:
Owner’s Address:
Assessment Number:
Property ID:
Land Area:
Legal Description:
NZHPT No.
NZHPT Manawatu No:
Construction date:
Architect:
Original Owner:
Builder:
2322 square metres more or les
Lot 2 DP 12322, Lot 1 DP 24441 & Lot 56 & Part Lot 7 DP 36 – this being the main
building
WNB1/1062 (1963), prior CTs WN397/47
(1929), WN39/268 (1885) & WN131/120
(1904?), [also prior to WNB1/1062 are:
WN407/171 (1929) & WN487/168 (1941)]
Nil
Nil
Nil
142
1928
L.G. West & Son (E.V. West)
Palmerston North Cosmopolitan Club
P.B. Torstonson
History
Much of this building’s history is recorded in the chronological publication
Palmerston North Cosmopolitan Club – Centennial: A recorded history of
the club 1889-1989. The club sold the building in 1990 and since then it
has had a range of uses, including part being a massage parlour.
Prior History – the club
The Cosmopolitan Club was formed in 1888 as ‘The Palmerston North
Working Men’s Club and Mutual School of Arts.’ Its first clubrooms were a
rented building on the corner of Rangitikei and King Streets, and faced
down Cuba Street. Despite its name implying that its membership might be
Page 101
dominated by the ‘working class’ (labourers and wage earners), when
writing the Foreword for the above book in 1987, late City Archivist Ian
Matheson noted that the key figures in the club’s history were business
and professional men, and included to that time six Members of
Parliament, three Mayors of Palmerston North and sixteen Palmerston
North Borough or City Councillors. However, its early membership also
included bushmen, labourers, fellmongers, storemen, railway workers and
a wide cross-section of other occupations.
The club received its Permanent Charter as ‘The Palmerston North
Workingmen’s Club’ in 1889, having satisfied the Colonial Secretary that
“the said Club is a voluntary association of persons combined for
promoting the common object of private social intercourse, convenience
and comfort, and providing its own liquors, and not for the purpose of
gain…”188
A fire that destroyed the club’s building in about 1894 resulted in the club
moving to a new building in Cuba Street on the other side of the road to
the present building, and which was rented from the Borough Council.
Then in 1903, two of the club’s trustees purchased land across the road on
the club’s behalf, and thus the club soon had its first purpose-built
clubrooms. The new building was officially opened on 30 November
1904189, and then on 16 August 1905 the building they had just vacated
burnt down.190 This unusual tradition reoccurred on 31 October 1925,
when the 1904 building’s large billiard room was badly charred by fire,
although the bar remained operational.191
Prior history – the land
CT WN39/268, which consisted of Lots 5 and 6 of DP 36, was issued in
1885 to William Jones, a local coach proprietor. It was transferred in 1891
to his wife, Maria Josephine Jones. William Jones, described in PNCC
cemetery records as a coach driver, died on 22 March 1895 aged 40. In
1912 the property was transferred to the Palmerston North Workingmens’
Club & Literary Institute. CT WN131/120, which covered Part Lot 7 of DP
36, was issued to Maria Josephine Jones in about 1904 (the last number
is semi-legible). The Club also purchased this land in 1912. Maria Jones
died aged 70 on 28 May 1928.
The club’s Jubilee Souvenir booklet, published in 1939, recorded that the
club had entered into negotiations to buy the future site of this building in
1906. However, the parties involved could not agree on a price. The
eventual price was £5,500, with a deposit of £2,000.192
From 1904, the club was located next door to the future site of this
building, at what is now the site of the Oroua Building. In 1914, the
clubrooms’ address was 34 Cuba Street and the 1914 Wise’s Directory
shows Joseph York Oliver, a “ch painter” and Walter Frederick Bell, a
paper ruler, at street number’s 36 and 38 respectively, situated between
the club and Taonui Street. J.Y. Oliver was the club president in 1906, and
as at 1989, he had still been the only man to have held all executive
positions (between 1902 and 1928) within the club.193 The 1916 and 1925
Directories show Robert Tulloch, a saddler, at the corner site, while in
1916 the intervening site was occupied by Henry Lyall, a teacher, and in
1925 by James Dawber, a salesman.
188
Centennial Committee, Palmerston North Cosmopolitan Club – Centennial: A
recorded history of the club 1889-1989 (Palmerston North, 1989), p. 12
189
Manawatu Evening Standard 1 December 1904, 7(4-5) & 4(6-7). Note that this
building is covered in more detail in relation to history of the Oroua Buildings.
190
Manawatu Evening Standard 16 August 1905, 5(2); 17 May 1905, 5(1) & advert
3(5)
191
Manawatu Evening Standard 2 November 1925, 2(5) & 8(5) Note that the PN
Cosmopolitan Club Jubilee Souvenir booklet (published 1939) erroneously dates
the fire 25 October 1925. This copy in ‘PN Cosmopolitan Club’ research file
A175/436, Ian Matheson City Archives, PN Public Library. Note that the booklet
does not have page numbers.
192
PN Cosmopolitan Club Jubilee Souvenir booklet
193
PN Cosmopolitan Club Centennial, p. 58
Page 102
The Present Building
In his speech at the opening of the £13,698 Cosmopolitan Club building in
1928, the Hon. J.A. Nash M.P. (who was also a life member of the club)
said that the ongoing growth of the club’s membership had long taxed the
available space in the 1904 building. In October 1912 the club had
purchased the land for the proposed building. However, at the point where
financial arrangements were almost ready for building to commence,
World War One intervened and the matter was deferred until the latter1920s.194
In 1926, preliminary plans for the present building were drawn up by
architect Ernst West, of the firm L.G. West & Son. His late father, Ludolph
Georg West, had been an original member of the club. At a Special
General Meeting on 29 January 1927, the club resolved to proceed with
the new building. The plans held by PNCC are dated 15 May 1927, and
tenders to build the new clubrooms for the ‘Palmerston North Working
Men’s, Club and Literary Library’ were advertised in the Manawatu
Evening Standard on 28 May 1927.195 (The club’s name was then changed
to the Palmerston North Cosmopolitan Club in December 1927.196)
The successful tenderer was Percival Bernhardt Torstonson, a member of
a Swedish immigrant family that had a timber yard and sash & door factory
(G. Torstonson’s Ltd.) in Ruahine Street.197
The official opening was held on the afternoon of Wednesday, 15th August
1928, in the presence of several hundred members, and their wives and
194
Manawatu Evening Standard 16 August 1928 2(5). Note that the article
published the same day in the Manawatu Times (p. 4(4-5) states that the club paid
£5,000 for the land. The correct amount has not been researched.
195
Pam Phillips Papers: Vol. 5, p. 35, and Vol. 3, P.5. Ian Matheson City Archives,
PN City Library
196
PN Cosmopolitan Club Centennial, p. 27.
197
Manawatu Evening Standard 19 July 1924, 4(8) & 20 February 1926 9(1)
reports on fires at the timber yard. P.B. Torstonson died on 24 April 1961, aged 81,
but no obituary was found.
friends. At the time, the club had a membership of around 1,000, and
about 200 of these were life members.198
The Palmerston North branch of the Wellington Commercial Travellers’
Club was also to have their headquarters upstairs in the building, and this
st
group had their own official opening on Saturday afternoon of 1
199
September 1928.
The Centennial publication quotes a newspaper article from around the
time of the building’s opening, which stated that:
The building is constructed of brick with a very pleasing appearance
– cement cornices neatly finished with white joints keeping the
building looking quite fresh – there are four shops – the main
entrance is nicely tiled and finished with white plaster – there are
arches giving relief to the back portion of the building – a manager’s
office – and wash up room – telephone room and spacious bars well
finished – a tiled dado around the walls finished with white plaster –
well lighted and containing three tables – a credit to any club - five
card rooms –while the outside is nicely concreted with a covered in
stand for bicycles – upstairs there is a large social room with a lift
and supper room – gents convenience – a ladies waiting room with
conveniences – an up to date library with an entrance from Taonui
Street – there is a cellar 45 feet by 30 feet – well lighted – damp roof
and cool and is centrally heated.200
The Manawatu Times added that two of the four shops were already
leased, and that the ground floor contained “the commercial rooms,
reading room, a spacious billiard room, four card rooms, gents’ retiring
room, and a large circular refreshment booth.” Upstairs were “the library,
198
Manawatu Evening Standard 16 August 1928, 2(5)
Manawatu Evening Standard 3 September 1928, 5(5)
200
PN Cosmopolitan Club Centennial, p. 27 Note that this undated article was not
located in a brief search of the Manawatu Evening Standards (to which the book
attributes it) and Manawatu Times’ from the time of the official opening. The book
also erroneously states that the official opening occurred on 13 August 1928.
199
Page 103
ladies’ rest room, the Commercial Travellers’ new headquarters and the
spacious social hall.” It added that there were steam heaters throughout
the building and that it was well-equipped with electric lights.201
parking. The new extension included plans to amalgamate titles for the
property as an alternative to upgrading a wall at the rear of the shops. In
1985, Human Movements (now of 97 Taonui Street) occupied the first floor
of the building, and a Building Inspection Sheet in the file refers to showers
and toilets.202
Land Ownership
In 1955, land that had been purchased in 1941 became the club’s first car
park. The 1904 clubrooms had been sold to Arthur Hopwood for £4,000 on
1 November 1928. However, in 1963, the back part of this property –the
land behind the Oroua Building - was repurchased for £4,750. A building
on it – almost certainly the 1904 clubrooms, though this has been only
moderately researched - was then demolished and a large extension built
in its place to accommodate an additional five billiard tables. This
extension, which was officially opened on 9 December 1963, is now the
Better Bargins secondhand shop at 247 Cuba Street.
Under construction in 1928
The PNCC Building Permit files contain an assortment of material relating
on the building, its shops, and the various extensions. An undated letter
mentions the wish to demolish a shop front, and to replace it with an office
and strongroom. This is the second shop from the corner, now occupied
by The R18 Shop.
The club applied for permits to undertake alterations in 1953 and 1968,
structural alterations in 1961, a new billiard room in 1963 (behind the
Oroua Building), and for interior alterations in 1982. In 1978 they applied
for a permit to undertake a range of alterations, including adding a
predominately single storey addition at 101 Taonui Street (now the Power
House Tattoo Studio), and also sought dispensation from off-street
201
Manawatu Times 16 August 1928, p. 4 (4-5)
In 1975, the club purchased the Oroua Building for £86,000, thereby
increasing the club’s Cuba Street frontage to 42.6 metres. At the time, this
building contained three shops and five small flats. However, the 1978-9
alterations included converting one of the shops into a direct access
between the billiard room and the street, and this is now the entrance to
Better Bargins.
In 1976, a Taonui Street section (Lot 70) and two Lombard Street sections
(Lots 11 and 12), with a combined total area of 1,695 square metres, were
purchased and converted to parking for 104 cars. The expansion
programme during 1978 and 1979 saw the club’s original car park
absorbed, and the building extended to allow the billiard table numbers to
rise from 10 to 14. A “new kitchen-dining area, a new bar, indoor bowlscum-dance floor, upper floor appointments, updated toilets and showers,
space for two pool tables, eight dart board cabinets (and) a store room”
202
Page 104
were added to create an atmosphere of space. This addition was officially
opened on 30 May 1979.
In 1986 consideration was given to redeveloping the club’s existing site,
however, when that proved too costly, the club began seeking a new and
more suitable premises
Relocation
At a special meeting on 20 September 1987 attended by 260 members, all
but four members voted to move to a new site. They had voted to take an
option on the former Nivens Engineering workshop in Pitt Street,203 and
that building, after extensive modification, duly opened on 31 July 1989,
just in time to celebrate the club’s 100th birthday. While not much bigger
than the Cuba Street building, its space was better utilised and there was
provision for 80 car parks.204
Four years later the Pitt Street purchase was regarded as having been a
disaster, as an anticipated increase in membership hadn’t happened.
Accordingly, plans were made to purchase a smaller building in Church
Street that was in close proximity to the Palmerston North Bowling and
Squash Clubs – in the hope that this proximity to the others would be
beneficial to all three.205 However, by December 2004, the Pitt Street
building had been sold, but was being leased back by the club. Meanwhile,
construction of stage one (of three) of the next building, which the club
was to share, was due to begin in February 2005.206
The resulting building is Club Palmerston, in Linton Street, which was
officially opened on 2 November 2006. This facility is run by an
amalgamation of the Cosmopolitan Club, the Palmerston North Squash
Club (est. 1936) and the Palmerston North Bowling Club (est. 1889).207
Women Members
One of the last significant events to occur during the club’s occupancy of
the Cuba Street building was the vote to allow women to become
members.
Although the building always had some provision for women, such as the
ladies waiting room, for a century this was an all male club. At the 1988
AGM, the membership voted against women becoming members –
although women had been employed there as barmaids or stewardesses
since 1974. There were also female librarians in the club library from 1926
(in December 1986, the club’s library had 6,700 books catalogued).208
At the club’s next AGM in February 1989, those present voted 56-48
against admitting women as members. This was the second year the
matter had been voted on, and it was noted that the figures were moving
in the women’s favour. At the time almost two-thirds of the country’s 240
chartered clubs now permitted women to become members.
In July 1989, a special meeting revisited the decision following a petition
by 50 members. Around 200 members attended and the vote went 113-83
in favour of permitting women to join. The club president said at the time
that, “an adverse reaction had followed the publicity about the ban.
Women’s libbers stuck hand-bills on our new building, which we move into
in August.” Accordingly, in mid-August that year the club accepted its first
female member.209
Disposal of the Cuba Street Building
In 1987, at the time the club began planning to leave the Cuba Street
building, it owned its clubrooms, the Oroua Building, a wholesale carpet
shop, four sections and a warehouse in Taonui Street.210
203
Manawatu Evening Standard 27 February 1989, p. 3; 1 August 1989, p.3
Manawatu Evening Standard 17 September 2003, p.1
206
Manawatu Evening Standard 24 December 2004, p. 44
207
Manawatu Evening Standard 1 November 2006, p.22
204
208
205
209
PN Cosmopolitan Club Centennial History, pp. 38, 40, 47
Manawatu Evening Standard 27 February 1989, p. 1; editorial 28 February
1989, p.2; 18 July 1989, p. 1; 18 August 1989, p. 1
210
Page 105
On 31 July 1989, the day the bar opened for the first time in the new Pitt
Street clubrooms, the anticipated sale of the Cuba Street property to Niven
Enterprises Ltd. fell through. The club was left with a debt of over $2
million, created by its move to Pitt Street. Preparations were then made to
auction the former building and the neighbouring properties in September
1989. However, while three other properties sold, the main club building
(including the Oroua Building) failed to attract a single bid.211
The club’s departure from Cuba Street and the financial distress resulting
from the Niven Enterprises default, led to an array of rumours regarding
the club’s future. This was also believed to have deterred potential new
members. The club responded in December 1991 with a two-page
advertising feature on what it had to offer – and also explained its recent
difficulties under the headline: “Closure rumours ‘utter nonsense’”.212
CT WNB1/1062 records that the building was sold to Palmerston North
businesswoman Kah Hong Tan in 1990. She sold it to the present owner,
Mountain Productions Ltd., in 2006.
Shop 1 (cnr Cuba & Taonui St.)
Stones 1933
nil
Wises 1936
197 Cuba St. – Arthur P. Taylor, licenced dealer
Wises 1939-57 243 Cuba St. - Grover & Whitehead, pram manufacturers
Wises 1959-60 243 Cuba St. – Ms E.V. Whitehead, pram retailer
By 1978, this was the Cosmopolitan Club’s library (Ref: Plan in PNCC Bdg
Permit file C100/233-239)
2010
233 Cuba St. - empty
Shop 2
1933-60
245 Cuba St. - Bert A. Polanski, hairdresser & tobacconist
(Wises & Stones)
211
Manawatu Evening Standard 11 August 1989, p. 1; 8 September 1989, p.1; 12
December 1991, p.10
212
Manawatu Evening Standard 12 December 1991, pp.10-11
Altered to 2 offices & a strongroom before 1978 (Ref: Plan in PNCC Bdg
Permit file C100/233-239)
2010
237 Cuba St. – The R18 Shop
Here is the old Cosmopolitan Club double-door main entrance (numbered
247 Cuba St.)
Shop 3
Stones 1933
Wises 1936-9
Wises 1950-51
2010
nil
203 Cuba St.- Woskett Radio Ltd.
249 Cuba St. - H & P Clifford, antique dealer
241 Cuba St. – Macs Used Appliances
Shop 4
1933-60
205 / 253 Cuba St.- W. Jewett & Sons,
bootmakers. (Wises & 1933)
2010
243 Cuba St. - About Time
At present the Power House Tattoo Studio (www.tattoos.co.nz) occupies
the single storey building at 127 Taonui Street that was built as an
enlargement of the billiard room. It had been officially opened on 30 May
1979, taking billiard table numbers from ten to fourteen.
Between c1996 and c2007, a massage parlour named The Lounge Bar
operated behind the large red exterior doors on the Taonui Street side of
the building. By the time of the 2008 phone book, this massage parlour
had been renamed The Red Doors. It closed amidst controversy relating to
its liquor licence about 2008-9.
Comments:
The history of this property is complicated by the
numerous property additions and subtractions, and by the Oroua Building
having been more or less integrated into the main club building. L.G. West
& Son’s sketch of the building is shown on the front cover of the
Cosmopolitan Club’s centennial publication (surrounded by men, women
and cars whose appearances reflected the late 1920s). This shows design
features on the Taonui Street side of the building that are different to the
Page 106
existing building, while the Cuba Street frontage is the same as now.
Possibly it was initially intended that the building’s Taonui Street frontage
would eventually be double the length that it has ended up.
The building is designed in the Edwardian Neo-Georgian style with
characteristic symmetrical façade, Classical details such as double
pedimented parapets, cornice and entablature supported by pilasters
dividing the façade into seven bays and typical small paned double hung
sash windows all on the above verandah section of the street façade. The
below section of the façade has timber framed shop fronts, a number of
which appear to be original. There are several pilasters to this section of
the façade which align with those above the verandah.
A rather faint ground floor plan available from the PNCC archives shows
the ground floor only which has stores, strong rooms and library and
offices facing Cuba Street either side of the central entry, with a lounge bar
and a number of other spaces whose function cannot be read on Taonui
Street. These spaces form an ‘L’ shape with the remainder of the floor
being taken up with a bar .
The contemporary description of the building is included above.
The exterior has cement rendered details with the main construction
appearing to be brickwork.
North sixteen Palmerston North Borough or City Councillors as well as
bushmen, labourers, fellmongers, storemen, railway workers and a wide
cross-section of other occupations.
The building also has high historic values in its association with the
architect of the building, Ernest West, who practised with his father and
whose firm was responsible for a large number of Palmerston North's
buildings. Among those still standing designed by the practice are the
Former Club Hotel (1905), the Manawatu–Kilwinning Masonic Lodge
(1908), the Old Soldiers Club (1917), the Church of Christ. Scientist (1931)
and Ward Brothers Building (1935). Ernst was a borough Councillor 1921–
25.
The tenants of the building reflect a moderate level of continuity in being
a typical pattern of commercial buildings throughout the city.
The building has moderate design values as a representative example of
the Edwardian neo-Georgian style, a popular style for gentlemen’s clubs
with the Wellesley Club in Wellington being a typical example.
authenticity.
authenticity.
This building has high historic and emotional associations with the
Cosmopolitan Club and its members who included business and
professional men, six Members of Parliament, three Mayors of Palmerston
Page 107
ASSESSMENT SUMMARY
Significance
Proposed category
Cultural
Emotional
Historical
Design
Technology
Spiritual
Sentimental
Symbolic
Political
People
Events
Age
Tradition
Continuity
Style
Materials
Group
Materials
Construction
high local
2
Contextual
Measure
H
Authenticity
H
Rarity
Landmark
Representative
Design
Setting
Materials
Craftsmanship
M
H
H
H
M
H
Page 108
Oroua Buildings
BUILDING DETAILS
Owner:
Owner’s Address:
Assessment Number:
Property ID:
Land Area:
Legal Description:
NZHPT No.
NZHPT Manawatu No:
Construction date:
Architect:
Original Owner:
Builder:
Part Lot 7-8 DP 36
WNB1/1063 (1963), prior CT WN407/171
(1929), WN 130/114 (1903)
Nil
Nil
Nil
Nil
1929
R. Thorrold-Jaggard
The Arthur Hopwood Hardware Company
Ltd.
Trevor Bros.
History
This building was originally designed as six offices and four shops, but
within months, the offices had become five one-bedroom flats and a bedsit. The building was incorporated into the main Cosmopolitan Club facility
next door from 1975, and the Oroua Building’s story throughout its
existence has been significantly entangled with that of its neighbour.
Prior History
This property was purchased in 1903 from Maria Josephine Jones, the
widow of a coach driver. At the time, the property included a cottage. In
1912, she sold the rest of her Cuba Street land between this site and
Taonui Street, to the Working Men’s Club – that being the future site of the
Cosmopolitan Club building.
Page 109
The Palmerston North Working Men’s Club & Literary Institute had been
formed as a Chartered Club in 1889. It was to be renamed the Palmerston
North Cosmopolitan Club in 1927. The club had rented two nearby
buildings (in succession) since 1889, and by 1902 it was seeking
somewhere more permanent. It purchased land in Church Street between
the (former) police station and the Baptist Church (now the site of the
Abbey Musical Theatre). However, a petition from the church, followed by
a letter from the Colonial Secretary, resulted in the decision to sell the
section to the Masonic Lodge for £400 and to look elsewhere.
The decision was duly made to buy this Cuba Street property - for £900,
with a deposit of £50. Accordingly, the names of two of the club’s trustees,
William Beck and George McCarty, appear on CT WN130/114, which was
issued on 3 December 1903. The CT records that the property was then
transferred to the Trustees of the Palmerston North Working Men’s Club &
Literary Institute in September 1904.213
The club’s new building was wooden and cost £1,500 to build. It was
designed by architect E. Larcomb and built by the Union Timber Co.
Descriptions of it from its official opening on 30 November 1904, and
reports on the fire there on 31 October 1925, indicate that its “spacious”
billiard room was “lofty”, was well lighted, and had “huge” ventilators in the
ceiling (which were needed to expel the large quantities of tobacco smoke
that was to be anticipated in that era and that environment). At the time the
club had two billiard tables, with a third one arriving in 1906, and from
1919, it had its own electricity generator.214
213
PN Cosmopolitan Club Jubilee Souvenir booklet (published 1939 - This copy in
‘PN Cosmopolitan Club’ research file A175/436, Ian Matheson City Archives, PN
Public Library. Note that the booklet does not have page numbers); Centennial
Committee, Palmerston North Cosmopolitan Club – Centennial: A recorded history
of the club 1889-1989 (Palmerston North, 1989), p. 19-21
214
Manawatu Evening Standard 1 December 1904, 7(4-5) & 2 November 1925
2(5); PN Cosmopolitan Club Jubilee Souvenir (1939); PN Cosmopolitan Club
Centennial, p.42
The cottage burnt down on 30 November 1905, and was not replaced.
However, the insurance money contributed toward an additional billiard
table, a committee room, bathroom, kitchen and a steward’s bedroom at a
cost of £850.215 The impressive front entrance to the building is shown on
page 28 of the club’s centennial publication, alongside the partially
constructed Cosmopolitan Club building. The appearance is of a tall
double square bay building, with centrally-located front steps leading
straight up from the main Cuba Street footpath.
Although the club had outgrown the building by the mid-1920s, a key step
on the road to the Oroua Building came at about 3:30pm on Saturday, 31
October 1925, when a club member evidently threw a match at a spittoon
in the billiard room – and missed! The club was full, as members were
awaiting the arrival, for a social afternoon and evening, of 26 members of
the Wanganui Cosmopolitan Club.
As the flames raced up the wall cavity, drawn by the ventilators in the roof,
those in the billiard room played on oblivious to what was happening
alongside and above them. Even the man who threw water over the
spittoon, had no idea what was happening behind the wall lining. At about
the same time, the club manager entered the building and smelt smoke
(other than the usual tobacco smoke). By the time he obtained a ladder
and opened the manhole, the flames were crossing the ceiling toward the
ventilators. Even as the manager ran for the nearby fire brigade in
Coleman Place (because the club’s phone was engaged), those in the
club were unaware of how serious the fire was until the billiard room filled
with smoke.
When the fire was extinguished, only the “desolate” billiard room appeared
very different to normal. The exterior wall on the Taonui Street side had
only three or four feet of charring, while the billiard room wall had a strip of
burnt out wall about a foot wide, going from floor to ceiling. However, the
ceiling structure was badly charred and part collapsed under the weight of
a fireman, who was able to grab a stud in time to avoid a significant drop
215
Page 110
to the floor below. Meanwhile, the Commercial Travellers’ Club in George
Street took in the displaced local and Wanganui club members (the latter
having arrived just as the fire was found) and a euchre tournament was
held.216
The repairs, costing £1,100, were soon completed. However, the club
increasingly recognised that the building was entirely inadequate for its
needs. On 29 January 1927, members at a special meeting unanimously
approved a proposal to build a new club building on the neighbouring
section. The new (brick) Cosmopolitan Club building was officially opened
on 15 August 1928, and the old (wooden) building was then disposed of to
Arthur Hopwood Hardware Co. Ltd. for £4,000 in November 1928.217
The Oroua Building
The fate of the front portion of the then 25-year-old former Working Men’s
Clubrooms has not been researched, although clearly it was gone by
1929. However, aerial photos indicate that a substantial portion of the
former clubrooms survived for many years.
Well-known architect Reginald Thorrold-Jaggard designed the Oroua
Building, and tenders were called to build it in the Manawatu Evening
Standard of 12 December 1928. The tender was to build four shops and
offices in brick and concrete for A. Hopwood Esq. on the site of the old
Workingmen’s Club.218 The original plans for this building – which show the
name ‘Oroua Buildings’ on the façade - indicate that at first it was intended
to have six offices upstairs. The permit to build it was issued on 11
January 1929, and the successful tenderer was well-known local building
firm, Trevor Bros.
Three of the shops were the same width, with the two on the Taonui Street
side being identical. The third shop was shortened due to the stairs to the
first floor being behind it, while the fourth – on the Rangitikei Street side of
the building – was significantly narrower. This reduced width made
allowance for the width of the passageway near the centre of the building
that allowed access to the first floor. All four shops, along with the six
offices, had small sinks or hand basins. However, the only toilets in the
building were three cubicles on the first floor. Four of the offices also had
skylights.
The six offices presumably proved less practical than Hopwood originally
hoped. A permit issued on 8 July 1929, some seven months after the
original tenders were advertised, was to alter the offices to five onebedroom flats, and a bed-sit – with the builder being “self.” All the flats had
their own baths and sink units (both in the same small cubicle), along with
gas stoves and ventilators in the adjoining living rooms, although, they still
shared the three toilets. Windows measuring 3 ft. x 3 ft. were also to be
installed in the walls between the kitchen/bath cubicles and the living room
of each flat, below the skylights. Toilets were also to be installed in each of
the four shops.219
Arthur Hopwood, Arthur Hopwood Hardware Co. Ltd., & their many
flats
The story of the firm Arthur Hopwood Hardware Co. Ltd. and the people
associated with it is the subject of Keith Goldsack’s book, More Than
Hardware: Arthur Hopwood and the business he founded, published in
2000. The firm was founded in 1900, incorporated in 1912, and its present
incarnation is the Palmerston North Mitre 10 Mega Store. The firm features
in the backgrounds of two other buildings covered in this study – the UFSD
and Mowlem buildings, both in The Square.
216
Manawatu Evening Standard 2 November 1925 2(5) & 8(5)
PN Cosmopolitan Club Jubilee Souvenir; CT WN130/114
218
PN Architects, Vol. 5, p. 35, Pam Phillips Papers, Ian Matheson City Archives,
PN City Library.
217
219
Plan 141/255 ‘Oroua Buildings’, PNCC 4/13/6, Drawer 19, also Permit 702
11/1/1929 & Permit 956 8/7/1929, Ian Matheson City Archives, PN City Library
Page 111
Wellington-born Arthur Hopwood arrived in Palmerston North in 1898 aged
23. His Lancashire-born father, James, was a builder in Wellington, and
contracts he undertook included Wellington’s first brick building. He
specialised in brick buildings, and, after moving to Palmerston North, also
opened a sash & door sawmill in Princess Street. Arthur’s first business
role in Palmerston North was as a partner in a hardware store, while also
working for a builder. From this he graduated to purchasing Beale Bros.
Ironmongery business in 1900. The business prospered and he was to
own Palmerston North’s third motorcar (the town’s first car having arrived
in 1902). Then in 1916, the firm moved to Main Street (the Downtown
parking building site) and eventually expanded through to Broadway (now
the Downtown theatre site), where the shop remained until 1989.
The latter 1920s were significant to both the firm and Arthur Hopwood
himself. In mid-November 1928 – at the same time as Hopwood was
buying the former Working Men’s Club land – he also bought (after some
haggling) the nearby Rangitikei Street hardware business, Manson & Barr
Ltd., by a transfer of fully-paid shares to the value of £35,000.
In 1928 also, Hopwood was chairman of a small committee that assisted
the City Council with the purchase of the McHardy Estate at Fitzherbert.
The committee’s role was to persuade the local citizens to support raising
a loan to buy the land - and to then give it to the Government as a site for
an agricultural college. The eventual result of this was Massey University.
In 1919, Hopwood had become a foundation member of the local YMCA,
and he was an active supporter of many of its goals for young people
throughout his life. This included organising the building party that built the
YMCA Boys Camp at Totara Reserve in the 1920s, now known as Camp
Rangi Woods.220 He remained active with the organisation until retiring as
a director in 1954.
220
Note that the More Than Hardware book (p. 70) gives the Camp Rangi Woods
establishment date as 1924, while Arthur Hopwood’s MES 21/9/1957 obituary
gives 1929 – the year the Oroua Building was completed. The matter was not
further researched.
The Hopwood Hardware publication (p. 34) states that by the 1950s,
Arthur Hopwood, had become:
A relatively heavy investor in rental property, and (that he) took a
personal interest in the properties he bought. He was a keen
draughtsman, and actually did the drawings himself for alterations to
various buildings. His properties were rented to both business and
private tenants. There was considerable demand for housing in the
city, and Arthur helped fill the need with housing that was basic and
affordable, rather than luxurious.
The book goes on to list a number of buildings owned by the family in the
1950s and 1960s, including the Mayfair Flats (formerly the YWCA hostel)
in Queen Street, Trenton House (formerly the PNBHS hostel) in North
Street, and Cranleigh Apartment House in Fitzherbert Avenue. Other large
old houses about the city were also converted to flats. Even the hardware
shop in Main Street had about “15 single room flats of varying standards”
upstairs, which were typical of the accommodation also provided as
Cranleigh (a “genteel home” with 25 rooms and a lady supervisor), Mayfair
and Trenton House.
The Oroua Building is not mentioned in the book. However, it too must
rank along side these as an early flat conversion almost certainly designed
by Arthur Hopwood himself. The permit details stamped on the back of the
alteration plans indicates that Arthur Hopwood was also to be the builder.
The Hopwood flats were intended to house the many young people then
coming “to Palmerston North to work in banks, insurance companies,
government departments and retail shops” – at a time when flatting was
not common. Each room would be partially furnished, including linoleum
throughout, bedstead, kapok mattress, settee with squab, duchess,
tallboy, wardrobe with rods, clothes rack, table, chairs, urn (copper) and
stand, electric or gas stove, electric breakfast cooker, mirror and
cupboard. Usually (but not in the Oroua Building) residents in the sets of
flats also shared communal bathrooms and kitchens. Those in the Oroua
Building only shared their toilet block – which contained two women’s
toilets and one for men.
Page 112
There has been no indication as to why Hopwood chose the well-known
locality name “Oroua” for this building in 1929. There has also been no
indication of a connection to the Cosmopolitan Club in terms of Hopwood’s
purchase of the property. He was, however, a keen freemason and at one
time a master of the Manawatu Kilwinning Lodge, No. 47.
Arthur Hopwood died aged 82 on 20 September 1957 after a long history
of contributing to his community. He is particularly remembered through
his donation of the Hopwood Clocktower in The Square in 1954. The
somewhat quirky history of this building and its ‘tiny flat’ conversions probably to Hopwood’s own draughtsmanship – can also claim social as
well as historic significance in relation to Hopwood.221
The Oroua Hall
Over some thirty years, the various Wises’ and Stones’ Directories
consulted for this study, list a hall in conjunction with this building and
place its access point at the same street address as the first floor flats in
this building – the street number having those of two of the building’s
shops on either side of it. The hall is most often identified throughout this
period as the Oroua Hall, but is also identified in the 1933 Stones’
Directory as the Palmerston North Mission. A regular newspaper notice in
January 1934 advertises a Sunday School, Bible Classes, and a Sunday
evening meeting to held at the Oroua Hall.222 Throughout the 1950s, it was
listed as the Red Cross Hall.
Almost certainly the Oroua Hall was once a substantial part of the former
Working Men’s Club building, as it seems unlikely that Hopwood would
have built a new hall there. Although that building has been only minimally
researched for this study, some aspects are relevant and/or worth noting.
221
Keith Goldsack, More Than Hardware: Arthur Hopwood and the business he
founded (Palmerston North, 2000), pp. 9, 11, 25, 34-36, 53, 57, 69-70, 75;
Manawatu Evening Standard obituary 21 September 1957, p.8; 10 October 1962,
pp.18-19; 18 November 1993, p. 23
222
Manawatu Evening Standard 13 January 1934 1(1)
The Cosmopolitan Club Centennial history (p. 27) records that at first the
sale of the old clubrooms to Arthur Hopwood seemed like a good idea.
However, one aspect was overlooked, and this was access to Hopwood’s
property from Taonui Street. When Hopwood requested permission to use
this access, the Cosmopolitan Club declined. The club then erected a brick
wall “in unseemly haste” to enforce this. However, “after legal opinions
were taken, the wall was removed and a gate installed, which led to further
recriminations when it was left open.” The problem remained unresolved
until 1963 when the Cosmopolitan Club re-purchased the land (and old
building) behind the Oroua Building.
In 1999, late City Archivist Ian Matheson, interviewed solicitor Jack
Bennett, whose father built the Carlton Hotel and owned it for many years.
Ian noted that “Jack confirmed that Arthur Hopwood had a lot of substandard accommodation around Palmerston North” and wondered how
he was allowed to achieve this.223
In relation to this large old wooden hall, Hopwood appears to have built the
Oroua Building across the front of the section and left a narrow passage
only five feet wide through the new building - that was also intended to be
shared by the tenants of the six offices, that soon became six tiny flats.
Meanwhile, the Cosmopolitan Club did not welcome access to Taonui
Street from hall users – in the form firstly of a brick wall and then by the
installation of a gate. Warehouses and old shops blocked the remaining
boundaries to the property. One wonders what potential disaster might
have happened had another fire broken out in the old building, given the
large number of people a hall of that size was capable of holding.
The problem was resolved in 1963, when the Cosmopolitan Club bought
back its former property - excluding the Oroua Building - for £4,750 “after
some Arabian-type bargaining by both parties.” The club then demolished
the old building and a new billiard room (built by J.L. McMillan & Co. Ltd.)
that accommodated five billiard tables, was built in its place. This room
223
Research file A175/286 Arthur Hopwood & Hopwood Hardware Co. Ltd., Ian
Matheson City Archives, PN City Library
Page 113
was accessed from the main club building. It was officially opened on 9
December 1963 in time for the club’s 75th Jubilee.224
Finally in 1975, the Cosmopolitan Club added the Oroua Building itself to
its property listing at a cost of $86,000. This increased the club’s Cuba
Street frontage to 42.6 metres. By that time, the Oroua Building’s
complement had been reduced to three shops and five flats.225
A 1987 proposal to demolish the building and to incorporate its site into a
redeveloped Cosmopolitan Club came to nothing when the club chose to
relocate its clubrooms to Pitt Street.226
Photos: (Above) The substantial Oroua Hall (formerly the 1904 Working Men’s
Club building), near the bottom left hand corner, in about 1950, crowded in by the
Cosmopolitan Club (in the foreground) the Oroua Building (which is between the
hall and Cuba Street), and numerous other commercial buildings. Note the large
skylights on the roof.227 (Below) The front of the Working Men’s Club in 1928,
pictured alongside the Cosmopolitan Club building, which is under construction.
224
PN Cosmopolitan Club Centennial, p. 32. Also PNCC Building Permit file
C100/233-239 1963 plan of this room
225
226
227
1928 photo from the PN Cosmopolitan Club Centennial book, p. 28. c1950
photo from Whites Aviation Ltd., Palmerston North & District, New Zealand
(Auckland, 1950), p. 2
PNCC Building Permit files for the Cosmopolitan Club building next door
(C100/233-239) include plans for the September 1965 amalgamation of
Shops 3 and 4, the two shops at the Rangitikei Street end of the building.
The eastern-most shop had been a café since the 1940s, and now this
was expanded to include the larger former jeweller’s shop. These two
shops had been smaller than the other two. This work was done for Mrs
and Mrs Bereczki by the architect George N. Callander. The plans indicate
that Shop 4’s front door had been changed from the original prior to that
time. However, Shop 3 still had its original set-in front door until then.
In 1978, Walker Love & Associates designed extensive additions and
alterations to the whole Cosmopolitan Club and Oroua building complex.
This included turning what was previously Shop 2, into a direct street
entrance/exit to the 1963 billiard room – which was also extended at the
back to the Better Bargins shop’s present length. The plans show that the
original set-in front door was still in place in Shop 2 until then. This was the
last set-in door to go.
Page 114
Also noticeable on the 1978 plan is a small extension containing two toilets
at the back of the narrow passage through the building that possibly once
led to the Oroua Hall - in addition to providing access to the first floor. This
block separates the back wall of the Oroua Building and the wall of the
1963 billiard room that was closest to Cuba Street. There is no indication
when or by whom the toilet block might have been installed.
PNCC Building Permit file C100/245-279 ‘Oroua Building’ contains a 1987
application for internal alterations to a shop for James Hardie Impey,
valued at $77,000. This might be Impey’s Paint Wallpaper and Drapers,
which only appears in the 1988 phonebook, listed as “Cuba St.”, but with
no street number to confirm its location in the building.
Phonebook 1977
255 Cuba St. – Cosmopolitan Butchery (final entry
in phonebook)
1994
Tattoo shop (ref: 1994 CBD Heritage Inventory photo)
2006
RSPCA Shop (ref: cover photo, PN Historical Soc. Inc.,
Mather Papers, Cuba Street)
2010
245 Cuba St.
- Carolann Collections, bridal wear
www.carolanncollections.co.nz
Building Permit File C100/251 covering Katie Tan’s restaurant (a former
occupant of Grandma’s Roast House), has a 1995 application for a
verandah sign for Kah Hong Tan. In 1999 a building consent for a large
sign on the exterior of the building for Tan’s business, The Coffee Shop of
251 Cuba St., was cancelled on Tan’s instruction. The shop last appears
in the 2001 phonebook.
Shop 2 (now entrance to Better Bargins
Stones 1933
209 Cuba St.- Mrs Lily A. Northey, grocer
Wises 1936
nil
Wises 1939
209 Cuba St. – Mrs Vera B. Gray, wardrobe dealer
Wises 1950-51 257 Cuba St. – Joseph Boucher, cycle dealer
Wises 1953-7 257 Cuba St. – J. Boucher & Son, cycle dealers
Wises 1959-60 257 Cuba St. – Boucher Cycles, cycle dealers
Phonebook 1978
257 Cuba St. - Joe Boucher Cycles – then
converted to entrance to billiard room
2010
247 Cuba St. – entrance to Better Bargains secondhand
shop
Ownership since 1963
CT WNB1/1063 (issued 1963) states that The Arthur Hopwood Hardware
Company Ltd., sold the building to Johannes Theodorus Schrama, a
builder of PN, in 1968. He sold it to The PN Cosmopolitan Club in 1975.
The next owner, in 1990, was Kah Hong Tan, a PN businesswoman, who
also bought the Cosmopolitan building next door. She sold both buildings
to Mountain Productions Ltd. in 2006.
Oroua Buildings Ground floor (former 1904 Working Men’s
Clubrooms)
Stones 1933
211 Cuba St. – Palm. Nth. Mission: Oroua Hall
Wises 1936-9 211 Cuba St. - Oroua Hall
Wises 1944
259 Cuba St. – nil
Wises 1950-60 259 Cuba St. – Red Cross Hall
1963
Demolished and replaced by billiard room, now Better
Bargins secondhand shop
Shop 1 (Taonui St. end)
Stones 1933
Electrolux Ltd. branch, D. Bell representative.
Wises 1936
nil
Wises 1939
207 Cuba St. – Marshall Jones, butcher
Wises 1944
255 Cuba St. - Reginald T. McGrane, butcher
Wises 1953-60 255 Cuba St – J. Clark, butcher
Oroua Buildings First Floor access (6 flats, later reduced to 5)
Stones 1933
211a Cuba St. – Thomas Joseph Jacques, fishmonger;
Solomon Abrahams, bowser assistant; James Adamson,
insurance agent; Frank Gillham, traveller; Mrs May
Tuckwell
Wises 1936-9 211a Cuba St. – Mrs Adela Thomson
Page 115
Wises 1944
259 Cuba St. - John H. Reidy, traveller; Mrs A. Apes; Mrs
Adela Thomson; Walter W. Briden-Jones
Wises 1950-51 259 Cuba St. – H. Ballard, salesman; Mrs M.A. Gordon;
Walter W. Briden-Jones; Mrs J. Ironsides; D. Wilton
Wises 1953-4 259 Cuba St. – C.G. Retemyer, Mrs G. Lyne, Mrs F.
Cunningham, Mrs H. Tinsley, Val Lloyd, Walter W. BridenJones
Wises 1957
259 Cuba St. – C.G. Retemyer, Mrs G. Lyne, Mrs P.L.
Pearson, Mrs Ellen Briden-Jones
Wises 1959-60 259 Cuba St – NZ Red Cross Soc. Inc, Mrs Daisy Lyne,
Mrs Ellen Briden-Jones, Mrs Phyllis L. Pearson
Shop 3
Stones 1933
213 Cuba St. – A. Mortland & Co., land & commission
agents
Wises 1936
213 Cuba St. – The London Assurance
Wises 1939
213 Cuba St. – H.C. Watson, library
Wises 1944
261 Cuba St. – John Emmett, music dealer
Wises 1950-51 261 Cuba St. – A Reid, Jeweller
Wises 1953-60 261 Cuba St. – C.G. Hyde & Co. Ltd., watchmakers &
jeweller
Plan 1965: alterations to shops 263 Cuba St. for Mr & Mrs Bereczki combining Shops 3 & 4
Shop 4 (nearest Rangitikei St.)
1933-36
215 Cuba St. – Fred Ansell Wort – tailor (Stones
& Wises)
Wises 1939
215 Cuba St. – Thomas Jenman, tobacconist
Wises 1944
263 Cuba St. – Thomas J. Jacques, café (who lived
upstairs in 1933)
Wises 1950-4 263 Cuba St. – M.A. Schiabi, cafe
Wises 1957-60 263 Cuba St. – Club Café
Plan 1965: alterations to shops 263 Cuba St. for Mr & Mrs Bereczki
(combine shops 3 & 4)
Phonebook 1977
263 Cuba St. – Dong Fong Restaurant
Bdg Permit files c1995-c1999 – Katie Tan Restaurant ‘The Coffee Shop’
(last phonebook entry 2001)
2008-now
249
Cuba
St.
Grandma’s
Roast
House,
http://www.stuff.co.nz/manawatu-standard/news/495470
Comments:
The Oroua Building is connected to a very significant city
businessman and community benefactor, and also reflects the
accommodation needs of the c1930 workforce. It is also directly tied to the
history of the PN Working Men’s Club, later renamed the PN Cosmopolitan
Club, over almost nine decades.
The building is designed in the Inter-War Stripped Classical style, which
was a common commercial style in the period between the wars. The
façade has the characteristic simplified Classical elements, such as the
vertically and horizontally stepped parapet, simple cornice, simple pilasters
with capitals at each corner, and multi-paned steel windows. The belowverandah design seen in the original drawings shows recessed ingos with
a central entry to the first floor. It is apparent that the shopfronts have
been modified.
The original plan shows the three equal sized and on small shop extending
between the is on the north side of the building. The central entry leads to
w building wide corridor which gives access to stairs at the rear. The first
floor plan has four offices to the street elevation and two offices on the
opposite side of the building all accessed from a central corridor. Toilets
are located on the north west corner above the smallest shop.
A later drawing shows the first floor offices converted into five one
bedroom flats and one bed sitting room.
Construction is concrete floors and frame with brick exterior walls.
Page 116
This building has moderate historic values in its connection to a very
significant city businessman and community benefactor, while also
reflecting the accommodation needs of the c1930 workforce. It is also
directly tied to the history of the PN Working Men’s Club, later renamed
the PN Cosmopolitan Club, over almost nine decades.
The building also has moderate historic values in its association with
local architect, R Thorrald-Jaggard was the most prolific and well-known of
the architects practising in Palmerston North on the latter half of the
twentieth century.
the city.
example of the Inter- War Free Classical style.
ASSESSMENT SUMMARY
Significance
Proposed category
Cultural
Emotional
Historical
Design
Technology
Spiritual
Sentimental
Symbolic
Political
People
Events
Age
Tradition
Continuity
Style
Materials
Group
Materials
Construction
moderate local
group
Contextual
Measure
Authenticity
M
H
Rarity
Landmark
Representative
Design
Setting
Materials
Craftsmanship
M
M
H
Page 117
M
M
H

inventory of buildings - Palmerston North City Council

Transcription

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