Cuba Street, 256 ‘the Arcade’, (now Mr Models Shop)

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Palmerston North City Council Cuba Street, 256 ‘The Arcade’, (now Mr Models shop) North West Square Heritage Area 2010 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: 253 square metres more or less Lot 8 DP 2639 WN9A/721 (1971), prior CTs: WN640/62 (1955), WN214/247 (1912), WN17/96 (1879) Nil Nil Nil Nil 1906 E. Larcomb Thomas Martyn Holland Messrs Sollitt Bros. PHYSICAL AND SOCIAL HISTORY History In light of its location opposite the Cosmopolitan Club building (1928) and that club’s previous site (from 1904, then called the Working Men’s Club), now occupied by the Oroua building, this building’s story also involves the story of the land it stands on. Its close proximity to the fire station at the time of so many fires in this block, also has value in terms of the overall study. This building has strong ties to one of Palmerston North’s earliest businesses through the repeated appearances of the old Ready Money Store and its successor the United Farmers’ Co-operative Association in the backgrounds of its owners and their businesses. In the latter case, these businesses were The Wellington and Manawatu Hardware Co., Messrs J.A. Nash & Co. Ltd., and Watson Bros. The latter business was a well-known grocery chain that to date has been by far the longest occupier of this building – at almost five decades. For many years it was also identified with well-known photographer Joe Sing. Page 118 Palmerston North City Council Prior History The land in the vicinity of this building was leased from the Palmerston North Borough/City Council for many years, having been granted as a public reserve to the Mayor, Councillors and Burgesses of the Borough of Palmerston North in 1879.228 Although the wider land aspect has not been researched for this study, it is noteworthy that it stretched between Coleman Place and Cuba Street, and that two buildings covered in this study (this building and its Cooee Drycleaners neighbour) were built on long-term leasehold sections within this block. This building’s site was finally sold in 1971, while the Cooee Drycleaners shop’s site was sold in 1983. The original Palmerston North Fire Station also operated from a Coleman Place section that was part of this land. It was based there from the late 1880s and until 1910, when a new fire station was built in elsewhere in Cuba Street. The old fire station was then reversed onto the section directly behind its original site – the original back wall of the building now facing Cuba Street, as indicated by its silhouette on a 1912 plan showing its external staircase still protruding on its eastern side. This made it the immediate neighbour of the ‘old’ RSA building, although that building was not built until 1917. The former fire station was itself damaged by fire in 1927 and it was then demolished.229 The Working Men’s Club c1894-1904 In 1894, the Working Men’s Club leased the previous building on this site, after the club’s original building on the corner of King and Rangitikei North West Square Heritage Area 2010 Streets was destroyed by fire. The club then attempted to buy the building, however, the Borough Council, who presumably owned that building, did not think the offer high enough, and so it lapsed. As a result, the Working Men’s Club (later renamed the Cosmopolitan Club) built new clubrooms across the road on the site now occupied by the Oroua Building. These were officially opened on 30 November 1904.230 CT WN17/96 records the transfer of the lease on the property to John Hood and William Parkes, starting 9 May 1894 and for a period of ten years. In 1897, William Samuel Gardener’s name joined the other two. Then in 1900, William Bayley Hawkins and William Parkes renewed the lease for a 21-year term, starting 1 May 1900. The lease was then transferred from them to Ernest Stevenson in May 1905 – presumably marking the departure of the Working Men’s Club. The significance of these men (Hood, Parkes, Gardener and Hawkins) to the club was not researched, but in the case of the club’s next building, the land (i.e. as recorded on its CT) was for a time in the name of individuals as trustees. The CT indicates that Ernest Stevenson’s lease was then transferred, on the same date it was issued to him (12 May 1905), to Thomas Martyn Holland, who the 1905-6 local Electoral Roll describes as a settler of Fritz Street (now Russell Street). The 1906 Wises Directory gives his occupation as a farmer of Fritz Street.231 In the period after the Working Men’s Club relocated, their old building seems to have been used for a mix of accommodation, storage, billiard saloon, performing arts and retail. Holland’s use of the building might, therefore, simply have been as a rental. 228 This is from CT WN17/96 (1879) and much credit goes to some Victoria University students who, in 1980, tackled the daunting task of unscrambling the highly complex collection of lease and land ownership changes on the land in the Cuba, George, Coleman, Square, Rangitikei city block. Ref: Research file A175/154, Ian Matheson City Archives, PN City Library. 229 The subdivision plan for DP2639, October 1912 (Source: CT WN9A/721); also, notes by Ian Matheson dated 20 March 1970 on the back of photo F8, (of the Fire Station in 1901), in the PN Photographic Collection, PN City Library. 230 Centennial Committee, Palmerston North Cosmopolitan Club – Centennial: A recorded history of the club 1889-1989 (Palmerston North, 1989), p. 21 The 1905-6 PN Electoral Roll records his name as Thomas “Martyn” Holland, whereas the CT spells his second name as “Marlyn. The 1906 Wise’s Directory uses the spelling “Martin”, therefore I have chosen to use “Martyn” - VB 231 Page 119 Palmerston North City Council It was the fire of 16 August 1905 that ultimately led to the present building’s existence. On that date, the Manawatu Evening Standard recorded that: At 1:30am this morning the two-storied building in Cuba Street, until recently occupied by the Working Men’s Club, was practically destroyed by fire. When discovered the flames had got a good hold on the building, which was very ancient, and the fire made rapid progress. In a few minutes the flames broke out in high volumes from the front portion of the building, and it was very apparent that despite the good work the brigade was doing at this stage, the building was doomed. However, as a result of the strenuous efforts the fire was practically confined to the top storey, which was destroyed. The bedrooms on that floor was the centre of the outbreak and their contents were entirely burnt. Some apprehension existed last night as to the fate of the three young ladies – Misses Culling (2) and Johnstone – who occupied bedrooms upstairs, but, subsequently, it was ascertained that they were out of town. Mr J. Graham (sic) also occupied a room upstairs. He was awakened by the smoke and got out just in time. The billiard table on the ground floor was not burnt, but the cloth has been entirely ruined by water. Miss Culling lost a piano and the major portion of her wearing apparel. Her jewellery was found in her room this morning and placed in safe custody. A couple of pet dogs she had shut in her room were burnt. The Salvage Corps was quickly on the scene and did good work removing property, all Mr Robertson’s plant being got away with the exception of about £2 worth Mr Leigh’s books were scorched badly and a lot of documents were destroyed. The building was tenanted by Mr J. Graham, electrician; Beattie, Lang & Co., who had Gilruth stock foods and sundries stored there; Nott, billiard saloon keeper; Leigh & Co., land agents; Robertson, watchmaker; and Miss Culling, teacher of dancing and Sandow exercises. Mr Graham’s stock was valued at £300 and was insured for £200 in the Widows’ Fund office; Beattie, Lang & Co., £100 in the National office, fully covered; and Nott, billiard table, £100, Commercial Union. North West Square Heritage Area 2010 The building was insured for £400 in the Standard office and £100 in an insurance office the name of which is not yet ascertainable. It is owned by Mr H. Holland (sic), who is a heavy loser. The building, if too much destroyed to be rebuilt in wood, will have to be constructed in brick, being within the brick area. Miss Culling suffered a severe loss in the destruction of all her property, valued at between $70 and $80. There is no insurance on her property.232 The Manawatu Daily Times, published on the morning of the fire, added that the fire had begun at the back of the building and worked forward, bursting through the roof as the fire brigade arrived. A man in his pyjamas (Graham) suddenly emerged through a window and scurried down the fire escape. At first it was thought the three girls (Misses Johnstone and Culling, and Birdie Culling) were still inside, and one of their bedrooms, which overlooked Cuba Street, was already engulfed. A ladder was found and Mr Graham seriously risked his life to go back inside to check. However, the girls were in Pohangina at the time.233 By the following day, the building’s damage was perceived by the Evening Standard’s reporter as being so bad that it would probably be a waste of money to patch it up. The centre of the building was practically destroyed, and the fire had burnt through one side and part of the roof. The building would probably, therefore, be rebuilt of brick.234 Meanwhile in the same edition, Mr B.F. Graham “(late of Graham & Gorrie)”, an electrical engineer, had advertised that he was working out of the old Working Men’s Club buildings, and had just received “a large consignment of Pherophones. A marvel of simplicity. No office or factory complete without one.” Electric lighting was his speciality, and he had a 232 Manawatu Evening Standard, 16 August 1905 5(2). “Nott” referred to was B.L. Nott, who subsequently took over the Family Hotel in Rangitikei Street (Manawatu Daily Times 29 September 1905 1(3) 233 Manawatu Daily Times 16 August 1905 3(1) 234 Manawatu Evening Standard, 17 August 1905, 5(1) Page 120 Palmerston North City Council large stock of electrical appliances always on hand – well he did until the fire anyway. Graham’s advert is noteworthy, as this was still nineteen years before the Palmerston North Electric Power Station generated the town’s first public electricity supply. Graham’s clientele would, therefore, have been the owners of private electricity generator sets around the district.235 One of the affected parties, J. Robertson, wrote a letter to the Manawatu Daily Times, thanking the “newly formed Fire Police” for their services in securing the scene, crowd management, and their work salvaging goods that survived the fire. This had been the first occasion when the Fire Police had been called upon to act. He felt that his losses would have been far greater without the help of this “body of men whose integrity is undoubtedly one of the greatest value in conducting salving operations.” Although the Fire Police/Salvage Corps have not been researched, it is likely the group were formed after the severe pilfering that occurred after the major Clarendon Hotel fire the previous year, especially in relation to Arthur Hopwood’s otherwise largely undamaged shop.236 This Building The insurance companies’ ‘replace with wood’ idea was soon amended to ‘replace with brick’, probably because the site was “within the brick area” as was recorded above. Thus on 3 November 1905, architect Ernest Larcomb ’s tender notice was published, seeking tenders to erect a brick premises in Cuba Street. Three weeks later the Manawatu Times recorded that Larcomb had accepted the tender of Messrs Sollitt Bros. to erect Mr Holland’s new building. Eight tenders had been received, and the accepted price was about £700.237 Thomas Martyn Holland then seems to disappear from local records within a year or two of the fire. North West Square Heritage Area 2010 In January 1906, the lease on the land was transferred to John Samuel Watchorn and Leonard Sutton, as tenants in common in equal shares. So Holland - who should have received a £500 insurance payout as a result of the fire – presumably recovered his financial shortfall by selling the building while it was under construction. The 1906 PNBC Rate Book shows the property transferring directly from the name of Ernest Stevenson to John S. Watchorn and Leonard Sutton, with Holland not even mentioned. The 1906 Rate Book records that the property had an unimproved value of £330, and – prior to the fire – a capital value of £832. However, sometime prior to 31 March 1906 an extra £400 was added to the capital value (noted in red ink and indicating that the new building was now present), and it was also noted with the entry that this was for fire replacement. 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.238 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.”239 Watchorn and Sutton leased the property in their own names for about six months. Then their business became – by amalgamation – part of the firm 235 Manawatu Evening Standard, 17 August 1905, 3(5) Keith Goldsack, More Than Hardware: Arthur Hopwood and the business he founded (Palmerston North, 2000), p. 18 237 Manawatu Daily Times, 3 November 1(8), 22 November 1005 2(6) 236 238 239 Manawatu Daily Times 26 October 1905 1(7) Manawatu Evening Standard 17 March 1906 4(1) Page 121 Palmerston North City Council Messrs J.A. Nash & Co. Ltd., which then leased the property its own name until 1909. 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 also the person of the same name who was a Rongotea storekeeper by 1914.240 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 building under study here.241 North West Square Heritage Area 2010 J.A. Nash & Co. Ltd. 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. Nash had arrived in Palmerston North (from Foxton), and like Watchorn, his background included the Ready Money Store. In their 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.”242 Nash’s obituary 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.” 243 Nash’s partner in the new business was Irelands’ long-time accountant, Henry Stratford Porteous, who had arrived from England in about 1878 aged 16 and settled in Collingwood, where he farmed and was later a 242 240 Wise’s Directories of 1902 and 1914; Manawatu Evening Standard 7 June 1906 7(3-4) 241 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). 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. 243 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. Page 122 Palmerston North City Council schoolteacher. He arrived in Palmerston North in 1890, and before long began working for F. Ireland & Co. Porteous’ obituary described J.A. Nash & Co. Ltd. as having been a wine and spirits merchant.244 ‘The Arcade’ On 6 June 1906, the Mayor, Maurice Cohen (who was the manager of the U.F.C.A. when Nash and Watchorn worked there), officially opened the new shop. It stretched from Coleman Place to Cuba Street – and half of The Arcade, as it was named, was the building being studied here. As both ends of The Arcade are included in the present study, and as the building in Coleman Place was the ‘front’ of the shop, the story is covered in more detail in that history. The links between the two buildings were more than geographic. The Coleman Place shop belonged to Mary Emma Mowlem, wife of Fred Mowlem. Meanwhile John Watchorn was married to their niece, Kate Mahony, whose mother was the former Martha Mowlem, Fred’s sister.245 The other two partners Sutton and Porteous, had also lived in Collingwood and perhaps knew each other. The opening ceremony took place upstairs in the Coleman Place building. The resulting newspaper article gave most of its attention to describing that building. However, it did record that the arcade between Coleman Place and Cuba Street was some 155 feet long, and that the Cuba Street end of the shop would shortly be utilised for the crockery part of the business and for storage of the heavy lines of bulk ironmongery. The shop was to be run by Messrs W. White and E.W. Simmons, who until a short time previously had control of the Hardware Company’s business in George Street. North West Square Heritage Area 2010 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 extensive biography in The Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, Vol. 4, mostly follows his subsequent extensive career from Palmerston North Borough Councillor (1907), to Mayor 1908-1923, and then Member of Parliament (1919-1935).246 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 on sale at its ‘Arcade Stores’.247 In June 1908, H.S. Porteous announced that he had decided to commence business as a grocer in the premises in The Square formerly occupied by J.A. Nash & Co. Ltd, this being the same shop in which he had worked for the previous 17 years. At the same time, J.H. Gilchrist, of ‘The Arcade’, announced they had taken over from J.A. Nash & Co., selling groceries and tea.248 CT WN17/96 records that the lease was transferred from J.A. Nash & Co. Ltd. to James Henry Gilchrist in May 1909. Gilchrist later became a land agent according to his cemetery record.249 Then in June 1909 the lease was transferred back to John Samuel Watchorn (who perhaps had been the owner of the actual building throughout this time). In October 1909, Watchorn transferred it to a 246 244 Manawatu Evening Standard 28 August 1948 5(4) Mowlem Family of Swanage http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/~dchamber/mowlem.htm Note that Martha Mowlem’s first husband, J.H. Mahony, was Kate’s father, however, by the time Martha lived in Palmerston North, she was married to Duncan Sinclair. 245 ‘Nash, James Alfred,’ in The Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, Vol. 4, 1921-1940, (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. 247 Manawatu Evening Standard 15 January 1908, 2(1-2) 248 Manawatu Evening Standard 1 June 1908 2(1-2) & 4(7) 249 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) Page 123 Palmerston North City Council 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 to Palmerston North is unclear.250 This partnership leased the site of the shop until 1922. North West Square Heritage Area 2010 service. Mr Pees is to be congratulated on the rapid advancement he has made, and Cyclists and Motorists will gain every advantage by encouraging in every way such local enterprise.251 Nonpareil appears to have stayed in these two buildings until April 1921. ‘The Arcade’ – Occupancy (prior to Adams Ltd.) Wises 1908 Cuba St. - J.A. Nash & Co. Ltd., merchants Wises 1911-14 21 Cuba St. – Gibson & Paterson, wine & spirit merchants. Also J.B. MacEwan & Co. Ltd., dairy machinery 1914-1921 Nonpareil Cycle & Motor Co., motor garage The Nonpareil Cycle & Motor Co., and ‘The Arcade’ in general, is mostly covered in the history of its former building at 19-21 (formerly 27-29) Coleman Place. Nonpareil leased the Coleman Place end of the Arcade from 1911, however, its first advertisement involving this end of the Arcade, was on 24 February 1914, when it announced the Arcade’s (re)opening. The Manawatu Times reported that: An asset to Palmerston North is the New arcade formed from Coleman Place to Cuba Street, through the premises of the Nonpareil Cycle and Motor Co. Mr E.S. Pees, the Sole Proprietor, has opened this beautiful Showroom to meet the growing demands of his business, and it is also open to the free use of Palmerstonians who wish to save the time of walking round the block. He claims this to be the finest Showroom in Australasia, being 7,500 square feet, and contains the largest and most varied stock in New Zealand of Motor Cycles, Sidecars, Cycles and Prams from which to select. A large staff of Motor Cycle mechanics always at the motorist’s 250 Manawatu Evening Standard 12 January 1934 1(1); Headstone at Masterton Cemetery per Cemetery microfiche, PN Public Library. An unsourced plan of fairly recent origin showing the layout of The Arcade, between Coleman Place (left) and Cuba Street (right), from the Mather Papers, Cuba Street (PN Historical Society Inc., 2007), p.13. The alleyway, then still covered by the Rialto Building, is also apparent. Old Signage Until painted over in recent years, an old sign had survived on the side of this building – possibly due to subsequent businesses having installed signage over the top of it or timberwork associated with the now demolished Rialto building. Due to the alleyway that ran along the western side of the building, this would have been visible to passers by. It read “The Leading Ironmonger”, and therefore almost certainly was painted there by The Wellington and Manawatu Hardware Co. or Messrs J.A. Nash & Co. Ltd.252 251 252 Manawatu Daily Times 24 February 1914 1(3) & 5(6) Mather Papers, Cuba Street (PN Historical Society Inc., 2007), pp. 3, 13 Page 124 Palmerston North City Council Chas J. Adams Ltd. The firm Chas J. Adams Ltd. occupied the neighbouring building - as a motor garage - by 1914, according to the Wise’s Directories. Then in 1922, when the lease on this building came up for renewal, “Adams Ltd.” took over the new lease and ran the two in conjunction. The firm probably occupied the building soon after Nonpareil left in April 1921. Charles John Adams’ obituary in 1946 recorded that after being in control of one of the leading motor showrooms in Christchurch (then the Adams Star Cycle Company) he had come to Palmerston North in 1904 (via two years in Wanganui) to manage another branch of the firm. This firm became one of the pioneers of the car business in the town. The 1905 regular advert of the Adams Star Cycle Company indicates that it was then in the newly rebuilt Clarendon (Hotel) Buildings in The Square.253 However, before long the firm operated from a two-storied brick garage in Rangitikei Street, its entry in the Cyclopedia of New Zealand, Vol. 6 in 1908, describing it as a motorcar and cycle engineers and importers, that also had its head office in Christchurch. In 1906, the Palmerston North showroom sold 20 cars and 180 bicycles.254 The firm was to occupy the Cuba Street buildings until February 1924. The 1924 Fire Adams Ltd., which was the New Zealand agent for Studebakers, reopened for business in new premises in Rangitikei Street (previously occupied by Messrs Wackrill & Stewart) on 18 February 1924. Four days later a huge fire broke out in the block the firm had just left, destroying or damaging seven shops. This shop was unaffected by the fire itself, but being newly empty meant that it was snapped up as the new home of one of the refugee businesses. This business was to remain in the building for the next five decades. North West Square Heritage Area 2010 The Universal Supply Co. had occupied the small shop in Coleman Place presently occupied by Monsoon Asia Kitchen. The fire broke out at about 11:00pm on Friday, 22 February 1924 at the back of the Empire Auctioneering Company – the site of the present Costa Building facing Cuba Street. The Manawatu Daily Times (two of whose staff were close by when the fire was first noticed) stated that the Universal Supply Co.’s shop was the second to catch fire. Its neighbour in the same building, Giorgi’s Tobacconist shop, was more fortunate. It suffered only slight damage from water and smoke – despite being closer to the source of the fire than its doomed neighbour. On Monday, 25 February, the Manawatu Daily Times reported that: “The Universal Supply Co., whose premises were destroyed in Friday night’s fire will re-open today in the building recently occupied by Adams’ Garage, Cuba Street. During the weekend the company has made arrangements for a complete new stock of groceries and wishes to inform its many customers that no stocks from the fire will be disposed of in their new place of business.” Adams Ltd. then applied to the Council to sub-let the property to Watson Bros., owner of the Universal Supply Co., for the duration of their own 5year lease. This was granted.255 Watson Bros. & the Universal Supply Co. CT WN214/247, which was issued to Palmerston North Borough Council in 1912, records Adams Ltd. taking over the lease for a 5-year term from 1 July 1922. Following the fire, the lease was taken over by Watson Bros. Ltd. for a term of three years, four months and three days, starting on 25 February 1924.256 255 253 Manawatu Daily Times 1 May 1905 2(2-3) Cyclopedia of New Zealand, Vol. 6 (Christchurch, 1908), p. 684; Manawatu Evening Standard, 4 February 1946 4(6) 254 Manawatu Daily Times 18 February 1924 4(2), 23 February 1924 7(4-6), 25 February 1924 4(6), 4 March 1924 9(6-7) The land upon which the building stands, was originally Lot 4, Section 257. However, between 1916 and 1922 (the dates when the old 1900 lease changed hands and when a new lease was issued - while still on CT WN214/247) it gained 256 Page 125 Palmerston North City Council The appearance of Watson Bros. in relation to this building returned it to its earlier links to the old Ready Money Store that J.S. Watchorn and J.A. Nash had been connected to. The following article on Watson Bros. from the (un-numbered) 1937 book From Swamp to City records some of the background of the company, of which this building was its Cuba Street branch: The business from which Watson Bros., Ltd., has grown was originally commenced in the early ‘seventies by Thomas Nelson, who traded as the ‘Ready Money Store’ with the slogan, ‘The little wonder that keeps the prices under.’ Some years later it was purchased by Joseph Nathan & Co., Ltd., who operated it as a retail branch of their Wellington business, under the management of the late Maurice Cohen. It was then floated into a Farmer’ Co-operative Association with a capital of £50,000 under the title of the Manawatu Farmers Cooperative Association Ltd. It later amalgamated with the Farmers’ Alliance Company and for 35 years was known and operated as the United Farmers Co-operative Association with branches in Wanganui, Feilding and Wellington. About 1910 the United Farmers’ Co-operative Association went into liquidation, the drapery portion of the business being purchased by W.F. Durward & Co. and removed to the site now occupied by the P.D.C. The remaining portion of the business, grocery, hardware, produce and crockery departments were purchased by John and Thos. Watson of Timaru, who traded as Watson Bros. It was subsequently taken over by a local syndicate and floated into a limited company of Watson Bros., Ltd., as it remains today. The 1925 Wises Directory lists the building under the name Universal Supply Company, which was evidently to distinguish it from the main Watson Bros. shop in The Square, and the other branches. Thereafter the the present legal description of Lot 8 DB2639. That matter has not been further researched. North West Square Heritage Area 2010 various Directories consulted, list this shop as Watson Bros. Ltd. The 1941 phonebook, however, listed it as the “Universal Supply Co. (Branch, Watson Bros., Ltd.), Cash Grocers”. The Watson Bros.’ listings in the 1941 phonebook indicates that the firm then had branches in Rangitikei Street, Ferguson Street, Main Street (Terrace End) and Albert Street, and a warehouse in Main Street, as well as the main shop in The Square and the Cuba Street branch. This phonebook lists further branches in Marton and Feilding. The dark-roofed Watson Bros.’, Cuba Street branch – known as the Universal Supply Company - is pictured here in about 1950. There is an alleyway between the ground floor of the building in the foreground - the Rialto Building (now a carpark) and Watson Bros. However, the first floor of the Rialto Building (consisting in 1955 of five “substandard flats”) also extended over the top of the alleyway.257 257 Circa 1950 photo from Whites Aviation Ltd., Palmerston North & District, New Zealand (Auckland, 1950), p. 2. Further information on the Rialto Building (newer that the Watson Bros./Mr Models building, but demolished some years ago due it its poor structure) can be found in the Mather Papers: Cuba Street (PN Historical Society Inc., 2007) pp. 14, 29. This states that in a 1955 report, the Rialto Building, which had been “erected for an unnamed party”, contained three shops, including the Joe Joy Fruit shop (later an occupant of Joe Sing’s shop) and “5 substandard Page 126 Palmerston North City Council North West Square Heritage Area 2010 The City Council sold the section in 1971 and the complicated situation regarding ownership of the actual building prior to that time has not been researched. The shop is listed in the 1977 phonebook as the Universal Supply Store, which probably marks the shop’s last days prior to Joe Sing’s alterations. that site in 1955, including the laundry, which the 1957 Wises’ Directory names as that of Hong On. Meanwhile that year there were in fact four fruiterers listed in Cuba Street between Taonui and Bourke Streets (at least three of them occupying known shops). These were Henry Childs, Joe Wah, Manu B. Patel and Waiawai & Co., the latter next door to Hong On’s laundry. Joe Sing’s Photography Shop & the Joe Joy Fruiterer shop CT WN 640/62, which had been issued to PNCC in 1955, records the transfer of Lot 8, DP 2639 to Lou Wai Ying, a widow of Palmerston North in May 1971. The property was then issued with the replacement CT WN9A/721. This then shows an undivided half share being transferred to Joe Woo Sing, photographer, in June 1971. Lou Wai Ying’s share was then transmitted to her son, Joe Woo Sing, following her death in 1989, and this share was then transferred to Kwok Leung Joe and Stella OiWone Joe, both students of Palmerston North, on the same date. The family owned a small fruit and vege shop, and Joe Sing took this over from his father at about the time supermarkets first reached Palmerston North. The fruit and vege shop did not survive this change to retailing practices, and so he had to establish a new form of employment, and as a result he became a ‘candid’ photographer at events around the area for the local magazine Photonews. His first studio was so small that he was unable to take full-length portraits of customers. He subsequently established his well-known studio in this building. He retired in about 1995, but about six months later he was asked by UCOL (then Manawatu Polytechnic) to teach their photography courses. In 2005 he retired as head of UCOL’s school of photography. He was also awarded with an honorary fellowship by the Institute of Professional Photography for his work. Others in the profession have stated that the photography school Joe Sing established at UCOL “is the finest industry-related photographic imaging school in the southern hemisphere.”258 Joe Sing bought the building in 1971 for use as his photography studio. Born in China, he was raised in New Zealand from the age of about six. His father, Joe Jel Joy, had established a greengrocer’s shop in New Plymouth, before returning to China to collect his family soon after the war. They settled in Palmerston North, where many other members of the Joe family from southern China, were already working in market gardens and laundries. The family spent about two years living in a coal shed at the back of the property where the Firecats strip club building in Cuba Street now stands. At this time, housing in general was in very short supply in the city – this being the era of the transit camp near the Centennial Lagoon. During this time, Joe Sing’s mother did ironing for a laundry, while his father went out to work. PN Library photo ‘STC 13’ shows the buildings on flats.” In a 1962 report, the Rialto Building was leased to the Arthur Hopwood Property Company, and thus also has historical links to the Oroua Building across the road. Although not further researched, this is most likely the Cuba Street building designed for Arthur Hopwood by L.G. West & Son, for which tenders were called in the Manawatu Evening Standard of 20 March 1928. The main work on this building covered in the PNCC Building Permit records, occurred in 1978 soon after the departure of Watson Bros. At that time the building was adapted to become two shops – probably for the first time. These included a small fruit and vege shop in the right front corner, which used a newly installed ranch slider that is still used by Mr Models Ltd. The photography studio and photo developing area then took up the rest of the building (about 90% of it), and its entrance was at the centre of the frontage, using what would have been the original entrance to the building. The two shops also shared the same staff areas, toilets etc. The local phonebooks list this shop as the Joe Joy Fruiterer, so named after 258 Manawatu Evening Standard, 9 December 2005, p. 2 ‘Friday Profile’ by Alistair Browne. Page 127 Palmerston North City Council Joe Sing’s father who died in 1960, and which had earlier been in the now demolished Rialto Building on the western side of this building. Both the fruit shop and the photography shop shared the same address (then 266 Cuba Street). Joe Joy Fruiterer appears for the last time in the 1987 phonebook. Mr Models CT WN9A/721 records the transfer of the property to the present owners, Ross Lindsay Avery and Linda Fay Avery, in 2002. It is now occupied by Mr Models Ltd., a firm that sells kitset model vehicles, aircraft, die cast models etc., which advertises on its website that it has been open 16 years, indicating about 1994. It had leased the building prior to the purchase. www.mrmodels.co.nz Additions & Alterations PNCC’s Building Permit files relating to this building date only to Joe Sing’s occupancy, and the most significant are the plans and specifications for the 1978 adaptation of the building to include the Joe Joy Fruiterer shop.259 However, visible on the outside is a large arched doorway in its western side, near the back of the building. For example, this would have been large enough for early cars to enter the building – such as when Adams Ltd. used it as a garage or showroom for their Studebakers (although manoeuvring them once inside might have been tricky). This door was accessed using the service alleyway that ran alongside the building - and which then turned 90 degrees to the right just outside this door, to service neighbouring buildings. The alleyway is now indistinguishable as part of the neighbouring carpark. This large arched entrance is now bricked up, as is an ordinary doorway alongside it. It seems likely that the large entrance would still have been required when Watson Bros. occupied this 259 PNCC Building Permit files C100/256 now 266, and C100/266. The main file is C100/256, but some information is in C100/266 in error. North West Square Heritage Area 2010 building, and so probably post-dates that firm. The building’s rear access nowadays is at the very back of the property, and at about the point where in 1906 this building linked with the building behind it to form ‘The Arcade’. Comments: It is not yet clear as to who owned the actual building during the time the land was leased from the Council. A summary of the above indicates that the Working Men’s Club tried to buy the previous building from the Council, but could not agree on a price. When that building burnt down in 1905, newspaper reports stated that its owner was T.M. Holland (although he was referred to erroneously as ‘H. Holland’), and certainly he received the insurance payout and commissioned the present building. The 1924 lease transfer is recorded in the PNBC General Minute Book (Vol. 11, p. 142). This states that Adams Ltd. was “applying for permission to sublet Borough premises in Cuba St. to Messrs Watson Bros. Ltd.” This was duly granted.260 Further research would be required to clarify this. ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION The building is designed in the Edwardian Free Classical style with symmetrical façade, Classical details such as a pediment as part of the parapet, pilasters on the parapet and few other stylistic details 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 for Joe Sings Photographic studio shows photographic rooms at the rear and one side with the studio stretching from the rear to the street frontage. A shop is shown to one side, which appears to be connected to the other spaces and it is not clear if it is part of the photographic business. 260 PNCC 1/1/1, Vol. 11, General Minute Book May 1923-April 1925, Ian Matheson City Archives, PN City Library Page 128 Palmerston North City Council North West Square Heritage Area 2010 STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE This building has high local significance for historical and design values, and representivity of building style. The building’s above verandah street façade design is largely authentic. This building has high historic values in its association with one of Palmerston North’s earliest businesses, The Wellington and Manawatu Hardware Co who became J A Nash and Co Ltd who had other shops in the region. Other tenants include Chas J Adams Ltd, of the Adams Star Cycle Company, Universal Supply Co. a grocery business and a later owner, Joe Sing, a son of Chinese immigrants who was a photographer who used the building for his studio and who became head of UCOL’s photography course. Significance Proposed category PNCC District Plan Criteria Cultural The building, however, has high historic values as one of the oldest buildings in the central city, now being over 100 years old. It is also historically and physically connected to 19-21 Coleman Place comprising the ‘Arcade’ that connected Cuba Street to Coleman Place forming an early mall. Having been tenanted for over 100 years, the building also reflects a high level of continuity. The building has high historic associations with one of Palmerton North’s most prominent architects, Ernest Larcomb who designed a number of substantial and very significant buildings in Palmerston North. These include the main public hospital, many shops around the Square, several large houses such as the Wattles, the Empire, Albion and Occidental Hotels. ASSESSMENT SUMMARY Emotional Historical 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 H M H The building has moderate design values as a representative example of the Edwardian Free Classical style, a style popular in the period, but high design values as an early mall. 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. Page 129 M M H Palmerston North City Council Cuba Street, 260-262 Cooee Dry Cleaners (formerly Pink and Collison Building) North West Square Heritage Area 2010 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: Thomas David Pearce, Christina Mary Pearce & Albert Joseph Kells 253 square metres more or less Lot 9 DP 2639 WN24C/23 (1983), prior CTs: WN16C/1500 (1976), WN214/247 (1912), WN17/96 (1879) Nil Nil Nil Nil 1905 E. Larcomb Messrs J. & H.M. Copeland Unknown PHYSICAL AND SOCIAL HISTORY History There is some question as to whether this building is the 1905 Larcomb building that was the original building on this site. That building was described in a separate article on the day the tender notice was published, as being two-storied and intended to be shops and offices. Perhaps the reporter concerned got the description wrong. Certainly there was no twostoried building on the site in a c1912 photo taken from the top of the old main Post Office, while this building was certainly present by 1937. Prior History The land upon which this building stands was formerly part of a Borough Council reserve, and thus the certificates of title do not grant certainty over who the owners of the actual building were – although the various Page 130 Palmerston North City Council leaseholders probably were. This property was initially Lot 2 of Section 257, however, the reserve was later resurveyed and it became Lot 9 of DP2639. Thus this transformation, which occurred in the course of the lengthy CT 214/247 (which included the leases etc. of a number of sections on the reserve), can be complicated. CT WN17/96 shows that the first certain lease of this property in its own right occurred in 1902. This was the lease of Lot 2 for a period of 21 years st starting on the 1 of December of that year. The lessee was James Henry Carson, the Wellington-born son of two Crimean War veterans – his mother having also served there with Florence Nightingale. He was foreman of C.W. Brodie’s cordial factory in Wellington, when after some 25 years in the trade, he decided to move to Palmerston North and start a cordial factory. Perhaps he initially considered this site for his cordial business. However, by August 1903, Carson & Co.’s Aerated Water Works was located in Rangitikei Street between Osgood & Hancock’s premises and Gattsche’s Brewery. He was also a life member of the Working Men’s Club/Cosmopolitan Club at the time of his death in 1941, and so this might have had some bearing of his leasing of this property.261 In January 1905 (meaning the event probably occurred in late 1904), the lease was transferred from Carson to James Copeland and Henry Montgomery Copeland as tenants in common. This Building The Manawatu Times of 17 January 1905 included the tender notice for what seems most likely to be this building. It stated simply that architect Ernest Larcomb sought tenders to build a brick or concrete premises in 261 Manawatu Evening Standard 4 August 1903 5(1) & 8(5); 18 July 1941 6(3). It is noteworthy that the Carsons lost two of their six children in the First World War (one of the 1918 Influenza Epidemic), and in 1907 the third of their five sons had died in tragic self-inflicted circumstances aged 12. (MES 21/8/1907 5(6), 23/8/1907 4(6) & 8(6); 13/11/118 1(1) & 4(7). North West Square Heritage Area 2010 Cuba Street for Messrs J. (&) H.R. Copeland. The tenders were required by 25th January. The local news column of the same edition recorded the following: “Mr E. Larcomb architect, calls for tenders for the erection of premises in Cuba Street for Messrs Copeland Bros., of Rangitikei Line. The new building is to be in brick or concrete. It will be situated next to the old Working Men’s Club. The total width will be 33 feet and the depth 88 feet, and the two stories will be divided into shops and offices.”262 There was no indication as to who won the tender. However, the 1905-6 PNBC Rate Book shows a building to the value of £600 being added to the previously bare land – which had an unimproved value of £330. The following year the neighbouring single-storey Arcade/Mr Models building was erected for £700, and so this also appears to support the likelihood that there never was a two-storied building on this site. The next evidence is provided by PN Library photo Sq 142, which was taken from the old main Post Office Clock Tower in about 1912, based on the presence or otherwise of buildings shown. Any two-storied building on this site, would have been visible alongside the Kerslake/C 2 C building – which is clearly visible. However, there is nothing two-storied there, and the known single storey building (Mr Models) is obscured by the buildings that front The Square. Thus this building appears to predate the photo and to have been as invisible as its single storey (but still taller) neighbour. A search of the PNBC/PNCC Rate books between construction in 1905 and 1937, shows only a single unknown addition in value (other than the standard reviews to property values) to the property, and this being during the 1911-12 Rating year. This totalled only £30 and might have been something like the addition of a verandah or alterations inside the building. A loss by fire and replacement with a much cheaper building might not have increased or reduced the capital value as shown in the Rate books. However, such information was not located during this study. Certainly 262 Manawatu Times 17 January 1905 1(8) & 2(6) Page 131 Palmerston North City Council North West Square Heritage Area 2010 there is no reference to any harm coming to any neighbouring buildings during the fire that effectively destroyed the old two-storied wooden Working Men’s Club building on 16 August 1905. The 1905 Copeland Bros. building immediately next door, should have been complete by this time. business in connection with the Starr Bowkett Building Society will be carried on by Mr G. Hirsch, and the Government State Fire Insurance Office will be conducted by Mr T. Rodgers, of Messrs Rodgers and Larcomb. An advertisement relating to the State Fire Insurance appears in another column.264. For the purposes of this study, it will therefore be assumed that this is the 1905 building – especially given Larcomb ’s regular advert of 1907 that said he was “now designing handsome buildings of moderate cost, which (would) be proof against earthquakes, fire, weather, vermin, and (would) last for ages.”263 The Manawatu Evening Standard of 8 March 1906 recorded that a letter had been received from James Copeland, announcing that his daughter had just married Sir William Earl in London amidst a “large and fashionable gathering” of friends.265 Although the Copeland brothers returned, they did not remain in Palmerston North. Their aforementioned sister, Frances Montgomery Copeland, died in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada on 23 July 1916 – where their widowed mother was then living.266 Messrs J. & H.M. Copeland What was traced for this study regarding the brothers James and Henry Montgomery Copeland, suggests they were comfortably off and probably well connected. Their father was Captain James Copeland of Otago, while their maternal grandfather was Captain Henry Montgomery of Wanganui. James Copeland junior also served as a PN Borough Councillor between 1901 and 1903. The 1902 Wises’ Directory described the brothers as land agents, while the 1911 Palmerston North Electoral Roll included James Copeland, secretary, of Cuba Street. However, no other family members were listed. The 1905-6 PNBC Rate book lists their sister Frances Mary Copeland of Rangitikei Street as occupier of this property – of which the Borough Council was the owner (of the land). It seems that no sooner was their new building was likely to have been complete, than the brothers left the country. The Manawatu Evening Standard reported in May 1905 that: Messrs J. and H.M. Copeland, of Palmerston, left by this morning’s train on an extended trip to the Old Country. They will be absent from the colony about 12 months. During their absence their 263 For example, Manawatu Evening Standard 21 August 1907 5(7) Messrs Copeland Bros. paid the rates on this property until its transfer to Laurence Kavanagh, by then of Hawera, in the 1907-8 Rating year. However, Kavanagh had had an interest in the property by late 1906. He had taken over the lease that year, and had also briefly obtained a mortgage at that time from the Copeland brothers, although another lender took this over almost immediately. The Copelands then disposed of the same mortgage to yet another lender the following year. Although CT WN17/96 shows the lease remaining with Kavanagh until 1911, the Rate books show the property transferred to James H. Gilchrist in the 1908-9 Rating year, and then to William Seaton of Raurimu, during 1909-10. The following year William P. Seaton was living at Ngaruawahia. 264 Manawatu Evening Standard 13 May 1905 5(1) Manawatu Evening Standard 8 March 1906 5(1) The surname ‘Earl’ might instead be ‘Earle’. The website paperspast.natlib.govt.nz has an article from the Otago Witness of 30 November 1899 (p. 55) reporting what appears to have been a ‘society wedding’ in its area. Amongst the huge array of gifts reported were a silver sugar basin from Mrs James Copeland (of PN), a silver-mounted purse from the Messrs Copeland and a lace handkerchief and bangle from the Misses Copeland. This perhaps outlines the family. 266 Manawatu Evening Standard 27 July 1916 1(1) & 5(1) 265 Page 132 Palmerston North City Council During the 1911-12 Rating year, the property was transferred back to James H. Gilchrist, a local commission agent, as also was the lease with the Borough Council During the 1912-13 Rating year, J.H. Gilchrist made some unknown improvement to the property to the value of £30. He then retained the property until 1914, when the lease was transferred to Albert McBeth, whose address in the Rate books then was c/- A. Paterson, Inglewood. By the 1919-20 Rating year, McBeth was living in Hamilton. The nearly expired lease was next transferred to Charles Abel Peters in December 1922. He then began a new 21-year lease with the Borough Council, which started on 1 December 1923. Peters was not traced in this study, however the Rate books give his address as Cuba Street until 1924-25, when it is changed to 2 Andrew Young Street. In 1932-33 it changes to Stratford, and in 1936-37 his address is c/- Dominion Motors, Stratford. It appears that the building was subleased out by mostly Taranaki-based landlords over a great many years. Little is known of them or their reason for owning this building. Albert McBeth might be the man of that name who lived in Stratford at the time of the 1916 Wises Directory, while Charles Peters might be the manager, of Stratford, referred to in the 1936 Wises Directory. The only Laurence Kavanagh traced was a farmer of that name who died aged 78 in Hawera on 6 August 1961.267 Meanwhile occupants of this building prior to 1925 include the following: Wises 1908 Cuba St. – J.B. Clarkson Ltd., cycle depot (Jno B. Clarkson, manager) Wises 1911 19 Cuba St. – W. Moffatt & Co., land agents Wises 1914-16 19 Cuba St. – Chas. J. Adams, motor garage Wises 1920-22 100 Cuba St. - Chas. J. Adams, motor garage Wises 1925 100 Cuba St. – Empire Auctioneering Co. North West Square Heritage Area 2010 At the time this building was erected in 1905, J.B. Clarkson & Co. Ltd. was trading from a shop in Coleman Place that was “two doors from the firebell.” The aforementioned photo Sq142 reveals that it was one of two shops on the site later occupied by Everybody’s Theatre (later the Midland Hotel). Clarkson’s firm had been established in 1894, and in 1903 he reportedly bought 1,000 bicycles when overseas and was considering opening a new shop. However, his shop was still in Coleman Place in mid1905 when the building under study here was probably complete. By mid1906, when J.A. Nash & Co. Ltd. was about to open The Arcade “by the firebell”, Clarkson was advertising his shops in Palmerston North, Feilding, Levin, Foxton and Bulls, and sponsoring the 88 mile Clarkson Road Race that had attracted 56 male cyclists - 36 of whom completed the race.268 It was Messrs J.B. Clarkson & Co. Ltd.’s cycle shop that attracted the Nonpareil Cycle & Motor Co. to Palmerston North in 1906. The latter firm’s entry in the 1908 Cyclopedia of New Zealand269 included the following description of the business and premises they had just purchased: “In November 1906, the firm bought out the retail cycle business of Messrs J.B. Clarkson and Company, Limited, 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…” It is unlikely this description involved the building under study here, however, Nonpareil occupied the aforementioned premises “two doors from the firebell” by the 1908 Wises Directory, and in 1911, leased ‘The Arcade’ next door. Clarkson appears to have stopped advertising his Coleman Place shop on 22 November 1906270, and as his business 268 Manawatu Evening Standard 24 July 1900 1(5); 11 August 1903 4(7); 4 June 1906 5(5) & 4(2); 5 June 1906 5(6-7) Cyclopedia of New Zealand, Vol. 6, Taranaki, Hawkes Bay, Wellington (Christchurch, 1908), p. 685 270 Manawatu Daily Times 1(1-2) 269 267 South Taranaki District Council online cemetery database. Page 133 Palmerston North City Council North West Square Heritage Area 2010 appears using the building being studied here as a cycle depot in the 1908 Wise’s Directory, it is possible that he used it to supply his other cycle shops. Chas J. Adams Ltd. The firm Chas J. Adams Ltd. occupied this building - as a motor garage by 1914, according to the Wise’s Directories. Then in 1922, when the lease on the neighbouring ‘Arcade’ building (Cuba Street end only) came up for renewal, “Adams Ltd.” took over the new lease and ran this building and the former ‘Arcade’ building in conjunction. The firm had probably occupied the former ‘Arcade’ building soon after Nonpareil left in April 1921. Charles John Adams’ obituary in 1946 recorded that after being in control of one of the leading motor showrooms in Christchurch (then the Adams Star Cycle Company) he had come to Palmerston North in 1904 (via two years in Wanganui) to manage another branch of the firm. This firm became one of the pioneers of the car business in the town. The 1905 regular advert of the Adams Star Cycle Company indicates that it was then in the newly rebuilt Clarendon (Hotel) Buildings in The Square.271 However, before long the firm operated from a two-storied brick garage in Rangitikei Street, its entry in the Cyclopedia of New Zealand, Vol. 6 in 1908, describing it as a motorcar and cycle engineers and importers, that also had its head office in Christchurch. In 1906, the Palmerston North showroom sold 20 cars and 180 bicycles.272 The firm was to occupy its two Cuba Street buildings until February 1924. 271 Manawatu Daily Times 1 May 1905 2(2-3) Cyclopedia of New Zealand, Vol. 6 (Christchurch, 1908), p. 684; Manawatu Evening Standard, 4 February 1946 4(6) Left: The Adams Ltd. configuration - with No. 256 being the Cuba Street end of ‘The Arcade’ & No. 262 being this building. No. 264 is the former Kerslake property that was burnt out in 1924. (Source: PNCC website) Right: The two buildings about 1950. From Whites Aviation Ltd., Palmerston North & District, New Zealand (Auckland, 1950), p. 2 The 1924 fire The newly departed Adams Ltd., which was the New Zealand agent for Studebakers, re-opened for business in its new premises in Rangitikei Street (those previously occupied by Messrs Wackrill & Stewart) on 18 February 1924. Four days later, on 22 February 1924, a huge fire broke out in the block Adams Ltd. had just left, destroying and/or damaging seven shops. The fire had originated at the centre of the block, and at the rear of the Empire Auction Mart building. The Kerslake/C 2 C building – on the eastern boundary of this building - was completely gutted, with only its brick walls surviving. Meanwhile one of the two shops behind the Kerslake/C 2 C building (facing The Square) was also badly burnt – however, both of those buildings were repaired and survive today. Meanwhile the building under study here seems to have survived the encroaching flames and the showers of sparks unscathed – with the help of the fire brigade. 272 Page 134 Palmerston North City Council While this building was unaffected by the fire itself, but being newly empty meant that it was quickly snapped up as the new home of one of the burnt out businesses. Similarly, Watson Bros. had quickly moved its Universal Supply Co. grocery store into Adams Ltd’s other former premises, the old ‘Arcade’ building - and that shop reopened for business only three days after the fire. The Empire Auction Mart moved into this building soon after. The 1927 and 1928 Wise’s Directories also list the Forest Radio Co. between the Universal Supply Co. and the Empire Auction Mart (all three then being 100 Cuba Street), however, it is not clear which former Adam’s Ltd. building this business was in. Empire Auctioneering Company What appears to be the Empire Auctioneering Company’s first advertisement at their new premises is dated 5 April 1924. It stated that they had “re-opened in brick premises, 100 Cuba Street (late Adams, Ltd., garage), next to the Universal Supply Stores…” They had also had the premises “thoroughly renovated” and these afforded “excellent facilities for display.”273 Charles Abel Peters sublet the former Adams Ltd. property to Mark Briggs and Bertie Victor Cooksley, for a term of five years starting 4 August 1924. However, they had clearly occupied it at least four months before that. The 1920 Wises Directory lists the firm Brown & Briggs, auctioneers, as located in premises where the Mowlem/Costas building now is. The 1922 Directory lists a motor garage at that address, however, by 1924 and the time of the fire, the auctioneering firm was back at its former site and was variously called the Empire Auction Mart (according to its adverts) or the Empire Auctioneering Company. Mark Briggs’ obituary describes the business as having been a combination of a furniture store, land agency and auction rooms. North West Square Heritage Area 2010 The owners of this business are some of the most significant in terms of social history located during this study. They also create a surprising contrast with each other and probably also those around them. Briggs’ biography in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, states that he had emigrated from Yorkshire in 1904 and worked as an itinerant labourer around the North Island before becoming a flax worker. He joined the flaxmillers’ trade union in Manawatu and became a supporter of the radical ‘Red Feds’ group. Then in 1916, he and fellow radical unionist Bob Brown, formed the Empire Auctioneering Company. They also operated an employment agency. Briggs was a conscientious objector during the First World War, refusing conscription in 1917 on socialist grounds. After imprisonment for a time, he and thirteen others with similar views were sent from Trentham Military Camp to Britain, and then to France. There they were subjected to an array of extreme abuse as outlined in the above publication, including Field Punishment No. 1 (i.e. tied to posts in range of enemy shells) and other ill-treatments in an effort to break them of their views. In February 1918, he and the two others (one being the well-known Archibald Baxter) who were still ‘fighting’ from the original thirteen, were sent to the trenches – and in Briggs’ case this included being dragged about 1,000 yards across rough ground and duckboards by wire tied around his chest, while in range of enemy shells. The physical injuries resulting from these experiences saw him invalided back to New Zealand as unfit for service in early 1919. Although Briggs is described as having been keen sportsman, generous and popular in business and caring to his family and friends, as well as patron to cricket and rugby clubs, and a boxing coach, it is also possible to hope that this tragic and far-reaching fire that started behind or within their premises in 1924 was simply an accident.274 274 273 Manawatu Evening Standard 5 April 1924 8(5) This view is qualified by my personal studies of anti-Germanism, both locally and nationally, during World War One, which includes some interest in the conscientious objector situation, the distribution of ‘white feathers’ (i.e. subtle accusations of possible cowardice) etc. that culminated in my 1999 MA thesis on Page 135 Palmerston North City Council By 1924, Briggs’ business partner was Bertie Victor Cooksley, who also saw noteworthy war service. He was a Gallipoli landing veteran who won a Military Medal, before serving in France. He also saw service in World War Two, before leading a New Zealand party of Gallipoli veterans to lay wreaths at Chunuk Bair on behalf of the Government in April 1965. An executive of the market gardening association of the day, he had also organised and led a protest against Kuku land resumption in 1939. The politics of these two men also contrasts. Briggs was a staunch Labour supporter who ran unsuccessfully for the Labour Party in Palmerston North in 1935 and 1938, although he polled well. He was appointed to the Legislative Council in 1936 and in 1940 was the only Member of Parliament to vote against conscription. Cooksley, meanwhile, was the National MP for Wairarapa between 1949 and 1963. North West Square Heritage Area 2010 of occupancy might have occurred about then. Instead Briggs’ Empire Furnishing Co. appears in the Directory, relocated to the Cuba Street building then next to the old RSA building. The Hon. Mark Briggs died on 15 March 1965, aged 80 years and is described as an auctioneer in PNCC cemetery records. His obituaries typically overlooked his war record.276 Dawick’s Electrical Services Charles Abel Peters remained lessee of this building until 1946 (including renewing the lease for a further twenty-one years in 1944), at which time the lease - but not occupancy - passed to the owners of the motorbike firm Pink & Collinson. However, the tenant from about 1933 (and certainly by the 1936 Wises’ Directory) was Dawick’s Electrical Services, which was an automotive electrical specialist. The 1925 Wises’ Directory records both men living in Palmerston North, however, Cooksley subsequently moved to Wellington and managed Boyday Cooksley Ltd. according to the 1933 Stones Directory. He died at Waikanae on 26 July 1980. In 1929, the Briggs and Cooksley sublease was transferred to Mark Briggs alone. Then in 1935, the sublease was passed on to William Harold Dawick275 The Dawick business was formed in 1933 and the 1933 Stones Directory shows no listing for this address, suggesting the actual change the Somes Island Internment Camp for enemy aliens. It is noteworthy that the Manawatu Times of 23 February 1924 p. 7(4-6) said that a woman had been seen entering a shop fronting The Square that also backed onto the Empire Auction Mart premises, shortly before the fire was first seen at 11:00pm. A policeman broke in the door of the smoke-filled building and went inside looking for her, but he did not find anyone. – V.A. Burr. 275 This sublease is on CT WN413/183. This CT was not sighted during this study, however, its contents are recorded on the study of this property by some Victoria University students who, in 1980, tackled the daunting task of unscrambling the highly complex collection of lease and land ownership changes on the land in the Cuba, George, Coleman, Square, Rangitikei city block. Ref: Research file A175/154, Ian Matheson City Archives, PN City Library. 276 Manawatu Evening Standard 16 March 1965 p.12 (M. Briggs obituary); 2 April 1965, p.8-9; Who’s Who in NZ, 11th Edition (Wellington, 1978) p. 88 (B.V. Cooksley); David Grant, ‘Mark Briggs’ in Dictionary of NZ Biography, Vol. 3 (Wellington, 1996), pp. 66-77; Waikanae Cemetery records, online on the Kapiti Coast District Council website, and on the Cemetery microfiche at PN City Library. Page 136 Palmerston North City Council The 1937 book From Swamp to City contains an article on Dawick’s Electrical Garage, which includes the above photo of the building at that time. The upper façade is the same as at present. However, the concrete work on the lower façade is much different. At that time the verandah was supported by four plain verandah posts, and the front door was centrally located with plate glass windows on either side. Nowadays there is a ranch slider on the left side of the façade and a roller door on the right. There is also a plate glass window across the original front door site. These were part of the 1954 alterations outlined below. The article in From Swamp to City277 records the following: Coming from that long-respected pioneer family of “Dawicks,” known so well when in the service of the community in “Dawick Bros’. Buffett,” later called “The New Royal Hotel,” sons of Mr William Dawick, Messrs. Harold and Stan. Dawick now, in recent years step forward to take their place in the ranks of the “giants of industry” in the business of Dawick’s Electrical Garage, Cuba Street. As the motor industry has progressed there has arisen the important need of specialised car electrical service both for the motoring public and also for the trade. Established in 1933, Messrs, Dawick’s Electrical Garage now plays a prominent part in the car electrical repairs and parts supply service. All car electrical equipment – batteries, starters, generators ignition lights – and all electrical accessories and parts supplies are very efficiently catered for. With the same “pioneer” qualities – character, integrity, skill, experience – the basis of this fine progressive business, the motoring community, and that is all of us, can have every confidence in and respect for Messrs. Dawick’s Electrical Garage. A letter sent by Dawick’s Electrical Services to PNCC on 6 August 1954 states that they had been unexpectedly asked to vacate the building: 277 ‘Dawick’s Electrical Garage’ in From Swamp to City: A short history of the growth and development of Palmerston North, N.Z. (Palmerston North, 1937). No page number in book. North West Square Heritage Area 2010 “Under duress of circumstances whereby we must vacate our present premises at a very early date, we have tentative arrangements made for a short term tenancy of the premises situated at 225 Cuba Street, now owned by Collinson & Son Ltd.” The firm was seeking permission to make alterations to an old building then on the present site of the Firecats Strip Club.278 The Wises Directories still list the firm at that address in 1960, by which time Auto Electrics Ltd. was its neighbour in the old Beattie & Procter building (also part of this study) at 229 Cuba Street. By the 1973 phonebook, the business was in Queen Street. Stanley Hoddinott Dawick died on 19 February 1980 aged 65. He was described in PNCC cemetery records as a company director. Pink & Collison The motorbike firm Pink & Collison Ltd. was formed in 1930, and until 1954 it was located in premises across the road from this building. However, the firm’s owners Ernest Frederick Aubrey Pink and Douglas Kennedy Collison, took over this building’s lease in 1946. Like Dawick Electrical Services, they had also had an entry in the 1937 book From Swamp to City, and this provides a history of the firm until that time. This is entitled: “Pink and Collison, Experts with Motor Cycles”: In no business is sound, carefully acquired personal knowledge and experience more essential than in a business devoted to the sale, servicing and repairing of motor-cycles, for so much, not only in the way of safely, but of comfort and reliability, depends on accurate workmanship and scrupulous thoroughness. These essential qualities are characteristic of the work of Pink and Collison, of Cuba Street, who can rightly claim that few are more fitted than they to carry on such a business. Having served a long experience at the trade, both Mr F.E. Pink and Mr D.K. Collison know their job through and through, having had long experience prior to setting up in partnership in 1930. Their record since then has been one of consistent progress. Their workshop has greatly expanded, and their workshop staff from two seven years ago has 278 PNCC Building Permit file C100/225-227, Beattie & Procter building. Page 137 Palmerston North City Council North West Square Heritage Area 2010 increased until it now numbers nine. Two salesmen are also kept on the road. Having the advantage of the very latest in machinery Messrs. Pink and Collison carry out in their premises all manner of repairs and have earned the name of having a workshop not excelled for equipment or resource elsewhere in the Dominion. Acetylene electric wielding and cylinder restoring are among difficult jobs expertly carried out, while a special valve-seat grinding machine is a great asset. The business holds agencies for the principal English motorcycles, including Arials, B.S.A., Panther, James and Triumph. This is an important department of the activities of this motor-cycle shop, the proprietors of which, incidentally, are both well-known on the grass tracks of the Dominion, holding most New Zealand Records for 2¾ and 3½ class championships. The firm advertised in the 1959-60 Wises’ Directory (p. 245), stating that it sold and serviced BSA, Dot, Triumph and Jawa motor cycles; DKW, Hobby, Cezeta and Prior motor scooters, DKW and Viktoria power cycles; Raleigh, Humber and BSA cycles; and Morrison Motor Mowers. A new company, Pink & Collison 1973 Ltd. was incorporated in 1973. This company is still registered to a local address, but it is not known if it is trading.279 Its name appears in the 1977 phonebook as a Honda agent, with the after hours contact numbers being G. Sell and R.K. Pink. The same edition lists the neighbouring Coo-ee Dry Cleaners, still in the building (the Kerslake/C 2 C building) where the business had been for at least forty years. By the 1980 phonebook, Pink & Collison was gone, and Coo-ee Drycleaning Ltd. had relocated into this building next door. The PN City Library Photographic Collection contains two photos of the Pink & Collison shops. Photo BC205 shows the earlier shop opposite this one, which accompanied the above 1937 article. Photo BC 182 shows this building in about 1960, with the c1954 alterations in place and a large BSA motorcycle sign on the front of the verandah CT WN 16C/1500 records that in 1977, the lease on this building was transferred to Thomas David Pearce, a dry cleaner, and his wife Christina Mary Pearce, who are directors of Coo-ee Drycleaning Ltd.280 Then in 1983 PNCC sold the property to a partnership of Christina Mary Pearce and Albert Joseph Kells (½ share), and Thomas David Pearce and Albert Joseph Kells (the other ½ share). In 2002 it was transferred to the present ownership arrangement of Thomas David Pearce, Christina Mary Pearce and Albert Joseph Kells. In 1965, the lease was again renewed for a further twenty-one years, starting 1 December 1965, this time in the name of Pink & Collison Holdings Ltd. Then E.F.A. Pink, described as a company manager in PNCC cemetery records, died on 13 January 1967, aged 65. D.K. Collison died on 3 March 2003 aged 98. He was described in PNCC cemetery records as a general manager. Coo-ee Drycleaning Ltd. The business that on 30 August 1973 was registered as Coo-ee Drycleaning Ltd., traces firstly to Chinese-born Sam Lee’s laundry that was in the neighbouring building by 1920, and especially to a firm that began soon after the 1924 fire with the partnerships firstly of McAffer & McShane (1927) and then McAffer & Dinley (1930). This story is covered in more detail in the story of the building at 264 Cuba Street. However, the original post-fire company was named Coo-ee Tailoring & Dry Cleaning Co. Ltd., and in 1933 it was managed by Neil McAffer. 279 Pink & Collison Ltd., Company No. 28359. NZ Companies Office website www.companies.govt.nz 280 Coo-ee Drycleaning Ltd., Company No. 28270. NZ Companies Office website www.companies.govt.nz Page 138 Palmerston North City Council Additional & Alterations PNCC Building Permit file C100/258 contains specifications dated May 1951 to alter the premises for Pink & Collison. This included removing the verandah, and plate and sheet glass windows at the front of the building. As Dawicks Electrical Services was still in the building until 1954, possibly this work was only prepared in 1951, for enactment in 1954. In 1954, Pink & Collison requested a permit to erect a mezzanine floor in the building at a cost of £400. The plans for this show a spiral staircase near the front of the building and that the mezzanine floor travelled around the entire building. A set of three undated plans associated with the various 1954 alterations, by Ronald J. McMillan, show the building much as it is now, except that it has double, hinged doors installed in the present locations of the ranch slider and the roller door. However, while the present doors are flush with the front walls of the building, the earlier doors were set into the building some two feet (measured as marked on the plans). Alongside the doors on the left is a show window, with a floor area about two feet square (in the left side of the doors, but protruding out to the front walls of the building). The doors and window created a similar size opening to that now occupied by the present ranch slider and its extra windows. The right side doors have a petrol pump sketched to their right side, thereby balancing the appearance of the façade. Between these doors is a large central window – doubtless the present front window – and the new wall beneath this window is recorded as having been made of plaster on bricks. The sign along the new verandah front reads: “Pink & Collison: The Big Bike Men” In 1975, the new firm Pink & Collison (1973) Ltd., requested a Motor Spirits Licence. On 31 October 1977 Cooee Drycleaning Ltd. applied for a permit to erect a partition wall and to lower a ceiling within the building. Their plan in the file shows a narrow area on the right side of the building – behind the present North West Square Heritage Area 2010 roller door – that was being partitioned off. This is marked as “lettable”. The remainder of the building consisted of the reception area, stairs on the left side of the building, and a large “working area” at the back. Comments: Most of this building’s usage until 1977 revolved around the sales and servicing of various forms of transportation. However, for almost a decade it was the premises of an auctioneering firm that belonged to two future MPs, one of whom was a noted conscientious objector. If this is not the 1905 building, then it certainly seems to predate about 1912. It is not known if there was ever an internal access between the two buildings in their Adams Ltd. days. ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION The building is designed in the Edwardian Free Classical style with symmetrical façade, Classical details such as a pediment as part of the parapet, pilasters on the parapet and few other stylistic details 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 rectangular floor plan divided into an ‘L shaped space with reception area at the street frontage and a working area to the rear. The remainder of the space faces the street is denoted as “lettable”. The exterior is cement rendered and it is probable that its main form of construction is brick. STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE This building has moderate local significance for historical and design values, representivity of building style and type and level of external authenticity. Page 139 Palmerston North City Council This building has high historic values in its associations with the architect, Ernest Larcomb who designed a number of significant buildings in Palmerston North. These include the main public hospital, many shops around the Square, several large houses such as the Wattles, the Empire, Albion and Occidental Hotels. It is one of few buildings constructed in the central city over 100 years old. The original and later ownership and tenants reflects moderate level of continuity as a typical pattern of similar commercial buildings throughout the city. The building has moderate design values as a representative example of the Edwardian Free Classical style, a not uncommon for commercial buildings in the late Victorian and Edwardian 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. The exterior of the building has moderate levels of authenticity. North West Square Heritage Area 2010 ASSESSMENT SUMMARY Significance Proposed category PNCC District Plan Criteria 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 H H Rarity Landmark Representative Design Setting Materials Craftsmanship M M H Page 140 M M H Palmerston North City Council Cuba Street, 264 Kerslake building (now C2C Surf Shop) North West Square Heritage Area 2010 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: 455 square metres more or less Part Section 258 Town of Palmerston North WN27/124 (1881) Nil Nil Nil Nil 1905 E. Larcomb H. Kerslake A. France PHYSICAL AND SOCIAL HISTORY History Much of the history of this property is covered in detail as part of the history of the other building on this property – that located at 164-165 The Square, part of which is now occupied by Monsoon Asia Kitchen. Part of the building’s individual significance is that it was burnt out in the 1924 fire. Prior History This property was granted to auctioneer George Matthew Snelson in 1881 and then sold to George Best, a farmer of Ohariu in 1882. In 1883, he passed it on to his daughter, Harriet Elizabeth Kerslake, wife of tailor, Thomas Tozer Kerslake. The property then remained in the Kerslake family until 1951. The pair of shops at 164-165 The Square, identified for this study as “Kerslake Building – 1895”, was built to replace the shop Thomas Tozer Kerslake had operated since November 1880. That two-storied building, Page 141 Palmerston North City Council called the ‘Temple of Fashion’ tailor’s shop, had burnt down on the night of 14 March 1895, when the Theatre Royal next door caught fire. The present building on that site was quickly erected – and the Kerslakes clearly had learned the value of brick. When the next (by then ‘former’) Theatre Royal burnt down in 1924, both the Kerslake buildings survived – albeit that they were 75% gutted. This Building Like its neighbour at 260-262 Cuba Street, this is likely to be the first building on this site, based on a 1903 survey that in turn was based on 1896 data. This shows nothing present between the Working Men’s Club (then at the present 256 Cuba Street) on one side, and the back of the Theatre Royal (which reached Cuba Street) on the other side.281 In 1893, Kerslake had sold his goodwill in his ‘Temple of Fashion’ business to the United Farmers’ Co-operative Association. He had then taken over management of that firm’s tailoring department, remaining with the firm for some years. In 1906 he resumed business on his own account and had this shop built at Cuba Street end of his property. Ernest Larcomb ’s tender notice for this building was published on 1 August 1905. Tenders were set to close on 11th August, and on 14th August the Manawatu Evening Standard reported that: “Mr E. Larcomb, architect, received five tenders last week for the erection of a two-storied brick building in Cuba Street. Mr A. France, contractor, was the successful tenderer at the price of £840. The premises will be built for Mr T.T. Kerslake, tailor, and will be occupied by him. The workroom will be upstairs, and the ground floor is to be used as a shop.”282 North West Square Heritage Area 2010 is the sum of £950 and also a separate “1.00” (perhaps £100), to which was added the note “shops.” Probably something was also added to the other shop. The building was clearly complete by April 1906 when Kerslake published the following: “‘Notice of Removal’, T.T. Kerslake, Tailor, desires to inform his customers and the public generally that he has removed to more commodious and convenient premises in Cuba Street, opposite the Working Men’s Club. All classes of gentlemen’s tailoring done and a full stock of materials always on hand.”283 Kerslake was aged about 54 when he moved his business into this building in 1906. The 1911 Wises’ Directory listed him as still occupying this shop. However he retired after a relatively short time in the building, and thereafter, the business continued as the partnership Kerslake & Usmar until at least 1918.284 The firm was gone by the time of the 1920 Directory. Charles Horace Usmar, who died on 13 November 1960, was described in PNCC cemetery records as a tailor aged 90. It is not clear if the building’s present frontages as two old-style shop entrances (only one now in use) plus a side door from the street are the same as when this building was erected. However, the Wises Directories for 1908 and 1914 list the grocers J.R. Graham and Harold A. Worrall respectively as present apparently in the right-side little shop. In 1914, Worrall was also occupying one of the shops in the building at the other end of the property fronting The Square. The 1905-06 PNBC Rate book shows this property as having had an unimproved value of £1,770 and a capital value of £2,230 (including the building in The Square). Being added to this amount during this rating year Sam Lee’s laundry and the 1924 fire The 1920 and 1922 Wises’ Directories list Samuel Lee as operating a laundry from this building. He is probably the same Sam Lee recorded in the 1917 Register of Aliens as then aged 38, unmarried, and a Chinese national, who had at that time been in New Zealand for 20 years. He was 281 283 282 Mather Papers, Cuba Street (PN Historical Society Inc., 2007), p. 28. Manawatu Evening Standard 1 August 1905 8(6); 14 August 1905 4(6). 284 Manawatu Evening Standard 2 April 1906 2(2) Wise’s Directory, 1918 Page 142 Palmerston North City Council one of twelve Chinese men listed as a laundrymen who then lived in Palmerston North Borough, with no additional street addresses given. In addition to the Chinese in this occupation, there was also one German man described as a laundry assistant, and he lived with his wife at 27 George Street.285 The main information on Sam Lee’s laundry comes from the time of the major fire through this block on 22 February 1924. The neighbouring Empire Auction Mart had been at the heart of this fire, however, the building under study here was the last to catch fire. The fresh northeasterly breeze in part caused this that night that mostly sent the flames in the other direction. Also the fire had begun at the back of the Auction Mart (a huge building that was formerly the main hall of the Theatre Royal), and the Kerslake building has a comparatively short footprint in relation to its neighbours. In describing the fire, the Manawatu Evening Standard of 23 February 1924 described its impact on Sam Lee’s laundry: “On the southern side stood a two-floor brick building which appeared to be safe from the fire, but the flames found a way in round the rear from the centre of the block, and in a few minutes the upper windows sent forth fierce masses of flame. This new outbreak was subdued only after the laundry premises upstairs had been ruined, and the ground floor also badly affected, though the vacant garage was saved.” The article added: “In the doorways of several of the premises in the danger zone were clustered occupants fearing for the safety of their abodes, but so far as is known only one residential quarter was affected. That was where the Chinamen connected with the laundry slept on the second floor of the gutted brick building in Cuba Street. At least one Celestial was observed to leave hurriedly with a few personal belongings.” 285 Palmerston North Borough, Register of Aliens under the Registration of Aliens Act, 1917 (NZ Dept. of Internal Affairs) North West Square Heritage Area 2010 The Manawatu Daily Times added that: “The Cuba Street brick building damaged by fire, was insured with the Standard for £800, and the front shop was insured for a like amount - £400 with the Standard Company and £400 with the Yorkshire.”286 Where as all the other shops were wooden and were ruined, the Kerslakes’ two were soon repaired. Barely two weeks later, the Borough Engineer reported to the PN Borough Council committee meeting that they had issued a permit “to reinstate the inside portion of a two-storied brick building in Cuba Street that was damaged by fire.”287 The PNBC Register of Building Permits, Vol. 3, lists the repairs to the Kerslake buildings. The first permit was issued for additions and alterations to this building on 27 February 1924. This was for (reinstatement) work in wood to the value of £600. Then on 26 March 1924 a further £60 was permitted for work involving brick for the building in The Square Another £45 was then permitted for work on the Cuba Street building in July 1925.288 Clearly Ernest Larcomb was serious when he state in his regular advert in 1907 that he was “now designing handsome buildings of moderate cost, which (would) be proof against earthquakes, fire, weather, vermin, and (would) last for ages.”289 286 Manawatu Evening Standard 23 February 1924 5(2-4); Manawatu Daily Times 23 February 1924 7(4-6) 287 PNCC Reports from 22 July 1922 – 23 September 1924, p. 326. 1/4/3, Vol. 3, Ian Matheson City Archives, PN City Library 288 PNCC Register of Buildings, Vol. 3, 4/13/1, Ian Matheson City Archives, PN City Library 289 For example, Manawatu Evening Standard 21 August 1907 5(7) Page 143 Palmerston North City Council North West Square Heritage Area 2010 Top: The building about 1950 as Coo-ee Drycleaners From Whites Aviation Ltd., Palmerston North & District, New Zealand (Auckland, 1950), p. 2. Bottom: The former Kerslake property from the PNCC website, with this building being No. 264, and Nos. 164 and 165 the 1895 Kerslake building. Subsequent Occupants Sam Lee drops from the picture following the fire. The 1927 Wises Directory lists the tailors McAffer & McShane as occupants of the building and the 1930 Directory lists the partnership as McAffer & Dinley. These are probably Neil McAffer, retired, who died 15 June 1968 aged 85; James Johnstone McShane, tailor, who died 8 March 1980 aged 90; and Joseph Aloysius Dinley, drycleaner, who died 6 June 1954, aged 62.290 Their business became Coo-ee Drycleaners, and the Coo-ee Tailoring & Dry Cleaning Co. Ltd. was listed in the 1933 Stones Directory as being managed by Neil C. McAffer. The 1941 Manawatu phonebook listed both Neil McAffer and Coo-ee Drycleaning & Pressing Service as being at 266 Cuba Street. The firm became Coo-ee Drycleaning Ltd. in 1973, with its directors being Thomas David Pearce and Christina Mary Pearce. They moved the business to the building next door (260-262 Cuba Street) in 1977 - where the business remains. WN27/124 records the lease for three years of part of the Kerslake property to the Distributing Agency Ltd., starting 1 May 1925. The 1927 Wises Directory lists the “Distributing Co. Ltd.” as located somewhere in this building. It states that this firm was involved with Star tyres. The 1928 Directory substitutes the tyre firm for Grant & Mitchell (James B. Grant), who were commission agents, and who represented the firm Osmond & Son (NZ) Ltd., a manufacturer of animal medicine. The 1941 Manawatu phonebook, which explained the aforementioned relationship between what by then, was J.B. Grant & Co., and Osmond & Son (NZ) Ltd. The Grant/Osmond businesses left the building in the 1950s. 290 PNCC online cemetery records Page 144 Palmerston North City Council North West Square Heritage Area 2010 The Skylight coffee bar there between 1979-1984 and gave the building its fire escape out the front window. Building in Coleman Place. In 1965, the property was transferred to The Church Street Flats Company Ltd., of PN.295 The present business in the building is the C 2 C Surf Shop, which has been in the building since about 1998,291 the company, C 2 C Ltd, having been registered with the Companies Office on 12 November 1997. The shop has a Bebo website, but does not list its history on the website. It does, however, include photos of the building being repainted blue from the previous white during their time.292 Members of the Bares family purchased it in 1985. The first were Peter and Maria Bares. Then in 1991 it was transferred to Maria Bares and Alan McKenzie Larsen, a chartered accountant. In 1995 it was transmitted to Alan McKenzie Larsen as survivor, and the same year it was transferred to Alan McKenzie Larsen, John Bares, Jim Dimitri Bares and Mercina Viatos. In 2004 it was transferred to the present ownership: John Bares, Jim Dimitri Bares and Mercina Viatos. Ownership This property is still on its original CT, (WN27/124) which was issued in 1881. Thomas Tozer Kerslake died on 18 June 1932, aged 80 years, and Harriet Kerslake died on 25 May 1949, age 98.293 The property was transmitted the same year to the couple’s son Alfred Edward Kerslake, an accountant of PN, as executor, and then, again in 1949, ownership was transferred to A.E. Kerslake, Harold James Lancaster, a Levin farmer, and Frank Wakefield Verry, and Kairanga farmer, the latter two being the husbands of two of the three Kerslake daughters.294 In 1951, the property was transferred into the ownership of the property’s neighbour, McKenzie’s (PN) Ltd. Then in 1954 to R.E. Harrison & Co. Ltd., a firm that occupied a garden supplies shop in the neighbouring Union 291 Manawatu Phonebooks http://www.bebo.com/Profile.jsp?MemberId=8841772712 293 Manawatu Evening Standard, 20 June 1932 6(7), Obituary: Mr Thomas Tozer Kerslake; and 25 May 1949 11 (6), Obituary: Mrs T.T. Kerslake. The obituary says she was aged 98, while the cemetery records say she was 97. 294 Their eldest son, H.G. Kerslake, who had been chief sub-editor of the Manawatu Standard for many years, had predeceased his mother. Manawatu Evening Standard, 25 May 1949 11 (6), Obituary: Mrs T.T. Kerslake 292 Additions & Alterations Entries in PNCC Building Permit file C100/266 relate to the Skylight coffee bar from the period 1979-1984. Various development work (plumbing, drainage etc.) appears to have occurred on the Skylight between late 1978 and early 1979. Rats were a problem at the rear of the restaurant in April 1983 (due to a rusty foulwater drain and a broken gully trap), and in 1984 a permit was sought to remove an internal partition for the Skylight Restaurant. Plans in the file from 1979 indicate that the coffee bar was downstairs. However, a fire escape was also required for the upstairs area. The sketch of the front wall of the building shows its four windows, with the left hand window being designated in associated specifications to have its sashes removed and a doorframe inserted in the opening leading to an escape route over the front verandah. The various other fire escape balcony, railings, etc. were also outlined. This work appears in the PN City Library Photographic Collection photo ST114, which was taken for publication in the Manawatu Evening Standard of 17 November 1982. A photo taken about 1993 during the CBD Heritage Inventory (SQ11) also shows the fire 295 Document ‘D1’ in Research file ‘George Street-Cuba Street-Coleman Place Properties,’ land ownership data prepared by Victoria University students in 1980, in A 175/154, Ian Matheson City Archives. Page 145 Palmerston North City Council escape railings in place. However, the railings appear to now be lying on the neighbouring verandah. Former Shop on the George Street side and/or upstairs Wises 1908 Cuba St. - J.R. Graham, grocer Wises 1911 17 Cuba St. – nil Wises 1914 17 Cuba St. – Harold A. Worrall, grocer (also listed in other Kerslake building in The Square for this year.) Wises 1916-22 17 Cuba St. – nil Wises 1927 102 Cuba St. – Distribution Co. Ltd., Star Tyres (3-year lease from 1 May 1925) Stones 1928-33 266 Cuba St. – Grant & Mitchell (Jas B. Grant) commission agents, for Osmond & Son (NZ) Ltd., animal medicine manufacturers Wises 1936-39 266 Cuba St. - J.B. Grant & Co., commission agents, for Osmond & Son (NZ) Ltd., animal medicine manufacturers Wises 1944-51 264 Cuba St. - J.B. Grant & Co., commission agents, for Osmond & Son (NZ) Ltd., animal medicine manufacturers Wises 1953-54 Osmond & Son (NZ) Ltd., animal medicine manufacturers Wises 1957-60 nil Shop on Rangitikei Street side – including tailors & laundry/drycleaners Wises 1908-11 Cuba St. - Kerslake, tailor Wises 1914-16 15 Cuba St. – Kerslake & Usmar, tailors Wises 1920-22 104 Cuba St. – Samuel Lee, laundry (evidently left 1924) Wises 1925 nil (had been burnt out in 1924 when list probably compiled) Wises 1927 104 Cuba St.- McAffer & McShane, tailors Wises 1930-31 104 Cuba St.- McAffer & Dinley, tailors North West Square Heritage Area 2010 Stones 1933 Wises 1936-39 Co. Ltd. Wises 1944-60 Co. Ltd. About 1977 About 1978-1984 About 1998-now 268 Cuba St. – Cooee Tailoring & Dry Cleaning Co. Ltd. (Neil C. McAffer, manager) 268 Cuba St. - Cooee Tailoring & Dry Cleaning 266 Cuba St. - Cooee Tailoring & Dry Cleaning Cooee moved to neighbouring building 266 Cuba St. – Skylight Coffee Bar 264 Cuba St. - C 2 C Surf Shop Comments: This building combines architectural heritage with examples of the city’s ethnic heritage, and the survival story of what could have been a written off building. The combined heritage of the two buildings on this property also is of significance. The building served as a drycleaning shop for almost six decades. ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION 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, pediments over the windows and a central panel between the two pairs of windows on the above verandah part of the façade. The below verandah appears to be original with recessed ingos, large timber shopfronts and original verandah with chamfered timber posts. The entry to the first floor is from the street and the entry is slightly recessed. No floor plans are available from the PNCC archives. The exterior is cement rendered and newspaper descriptions state that it was constructed of brick. Page 146 Palmerston North City Council STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE This building has moderate local significance for historical and design values, representivity of building style and level of external authenticity. This building has high historic values in its associations with the architect, Ernest Larcomb, who 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. It is one of few buildings constructed in the central city over 100 years old. The original and later ownership and tenants reflects a moderate level of continuity in being a typical pattern of similar commercial buildings throughout the city. 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 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. North West Square Heritage Area 2010 ASSESSMENT SUMMARY Significance Proposed category PNCC District Plan Criteria 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 H H Rarity Landmark Representative Design Setting Materials Craftsmanship M M H The building’s entire street façade design has a high level of authenticity. Page 147 M M H Palmerston North City Council Cuba Street, 268-270 Mowlem Building (formerly Costas’) North West Square Heritage Area 2010 BUILDING DETAILS Building’s Address: 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: 268-270 Cuba St. 578 square metres more or les Part Section 258-259 Town of Palmerston North WN342/285 (1927) Prior CT WN316/200 (1924), WN27/123 (1881) Nil Nil Nil Nil 1928 C. Tilleard Natusch & Son Mowlem Estate Anderson & Williamson PHYSICAL AND SOCIAL HISTORY History For about fifty years this building was associated with the Para Rubber Company Ltd., while for about thirty years it housed a billiard saloon – for which the first floor was purpose-built. More recently the building has been used as various food outlets. Prior History Much of the prior history of this property is covered with the story of the other building on this property, namely the “Mowlem Buildings-1925” at 161-163 The Square. This building is on the former site of the Theatre Royal that burnt down on 22 February 1924. The c1912 photo Sq142 (taken from the clock tower of the old main Post Office) from the Photographic Collection at the PN City Page 148 Palmerston North City Council Library shows a large single gabled hall-like building on this site. It had begun as the back portion (possibly the main hall) of the Theatre Royal. In 1904, the Theatre Royal had been converted to shops, and by February 1924, the building on this site had become the Empire Auction Mart. The fire on the night of 22nd February started in the centre of the block bounded by Cuba Street and The Square, and at the back of the Empire Auction Mart building.296 By the time the fire brigade arrived (from Coleman Place), the flames from this building were described as shooting some 30 feet above the roof of what was probably a two-storied building. The building was completely destroyed. This Building The architects for the replacement of the building at The Square end of the property were H.L. Hickson & A.R. Allen, their plans being dated 14 November 1924. Hickson & Allen also designed a two-storied building of compatible style for this site as part of the 1924-25 project. However, it is crossed out on the blueprints. The discarded plan shows the first floor as being as well lit as the present one in terms of windows, skylights, etc., and so it may also have been intended as a billiard room. While we can only speculate as to why the Hickson & Allen building was not proceeded with, it is noteworthy that Fred Mowlem died on 22 November 1925 – before the building in The Square was complete.297 The architectural firm C. Tilleard Natusch & Sons was appointed by the Mowlem Estate to design this building, and its blueprints are dated November 1927. Its building permit (No. 299) was issued on 25 January 1928 and the cost of the new building was £3,300. The builders were Anderson & Williamson, who the following year built the Elgin Buildings on 296 The Empire Auctioneering Company and its premises, the Empire Auction Mart, are outlined in the history of 260-262 Cuba Street - the building that firm moved to after the 1924 fire. 297 Manawatu Evening Standard 23 November 1925 7(2) North West Square Heritage Area 2010 the corner of Cuba and Bourke Streets, and which is also covered in this study. The 1927-28 Rate book records the £3,300 increase in value to the property for “shops in Cuba Street.” It also shows two sets of alterations apparently involving the 1925 building, which totalled £244.298 The plans show the ground floor as a large open room with a concrete floor. There were doors permitting pedestrian access on the left side of the building - one leading upstairs and one giving access to the ground floor room. The right side of the room had a pair of what were described on the plans as “collapsible” (folding) doors. These created a 12 feet wide opening through which to admit goods. This space is now the frontage of the Hawaiian Takeaways shop. The first floor was a purpose-built billiard room that could accommodate six billiard tables. This room had a concrete floor and three large skylights – one above each pair of billiard tables. The room also had six sets of three electric lights, which were to suspend over the six billiard tables. The room also had an office and kitchen. There was also a narrow ground floor passageway leading in the direction of The Square end of the building between the building’s outer wall on the western side, and the western side of the large ground floor room. This is described as a fire egress passage in 1983 plans of the building during the Hawaiian Takeaways conversion. The 1927 plans also show the words “Mowlem Building” written across the upper front of the building.299 Owners Fred Mowlem’s involvement with this property began when he and James Linton bought it in partnership in 1890. It was next transferred to James 298 1922-1935 Building Permit Register, Vol. 3, PNCC 4/13/1; Hickson & Allen plans 14 November 1924, and Natusch November 1927 plans 530/196-198, PNCC 4/13/6, PNCC Rate Books between 1927 and 1935. Ian Matheson City Archives, PN City Library. Note also that the Heritage Trails booklet ‘Undercover Art Deco Palmerston North’, erroneously dated this building as built “around 1934”. 299 PNCC 4/13/6, Plan 530/196-198, Ian Matheson City Archives, PN City Library Page 149 Palmerston North City Council Linton alone in early 1895, and then back to the previous partnership a few months later. Then in 1897, when James Linton moved to Sydney, his share was transferred to Fred’s brother James Mowlem – and this was the ownership in place at the time of the 1924 fire. Later in 1924 (the resulting CT WN 316/200 is dated 12 September 1924) the property was transferred to Fred Mowlem alone. However, Fred did not live to see even the first of his new buildings completed. After a long and very significant contribution to the business and local body political development of Palmerston North, he died on 22 November 1925, aged 79. His wife Mary Emma Mowlem then died on 26 August 1926 aged 76. She had still owned the nearby Arcade building at 19-21 Coleman Place at the time of her death. In 1926, this property was transmitted to Arthur Maxwell Mowlem, stipendiary magistrate of New Plymouth; Clifton Leslie Mowlem, land agent of PN; and Josiah Batchelor, farmer of Linton, as executors of Fred Mowlem’s estate. The current CT (WN342/285) was first issued to them in 1927. These were the people in charge of the property at the time the Mowlem estate had the Cuba Street building erected in 1928 – and so they chose its architect and approved its design. Thereafter, this building was owned by various members of the Mowlem and Batchelor families and their descendents, and others in partnerships with them, until 1967, when it was sold to Bares Buildings Ltd. In 1981 it was transferred to the present ownership of John Bares, Irene Bares and Jim Demetre Bares owning one half share, and Jim Demetre Bares, Stella Bares and Peter James Bares owning the other half share.300 North West Square Heritage Area 2010 Street Address Confusions The compilers of the Wises Directories in the 1920s and early 1930s faced difficulties when recording the occupancy of this building. This possibly resulted from the street number (No. 106) seemingly having been reallocated (by the Directories at least) to the next building along on the Rangitikei Street side after the 1924 fire. This was no problem during the four years where there was no building on this site. However, when this building was erected, there was no number available for it until the next renumbering of Cuba Street in the early 1930s. Note that Cuba Street was renumbered quite regularly then, as its numbering starts at the western end. This meant that every time the street was extended for a new housing subdivision, all the previously existing properties in the street needed to be renumbered. This dilemma is apparent with all the Cuba Street buildings covered in this study. Another confusion that appears in the Directories is that they give the appearance that there were billiard rooms at both ends of this property. In reality it was almost certainly just one billiard room that had two street addresses. This again may have been influenced by the aforementioned street numbering problem in Cuba Street. Adding to the confusion, one of the earliest tenants of this building (possibly the original ground floor tenant), the Premier Tyre & Vulcanising Co. Ltd., was the neighbour of this building at the time of the fire. However, by 1931, the tyre dealership was certainly a tenant in this building. Its address was 106 Cuba Street in both the 1925 and 1927 Wises Directories when it was in the neighbouring building, and still was in the 1931 Directory when it was in this building. The billiard room had the street address 106a Cuba Street in that Directory. 300 Sources: Certificates of Title and the 1980 Land Ownership study of this property by Victoria University students, as part of their work on properties in this block – Research File George Street – Cuba Street – Coleman Place A175/154, Ian Matheson City Archives, PN City Library. The Premier Tyre & Vulcanising Co. Ltd. Page 150 Palmerston North City Council North West Square Heritage Area 2010 At the time of the 1924 fire, the Premier Tyre & Vulcanising Co. Ltd.301 was the immediate neighbour on the eastern side of the Empire Auction Mart. As a precaution, all its tyres and rubber goods had been quickly removed to safety. However, the building the firm then occupied was unharmed.302 The 1930 Wises Directory lists the firm (as Henry J. Turner’s tyre dealership) as being at 106 Cuba Street – however, it is not clear which of the adjoining buildings it then occupied. The firm clearly had moved by the 1931 Wises Directory, however. Henry J. Turner was still proprietor of the tyre dealership when the 1933 Wises Directory was compiled. However, A.J. Thompson was proprietor of what was again listed as the Premier Vulcanising Works by the time the Stones Directory was printed in November 1933. The relationship between this firm and the Para Rubber Co. Ltd. was not researched, although there very likely was one. The Para Rubber Company The Para Rubber Co. Ltd. started its Palmerston North business in about 1918 and then moved to Rangitikei Street in 1920. The shop moved to at least one of the buildings on this property – and probably both - in about 1934, with this building serving as its repair depot. This company’s story is covered with the history of the “Mowlem Buildings–1925” at 161-163 The Square. In 1983, the Para Rubber Company relocated to the former Salvation Citadel in Broadway (now the Barris shop) that was more than twice the size of this one. By that time it had been one of 30 Para Rubber Company branches throughout New Zealand.303 301 This shop might have been connected to the Premier Tyre and General Vulcanizing Company Ltd. for which material is held at Archives New Zealand, Wellington. Ref: CO-W, W3445, 263*, 1923/8. This was not sighted for this study. 302 Manawatu Daily Times 23 February 1924 7(4-6) 303 Manawatu Evening Standard 1 September 1983, p. 17 ‘New Para almost ready to bounce into action’; 21 September 1983, p. 13 ‘Firm’s founder went from rags to riches’; 21 September 1983, p. 12 ‘Leisure display a feature’. See also: G.W. The building in about 1950 as the Para Rubber Company’s repair department. Note the blinds in the billiard room windows. The skylights are not evident in the modern Geo-Guide photo of the building. Photo from the Whites Aviation Ltd. publication Palmerston North & District, New Zealand (Auckland, 1950), p. 2. John G. Fitzgerald’s Billiard Saloon The first floor of this building was a purpose-built billiard room, and the Wises Directory lists this business between 1930-1960, although it did not necessarily start or close at those times. In addition to having two addresses in the Directories, there was some confusion in the 1930-1933 Wises Directories as to the name of the proprietor of the billiard saloon at its various addresses. Sometimes he is given as “J.D. Fitzgerald”, and other times he is “Jno G. Fitzgerald” (‘Jno’ being the abbreviation of ‘John’ in the Directories). However, “J.D. Fitzgerald” appears to be an error, as no-one with those initials was Crozier, If its made of Rubber: Para 75 Years, 1910-1985 (Para Rubber Co. Ltd., 1985) Page 151 Palmerston North City Council located in other sources around that time. The proprietor was almost certainly always John Garet Fitzgerald - the compilers of the Directories not having local knowledge and building plans to fall back on. The 1931 Palmerston North Electoral Roll lists John Garet Fitzgerald, billiard parlour proprietor, of 16 Rangitikei Street. By the 1938 Roll he has married Alice Elizabeth and is living at 95 Featherston Street. The 1936 Stones Directory lists his billiard saloon as having addresses at 274 Cuba Street and 124 The Square. He had another second billiard saloon at 87 Devon Street East in New Plymouth. The 1940 Stones Directory also lists his businesses, although the street numbers had been changed to 276, 113 and 73a Devon Street West respectively. No telephone number for the billiard saloon was located in pre-1960s phonebooks, although the Fitzgeralds’ home was listed. The PNCC cemetery records list John Fitzgerald, billiard room proprietor, who died aged 88 on 28 May 1973. His headstone, in the Returned Servicemen’s section of the Kelvin Grove Cemetery, indicates that he served as a private in the Otago Regiment during the First World War. A pair of photos (ST114) from the PN City Library collection, which are dated c17 November 1982, show this building with semi-legible writing on the upper façade. This might be a word like ‘Bella’s’, however, no such title appears in the relevant phonebooks. The sign might also have been left over from the billiard saloon days. Since that time, the first floor appears to have been used for at least two decades as a restaurant - Manelito’s around 1985, and then Costa’s between about 1987 and about 2006.304 However, it appears to now be unoccupied, with chairs visible stacked against the windows. 304 North West Square Heritage Area 2010 Hawaiian Café & Hawaiian Takeaways C100/278 includes plans and alterations in 1983 for Pmuong Lam to fit out a takeaway bar in the old Para Rubber building in Cuba Street. This was to be named the ‘Hawaiian Restaurant & Takeaway’. It was also potentially to be joined in future with the Hatter’s Restaurant, then at 196 The Square – which is the 1925 Mowlem Building. A permit was requested for further alterations in 1987. The Hawaiian Café & Hawaiian Takeaways is still present. Downstairs Wises 1929 106 Cuba St. – Premier Tire & Vulcanising Co. Ltd. (?) Wises 1930 106 Cuba St. – Henry J. Turner, tyre dealer; Wises 1931-33 106 (& 270) Cuba St. - Henry J. Turner, tyre dealer Stones 1933 270-272 Cuba St. – Premier Vulcanising Works, A.J. Thompson, proprietor 1934 Para Rubber Co. Ltd. moves into building in Square backing onto this one. Wises 1936-60 270 Cuba St. – Para Rubber Co. Ltd.’s repair depot. 1983 Para Rubber Co. Ltd moved elsewhere 1983-now 274 Cuba St. - Hawaiian Café & Hawaiian Takeaways Upstairs Wises 1930 124 Square John G. Fitzgerald, billiard saloon Wises 1931 106a Cuba St (as ‘J.G.’)/124 Square – as ‘J.D.’ Fitzgerald, billiard saloon Wises 1933 274 Cuba St/124 Square – J.D. Fitzgerald, billiard saloon 1933-36 274 Cuba St. – John G. Fitzgerald, billiard saloon (Stones & Wises) Wises 1939 274 Cuba St/124 Square - John G. Fitzgerald, billiard saloon Manawatu phonebook entries Page 152 Palmerston North City Council Wises 1944-60 billiard saloon 1985 phonebook 1987-2006 phonebook 2010 276 Cuba St/113 Square – John G. Fitzgerald, 282 Cuba St. – Manelito’s of Mexico Restaurant 282 Cuba St. - Costa’s Restaurant unknown North West Square Heritage Area 2010 The original and later ownership and tenants reflects moderate level of continuity as a typical pattern of similar commercial buildings throughout the city. The building has high design values as a rare representative example of the Spanish Mission style, pointing to the predominant style to be used after the Napier earthquake, with Natusch’s firm designing a number in the city following the disaster. ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION The building is designed in the Spanish Mission style, which was to become the most common style in Hawkes Bay following the 1931 earthquake. The street façade is simple, but follows the general characteristic stepped parapet with parallel semi-circular headed windows and with continuous sill moulding above the verandah. 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. The below verandah has been modified from the original. The exterior of the building has moderate levels of authenticity. The plan is described above. The exterior is cement rendered. STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE This building has high local significance for historical and design values, rand representivity of building style and type. This building has high historic values for its uses, particularly as a billiard saloon. This was one of at least five in this block over the years, and is one of two of these that are known to have been purpose-built. The other is the nearby former Cosmopolitan Club building, which is also covered in this study. The building also has high emotional values as an example of the male-orientated culture of billiard saloons in their day. The building has high historic values as it’s architect was, C T Natusch whose practice was one of the most significant of the first half of the 20th century in New Zealand. Page 153 Palmerston North City Council North West Square Heritage Area 2010 ASSESSMENT SUMMARY Significance Proposed category PNCC District Plan Criteria 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 H M H M H H Page 154 Palmerston North City Council Cuba Street, 284-286 UFS Chambers (formerly Urgent Medicine Dispensary) North West Square Heritage Area 2010 BUILDING DETAILS Building’s Address: 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: 284-286 Cuba Street 466 square metres more or less Lot 2 and 4 DP 6285 WN304/270 (1923), prior CT WN133/184 (1904) Nil Nil Nil Nil 1961 William Thorrold-Jaggard United Friendly Societies’ Dispensary Wood & Robson PHYSICAL AND SOCIAL HISTORY History The U.F.S. (United Friendly Societies) Chambers is the youngest of the buildings covered in this study. The reason for its inclusion is in part its relationship to the UFSD building at the other end of the same property facing The Square. Much of the general history of the property and the United Friendly Societies’ Dispensary is covered with the study of that building. However, the building does have historical significance in its own right. This was possibly Palmerston North’s first purpose-built urgent pharmacy. Large numbers of older Palmerstonians would be able testify as to its value to them or their loved ones for over two decades, during some time of medical emergency. The Urgent Pharmacy, as it became known, was the only means by which they could procure medicine at times when all Page 155 Palmerston North City Council other means of doing so were closed for the night or even for the entire weekend. Prior History Information in PNCC Building Permit file C100/294-296 covering this building, states that broken brick and concrete from the previous building was used to fill in a cellar that still existed from that earlier building. A photo in the 1950 booklet Palmerston North & District, New Zealand, shows that building to have been a relatively small and fairly plain whitepainted two-storied building.305 Possibly an early tenant in that building was the printer firm of Thomas Lindsay Buick and Henry Llewellyn Young, who leased premises on this property for a five year term in 1901. This firm subsequently became H.L. Young Ltd., and that once well-known Broadway business seems to have remained a tenant in this location in Cuba Street until about the time UFSD bought the property. The Directories available for this study end in 1960, and the tenants identified with the former building over a long period of time were the Lamerton family. For example, the 1933 Stones Directory lists two shops in this location, one being Mrs Ruth Lamerton’s ladies outfitter, and the other (E.W. & J.W.) Lamerton & Son’s grocery shop. Lamerton’s grocery shop disappeared between 1939 and 1944, while Ruth Lamerton’s shop on the Rangitikei Street side of the building and for many years described as a drapery shop - was still listed in the 1959-60 Wises Directory. The other shop was occupied by Quinn’s Stores Ltd. by 1944, and later by the firm British Typewriter (Manawatu) Ltd. The Owners CT WN133/184 reveals that the trustees of the United Friendly Societies’ Dispensary bought this property in 1923. An earlier owner was James Carroll, proprietor of the Clarendon Hotel. He died in 1905 and the 305 The booklet Palmerston North & District, New Zealand was published in 1950 by Whites Aviation., p. 2. North West Square Heritage Area 2010 property passed to the Public Trustee, which duly transferred the property in 1907 to Mary Jane Sutherland, wife of Arthur Sutherland. She subdivided the property into four Lots, and in 1923 she sold Lots 1 and 3 to the owners of the drapery firm Garner Bros., who had leased a shop at the Cuba Street end of that property since 1906.306 She then sold Lots 2 and 4 to the UFSD. This building is on Lot 4, while the UFSD building fronting The Square, is on Lot 2. The UFSD owned the property until 2002, when it was sold to the present owners, Simon Francis and Catherine Russ. This Building William Thorrold-Jaggard’s plans for this building are dated 20 March 1961.307 The building permit, No. 1421, was then issued to erect this building on 31 July 1961 – the builders being Wood & Robson, and the cost £17,600. The building contained two shops downstairs and two flats upstairs. The flat on the left is the larger of the two, due to the stairs reducing available space for the right-side flat. A ground floor passage also runs the length of the building on the right side of the shops. The PN City Library’s Photographic Collection contains Photo BC375 of this building, and dating to soon after its construction. It is from the architect’s own collection and no signage is evident, other than the title “U.F.S. Chambers’ on the upper façade.308 The Urgent Medicine Dispensary The purpose of the Urgent Medicine Dispensary (later known as the Urgent Pharmacy) was to provide an after-hours emergency service as a filler of medical prescriptions and other medical needs. This was especially necessary in the days before shops were generally open at weekends, 306 I.R. Matheson, ‘The Birth of Palmerston North’, Evening Standard Supplement, 13 March 1971, inside front cover. 307 Note that the founder of the Thorrold-Jaggard architectural firm, Reginald Thorrold-Jaggard, had died on 18 March 1960 308 Acc. No. 1572, Thorrold-Jaggard Collection, Ian Matheson City Archives, PN City Library. Page 156 Palmerston North City Council and its evening opening hours reflected the city’s late night shopping practices of their time. For example, it was always closed on Friday nights as the central city shops routinely stayed open until 9:00pm then, meaning other chemist shops were available at such times. When Thursday late night shopping became routine (such as at Terrace End), the Urgent Medical Dispensary stopped opening that night of the week as well – leaving the task of supplying urgent medicines to the Terrace End chemist shops. Nowadays, such ‘after-hours’ pharmacies tend to be associated with afterhours’ medical centres, such as the one alongside City Doctors in Victoria Avenue. Possibly the Urgent Medicine Dispensary’s key staff were also drawn from the other pharmacies around the city on a roster system. While the full history of this business has not been researched, the 1941 phonebook lists the Urgent Medicine Dispensary as being located in the Regent Arcade. Its manager at the time was Edward Simpson. The 1936 Wises Directory indicates that the dispensary was at the western side of the Regent Arcade, close to King Street. Its whereabouts was not traced before or after those dates, until about 1950. The 1951-1961 phonebooks list the Urgent Medicine Dispensary as occupying a shop at 271 Cuba Street. This Dispensary was located in an old block of shops alongside the Oroua Building and on land until recently occupied by The Warehouse – and thus more or less opposite this building. The dispensary was first listed at 294 Cuba Street (i.e., this building) in the 1962 phonebook. However, while Edward Simpson had been listed as manager through until the 1961 phonebook, he was gone by 1962. Described as a chemist of 120 Cuba Street in the PNCC cemetery records, he died on 29 July 1976, aged 77. Simpson had also been manager of the United Friendly Societies’ Dispensary at The Square end of this property in the 1950s.309 North West Square Heritage Area 2010 The 1973 phonebook gives the hours the dispensary was then open. These were Monday to Thursday: 6:30pm to 9:30pm; Saturdays and public holidays: 10:00am to Noon, 2:00pm to 4:00pm, and 6:30pm to 9:30pm; and Sundays: 10:00am to Noon, and 6:30pm to 9:00pm. At that time it was only closed on Friday nights. The story of this building was not without incident, for example, in 18 July 1981, the Manawatu Evening Standard recorded that: Palmerston North detectives are investigating a blaze which badly damaged a flat above the Urgent Pharmacy in Cuba Street early today. The city fire brigade was called to the fire at 4:26am, and had the blaze under control in a few minutes. Two machines and a turntable ladder turned out. Police believe it may have started in a wardrobe, and because the flat was unoccupied, are trying to find out what caused it. Two (sic) other flats above the chemist shop suffered smoke and water damage, but concrete walls slowed down the spread of the fire so there was no danger to the occupants. Today they had apparently moved out as firemen mopped up and detectives and fire safety officers poked through the sodden residue of the fire. Because of water damage to stock and floor, the Urgent Pharmacy moved to Glen Caves Pharmacy on Broadway for the day. Water flooded the pharmacy and a hairdressing salon next door through the ceiling. The Urgent Pharmacy was expected to be cleaned up in time for resumption of normal business tomorrow.310 310 309 UFSD and UMD entries in the 1951-1961 phonebooks. Manawatu Evening Standard 18 July 1981, p. 1. Three days later the newspaper reported (22/7/1981, p. 1) that overnight someone had put glue in the keyholes of about forty shops in Broadway, Rangitikei, Cuba and Main Streets, and The Square – including to Glen Caves Pharmacy. Page 157 Palmerston North City Council North West Square Heritage Area 2010 Despite the apparent ease at which life was expected go on after the fire, possibly the task was larger than initially believed – and certainly it took a while to complete. For example, a building permit was applied for to erect a roof only at the UFS pharmacy on 1 September 1981, about six weeks after the fire.311 The fire reinstatement plans, drawn up by Gillman Partners, are dated 7 October 1981, and these revolve around the refurbishment of the two flats, with various new kitchen, laundry and bathroom fittings being installed. Permit No. 5136 was then issued on 9 November 1981 for the reinstatement plan.312 Perhaps as a delayed part of the job, a permit was also applied for on 24 September 1982 to repair the verandah roof.313 The tenant in the other shop at the time of the fire, Salon Cynthia, possibly also briefly moved to a shop across the road, as in the 1982 phonebook its address was 285 Cuba Street, whereas its normal street number was an even number. The last phonebook in which the Urgent Medicine Dispensary was listed as being at this address, was 1982. The following year, it was listed as being in Terrace End, on the corner of Main and Ruahine Streets, a shop previously occupied by the John Cromie Pharmacy. The Sugar Plum Fairy Shop now occupies that old pharmacy. Shop closest to George Street (now 284 Cuba St.) About 1961-1981 (or ‘82) 294 Cuba St. Dispensary Now 284 Cuba St. - Nuddy Urgent 1967 or 1969-1989 294 (298 from 1983) Cuba St. – Salon Cynthia314 1990-1991 phonebooks 298 Cuba St. – Headline Hairdressers 2008-Now 298 (s/be 286) Cuba St. - Ken’s Kitchen Upstairs (now 284A Cuba St.) Unknown Comments: The U.F.S. Chambers was built as a special purpose pharmacy for a time before weekend shopping, and to accommodate the needs of the city and district to have medical prescriptions filled out outside the normal trading hours of the time. Having a ‘captive’ customer base, it had no need to target foot traffic, and probably being in a central location just outside the main shopping area, was also an advantage in terms of customer access in its day. How the location of its replacement at Terrace End might have fared in terms of convenience to its customers has not been researched – although clearly that site was much closer to the hospital where the afterhours prescriptions might have been issued. Medicine Shop closest to Rangitikei Street (now 286 Cuba St.) 311 PNCC Building Permit file C100/294-296 PNCC Building Permit file T25/186-187. Note that this is the file of the main UFSD building in The Square – which backs onto this building. 313 PNCC Building Permit file C100/294-296 312 314 Salon Cynthia applied for sanitary plumbing and drainage on 21 October of either 1967 or 1969 (the year is semi-legible). PNCC Building Permit file C100/294296. Last in 1989 phonebook Page 158 Palmerston North City Council North West Square Heritage Area 2010 STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE This building has moderate local significance for historical and design values, representivity of building style and level of external authenticity. This building has moderate historic values in its association with the United Friendly Society Dispensary, a mutual aid society first established in England, for which the building was constructed. The building has moderate historic values in its association with its architect, W Thorrald-Jaggard worked with his father, whose practice was the most prolific and well-known of the architects practising in Palmerston North on the latter half of the twentieth century. The building has moderate design values as a representative example of the Inter- War Modern Movement Functionalist style. Group in Cuba Street ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION The building is designed in the Modern Movement Functionalist style with simple rectangular forms and a single band of windows. The symmetry of the building and the original style have similarities to Classical architecture with implied cornice and pilasters either side of the band of windows. 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 original and later ownership and tenants reflects a moderate level of continuity as a typical pattern of similar commercial buildings throughout the city. The exterior of the building has moderate levels of authenticity. A faded copy of drawings from 1971 show the ground floor plan as having two shops on the ground floor with a corridor on one side leading to the rear. This gave service access to the building at the rear of the UFS building, which faced The Square. A 1981 plans shows the first floor as two one bed roomed flats with living rooms at the street front of the building and bedrooms at the rear with a bathrooms, kitchen and dining in the centre of the building. None of the drawings shows the construction of the building Page 159 Palmerston North City Council North West Square Heritage Area 2010 ASSESSMENT SUMMARY Significance Proposed category PNCC District Plan Criteria 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 Rarity Landmark Representative Design Setting Materials Craftsmanship M M H M H Page 160 Palmerston North City Council George Street, 5-7, Cuba Street 236 Former RSA Building North West Square Heritage Area 2010 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: 306 square metres more or less Lot 1 DP 76945 WN44A/81 (1994). prior CTs: WN43A/714 (1993), WN250/69 (1917), WN18/296, WN23/105 (1881). Category II315 1269 Category II 43 1917 Ludolph Georg West Anzac Club & Manawatu Patriotic Society Rolfe & Dickel PHYSICAL AND SOCIAL HISTORY History It is many years since this building ceased its role as the R.S.A clubrooms, however, the home front wartime heritage it represents maintains its historical significance. The online index of the Manawatu Evening Standard under the search word “Anzac Club”316 brings up dozens of entries for fundraising activities throughout the First World War. The building undoubtedly gave an outlet to a wide range of people wishing to contribute to the support of “our boys” in such a time of international trauma. 315 316 PNCC Schedule of Buildings and Objects of Cultural Heritage Value This index is found on the website of the PN City Library Page 161 Palmerston North City Council Prior History CT WN18/296, one of the two pre-1917 CT’s associated with this property, was not sighted during this study. However, the 1914 Wises’ Directory lists the occupant of the site then as William Thomas Baston’s cycle depot. Next door in the relocated old pre-1910 fire station, was the Palmerston Men’s Social Club and the Palmerston Museum. By the 1916 Directory, Baston had gone. However, the Museum and the Social Club were still present in 1925, along with this building. In July 1916, Percy A. McHardy, a wealthy local farmer, donated this section on the corner of Cuba and George Streets to the Patriotic Society and Anzac Committee, and “the property eventually being disposed of by art union in aid of the club. This proved highly successful, and after accounts had been adjusted it was ascertained that the funds were sufficient to put the construction under way, the committee wisely arranging for the retention of the property as a site for the club.”317 The property was then issued with CT 250/69 to the Manawatu Patriotic Society Incorporated, under ‘The War Funds Act 1915’. The Building Plans began in 1916 to build a facility for returning troops who might be based in the military camp then at Awapuni, or who were passing through Palmerston North. Prior to its construction these troops had used a temporary facility at the Opera House. The original plans were for a four-storey building with three large shops on the ground floor. The first floor was to contain a social room, a parcel room, and a club office. The second floor was planned to have a reading room, a billiard room, two writing rooms and a smoking room, while the top floor was to have a sitting room, a kitchen, dining room, a number of sleeping dormitories, two bathrooms and lavatories, and a caretaker’s bedroom. Provision had also been made for a roof garden.318 However, 317 318 Manawatu Evening Standard 19 November 1917 5(2) Manawatu Evening Standard 18 October 1916 5(1) North West Square Heritage Area 2010 there was public concern at this ambitious scheme, with the editor of the Manawatu Evening Standard commenting that perhaps something more utilitarian might be preferable, given the number of men coming home injured – or not at all.319 There was also a concern that “a club of the kind it was proposed to build in Palmerston would encourage men to hang about and live on the conveniences at their disposal.”320 As a result of such views, the building was reduced to two floors, consisting mainly of social rooms. The amended plan eliminated the ground floor shops and substituted various social rooms.321 Tenders were duly called for on 19 December 1916, and the successful tenderers were Messrs Rolfe & Dickel, at a cost of £5,980 in reinforced concrete, or £6,170 in steel. The £5,980 tender was accepted. The foundation stone was ceremonially laid on 28 February 1917, and the building was described then as going to be “the most elaborate of its kind in New Zealand.” 322 A permit to erect a hoarding relating to the job was issued to Rolfe & Dickel on 29 January 1917. The permit to erect the building was then granted on 19 February 1917.323 Harry Dickel, in his latter working years, was the builder in the partnership with bricklayer R.E. Kempson that built the Brick & Pipes Ltd. office block in Featherston Street. Dickel’s father (or possibly grandfather) had been one of the town’s first builders.324 319 Manawatu Evening Standard 18 October 1916 4(6) Manawatu Evening Standard 25 October 1916 2(3-4) 321 Manawatu Evening Standard 11 November 1916 7(4) 322 Manawatu Evening Standard 19 December 1916 8(7), 20 January 1917 5(1), 1 March 1917 7(4) 323 Building Permit Register, Vol. 1, PNCC Series 4/13/1, Ian Matheson City Archives, PN City Library (Building Permit No’s 2473 and 2485) 324 See also Manawatu Evening Standard, 2/9/1910 1(1) & obituary 3/9/1910 5(1); and Jim Lundy, Nine Thousand Bricks a Day: The Hoffman Kiln and the Brickworks of Palmerston North (Palmerston North, 2005), pp. 49, 50, 72 320 Page 162 Palmerston North City Council The Manawatu Evening Standard of 19 November 1917 published a description of the building, which was then receiving its final touches and about two weeks from occupancy: The building, which has a frontage of 50 feet on Cuba Street and 46 on George Street, has a substantial well-built appearance, and is a welcome addition to that quarter of town. The front elevation shows a design in fine Doric colonnade of the double order, finished off with a roofing in French tiles. The walls are of brick and the construction fireproof throughout. The main entrance is on George Street, where an eight-foot hallway reaches all the rooms of the ground floor. On the left is the billiard room, 33ft. by 33ft., which will accommodate two tables, and when required may be heated by means of radiators. The walls are 12ft., giving a lofty, airy appearance, whilst the ceilings are nicely relieved with wood panelling. The other rooms on this floor are the reading room 38ft. by 15ft., writing room 24ft. by 18ft., office 20ft by 10ft, and parcels room 10ft. by 10ft. In addition there are lavatories etc., and in the basement the boilers are located for supplying the hot water service and other heating arrangements. A concrete stairway leads from the hall to the first floor, where the principal apartment is the social hall. This measures 48ft by 38ft and is thoroughly up to date with its appointments, being provided with a wood sprung floor over the concrete floor for dancing purposes, and there are ample lighting and heating arrangements. The ceiling has been tastefully finished off with a pretty steel design, and altogether the hall has a roomy and handsome appearance. From the hall, entrance may be gained to the 12ft balcony, which extends round both fronts of the building, 70ft. of which is enclosed, and may be used as a lounge or antirooms. Convenient to the hall are the kitchen and refreshment counters, the former measuring 19ft by 12ft. This department has been equipped with the latest labour-saving devices for the quick and economical preparation of meals and refreshments, and the patent decolite flooring is an innovation that will be appreciated by those whose labours lay in this quarter. There is generous provision North West Square Heritage Area 2010 for ladies’ cloak room, bathrooms and lavatories, the general appointments being up to date in all respects. The building will be lighted by gas, but a wiring system has also been put through the structure for an electric installation at any future time. The foundations and walls have been substantially constructed, and will support another two stories should this be desired, while portions of the walls may be removed and shop fronts put in, which was the idea in the first design. Altogether the club appears to be excellently built and adapted for the purpose for which it was constructed, and there is no doubt it will fulfil a useful mission in the community. The cost of the building was £6,500, and the upkeep has been largely provided for by the income from the balance of the funds in hand. Among the contractors were Messrs A. Clark & Co, who carried out the painting, while Messrs L.G. West & Son designed the building and superintended its construction.325 PNCC Building Permit file G 5/1-9 records that in 1945, alterations to the building were made for the Manawatu Patriotic Society to the value of £481. Specifications by Ernst V. West, of the firm L.G. West & Son, dated November 1945, indicate that this work involved the removal of a brick partition in the existing library and wireless room, so as to allow for the enlargement of the billiard room. It also involved closing the bays at each end of the balcony (i.e. there had been two bays left open, one facing each street), so as to provide a reading room and card room. Also a brick partition and a basement were to form a store. A fire escape was to be constructed to seven feet from the footpath. Furthermore the work was to be done with as little inconvenience as possible to club activities, while any rubbish was to be cleared up daily. 325 Manawatu Evening Standard 19 November1917 5(2) Page 163 Palmerston North City Council The Returned Services Association The R.S.A. is understood to have used the building until its sale to Anchor Holdings in 1970. The RSA then moved to the former Manawatu Daily Times building in Broadway Avenue – a building that has only recently been sold. Subsequent Owners. CT WN250/69 records the lease of part of the property (Lot 1) to Mathewsons Ltd. for a term of 5 years from 12 May 1930. It then records the transfer of the property in 1970 to Anchor Holdings Ltd., and then to the PN City Council in 1974. A new CT (WN43A/714) was then issued in 1993, and this was duly replaced by the present CT (WN44A/81) in 1994. The property was transferred to Major Cole Enterprises Ltd. in 1995, and then to No. 1 George Street Ltd. in 2004, before being transferred to the present owners, Richard Peter Alach and Alice Marrie Van Den Hout in 2007. North West Square Heritage Area 2010 N. Potter was in this location in the 1936-39 Wises Directories. Frank Jones was listed as hairdressing in this location in the 1944-60 Wises Directories. Meanwhile the 1950-54 Directories indicate that Wilson’s’ Furnishers may have been operating from the corner shop. Photo: Whites Aviation Ltd., Palmerston North & District, New Zealand (Auckland, 1950), p. 2 Additions & Alterations In 1970, the Four Acres Restaurant applied for a permit for plumbing and drainage work. In 1994, a permit was applied for by Major Cole Enterprises to remove a partition between the corner shop and the shop on the Cuba Street frontage, in order to enlarge the café. The work was valued at $1,000. In 1995, the George Street shop was fitted up as a hairdressing salon. An array of other internal alterations to such things as toilets, bathrooms, a shop entrance, etc., have also occurred since the mid-1990s. The Building Permit file C100/248-250 also covers this building’s Cuba Street perspective. This refers to the installation of a dishwasher and the relocation of a basin for the Prince Tandoorj Indian Cuisine restaurant, at 248 Cuba Street, in 1993, and this work apparently being signed off in 1995. The restaurant, however, is only listed in the 1994 phonebook. Current Occupants The corner shop, 236 Cuba Street, is now occupied by Café Cuba, while the shop at 7 George Street is now occupied by Yoo’s Hair Sketch. The first floor occupancy is unknown. Comments: Additional research is required in relation to the RSA’s occupancy of and its departure from this building, and on the subsequent registration of this building on 2 July 1982 by the NZ Historic Places Trust. The RSA Building about 1950. The photo shows what appears to be striped barber’s shop poles on the Cuba Street left frontage. This indicates the shop that in 1994 was incorporated into the café, now Café Cuba. A hairdresser named William ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION The style of the building owes much to the new world Regency and later Georgian styles, as seen in Australia, India, and Singapore. It is Page 164 Palmerston North City Council characterised by simple hipped roofs, flat dormer windows below the roofline, and colonnaded verandahs. As with examples of this style of architecture in other countries, living areas were often created from the upper level verandah with the colonnade providing shelter over the footpath. The ground floor plan allows for separate retail tenancies, with the main social spaces of the building located on the upper floor via a generous stair and entrance off the south elevation. A 1994 plan of the ground floor shows two shops with angled ingos on George Street either side of the entry giving access to the first floor. The corner shop is recessed from the street and has a diagonal wall separating it from the shop on Cuba Street. Toilets are located opposite the corner shop behind the stairs to the first floor. There are no plans available for the first floor. Visible construction is timber framing and joinery with corrugated steel roofing, and cast iron posts. STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE This building has high regional significance for historical and design values, representivity of building style and level of external authenticity. This building has high historic and emotional values as a notable expression of community concern for the well–being of returning World War I troops. Rehabilitation of returned soldiers was a consuming matter for the country following the First World War and this building is a conspicuous consequence of that. The building has moderate historical values in its association with the architect L G West, 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), and the Church of Christ. Scientist (1931) and Ward Brothers Building (1935). Ernst was a borough Councillor 1921–25. North West Square Heritage Area 2010 The building has high design values as an outstanding example of a rare Regency style of building in New Zealand with contributes to the building a landmark in the George and Cuba Street streetscape. The building is 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. The building’s street façade design has a high level of authenticity. ASSESSMENT SUMMARY Significance Existing category PNCC District Plan Criteria 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 H H Authenticity M H Rarity Landmark Representative Design Setting Materials Craftsmanship H H Page 165 H H H H Palmerston North City Council George Street, 34-40 Andrews Building North West Square Heritage Area 2010 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: 304 square metres more or less Lot 9 DP 27 WN46B/489 (1995); prior CT: WN26/135(1881) Nil Nil Nil 154 1929 O.A. Jorgenson Samuel Andrews (Efstratios Andreanatos) Mouldy & Holmes PHYSICAL AND SOCIAL HISTORY History This building consists of four small shops and three flats upstairs, two with single bedrooms, and one with two bedrooms. Its unique feature becomes apparent when the family that built it becomes known – its façade recreating the appearance of the buildings of ancient Greece for more reasons than just fashion. Prior History CT WN26/135 was issued to George Matthew Snelson in 1881, before passing to William Akers, a local sheepfarmer in 1889. He sold it to John Robert Tripe, a local dentist, in 1892. He died in 1899, and the property was transmitted in 1900 to his widow, Harriette Mary Tripe, and William Archibald Dampier Tripe, an accountant. They leased it to James Alfred Nash in 1901, and he sub-let the property to various people, and amongst the businesses located there was a blacksmith’s shop. A photo of this Page 166 Palmerston North City Council shop as H.J. Lauridsen’s blacksmith and farrier shop between c1907 and c1911, appears on page 57 of the book Early Manawatu Scandinavians326. The 1925 Wises Directory still shows Henry Boyle’s blacksmith’s shop present at this site at that time. Ownership of the property was transferred to other members of the Tripe family in 1925, and in 1928, they transferred it to Samuel Andrews, a restaurant proprietor of Dannevirke. It remained in his family until 1985. This Building O.A. Jorgenson drew up the plans for this building in November 1928, and tenders were advertised for on 12 November 1928. It was described as a two-storied building of reinforced concrete. The Building Permit for what was then described as at brick and concrete building, was then issued on 4 December 1928. The value was £3,939, and the successful tenderers were Mouldey & Holmes.327 The plans show that the largest of the three flats is at the Cuba Street end of the building. This flat also has brick walls separating it from the other two flats. The larger flat also looks out over an iron roof covering two of the shops below. It is not clear from the plans as to what was referred to as the balcony, which was mentioned at the time of the 1997 fire (see below). Three of the four shops are of a similar size, however, Shop 3 (on the Cuba St. side of the entrance to the flats) loses some of its width to the entrance hall. Samuel Andrews At first glance, the name “Andrews Building” conjures up an impression that this is named after a British family and in that respect it becomes ‘just another building among many’. However, the Andrews family that had this North West Square Heritage Area 2010 building erected was Greek. They had anglicised their surname – presumably just as many non-British immigrants had also chosen to do in order to blend into the majority community. The headstones at Kelvin Grove Cemetery of the couple who erected this building identify them as Erstratios and Stavroula Andreanatos, and Stavroula was to eventually live out the last two decades of her life in one of the three flats in this building. Possibly they also lived there when they first moved to Palmerston North in the early 1930s, at which time their shop was nearby and no occupants are listed for this building in the various directories. The only people surnamed Andrews in the NZ Naturalisation records (to 1948) and the 1917 Alien Registration records, were all born in Greece. The oldest of them, George Andrews, was aged 47 when he was naturalised on 5 October 1893. At the time he was a fishmonger of Wellington. By 1917, he was a 70-year-old Paramata fisherman. He was also a widower who had been in New Zealand 45 years – meaning that he arrived about 1872. The other seven Andrews’ were a generation younger, and mostly followed similar occupations (fishermen and fishmongers), albeit that by 1917 most lived in Auckland. Two of the three naturalisations traced gave the Greek town of birth. At that time, wives took the nationalities of their husbands, so were not usually naturalised in their own right. One of these two naturalisations (John Andrews) gives his birth town as “Ithaca”, while the other (Samuel Andrews using his Greek name) uses “Ithaka” – both spellings are valid. The website Wikipedia states the island: “Ithaca or Ithaka is an island located in the Ionian Sea, in Greece, with an area of 45 square miles and a little more than three thousand inhabitants. It is an independent municipality of the Kefallinia Prefecture, and lies off the northeast coast of Kefalonia. The municipality of Ithaca includes some smaller islands as well. The capital, Itháki (Vathý), has one of the world's largest natural harbours. Modern Ithaca is generally identified with Homer's Ithaca, the 326 Scandinavian Club of Manawatu, Early Manawatu Scandinavians: Skandia 1 (Palmerston North, 1999 edition) 327 Building Permit Register, Vol. 3, p. 394, PNCC 4/13/1, Ian Matheson City Archives, PN City Library. Manawatu Evening Standard 12 November 1928 2(1) Page 167 Palmerston North City Council home of Odysseus, whose delayed return to the island is the subject of the Odyssey.”328 Traditionally, a large percentage of the island’s working population are sailors, and fishing is a major occupation there329 - and clearly that appears to have been in the background of the Andrews family. Ithaca is noted for having had a unique architectural style for the region, this having a strong Ionian influence. Features had included such things as no balconies and efforts to make structures like miniature fortresses in an attempt to make them pirate-proof – although that problem largely dissipated in the latter 16th century. In 1953, an earthquake measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale, caused massive destruction on the island, including through fires that resulted, and hundreds of people died. As a result, over 70% of buildings on the island were demolished and earthquake-resistant buildings took their place. Many people also emigrated after this.330 Samuel’s entry in the 1917 Alien Register stated that he was then aged 23 and had been in New Zealand seven years. His occupation was given as a restaurant proprietor of Napier. His wife, also Greek, was listed as “C. Andrews”, aged 22 and she had New Zealand four years.331 By 1925, his address was listed in the Wises Directory as 61 High Street, Dannevirke, where he had a restaurant. He was naturalised, as “Stratos Andreanatios”, on 16 January 1925, giving his birth date as 1 January 1892, and his 328 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ithaca The Facts About Ithaca http://www.ithacagreece.com/Facts/facts.html 330 Ithaca Architecture: Information about the architecture of Ithaca Greece, Ionian http://www.greeka.com/ionian/ithaca/ithaca-architecture.htm ; Ithaca: The catastrophic earthquake in 1953 on Ithaca Greece, Ionian http://www.greeka.com/ionian/ithaca/ithaca-architecture/ithaca-earthquake1953.htm 331 New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs: Register of Aliens, 1917 (Wellington, c1918), p. 430 (Napier Borough). There are also entries for Greek Andrews’ on p. 349 (Auckland Borough) and p. 246 (Hutt City) – a total of seven persons, including three wives, all born in Greece. 329 North West Square Heritage Area 2010 occupation as a restaurant-keeper of Dannevirke.332 The 1929 Directory still lists him as living at Dannevirke - by which time this building had been erected. By the 1933 Stones Directory he was a fishmonger at 86 The Square, Palmerston North, this shop being between the Grand Hotel and the railway lines. The 1936 Directory listed him as the managing director of the Palmerston North Fish Supply Co. Ltd., of 86 The Square. By 1938 he was living at 19 Florence Avenue, and by 1940 his private residence was in College Street West at Awapuni. Meanwhile, by the 1941 phonebook, his business in The Square belonged to Tait & Co., wholesale and retail fish merchants. The 1941 phone book also lists the “Palmerston North Fish Co. Ltd.” as being in Rangitikei Street and later listings in the early 1950s show 15 Rangitikei Street, although its ownership is unknown. Samuel died while still living at College Street on 14 January 1954, aged 64. Stavroula had moved from College Street by 1955, and by the 1960 Wises Directory, she was living in one of the three flats in this building. She was still listed as living there at the time of her death at the Ewart Hospital, Wellington, on 16 April 1981, aged 88.333 Subsequent Owners In 1954, after Samuel’s death, the property was transferred into the names of Stavroula Andrews and Gordon Trevor Rapley, a PN Solicitor. In 1975, Stavroula’s name was replaced on the CT with that of her son Spero Andrews, a Wellington restaurateur. The year after her death in 1981, the property was transferred in to Spero’s name alone. It was then transferred in 1985 to Tunbridge Wells Ltd. of Christchurch – which in turn became 332 Register of persons Naturalised in New Zealand before 1948: Non Commonwealth. There are three entries, George Andrews, Wellington fishmonger (naturalised 5/10/1893 aged 47), John Andrews, Wellington fishmonger (naturalised 11/1/1928, aged 48), and Samuel Andrews listed under the name Stratos Andreanatios. 333 Manawatu Evening Standard, 15 January 1954 1(1), 18 April 1981, p. 27, PNCC online cemetery records Page 168 Palmerston North City Council Tunwell Corporation Ltd. in 1991, before being transferred in 1992 to Gloria Joan Cameron and John Gavan Cameron, of Feilding. It was transferred to the present owner, Fair Investments Ltd., in 1995. The present CT WN46B/489 was then issued. The Fire This building is yet another in the area to have suffered a fire - a woman being charged with arson as a result. The fire broke out in a bedroom of th one flat at about 9:00pm on Sunday, 7 December 1997. That flat was gutted and the fire then got into the ceiling, causing smoke to billow through the other two flats. Occupants of one of the other flats learned of the fire when someone knocked on their door and yelled to them. They escaped without their shoes, but did remember their two kittens – and then were rescued off a balcony at the back of the building by a fire fighter. The fire was under control within 15 minutes, but two extra fire engines had been called due to the potential for the fire to spread to the adjacent shops and flats. The fire safely officer was concerned at the lack of fire safely protection devices, such as smoke alarms, in the building.334 Additions & Alterations Other than the collection of original plans for this building335, Building Permit file G5/40-48 contains little on it, other than a certificate of compliance from 1997 (before the fire). The Occupants Noteworthy amongst the occupants of the shops is the hairdresser’s shop that gradually morphed into a radio shop, the saddlery shop that was in this building for about thirty years before moving to the Commercial Building in The Square, and the Union Steamship Company’s shop. Miss Annie Newman ran “The Hat Shoppe” for over a decade, while living North West Square Heritage Area 2010 upstairs with Mrs Annie Draper336, another milliner, who died on 16 March 1945 aged 69, with cemetery records stating that her address was still George St. Shop (1) nearest Main Street. Now 40 George Street Stones 1933-Wises 1944 41/52 George St. - Miss Annie Newman, millinery specialist Wises 1950-60 52 George St. – Union Steam Ship Co. of NZ 2009-Now 40 George St. - Ink Tattoo Studio (was # 44) www.inktattoostudio.co.nz Shop (2) Now 38 George Street Stones 1933 Henry Sparrow Wycherley, saddler Wises 1936-44 43/50 George St. - Henry S. Wycherley, saddler (died 27/9/1956 aged 80) Wises 1950-60 50 George St. – A.E. Williams, saddler 2009 38 George St. - Crate Creations Now empty Upstairs. Now 36A George Street Stones 1933 unknown Wises 1939 48 George St. – Brian Trehey, traveller Phonebook 1941 48 George St. – Mrs A. Draper & Miss A. Newman in Flat 1 Wises 1944 48 George St. – Mrs Annie Draper Wises 1950-51 48 George St. – James Regos, salesman; W. Shirley, postal sorter; P.R. Young Wises 1953-54 48 George St. – James Regos, salesman; Mrs A. Sinclair; V.W. Boyens; P.R. Young Wises 1957 48 George St. – James Regos, salesman; M.M. Wilson; Mrs P.R. Young Wises 1960 48 George St. – Mrs Stavrula Andrews; Mark M. Wilson; Mrs P.R. Young 334 Manawatu Evening Standard 8 December 1997, p. 1 The original plans are held at the Ian Matheson City Archives, Plans 20//40-48, PNCC 4/13/6 335 336 1941 phonebook Page 169 Palmerston North City Council Now unknown Shop (3) Now 36 George Street Stones 1933 Miss E. Batters, department manageress Wises 1936-39 47/46 George St. - Mrs Ethyl Woller, pastrycook Wises 1944-54 46 George St. – James R. Davy, pastrycook Wises 1957-60 46 George St. – Bobby’s Cafeteria & Milk Bar 2007-Now 36 George St. – Posh www.poshfashion.co.nz North West Square Heritage Area 2010 The construction of the flats appears to be reinforced concrete with timber joinery and roof structure, with timber and tiled shop fronts. STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE This building has moderate local significance for historical and design values, representivity of building style and type and level of external authenticity. Shop (4) nearest Cuba Street. Now 34 George Street Stones 1933 Walter Smart Ingram, hairdresser & tobacconist Wises 1936-39 49/44 George St. – Walter Ingram, hairdresser Wises 1944 44 George St. – Leicester D. Matson, hairdresser Wises 1950-51 44 George St. – E.G. Cook, hairdresser Wises 1953-54 44 George St. – Ted Cook, radio & Electrical dealer, tobacconist Wises 1957 44 George St. – Ted Cook, radio dealer Wises 1959-60 44 George St. - Frocks Unlimited Ltd., frock specialists Now 34 George St. - Adelphi Finance Ltd. This building has moderate historic values in its association with Erstratios and Stavroula Andreanatos and their family, who were naturalised New Zealanders from Ithaca in Greece. ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION The original drawings show the building designed in the Inter-War Stripped Classical style with symmetrical street façade, simple stepped parapet, cornice, above-verandah pilastered central bay with largely unadorned bays either side. The four shop fronts, also symmetrically designed around the centre of the building have angled ingos, and above shop front clerestory. The original and later ownership and tenants reflects a moderate level of continuity as a typical pattern of similar commercial buildings throughout the city. The ground floor plans show almost identical shops with a central entry to a stair hall and toilets and open area at the rear. The first floor (noted as the “second floor”) shows the centrally located stairs leading to a central passage off which are two one bed roomed flats and one two bed roomed flat. The building has a moderate level of historic association with its architect, Oscar Jorgenson a well-known local architect. Jorgenson also designed 137-143 Cuba Street, another building in the proposed North West Square Heritage Area. The building has moderate design values as a representative example of the Inter- War Free Classical style, which has a Greek acroterion in the centre of the parapet, likely to be a reference to the origins of the owners. 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. The exterior of the building has high levels of authenticity. Page 170 Palmerston North City Council North West Square Heritage Area 2010 ASSESSMENT SUMMARY Significance Proposed category PNCC District Plan Criteria 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 Rarity Landmark Representative Design Setting Materials Craftsmanship M H H M M H Page 171 Palmerston North City Council George Street, 37 Library/DIC building North West Square Heritage Area 2010 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: 3779 square metres more or less Lot 2 DP 81805 WN48B/604 (1997); prior CTs: WN45D/111 (1996) & others Category One337 1256 Category II 35 Stage 1: c1905. Stage 2: 1927 Stage 1: Unknown Stage 2: A.R. Allen & H.L. Hickson C.M. Ross Co. Ltd. Stage 1: Unknown. Stage 2: McMillan Bros PHYSICAL AND SOCIAL HISTORY History This building is now the George Street entrance to the Palmerston North City Library, and it is linked both physically, as well as through its shared history, to the ownership of the main part of the library building – that part fronting The Square. It was built in two stages by the firm C.M. Ross & Co. Ltd., more or less taking its present form in 1927-28 as part of the main construction work facing The Square. 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. The D.I.C. group was sold to the Arthur Barnett firm in 1987, and then in 337 PNCC Schedule of Buildings and Objects of Cultural Heritage Value Page 172 Palmerston North City Council 1989, the building was rebranded as an Arthur Barnett store. The store closed in August 1991, and the Palmerston North City Council then purchased it in 1992 for conversion to a new city library. The new Central Library was opened on 25 May 1996. The Building Lesley Courtenay’s booklet, The House that Quality and Value Built: The C.M. Ross Co. Ltd. story, records that in 1905, the firm built a brick building behind the story that gave it a George Street frontage. A photo of that building dated c1908 is published on page 4 of the book. This shows a single storey brick building with a wide central entranceway, bordered by two large windows. This same single storey building is still present in a postcard on page 8 of the book, and dated between 1916 and 1926. Plans showing the present building are located at the Ian Matheson City Archives. One set of these is entitled “George St. Elevation – Showing Additional Storey”. This plan shows this building, but with some different features. Plan No. 9 of the Allen-Hickson (1927-28) set, shows the building’s new façade, including the words “The C.M. Ross Co. Ltd” to be written at the top beneath the flag pole, while three of the five first floor windows were recorded on the plans as being reused. In fact the central three windows were being recycled from their “present” situation - which was at the other end of the building facing The Square, and from the part of the building that had been erected in 1915-16. Meanwhile those of either side of the recycled windows were to be new, but identical. Although the large central window has been replaced (like all of the same design on the neighbouring old tearooms building of the same vintage, which were gone by the 1980s), the other four appear very similar to the set installed here in 1927-28. Plan 11 of this set, by architects A.R. Allen & H.L. Hickson, shows the “ground floor of existing work”. This goes from The Square to George Street and shows the George Street end to be a large showroom. The exterior walls were not to be disturbed, but all the other walls were to be removed. North West Square Heritage Area 2010 In 1928, a building permit was issued to C.M. Ross Co. Ltd, for a building in George Street, to the value of £8,000. The Building Permit Register indicates that it was of brick or concrete.338 Possibly this was an adjoining building on the Main Street of this building. At present this building is occupied by the city library, and also by the firm Bruce McKenzie Books, which occupies the ground floor shop at 37 George St. Comments: Additional information on this block of buildings is located in the studies of the other three Rosco buildings covered here (those in Coleman Place and the main one facing The Square), and all four should be read in conjunction. Further research is required to clarify some matters relating to the chronology of this building, including its registration with the NZ Historic Places Trust on 2 July 1982. ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION The alterations of 1928 modified the existing single storey building to the current two storey building to have a consistent style to the main C and M Ross store, Chicagoesque. This was a style that came from the steel framed buildings of Chicago of the early 20th century which were faced with a façade using the architectural language of Classical architecture. Consistent with the style, the Library exterior design is characterised by the exuberant use of Classical elements such as large cornices, and giant orders, but with a horizontal and vertical emphasis and large areas of glass, allowed for by the use of a steel frame. The interior of the building was largely removed in the 1997 redevelopment of the library, leaving only the exterior walls. 338 Building Permit Register, Vol. 3, p. 393, 1928, PNCC 4/13/1, Ian Matheson City Archives, PN City Library Page 173 Palmerston North City Council STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE This entire library building has high regional significance for historical and design values, representivity of building style and level of external authenticity. This entire library building has high historic and emotional values in its historic 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. The building has successfully been redeveloped as the city library, which retains the focus it once had as the premier department store. The building also has high historic values in its association with the architect of the 1928 alterations, 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. It is also associated with the architectural firm, Athfield Architects Ltd., who designed the redevelopment and whose design was awarded a NZIA National award. North West Square Heritage Area 2010 ASSESSMENT SUMMARY Significance Existing category PNCC District Plan Criteria 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 The whole of the library building has high design values as a rare and successful example of Chicagoesque while the building’s scale, style, and location give the building landmark significance in the urban design of central Palmerston North. The building is 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. The building’s above verandah street façade design is largely authentic. Page 174 H H H H Palmerston North City Council George Street, 42-50 Nash Building North West Square Heritage Area 2010 BUILDING DETAILS Owner: Owner’s Address: Assessment Number: Property ID: Land Area: Legal Description: Certificates of Title: PNCC Classification: NZ PT No. NZHPT Classification: NZ PT Manawatu No: Construction date: Architect: Original Owner: Builder: 357 square metres more or less Lot 10 & Pt Lot 11 DP 27 WN548/84 (1949); prior CT WN31/270 (1882) Category Two339 Nil Nil 37 Stage 1: 1925. Stage 2: 1929 Stage 1: H. Leslie Hickson Stage 2: O.A. Jorgensen Mrs J.A. Nash (Elizabeth Lily Nash) Stage 1: unknown. Stage 2: Drinnan & Price PHYSICAL AND SOCIAL HISTORY History This building was erected for Elizabeth Lily Nash, wife of long-time Mayor of Palmerston North (1908-1923) and Member of Parliament for Palmerston North (1918-1935), James Alfred Nash.340 He and his firm are outlined in the story in this study of the one-time linked ‘The Arcade’ buildings in Coleman Place and Cuba Street. He (and to some extent 339 PNCC Schedule of Buildings and Objects of Cultural Heritage Value Ian Matheson, Council & Community: 125 years of Local Government in Palmerston North (Palmerston North, 2003), pp. 92, 99 340 Page 175 Palmerston North City Council Elizabeth) is also the subject of a biography in Volume Four of The Dictionary of New Zealand Biography.341 The Nash Building began in 1925 as four shops with flats upstairs, and then a matching shop was added at the Cuba Street end in 1929. The join between the two is visible in the brickwork of the façade. Prior History CT WN31/270 was issued to Louisa Matilda Snelson, wife of George Snelson in 1882. She sold it to John Carmody, a local contractor, in 1889, and he in turn sold it to Elizabeth Lily Keogh, a Palmerston North spinster, in 1894. She then married James Alfred Nash on 14 February 1895. In 1911, Mrs Nash leased part of the property for 37 years and 9 months (starting 6 July 1910) to Thomas John Rodgers, who was in the process of establishing the His Majesty’s Theatre next door. Thereafter the lease of this alleyway (which is on Part-Lot 11, which has belonged to this property Louisa Snelson’s time) and the granting of the right to use it, passed to the array of people and organisations associated with the neighbouring property, going to three members of the Fuller family in 1911; the Kairanga Auctioneering Company in 1925; The Palmerston Paramount Pictures and Albert Ernest Blackbourn the same year; and to William Robert Kemball in 1927. The previous building on this site was probably another small block of shops, and certainly one of these was occupied for many years prior to the construction of this building (possibly since he entered this business in 1907) by the J.A. Nash & Co. estate agents’ office. North West Square Heritage Area 2010 The Building H. Leslie Hickson designed the plans for the main part of this building, the tender notice being published on 10 August 1925. This described the work as being brick shops in George Street. The Building Permit was subsequently issued on 7 September 1925, with the building being valued at £4,700. Photo St134 from the PN Library’s photographic collection shows the upper façade of this building in its original four-shop form. The photo has been taken after a snowstorm, from the third floor of the C.M. Ross & Co. building across the road. At the time, the future site of the neighbouring Andrews Building contained just a narrow single storey building, only the roof of which can be seen. The second stage of this building took up the space between the original part and the Andrews Building. This narrow shop, which is about the same width as the others in the building, was designed by O.A. Jorgensen, who had just finished the Andrews Building next door. Possibly this space had previously been a driveway – however, it was part of Lot 10, the main Lot on which this building stands. The tender notice for this building was published on 7 March 1929. It was described as a two-storied business premises of brick and concrete. Its Building Permit was issued on 1 February 1929, and the value was £940. The successful tenderers were Drinnan & Price.342 CT WN31/270 – and also the CT for the Andrews Building - records the establishment of part wall rights between the two buildings. This marks the construction to the Stage 2 building at the Cuba Street end of the main building. Elizabeth Lily Nash M.B.E. In most cases in earlier times where a woman owned a property like this one, it was because her husband owned a business and the ownership of some properties, especially the family home, were placed in the wife’s 341 Jim Lundy, ‘Nash, James Alfred’, in The Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, Vol. 4 (Wellington, 1998), pp. 370-371. A list of J.A. Nash’s roles on various committees etc. – 21 of them, to that time - appears on his advert prior to the 1928 General Election (MES 12/11/1928 2[2]) 342 Manawatu Evening Standard 10 August 1925 2(2) & 7 March 1929 2(1); Building Permit Register, Vol. 3, pp. 287, 382, PNCC 4/13/1, Ian Matheson City Archives, PN City Library. Page 176 Palmerston North City Council North West Square Heritage Area 2010 name to protect them should the business fail. However, Elizabeth Lily Keogh (as she was named on the CT) had already owned this property for at least six months prior to her marriage - as Elizabeth Lily Grater, nee Keogh - to James Alfred Nash at Palmerston North on 14 February 1895. The Manawatu Times published her obituary on 16 June 1942, two days after her death: A life of useful activity was brought to a close on Sunday last by the peaceful passing of Mrs Elizabeth Lily Nash, wife of Mr J.A. Nash, of Western Avenue. Although of a retiring nature, the deceased lady was a great worker for the good of the community, ably filling her part in the public positions she was called upon to fill as wife of the Member of Parliament for over a quarter of a century and as Mayoress for 15 years. In recognition of her work at the time of the Great War she was awarded the M.B.E. The late Mrs Nash was the second daughter of Mr and Mrs Keogh, of Dunedin, and was born in Birmingham, England. In her childhood days she visited New Zealand twice and America also before her parents decided to settle here. About two years ago she had a very severe nervous breakdown but later recovered to some extent. She then went with Mr Nash to Christchurch, but there she unfortunately suffered a relapse, and subsequently returned. About twelve months ago, the effects of the illness were then telling on her, and she has been a patient sufferer since then. During the 15 years in which Mrs Nash was Mayoress of Palmerston North she took an active part in a large number of public matters which affected women. In the Great War, she was at the head of the parcels activities and other war work. She organised the “Paddy’s Market” in connection with the war and at the time of the influenza epidemic was in charge of the depot at the Opera house for a period of five weeks. Among many other activities, Mrs Nash organised fetes and fairs to raise funds for a number of projects, included in these being paying off the balance of the debt on the Technical School, building the baths at the Boy’s High School, paying off the debt in connection with the Garrison Band, and the erection of the women’s annex at the Hospital. She was also deeply interested in raising funds for the nurses’ chapel at the Hospital. She took a very keen interest in the Hospital Day collections of other years in Palmerston North, and when Mayoress she entertained each year the members of the council in a day’s outing to Tiritea. When Mrs Nash was Mayoress the lakelet enclosure was instituted in the current form and she officiated at the opening of the bridge between the two pools. For this reason she was presented with a paid of silver scissors. Mrs Nash also secured the land for the Coronation Hall at Terrace End, the councillors at the time presenting her with a key at the official opening of the building. Two sons were born to Mrs Nash, one being Mr James Leslie Nash, who is engaged in farming at Linton, and the other Dr. Horace Webster Nash, of Lower Hutt. There are five grandchildren. The funeral will be of a private nature.343 A.G.S. Bradfield’s The Precious Years, records that: Mr Nash was always giving praise to his wife. He (Nash) wrote: “In 1918 when the influenza epidemic came upon us we had no fewer than 131 deaths in this town. Mrs Nash was in charge of the First Aid depot at the Opera House and she and her committee attended to those in distress, with medicines, clothing and stimulants. I thank God for having had such a woman for my wife and I have sadly missed her since her departure. It was a great honour when she received the M.B.E. (in 1919)344 Subsequent Owners After Elizabeth’s death, the property was transmitted in 1943 to her two sons, James Leslie Nash and Horace Webster Nash. A new CT, WN548/84, was issued to them in 1949. In 1963, it was transferred to five women belonging to or connected to the Nash family, as tenants in common. Of these, one lived locally and two lived in England. The four shares (of a total of 15 shares) belonging to Maude Nash (who was the 343 344 Manawatu Times 16 June 1942 2(4) A.G.S. Bradfield, The Precious Years (PN, 1962), p. 59 Page 177 Palmerston North City Council local woman) were transmitted to her executors, Rodney John Port and Grant Garfield Roberts, both Pohangina farmers, in 1978. On the same date the property was transferred to the present owner, Hugh Russell Farquhar, a surveyor of Palmerston North. Additions & Alterations Semi-legible documents held on PNCC Building Permit file G5/40-48 are possibly some of the original specifications for this building. The originals – and the plans themselves - were not located. An application for a permit to install a sterilizing sink in what was then 50 George Street was applied for in 1980 by the business concerned’s owner, Mrs M. Thomson. Possibly this involved the Omni restaurant. An undated permit application was also applied for by Omni for a basin and sink. The file contains a letter dated 6 November 1997 from OSA Consulting Engineers to the building’s owner, Mr H.R. Farquhar, providing an assessment as to what was needed for the building in terms of earthquake strengthening. This indicated that the linings would need to be stripped off all the brick walls and that these then be sprayed with concrete – at a cost of $300,000 plus GST. There is no indication as to whether this was done. On 3 April 1998, PNCC wrote to Cathren Ishbell re upgrading the building for earthquake risk and advised of changing legislation etc. The Occupants J.A. Nash had moved on to more important things in terms of his career by the time this building was erected. However, a tenant in the 1929 extension in the latter 1950s was the firm of land agents, C.H. Plumtree & Co., which advertised itself as the successor to Nash, Plumtree & Co. Also in the extension for perhaps almost three decades was Mrs Jeanette Arthur, who advertised herself as “toilet specialist”, while in 1933 she had been advertised as having “ladies toilet rooms.” Possibly she sold ladies toiletries, and there is no sign that she operated women’s toilets in her shop. Two of the others shops also sold guns at various points. North West Square Heritage Area 2010 Shop (1) 48 George St. (Nearest Main St.) Stones 1933 William George Bentley, tailor Wises 1936-44 66 (& 28) George St. – Bentley’s Ltd., tailors Wises 1950-51 66 George St. – De Cleene’s, tailors Wises 1953-54 66 George St. – Grundy’s Rental Cars (Grundy’s firm also at 70 George St.) Wises 1957-60 66 George St. – Nil Photo ST134 1985 60 George St. – Discoveries, craft shop Now 48 George St. - DingXin International Ltd. Shop (2) Stones 1933 Wises 1936 Wises 1939 Wises 1944 Wises 1950-60 equipment, guns, etc. Photo ST134 1985 Now 46 George St. Robert Irvine, hat renovator 28 George St. – Gordon M. Simes, chiropodist 64 George St. – Butler & Co., hotel brokers 64 George St. – William Butler & Co, bakers 64 George St. – Hanson’s Sports Depot, sports 58 George St. – Cumin Clothing, fashion shop 46 George St. - Guilty As Sin boutique clothing, (uses #46A on website) http://guiltyassinshop.blogspot.com/ Upstairs flats 46A George St. Stones 1933 Miss Elsie MacLennan; Miss J. McAnulty, department manager Wises 1936 29 George St. – Ms Ross Wises 1939-44 62 George St. – Ms Merle I. Scoble (see also Union Bdgs, Coleman Pl.) Wises 1950-51 62 George St. – Ms E.B. Ross Wises 1952-53 62 George St. – James O. Neill; Rosvall Bros., electrician Wises 1957 not listed Wises 1959-60 62 George St. – B.L. Hambling; Ms M. Scoble; -Grant Now unknown Page 178 Palmerston North City Council Shop (3) Stones 1933 costumier Wises 1936 Wises 1939 Wises 1944 Wises 1950-54 contractor Wises 1957 contractors Wises 1959-60 Photo ST134 1985 2006-Now North West Square Heritage Area 2010 44A George St. Miss Mary Margaret Mousley, dressmaker & 33 George St. – Mrs Millicent Smiter, draper 60 George St. – Mrs Kath Hickson, draper 60 George St. - Ms Alecia Smythe, dressmaker 60 George St. – Allan D. Macdonald, electrical 60 George St. – Rosvall Bros., electrical 60 George St. - Lyall Loveridge, radio technician 54 George St. – Nostalgee Children’s Wear 44A George St. - Alladin’s Cave Fashion Accessories http://fc.metron.ca/~alladinscave/Page5.html Shop (4) 44 George St. Stones 1933 A. & W. McCarthy, gunsmiths & sports depot, A.H. McCarthy manager Wises 1936-39 35/58 George St. - A. & W. McCarthy, sports dealer Wises 1944-54 58 George St. – I.R. Davy, pastrycook Wises 1957-60 58 George St. – Auto-Needs, motor accessory dealers Photo ST134 1985 52 George St. – Seiko watch shop Now 44 George St. - Bruce McKenzie Educational Booksellers Shop (5) St.) Stones 1933 Wises 1936-44 Wises 1950-4 Wises 1957-60 42 George St. (the 1929 extension - nearest Cuba Mrs Jeanette Arthur, ladies toilet rooms 37/56 George St. – Mrs J. Arthur, toilet specialist 54 & 56 George St. – Mrs Jeanette Arthur, toilet specialist 56 George St. – C.H. Plumtree & Co. (successor to Nash, Plumtree & Co), land agents Photo ST134 1985 50 George St. - Omni – The Food Place, an avante-garde restaurant Mid-2000s Zen Zan shop Now empty ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION No original plans are available from the PNCC archives so that a description of the planning, construction, and materials, other than the visible façade materials of render and brickwork, cannot be given. The style of the building is Stripped Classical with simplified Classical details including a simple stepped parapet, cornice, sill apron, cross detailed windows and vents and fluted pilasters between the ground and first floors. The shopfronts are a joy of original clear coated timber framing, leaded toplights, and tiled spandrels and pilasters. The central front entry to the first floor is clear -coated timber glazed door with leaded toplight. STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE This building has high local significance for historical and design values, representivity of building style and type and level of external authenticity. This building has high historic values in its connection to Elizabeth lily Nash, who owned and had it built and who was awarded the MBE for her public service during the First World War. The building is also associated with two local architects, H L Hickson who collaborated with regionally significant A R Allen in designing the C M Ross Building and Oscar Jorgenson a well-known local architect. The original and later ownership and tenants reflects a moderate level of continuity as a typical pattern of similar commercial buildings throughout the city. Page 179 Palmerston North City Council North West Square Heritage Area 2010 The building has moderate design values as a good representative example of the Inter- War Free Classical style. 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. The building’s street façade design has a high level of authenticity, particularly the original shopfronts. ASSESSMENT SUMMARY Significance Existing category PNCC District Plan Criteria Cultural Emotional Historical 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 H M H H Page 180 Palmerston North City Council George Street, 52-56 Former Astoria Ballroom entrance North West Square Heritage Area 2010 BUILDING DETAILS Owners: Title A Land Area: Legal Description: Certificates of Title: Title B Land Area: Legal Description: Certificates of Title: Title C Land Area: Legal Description: Certificates of Title: PNCC Classification: NZHPT No. NZHPT Classification: NZHPT Manawatu No: Construction date: Architect: Original Owner: Builder: (Main Street end of building) 101 square metres more or less Pt Lot 11 DP 27 – owned by the Hadleys & Ehlers WN38/172 (1885) (Narrow line from road through centre of building) 14 square metres more or less Pt Lot 2 DP 8664 – owned by the Hadleys & Ehlers WN385/270 (1928), prior CT WN38/173 (1885) (Cuba Street end of building) 129 square metres more or less Lot 1 DP 8664 - which is owned by PNCC WN385/206 (1928), prior CT WN38/173 (1885) Nil Nil Nil 153 1910 James Copeland345 & C.W. Blackbourn, Robin Hood (refurbishment) T.J. Rodgers (on land leased from James Miller A.E. Blackbourn PHYSICAL AND SOCIAL HISTORY History 345 See also the former Pink & Collison Building (now Coo-ee Drycleaners) at 260262 Cuba St. re James Copeland Page 181 Palmerston North City Council This block of shops is the former road frontage of Palmerston North’s first purpose-built movie theatre, originally called the His Majesty’s Theatre, and thereafter it underwent a number of changes of both name and role. In recent times it was known as the Astoria Ballroom. In its day and in its various guises, this block of shops fronted a very large building that was one of the social hubs of Palmerston North. This building originally consisted of three shops and the entrance to the theatre. Nowadays, two of the shops have been combined into one (now Mango Music), while the theatre/ballroom entrance with its distinctive verandah, has also been converted into a shop (nowadays Urban Charm). Prior History & Complicated Ownership Changes (excludes the main theatre). CT WN38/172, covering the Main Street end of the building (now Mango Music, and which included T.J. Rodgers’ office until the mid-1950s) was issued in 1885 to Eleanor Bourchier Balsdon, a local dressmaker. She died aged 44 (date not known) and is buried at Terrace End Cemetery, but apart from transferring the property to Annie Bourchier Milson in 1891, nothing more is known of her. The property was next transferred in 1910 to Clara Kate Miller, wife of James Miller, agent, who leased it to Thomas John Rodgers for ten years from 25 July 1910. The Fullers (who ran His Majesty’s Theatre) sub-let it in 1912 (until 1920), and T.J. Rodgers duly bought it in 1924. He sold it to Ellen Scanlon in 1929, and his wife Julia Rodgers then bought it back a few months later. It was transmitted to Thomas Michael Rodgers in 1944, and then transferred to Reed McGregor Contract Furnishing Ltd. in 1972, before passing to various members of the Bares family and associated people from 1977. The present owners bought it in 2004. CT WN38/173, covering the Cuba Street end of the building, was issued in 1885 to Charles London, a Halcombe Settler. It then passed in 1889 to James Miller, a local storekeeper, who leased it to Joe Lee and Joe Sing in 1904, for three years. The lease lapsed, was renewed in 1905 and then lapsed again, before in 1910, it was leased to Thomas John Rodgers for ten years beginning 25 July 1910. Despite many sub-leases by Rodgers, North West Square Heritage Area 2010 the land remained owned by James Miller until his death, at which time it was transmitted in 1917 to his widow, Clara Kate (Catherine) Miller of Wellington. In 1924 ownership of the land was finally transferred to T.J. Rodgers. This CT (WN38/173) was replaced in 1928 by the two present ones, with the main area (the Cuba Street end of the building) – on CT WN385/206, going to William Robert Kemball, a merchant of Masterton. and then the same year going to Palmerston Pictures Ltd., which then leased it in 1930 to Palmerston Theatres Ltd. for ten years. The property was transferred in 1948 to Recreation (Manawatu) Ltd., and then in 1978 to Kerridge Odeon Corporation Ltd., and finally to the present owner, the PN City Council. The other part of the former CT WN38/173 (a narrow strip of land at the centre of the building), became WN385/270, and remained in 1928 with T.J. Rogers. Thereafter it followed the identical ownership, as has CT WN38/172. The Building Designed to be multi-purpose, the building’s uses over seven decades were very varied. It also underwent many changes of name. However, in its various guises it played an important role in the social life of the city. At the time of the final closure in 1984, the late City Archivist, Ian Matheson, compiled a quick history of the building. He stated that it was built by local real estate agent, T.J. Rodgers for about £2,600, and that is was then leased to Messrs J. Fuller & Sons. That firm operated it as His Majesty’s Theatre for the next four years. The new and clearly impressive building – and the George Street portion that survives - was described in considerable detail in the Manawatu Evening Standard of 31 December 1910: His Majesty’s Theatre His Majesty’s Theatre, which has just been erected by Mr T.J. Rodgers, in George Street, is now completed. This immense building, which is licensed to seat 1750 persons, has been beautifully finished throughout. The main entrance is from George Page 182 Palmerston North City Council Street and consists of a spacious vestibule leading in to the main auditorium, and it is there that one cannot help but being struck with the immense size of the building. The floor has been specially laid for skating and consists of specially run by 4in by 1½in heart of matai, intersecting at both ends and radiating from a centre, making the floor ideal for skating. It has a total space of 9,100 square feet, being 130 (feet) long by 70 feet wide, which is the largest single floor in the Dominion. The building has a 24 feet stud and the height inside from floor to ceiling is 30 feet, and when used for pictures it will allow the production of a picture 30 by 50 feet. The ceiling (which is a cove design) and the walls have been lined throughout by specially run 4 x ¾ rimu and oiled. Placed in the ceiling are four large and ten smaller ventilators of handsome design, the whole effect presenting a fine appearance. In the matter of fire escapes the building is unrivalled in the Dominion. Mr Rodgers has spared no expense in that direction, there being nine doors, each eight feet wide, giving a total exit of 70 feet. There is a space of 20 feet on either side of the building, 12 feet at the back, and three twelve feet exits to the streets. The earth on both sides of the building has been raised and metalled to a level with the floor, and though the building is capable of holding nearly 2,000 people it could, if necessary, be emptied in less than one and a half minutes. Besides the excellent provision for exits there is installed an exceptionally powerful four-inch fire service with all the necessary appliances, all of which have been carried out to the entire satisfaction of the Superintendent of the Palmerston North Fire Board. Attached to the main building are four well-finished dressing and attendants’ rooms and the manager’s office, each being supplied with necessary lavatories, etc. Detached from the main building is the engine room (26 feet by 10 feet) in which is to be installed the engine and electrical plant for showing pictures and necessary lighting. In addition His Majesty’s is to be lighted with gas, three special ventilating inverted gas sunlights being used. These aggregate 6,000 candle power. Adjoining the main entrance and fronting George Street Mr Rodgers has had erected three business premises consisting of a North West Square Heritage Area 2010 cosy tea and dining room 45 feet by 17 feet wide, which has been nicely fitted for the purpose; a shop to be used for a fruit and confectionary; and a comfortable and conveniently arranged office where, in future, Mr Rodgers will carry on his own business. A verandah has also been erected over the footpath along the whole frontage, with a prominent portico over the main entrance. The central position of His Majesty’s is bound to make it a popular place of amusement. The contractor (Mr A.E. Blackbourn) has completed the building in a thorough manner, the work having involved some heavy labour, the construction being most substantial in every detail. Oregon pine and selected rimu have been used for the roof principals, which are heavily strapped with iron and provided with powerful tie-rods with union screws, while the exterior appearance of the theatre is enhanced by the addition of twelve massive concrete and timber buttresses, The building is from the joint design of Mr James Copeland and Mr C.W. Blackbourn. Mr Copeland supervised the work on behalf of Mr Rodgers and Mr C.W. Blackbourn was foreman for the contractor. The subcontractors were: Ironwork, Messrs Scott, Niven and Co.; plumbing, Mr J. Lissington; painting, Mr H. Holbrook; each of whose work has given every satisfaction. The timber was supplied by Messrs G.A. Gamman and Co., of Ohakune. His Majesty’s Theatre has been leased for a term to Messrs John Fuller and Sons, of Wellington, well-known theatre proprietors, and whose name has always been associated with what is best in the theatrical world.346 The building was leased by the vaudeville promoters, John Fuller & Son, th and opening night was February 6 1911. The report of the first screening stated that “Long before the doors opened a large crowd was waiting outside the theatre in George Street, a crowd so large that even the spacious building could not provide accommodation for it. Long before 346 Manawatu Evening Standard 31 December 1910 5(7) ‘His Majesty’s Theatre’ Page 183 Palmerston North City Council North West Square Heritage Area 2010 eight the sale of tickets had to be stopped, and by this time it was estimated that about 1,600 people were inside the building.”347 was in turn superseded, its landmark building became the Midland Hotel. However, that too is now long gone. The editor of the Manawatu Evening Standard wrote the next day that: The spectacle presented at the opening of His Majesty’s Theatre last night when the large building was filled to its utmost capacity, and hundreds had to be turned away, is conclusive proof of the popularity of picture shows as a means of entertainment. The offrepeated assertion that moving pictures are only in their infancy as yet seems to contain much truth, and such a statement is borne out by the fact that as the facilities for witnessing them multiply the attendance of the public seems to increase in proportion. Even last night, notwithstanding the crowd at His Majesty’s, the attendance at the Opera House was well up on previous standards in point of numbers. This only goes to show the hold the new form of entertainment has on the residents of Palmerston, who are as eager to witness the sights of the world and the clever creations of the cinematographer’s art as any residents in the larger cities…348 Ian Matheson’s potted history recorded that His Majesty’s Theatre closed down in 1915 when Fullers opened ‘Everybody’s Theatre’. At that time, Palmerston North did not have electricity, and it is possible to speculate that the noise of the necessary electricity generator set in the nearby engine shed described above, might have impacted upon the ability of theatre patrons to enjoy their movie-going experience. The flat level floor might also have been a negative feature, with the view of the screen potentially being obstructed by the heads of other patrons. The PN Fire Brigade newspaper files contain an unsourced clipping from 26 February 1911, which must have provided its readers with some comfort: “The fire appliances connected with His Majesty’s Theatre in George Street, were given a trial by Superintendent Warner this morning, and gave every satisfaction, the hose throwing a stream of water over the building.”349 The fledgling movie industry and the theatre soon proved sufficiently successful for Fullers to build their own specially designed movie theatre – the ‘Everybody’s Theatre’ in Coleman Place, in 1915. When that theatre 347 Manawatu Evening Standard 7 February 1911 5(6). See also 4 February 1911 5(6) & 6 February 1911 5(7) Manawatu Evening Standard 7 February 1911 4(6) 349 ‘PN Fire Brigade Newspaper Cuttings 1909-1926’, p. 29, Ian Matheson City Archives, PN City Library 348 On 18 July 1916, the building reopened at His Majesty’s Skating Rink, with over 100 skaters taking to the floor (until the skates ran out). It was noted that as the floor was laid out for skating when built, it was expected to have few equals in the country, and to be one of the largest also. Mr A. Dowling, who had run a very successful rink in Masterton, was the proprietor, and Rodney Talbot, a well-known local skater who had just returned from Gallipoli, was to be the manager. A few weeks later the enthusiastic organisers were even racing motorbikes against skaters in the building.350 This venture lasted until about 1919. Then for the next two years the building endured the indignity of becoming a tyre storage facility for the New Zealand Express Co. Ltd.351 Between about 1921 and 1924, it served as an auction room for the Kairanga 350 Manawatu Evening Standard 17 July 1916 6(2), 19 July 1916 6(7), 16 September 1916 1(2), 18 September 1916 6(1) 351 Ian Matheson’s notes in File A 175/87, Research file: Astoria Ballroom, include an interview with Mr S.F. Barnao, dated 22 April 1981, whose father had links to the building through their company Recreation Manawatu Ltd., which ran the building as a ballroom He first recalled the building as an auction mart in the 1920s. He said it was used for tyre storage in the early part of the war (WWII?), with tyres coming from all over the district. Then it became the ANA Club. He said that the floor was especially sprung for dancing, and some feared that the weight of the tyres would damage the floor. Ian Matheson City Archives. Page 184 Palmerston North City Council Auctioneering Co. Ltd., and also accommodated a 10-table billiard saloon operated by Messrs Crossan & Elridge. In the latter part of 1924, Palmerston North very belatedly joined the ranks of New Zealand’s electricity-powered towns. Then on 30 October 1924, this building, which had been leased to Palmerston Paramount Pictures Ltd., reopened as the Paramount Theatre. At this time the theatre was also equipped with 26 rows of seats situated on two levels of ramped floor. It was licensed to seat 850 people. The Manawatu Evening Standard reported that a crowded house had attended the first showing in the “new” theatre. The furnishings and appointments were on a lavish scale, and a feature was the upholstered and widely-spaced tip-up chairs. The sloping floor also meant that the screen was visible from every part of the house.352 The Paramount Theatre name was short-lived, as in 1926 it was renamed the De Luxe Theatre and operated by Palmerston Pictures Ltd. This firm also operated the Palace and Kosy Theatres. The last screening at the De Luxe Theatre appears to have occurred without fanfare on Saturday, 6 December 1930. The following week the Kosy Theatre – formerly the city’s ‘silent cinema’ – had its Grand Re-opening with talkies after a major upgrade. It had been chosen for the upgrade due in part to its central location353 The Regent Theatre had also recently opened nearby. Between about 1931 and about 1933, the building became the De Luxe Skating Rink, while still owned by Palmerston Pictures Ltd. Ian Matheson made an extensive search of the building permit registers throughout this period seeking signs of the building’s conversion to a skating rink. However, the above 1910 newspaper article indicates that it was designed to suit such a purpose from the start. 352 353 North West Square Heritage Area 2010 When the skating rink closed, it became the De Luxe Dance Hall, and then from about 1936 and until 1942, it was the Coconut Grove Ballroom, operated by H.J. Sutton. In 1942, it became the ANA Dance Hall, being operated by a subcommittee of the Wellington Provincial Patriotic Council, which leased the building. “ANA” stood for ‘Army, Navy & Air Force Club’. The official opening of the reincarnated facility occurred on Saturday 18th July 1942. The committee operated a Club in Broadway (which offered soldiers accommodation in the form of bed and breakfast) during this time, as well as the dance hall. The committee’s objects were “to promote in every way the comfort and well being of the Men of the Fighting Forces.” The hall was open every Saturday and Sunday for club purposes, while during the week it was also let to others. Women were permitted to become members of the ANA Dance Club, and the strict list of rules included such things as the women being approved by the committee in order to gain membership; having to “be prepared to entertain and act as a hostess to the members of H.M. Forces”; they “must not refuse to dance when asked to do so”; they had to be present by 9:30pm on Saturday evenings and pass-out checks would not be issued on Saturday nights. Furthermore, “any member breaking these Rules or behaving in an unseemly manner, or in any way acting in a manner calculated to be detrimental to the Club, shall have her membership cancelled. The rules applicable to the men were not located, although the custodian had to attend all functions and had “the right to eject any undesirable person from any of the Committee’s premises.” Manawatu Evening Standard 31 October 1924 (7(4) Manawatu Evening Standard 6 December 1930 1(3), 12 December 1930 3(3) Page 185 Palmerston North City Council North West Square Heritage Area 2010 The ANA’s lease on the premises duly expired on 15th February 1946, and its property was variously returned to owners or sold off.354 A ‘glitter ball’, made locally by Alexander Clark Ltd. in about 1932 to specifications supplied by the U.S. film company Metro Goldwyn Mayer, was also supposed to depart to its new owner at this time. However, the next organisation operating the hall refused to hand it over. When the building was eventually demolished in 1984, the glitter ball was passed to the Manawatu Savage Club, for its venue. New seats have been set around the walls of the dance floor, and former patrons of the ANA will scarcely recognise the building. There is a large alcove behind the orchestra dais, and to the right is a secondary dressing room that will be used when the hall is engaged for special shows, such as mannequin parades. The building, which is owned by the Odeon Theatre organisation, has been leased by Messrs R.J. Morris and J. Farry, of Wellington (who have a similar project in the Capital city), and Mr C. James, a Palmerston North businessman. The promoters emphasise that the cabaret is not just a teenage show, and that they intend to cater for the middle-aged dancers as well; also that a recognised standard of dress will be maintained on all occasions, amid comfortable appointments and at reasonable prices. By this means they hope to attract a wide and regular clientele, who will find the cabaret filling a long-felt want in the city. The building has had a chequered career over the years. At one time pictures were shown there under the auspices of the Plaza Theatre (sic), but the venture was not a success. The building was then used successively as a billiards room and a skating rink. In the 1920s it was the scene of many city dances, and so, when World War II came, it was natural that it should be taken over for the entertainment of the Armed Forces. More recently, the ANA was used for Sunday dances organised by the Kiwi Sports Club for the youth of the city. They were extremely popular, and the club performed a grand service in staging them. The passage of time had taken toll on the building, but the enterprise of the lessees has achieved wonders, as will be seen when the regular cabaret evenings begin. The building is to be available for private functions on off nights.355 Between 1946 and about 1948, the building became the George Street Ballroom. It then became the Ballroom Astoria in about 1948, and this remained its name until it closed in 1984. However, with many name changes, the population apparently felt less inclined toward keeping up with the latest names. For example, an important article outlining the building’s rebirth in 1965, didn’t mention the word “Astoria” at all: New future for city dance hall The George Street building known to most people as the ANA, an institution which performed a useful service to members of the Armed Forces during the last war, is about to come into its own again as an entertainment centre. By the end of the month it will be reopened as a cabaret, a thorough alteration and decoration programme having completely transformed “The Old Lady of George Street.” About a third of the former 8,000 sq. ft. of dancing space has been petitioned off for a carpeted coffee lounge, in such a way that the dance floor is in full view all the time. Some 60 lights of various colours supply the illuminations on the dance floor, and the raised dais for the six-man orchestra will shed coloured light on the players, who will comprise a pianist, bass drummer, trumpeter, saxophonist and Alto saxophonist. 354 PNCC Series 11/12. ‘Notes on ANA Club & Dancehall 1942-46’ by Ian Matheson, 1984, from the records of the ANA Committee in City Archives, in File A 175/87, Research file: Astoria Ballroom, Ian Matheson City Archives. 355 Manawatu Evening Standard, 3 September 1965, in File A 175/87, Research file: Astoria Ballroom, Ian Matheson City Archives. Page 186 Palmerston North City Council The reborn facility was operated by Astoria Promotions Ltd., a company formed in 1964. Until that time, the building had been used for housie nights four nights per week, each attracting some 300 people (or 62,400 visits per year). It had also been being used for balls, weddings, meetings and social functions.356 In 1980, the Manawatu Evening Standard interviewed Percy Chase, a former manager of the Regent Theatre, on his career. He commented that after the war, the building had been returned by the Army to its owner, Sir Robert Kerridge. He said, “Sir Robert asked what we could do with it, so I suggested we run a ballroom. He told me to go ahead, so I enlisted Mr Norman Jordan, who had a big dance band. Between the two of us we ran the biggest dances in New Zealand, we’d have about 1,500 there on a Saturday night.” However, he added that the days of the successful Astoria Ballroom ended with the arrival of television in the early 1960s.357 On 1 April 1981, Palmerston North City Council purchased the property from the Kerridge Odeon Corporation Ltd. for $125,000. However, Astoria Promotions Ltd. remained the tenant until 20 May 1984. The last function held there – on Queens Birthday Weekend, 1984 - was the national convention of Square Dancers, organised by the Rose City Ramblers Square Dancing Club.358 The Manawatu Evening Standard published a photo on 18 May 1984 (p. 1) of the last housie night held in the building the previous evening. Demolition was due to occur the following month. The land upon which the main part of the theatre once stood now serves as the Main Street end of the Harvey Norman building. However, the shop 356 Ian Matheson’s notes from PNCC File 78/0/5/4/9, 16 April 1980, in File A 175/87, Research file: Astoria Ballroom, Ian Matheson City Archives. North West Square Heritage Area 2010 that was once the theatre’s main entrance, with its distinctive portico above its verandah, still serves as a reminder of this historic building, in its many guises. 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 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 two-storied former ‘The Arcade’ shop in Coleman Place that was built in 1906.359 Notes on the back of a photo of His Majesty’s Theatre during construction, which was donated by C.W. Blackbourn’s daughter, said that his firm collapsed during the depression, after which he drove a taxi. Meanwhile, his brother Albert Blackbourn went into business as a builder in his own right.360 He also maintained a link to this building by being based in the yard beside it. Photographic Record Three photos showing this building were located in the PN Library Photographic Collection. The oldest is the abovementioned photo T27, which was taken during construction in 1910, and which shows the workmen dwarfed by the building’s upper framework as they erected the roof trusses. Photo St108 was taken about 1937 and shows the massive building with external wall bracings, in the centre of the block and towering over the surrounding buildings. Photo BC168 shows the entrance to the Ballroom Astoria, as published in the Manawatu Evening Standard of 17 April 1980. Notes with this photo state that the ballroom and a private 357 Manawatu Evening Standard, 2 December 1980, p. 13, ‘Percy pushed promotion’. 358 Ian Matheson’s notes from PNCC File 36/87/1, in File A 175/87, Research file: Astoria Ballroom, Ian Matheson City Archives. 359 Cyclopedia of New Zealand, Vol. 6, (Wellington, 1906), pp. 674-5, ‘Blackbourn, Charles William’ Photo T27, Photographic Collection, PN City Library 360 Page 187 Palmerston North City Council carpark had been designated to become a public carpark, and that a director of Astoria Promotions and Hugh Farquhar, owner of the neighbouring Nash Buildings, had opposed this. Additions & Alterations PNCC Building Permit file G 5/62-68 includes the plans for seating improvements at His Majesty’s Theatre, on behalf of PN Paramount Pictures Ltd. These are dated 30 August 1924 and were drawn up by architect Robin Hood. This relates to the entry in the Building Permit Register Vol. 3: PN Paramount Picture Co., (Pt. Sec. 332) involving additions in wood to the value of £850.361 In 1970, a permit was applied for to erect a mezzanine floor for the Astoria Construction Company, and in 1978, a permit was applied for to reinstate the verandah of the Astoria Ballroom. In 1980, PNCC wrote to Morrison Taylor & Co. regarding F.E. Petersen’s amusement parlour premises at 66-68 George Street, regarding alterations there. In 1996, the floor plan for the Windfall Gallery at 66 George Street was supplied to PNCC, and this appears to relate to the planned “frame shop” requiring alterations on behalf of the Peter Bares Trust. Building Permit file G 5/64 records that in 1994, Jaqueline McKean of 64 George St., applied for a permit to build a new shop front. The plans include the comment “reuse ‘Astoria’ door”, and show a sketch of a glass door with the word “Astoria” etched diagonally across it. This door is no longer there. This appears to be the point at which the double-door entrance to the old Astoria was changed to its present shop-front form. North West Square Heritage Area 2010 The Alleyway The now cut-off alleyway between the ballroom buildings and the Nash Building used to lead to a service station, and this appears to have had a relationship to the small shop at 52 George Street. A service station very close to a large wooden building potentially holding many hundreds of people, does not sound compatible in the present day. The service station appears to date from after the 1930 closure of the building as a picture theatre – first appearing in the 1933 Stones Directory as Joseph Edward Day’s petrol and service station. Williams & Hunter had taken over by the 1936 Wises Directory, followed by the Avro Service Station Ltd. (1939), Frederick Haxton (1944-51), and then Reliance Motors in the 1953-57 editions. Between the 1939 and 1960, the Wises Directories also list several other businesses whose situations are unknown362, and the shop in this building closest to the alleyway, as 70 George Street. The main one of these was Grundy’s Rental Car Ltd., that later became Grundy’s Motors Ltd. Possibly the shop served as an office for some of the businesses, however, there was clearly commercial activity behind the hall – and also a car park. The front portion of the alleyway was part of the neighbouring Nash Building’s land, and that building’s CT records that the operators of the hall also tended to lease access to the alleyway. CT WN31/270 records property owner Elizabeth Lily Nash leasing part of her property to Thomas John Rodgers for a period of 37 years and 9 months, from 6 July 1910. He then leased the right to pass over it to John Fuller, Benjamin John Fuller and John Fuller the younger (who operated the theatre) for ten years from 23 January 1911. In 1925, Rodgers subleased this land to the Kairanga Auctioneering Company, which in turn granted permission to pass over it to the Palmerston Paramount Pictures Company Ltd., in 1925, the term to expire on 6 April 1948 (i.e. when Rodgers’ lease was to expire). At the same time in 1925, the sublease was passed to Albert Ernest Blackbourn, 361 Building Permit Register, Vol. 3, PNCC 4/13/1. Also the original plans for the 1924 work are located in PNCC Series 4/13/6, Plan 207/62-68, all at Ian Matheson City Archives, PN City Library 362 The 1944-51 Wises Directories list Blackburn & Son (sic), builders, as also being at 70 George Street. This firm erected this building in 1910-11. Page 188 Palmerston North City Council the contractor who had erected this building. In 1927, the right to pass over was transferred from Paramount to William Robert Kemball, who, the following year bought the shop that is now 52 George Street. Thereafter the alleyway is not mentioned. Probably Kemball had a connection to the Grundy’s rental car business and/ or to the service station. The 1953-54 Wises Directory listed Grundy’s has having for a short period taken over the closest shop in the Nash Building on the other side of the alleyway. The 1941 phonebook lists Grundy’s Rental Car Ltd., which advertised that it replaced its entire fleet each year. It also had branches in New Plymouth, Waitara and Gisborne. The firm advertised in the Manawatu Evening Standard in 1942 that it was next to the “Cocoanut Grove Ballroom”, while the associated Reliance Motors advertised used rental cars for sale, and that the entrance to its premises was next to “Cocoanut Grove.” It also advertised repairs, servicing and greasing.363 An undated plan in PNCC Building Permit file G5/62-68 shows the garaging for the rental cars and also the location of the petrol pumps only a matter of metres from the side of the ballroom. Thomas John Rodgers died on 3 June 1958, aged 83, after spending almost sixty years connected in various ways to this building, including having his land agent’s business in one of the shops there until he was aged about 80. Shop (1) 52 George St. (Shop nearest Cuba Street and alleyway) Wises 1914-20 Lee Joe & Co., laundry Wises 1922 15 George St. – H. Stockbridge, tailor Wises 1925 15 George St. – James Duhovich, confectioner Stones 1933 Nil Wises 1936-39 15a/70 George St. - Mrs Annie F. Walker, restaurant Wises 1944-51 70 George St. - Grundy’s Rental Cars Wises 1953-60 70 George St. – Grundy’s Motors Ltd. (also in #66 next door 1953-54 edition North West Square Heritage Area 2010 Now 52 George St. - Indigo Clothing. Shop (2) day) Wises 1914-16 Wises 1920 Wises 1922 Wises 1925-33 Wises 1936-39 Wises 1944 Wises 1950-54 Wises 1957-60 Was (2009) Now 54 George St. (the names reflect the hall’s occupant of the Fuller’s Pictures Skating Rink Kairanga Auctioneering Company Nil (& Stones) De Luxe Hall (#18 in 1936) Nil 72 George St. – ANA Ballroom 72 George St.- Ballroom Astoria 54 George St. - Studio 64 Astoria 54 George St. - Urban Charm Secondhand Shop Shop (3) 56 George St. Wises 1914-16 7 George St. - William Lahood, restaurant & confectioner Wises 1920-22 13 George St. – T.P. Robins & Co., upholsterers Wises 1922 Nil Wises 1925-39 13/17/74 George St. – George Feroza Framjee, photo dealer (& Stones)364 Wises 1944 Nil Wises 1950-54 74 George St. – Doll’s Hospital Wises 1957-60 Nil (possibly combined as Montana Cafeteria about 195960) Now 56 George St. - Mango Music, 56 George St. Shop (4) Wises 1914-54 Wises 1957 Wises 1959-60 Now part of 56 George St. (Shop nearest Main Street) 5/11/15/76 George St. - T. J. Rodgers & Co., land agents 76 George St. – nil 76 George St. – Montana Cafeteria 364 363 Manawatu Evening Standard regular advert 15 June 1942 4(1) By 1942, G.F. Framjee was advertising his business as being in Broadway opposite the Regent Theatre. (Manawatu Times 12/6/1942 3(4-5) Page 189 Palmerston North City Council North West Square Heritage Area 2010 ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION The former theatre and ballroom have been replaced by the existing shops, but the entry and verandah has been retained and are of timber construction with a timber cornice and posts and vertical boarding to the above verandah portion. The building’s street façade design has a high level of authenticity, however the remainder of the building has been significantly modified. The description of the original theatre is as above. Significance Proposed category PNCC District Plan Criteria Cultural STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE This building has high local significance for historical and design values and façade authenticity. This block of shops has high historic and emotional values as the former road frontage of Palmerston North’s first purpose-built movie theatre, originally called the His Majesty’s Theatre. It also has high historic values in its association with the architects James Copeland & C.W. Blackbourn, Robin Hood (refurbishment)t, Ernest Larcomb , who designed a number of significant buildings in Palmerston North. Larcomb’s designs include the main public hospital, many shops around the Square, and several large houses such as the Wattles, the Empire, Albion and Occidental Hotels. Robin Hood, another Palmerston North architect designed the refurbishment of the building. The original and later ownership and tenants reflect a moderate level of continuity as a typical pattern of similar commercial buildings throughout the city. ASSESSMENT SUMMARY 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 The building has moderate design values as a representative example of the Inter- War Free Classical style. 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. Page 190 M H H Palmerston North City Council The Square, 1-3, Coleman Place 20-22 ANZ Bank Chambers (former Union Banks of Australia) North West Square Heritage Area 2010 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: 431 square metres more or less Pt Lot 1 DP 3075 WN357/24 (1926); prior CT WN229/280 (1914), WN 24/50 (1881) Category Two365 Nil Nil 19 1912 Penty & Lawrence Union Bank of Australia Ltd. Sollitt Bros. PHYSICAL AND SOCIAL HISTORY History This building served Palmerston North as a bank for eighty years, its predecessor having been on the site a further three decades. Its upstairs office space also served for many years as the office of the New Zealand Sheep owners' Acknowledgment of Debt to British Seamen Fund, the organisation that founded Flock House in the Rangitikei. Prior History CT WN24/50 was issued to Sylvester Coleman, a commission agent, in 1881, and it is he after whom this location was named. However, the site has an added significance in that in 1866 it had previously been the site of Palmerston North’s first survey office. On the same date the CT was 365 PNCC Schedule of Buildings and Objects of Cultural Heritage Value Page 191 Palmerston North City Council North West Square Heritage Area 2010 issued to Coleman, it was also transferred on to the Union Bank of Australia Ltd. The main part of the bank was built around 1881, while the Coleman Place frontage had been added in 1894, when the whole place was enlarged.366 The Cyclopedia of New Zealand, Vol. 1, published in 1897, recorded that at the time, the Palmerston North branch was the only one between Auckland and Wellington.367 The Cyclopedia of New Zealand, Vol. 6, published in 1908368, recorded that The Union Bank of Australia, Limited, has been represented in Palmerston North since the year 1881. The premises occupy a site at the corner of the Square and Broad Street (sic), and contain a banking chamber, the manager’s room, and a residence. Mr John L. Barnicoat, who has been manager of the Palmerston North branch of the Union Bank since 1893, is supported by a strong staff of officers. However, the building’s days were clearly numbered as on 24 September 1908, the Manawatu Evening Standard reported that Another of Palmerston’s historic buildings is to give place before the advancement of the district to a more up-to-date and imposing structure. The Union Bank of Australia was erected when Palmerston was only a back-blocks township, 26 years ago. It has been enlarged several times since, in 1894 its’ also being just about doubled to cope with the increasing business of the district. Now the directors have decided to remove the present building altogether and erect a handsome, up-to-date, two-storey brick building on the present site. The new building will combine the banking chamber and manager’s residence, and will be a great deal larger than the present structure. Mr Chatfield, the architect for the bank’s new head offices, which are at present being erected in Wellington, is the architect for the Palmerston building also, and was in town this week with a sketch plan of the building. One or two alterations are to be 369 made to it, and then tenders will be called almost immediately. However, the new building did not arrive as quickly as anticipated, and so, in the early hours of 16 September 1910, it was the 1881 building that was substantially destroyed by fire. The fire had begun in the kitchen at the back of the property, while the manager, Mr Barnicoat, and his family, were asleep in their apartment within the building. They were considered lucky to have escaped. It was believed that had there been any wind that night, that another of Palmerston North’s big fires would have occurred. As it was, the neighbouring Bon Marche building was briefly set alight, but this was extinguished quickly. Mr Barnicoat had escaped the fire and then gone back inside looking for his two small sons, initially believed to be trapped inside, and had almost suffocated in the smoke and heat. However, they had already escaped and gone to the fire station to get help. Both Mr and Mrs Barnicoat were scorched and their hair and eyebrows singed by the fire. When the bank safe was opened, it transpired that only smoke damage had occurred. The bank reopened at 10:00am on the morning of the fire in the newly vacated former fire brigade building on the opposite side of Coleman Place (the fire brigade had just moved to new premises in Cuba Street). The destroyed bank building had been insured for £1,475.370 The Building Despite the optimism of 1908, it was two years after the 1910 fire before the old bank’s replacement was complete. The Manawatu Evening Standard finally announced the near completion of the new bank on 19 August 1912, with the heading ‘New Banking House for Union Bank of Australia’: 366 Manawatu Evening Standard 16 September 1910 5(2) Cyclopedia of New Zealand, Vol. 1 (Wellington, 1997), p, 1170 368 Cyclopedia of New Zealand, Vol. 6, Taranaki, Hawkes Bay, Wellington (Christchurch, 1908). Unnumbered page, ‘Banking’ section, Palmerston North. 367 369 370 Manawatu Evening Standard 24 September 1908 4(6) Manawatu Evening Standard 16 September 1910 5(2) Page 192 Palmerston North City Council The local branch of the Bank of Australia, Ltd., will, in the course of but a few weeks, be installed in the new premises which have been erected for it on the site of the old building, at the corner of the Square and Coleman Place. The new building was rendered necessary by the partial destruction of the old premises by fire, and is a handsome addition to the architecture of the town. These premises are practically completed, and the manager hopes to be able to move into them from the temporary premises towards the middle of next month. The new building is constructed of brick, and is well-finished throughout. Not only has it been constructed on solid lines, but with a view to the future expansion of business as the population of the town and district increases. In order to be prepared for this expansion, the banking chamber is unusually large for a town of this size, and the convenience will, no doubt, be appreciated by the clients of the bank. It is also encouraging to know that banking authorities consider Palmerston’s future prosperity will require such accommodation. The banking chamber is supported by four pillars, 16ft high, each pillar consisting of a steel cylinder, reinforced with concrete. The ceilings throughout the building are finished with asbestos sheets, which, in addition to their particularly neat finish, increase the security against fire. The counters and all the woodwork in this room are of beautiful cedar wood, imported from New South Wales. The brick walls are finished with cement, suitably tinted. In addition to the banking rooms, there is on the ground floor a spacious dining room, with kitchen and other well-appointed annexes. The residential portion is, however, chiefly upstairs. Access is gained to the residence by a handsome entrance from Coleman Place. The rooms are all well lighted, the windows being arranged to catch some, at least, of each day’s sun for every room. Particularly happy is the idea of the balcony in a quiet, secluded portion of the building, fronting Coleman Place. The fire grates in the banking chamber and some of the other rooms are of the Bell pattern, a grate which claims to throw out the maximum of heat from a minimum of fuel. North West Square Heritage Area 2010 The dimensions of the strong room are 12ft square. It is, of course, entirely new. An interesting feature associated with it is the electric connection with the manager’s bedroom. Thus a burglar tampering with the strong room door unconsciously arouses the manager by ringing an electric bell in his room. Off the banking chamber is a commodious and well-finished office for the use of the manager of the Bank. The temporary building at the rear of the new bank will be removed shortly, and a garden made on the ground it occupies. The new building cost about £6000. The builders were Messrs Sollitt Bros., and the principal sub-contractors were Messrs Osgood and Hancock (painters and decorators), Withers and Thompson (plumbers) and C. Emney (plasterers), of Wellington. The architects were Messrs Penty and Lawrence, of Wellington. The work was supervised on behalf of the bank by Mr C. Colquhoun, clerk of the works, who has acted in that capacity for many important buildings in Wellington, including the Arcadia and Windsor Hotels. Photo BC7 in the photographic collection at the PN City Library, shows the near complete building, with the lower scaffolding still in place and about 25 men posing at ground level and also high on the scaffolding. Signs at ground level name some of the businesses involved in the building’s construction. These include the names of the architects, builders, painters, and the supplier of Golden Bay cement used to build it (Arthur Hopwood). Photo St10, taken between 1912 and 1915, shows five upstairs windows overlooking Coleman Place, along with the single storey section with the balcony on top. The original plans were not located during this study, however, in October 1925 the Union Bank applied to alter the building.371 The resulting plans show what existed prior to that time. They show that the original banking chamber took up about two-thirds of the bank portion of the ground floor, 371 PNCC Building Permit Register, Vol. 3, Series 4/13/1, p. 383, Ian Matheson City Archives, PN City Library Page 193 Palmerston North City Council with the remainder being the manager’s office, the strong room, two toilets and a stationery cupboard. The single storey part at the back of the building contained the dining room, kitchen, toilet, washhouse, etc. The entrance to the upstairs accommodation was via the door on Coleman Place. There does not appear to have been direct internal access between the bank and the accommodation. The upstairs area consisted of the drawing room and six bedrooms, along with the bathroom, toilet and linen cupboard. The drawing room and four of the bedrooms had fireplaces, while there was one in the banking chamber and another in the manager’s office. The balcony was accessed from a door part way up the main staircase. The staircase was inside a block protruding from the centreback of the building. The PNCC Building Permit Register records that the October 1925 alterations were valued at £4,962.372 The architectural firm was Swan Lawrence & Swan, which was essentially the same firm that originally designed the building. The plans show that the second floor was then added to the previously single storey portion, and that another two-storey segment was added to the back of the building. These alterations transformed the upstairs area (including the new portion) into thirteen offices, an “officer’s sitting room”, and a side room that was only accessed from the officer’s sitting room (formerly the residence’s bathroom etc.). This might have been used as a bedroom, as it has a wardrobe. This room was sealed off from the other first floor offices and appears to have been used by the bank staff via new stairs from the bank area. A small bathroom and a toilet were also fitted into what was later described as a mezzanine floor, which was above the men’s two toilets, but below the first floor. The downstairs area, previously part of the residence, became Shop No. 2, while the ground floor part of the new extension became Shop No. 1. Shop 2 was narrower than its neighbour, but was also longer due to the two toilets (one fore each shop) being behind Shop 1.373 372 PNCC Building Permit Register, Vol. 3, Series 4/13/1, p. 383, Ian Matheson City Archives, PN City Library PNCC Building Permit file T25/1-3: Swan Lawrence & Swan August 1925 plans 373 North West Square Heritage Area 2010 In March 1956, the same architectural firm, now called Lawrence & Swan (Francis H. Swan also being named separately), designed further additions to the building. They included installing a new symbol above the main (corner) door into the banking chamber. By this time, a second toilet for the female staff - and their cloakroom, had replaced the little bathroom on the mezzanine floor. On the ground floor, the stationery cupboard and the former site of the fuel bin became the men’s cloakroom. The fireplaces were also removed at this time. These plans detail the tellers’ desks and various other counters and fixtures - the teller desks increasing from three to four during these renovations. A PABX telephone system was also installed. Most of the first floor was also altered. The pre-1956 area shows two dentists’ surgeries and their x-ray room. Four small strongrooms were in one of the rooms, while there were three men’s toilets and one for women. The alterations indicate that the bank was taking over more of the first floor, including removing walls to make it open plan. Meanwhile, the dentists’ rooms were being compressed. The women were getting a former office as a restroom (alongside their toilet), while another office was converted to a staff lunch room. A storage room was also constructed in the roof space. Three offices (above the shops) remained untouched.374 The Union Bank of Australia Ltd. The Union Bank of Australia’s entry in the 1937 book From Swamp to City, recorded that the bank had been formed in 1837 and that it commenced business in New Zealand in 1840. The article added that John L. Barnicoat375 had managed the bank from 1893 to 1919, and that in 1937, 374 PNCC Building Permit file T25/1-3: Lawrence & Swan March 1956 plans 375 The Manawatu Evening Standard published an extensive article on Mr Barnicoat at the time of his retirement from the local Union Bank, after a farewell to him in the Council Chambers, presided over by the Mayor, J.A. Nash M.P. Gifts were given to him, his wife, their two young daughters and their young son (he was said to have two sons during the 1910 fire). Barnicoat was replaced as manager by Mr A. McBean. (MES 27/8/1919 5(2) Page 194 Palmerston North City Council the bank’s Centenary Year, the Palmerston North bank manager was J.B. Stewart. The 1933 Stones Directory had also listed James M. Saunders as the manager, while Norman Gibb Brown was the bank clerk. A brief history of the ANZ National Bank is published on the Wikipedia website. This states that the Union Bank of Australia was a British bank with its head office in London. It had “agreed with the New Zealand Company to accompany settlers to New Zealand to provide them with banking services. (The Union Bank of Australia) opened a branch in Petone, across the harbor from Wellington, where it transferred the branch shortly thereafter. Between 1840 and 1847 the Union Bank issued its own bank notes for circulation in New Zealand. These were initially issued under British law until 1844 when the New Zealand Governor signed an ordinance allowing the Bank to issue bank notes but required that these be a minimum of 1 pound and redeemable at demand for gold or silver.”376 In 1864, the Bank of Australasia, another London-based bank, was established, and this also had a branch in Palmerston North at an early stage. This was on the site of the present main ANZ bank in The Square. In 1951, the Bank of Australasia and the Union Bank of Australia merged to form the ANZ Bank. The result was that for almost four decades, that the ANZ had branches on both sides of The Square. North West Square Heritage Area 2010 The Union Bank of Australia is shown here in about 1950. The first five windows from the left belong to the original building, while the last three windows, plus the space between the two sets of windows (which has the building’s name plate), includes the section that was originally single storey. Photo: Whites Aviation Ltd., Palmerston North & District, New Zealand (Auckland, 1950), p. 2 Ownership CT WN24/50 records that in 1914, Lot 2 DP 3075 was transferred to C.M. Ross Co. Ltd., this being a strip about 32½ feet wide between the bank and C.M. Ross’ buildings, about where the path to the main doors of the library now is. A new CT (WN229/280) was issued the same year. In 1925, the C.M. Ross Co. Ltd., bought some more of the bank’s land, this marking the beginnings of the neighbouring Norfolk Building, and the party wall between the two buildings appeared on the CT at the same time. The present CT, WN357/24 dated 10 February 1926, was then issued to the Union Bank of Australia Ltd. This shows the (belated) transfer of the property to Australia and New Zealand Bank Ltd. in 1956, and then the transfer of the property from ANZ Properties (NZ) Ltd., to Coleman Court Ltd. in 1981. It was then transferred to the present owner, Ake Ake Investments Ltd. in 2002. 376 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ANZ_National_Bank Page 195 Palmerston North City Council Changes In 1981, the ANZ vacated its original banking chamber and moved to the location that until then had been the two shops facing Coleman Place. The resulting alterations saw the entrance to Shop 1 sealed over with a large window, while Shop 2 received an aluminium sliding door. The building was also sold in the course of this process.377 The new owner converted the former banking chamber into two shops facing The Square. The lower façade was also adapted to accommodate this change. The permit for the present verandah was issued on 24 February 1981. Professional offices were also established upstairs – although clearly professional tenants had occupied some of these offices over many years. A Manawatu Evening Standard article announced the completion of this work, by architect Milton G. Brogden, on 24 February 1981. This said that the new tenants were the Carousel Coffee Shoppe and Carousel Fashions, and that a special feature was a revolving turntable window display area for displaying clothing. This ‘special window’ protruded from one of the window spaces, but is now long gone – possibly in 1994 alterations.378 The Manawatu Evening Standard reported that the ANZ’s Coleman Place branch was to close in March 1992, with one person being made redundant. That ended a banking relationship with this site that had lasted 111 years.379 In 1994, the former clothing shop was converted to Oscar’s Wine Bar, with the former strongroom having sections cut from it to create a storeroom for 377 PNCC Building Permit file T25/1-3 Milton G. Brogden, Sept. 1980 plans Sources are notes on Photos BC180 (an MES photo 24/2/1981) and BC 200, photographic collection, PN City Library. Photo ST69 (MES photo 26/2/1973 re an upgrade to Coleman Place, shows the Scotch Wool Shop and other features of the building when still an ANZ branch). 379 Manawatu Evening Standard 11 February 1992, p. 1 378 North West Square Heritage Area 2010 the bar. Meanwhile the former manager’s office became the male, female and disabled toilets.380 This shop is now The Stunned Mullet. New Zealand Sheep owners' Acknowledgment of Debt to British Seamen Fund The upstairs office space included the Palmerston North office of the New Zealand Sheep owners' Acknowledgment of Debt to British Seamen Fund for at least thirty years (the timeframe covered by the Wises Directories consulted). This is the organisation that began and operated the very well known 7,000 acre ‘Flock House’ property at Parewanui in the Rangitikei. The fund was the result of the efforts of Rangitikei farmer and politician, Edward Newman, and his biography in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography records that he: persuaded more that 2,600 woolgrowers, owning some six million sheep, to donate £237,000 to the New Zealand Sheep owners' Acknowledgment of Debt to British Seamen Fund. Its board of trustees, which Newman chaired from 1920 until his death in 1946, gave immediate relief grants to sailors' families, and in 1923 decided to bring British seamen's sons to New Zealand for farm training. The trustees purchased Flock House, Lynn McKelvie's homestead and 1,000acre property at Parewanui, near Bulls, together with nearly 7,000 acres of neighbouring land. On 28 June 1924 the first draft of 25 teenaged boys arrived from Britain. Girls were accepted from 1925 at another training farm at Awapuni, Palmerston North. Between 1924 and 1937 the Flock House project brought 635 boys and 128 girls to New Zealand, teaching them farming and other skills, and assisting them to find jobs or to acquire their own farms. In 1937 the Labour government took over Flock House for its own farm cadet scheme.381 In 1935, The NZ Railways Magazine published an extensive article on this fund and its project, entitled Call of Flock House – Good openings for Returned Soldiers’ Sons, that includes a background. This stated that: 380 PNCC Building Permit file T25/1-3 David Locke Designs, July 1994 plans Paul Melody, ‘Newman, Edward 1858-1946’ in The Dictionary of NZ Biography, Vol. 4 (Wellington, 1998), pp.378-9. 381 Page 196 Palmerston North City Council Flock House is a monument of New Zealand sheep owners' gratitude to brave men of the British mercantile marine who lost their lives or were grievously wounded in their steadfast performance of duty on the perilous high seas during the Great War. Flock House, which arose from the “New Zealand Sheep owners' Acknowledgment of Debt to British Seamen Fund,” was intended to provide facilities for new careers in the country districts of this Dominion for sons and daughters of British seamen. During the past ten years many of these young folk have passed satisfactorily through Flock House, but unhappily the depression of recent years has checked the ingress of British seamen's sons. However, it has left the way open for the entry of New Zealand soldiers' sons.382 The activities of the New Zealand Sheep owners' Acknowledgment of Debt to British Seamen Fund organisation after the sale of Flock house in 1937, have not been researched. However, the Palmerston North connection took a sad turn on 24 April 1946 when the organisation’s founder, Edward Newman, died in Palmerston North after being knocked down by a car.383 Main Bank area Union Bank of Australia to 1912-1951. Then ANZ Bank 1951-1980 Corner shop (former bank area) 1981 1 The Square - Carousel Fashions Phonebook 1995 Cnr Square & Coleman - Oscar’s Wine Bar Now 1 The Square - The Stunned Mullet Shop nearest to Library building (former bank area) 1981 2 The Square - Carousel Cafe 382 The NZ Railways Magazine, Vol. 9, Issue 12 (1 March 1935), on the NZ Electronic Text Centre website: http://www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/teiGov09_12Rail-t1-body-d3.html 383 Paul Melody, ‘Newman, Edward 1858-1946’ in The Dictionary of NZ Biography, Vol. 4 (Wellington, 1998), pp.378-9. North West Square Heritage Area 2010 Now www.bellas.co.nz 2 The Square - Bella’s Café, 2 The Square Union Bank Chambers / ANZ Bank Chambers (upstairs) Wises 1933 Charles A. Small, dentist; NZ Sheep owners Acknowledgement of Debt to British Seamen Fund office; Education Dept. Child Welfare Dept. Branch. Wises 1936-39 Charles A. Small, dentist; NZ Sheep owners Acknowledgement of Debt to British Seamen Fund office; Education Dept. Child Welfare Dept. Branch; Seafund Settlement Assn. (Panetapu) Ltd. Wises 1944 Man Power Committee; WWSA; NZ Sheep owners Acknowledgement of Debt to British Seamen Fund office; Charles A. Small, dentist Wises 1950-51 24 Coleman Pl. - NZ Sheep owners Acknowledgement of Debt to British Seamen Fund office; Shalfoon Bros. Ltd., dental supplies; Charles A. Small, dentist; L.A. Small, dentist Wises 1953-54 24 Coleman Pl. – Ms Whitton, duplicating services; NZ Sheep owners Acknowledgement of Debt to British Seamen Fund office; Shalfoon Bros. Ltd., dental supplies; Charles A. Small, dentist; L.A. Small, dentist; Arthur, R. Perry, accountant (Now called ANZ Bank Chambers) Wises 1957 24 Coleman Pl. – E.H. Ferry, public accountant; PN Milk Venders’ Assn.; NZ Sheep owners Acknowledgement of Debt to British Seamen Fund office; R.M. Moss, dentist; Charles A. Small, dentist Wises 1959-60 24 Coleman Pl. – R.M. Moss, dentist; E.H. Ferry, public accountant; PN Milk Venders’ Assn.; NZ Sheep owners Acknowledgement of Debt to British Seamen Fund office Now 1 The Square - Ben Vanderkolk & Associates Page 197 Palmerston North City Council North West Square Heritage Area 2010 Shop No- 2 (nearest The Square - from 1925) Wises 1925 (?) Mrs M. Bevan, outfitter Stones, 1933 Miss Jean Sandman, milliner; Mrs Blanche Sandman, children’s outfitter Wises 1936-39 Miss Jean Sandman, milliner Wises 1944-60 22 Coleman Pl. - Scotch Wool & Hosiery Shop (to ‘Union Building’ 1981) 1980-1992 (combined) ANZ Bank (still gave address as corner of The Square & Coleman Place) Now 20 Coleman Pl. - Soul Hairdressing Union Bank building in the Square is now completed. The building is finished externally with red bricks, of local manufacture, and cement dressings. The roof is covered with grey asbestos slates. The interior of the banking chamber is finished in white plaster, with handsome cedar dadoes and fittings. The manager’s room is also similarly finished. The banking chamber is 3ft. 6in. (sic) x 37ft. x 16ft. 6in. high, the ceiling of this apartment is formed with asbestos sheets divided into panels, with bold ribs and bosses. At the rear of the banking chamber is a large bicycle room, off which are the stationery cupboard and lavatory accommodation for the staff. In addition to the banking premises proper is a very complete manager’s residence, consisting of a dining room (18ft. x 17ft.), drawing room (24ft. x 17ft. 6in.), and six bedrooms, in addition to large kitchen, scullery, washhouse, and the usual conveniences. The entrance to the Bank is on the corner of the Square and Coleman Place; a private entrance for the staff is provided from the former street, and the entrance to the residence is from the latter. The walls from the dining room, hall, staircase, and passage on the first floor are finished in panelled rimu oiled, and what is somewhat unusual in this part of the Dominion, every habitable room is provided with a fireplace fitted with (a) “Bell” grate. The contractors for the building were Messrs. Sollitt Bros., Ltd., of Palmerston North. The architects were Messrs. Penty and Lawrence, Wellington, and the Clerk of Works was Mr. Campbell Colquohoun.385 Shop No. 1 (nearest George Street - from 1925) Wises 1925 (?) Henry H. Blandford, furrier (in ‘Union Building’ across road same year) Stones, 1933 Mrs Catherine Anne Carey and Miss Florence Carey, gown specialists Wises 1936 Miss Margaret Young, dressmaker Wises 1939 Empty? Wises 1944 20 Coleman Pl. – Mrs J. Cook, dressmaker Wises 1950-60 20 Coleman Pl. – Wilma Swanson Gowns 1980/81 Converted to part of Shop No. 2 Comments: There is capacity for further research on this building including through contact with the ANZ Archives in Melbourne, which holds the archival material of the Union and ANZ Banks. Also, the history of ‘New Zealand Sheep owners' Acknowledgment of Debt to British Seamen Fund’, the Flock House property, and the activities of the Manpower Committee during World War Two, are relevant to this building. The building is designed in the Italianate Palazzo style with the characteristic Classical detailing, symmetry, and proportions. ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION A further contemporary newspaper description of the building in addition to that given above is the following.384 384 New Zealand Building Progress, December 1912, p. 222 385 This copy located in Research file A175/175, Ian Matheson City Archives, PN City Library Page 198 Palmerston North City Council STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE This building has high local significance for historical and design values, representivity of building style and type and level of external authenticity. This building has high historic values in its association with the Union Bank of Australia (later the ANZ Bank), which has had continual occupation of this pivotal corner of The Square for over 110 years, contributing to a high level of continuity. The building is historically associated with the regionally significant architectural firm Penty and Lawrence. The building has high design values as an excellent representative commercial interpretation of the Italianate style, with Art Nouveau interior details. As a successful design of the past, and located on a corner to the Square, the building has great urban design values as a landmark and gateway building to Coleman Place. 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. North West Square Heritage Area 2010 ASSESSMENT SUMMARY Significance Existing category PNCC District Plan Criteria Cultural Emotional Historical 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 H H H The building has moderate external authenticity. Page 199 H M H Palmerston North City Council The Square, 4-11 PNCC Library, (former Rosco/DIC building) North West Square Heritage Area 2010 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: 3779 square metres more or less Lot 2 DP 81805 WN48B/604 (1997); prior CT WN45D/111, (1996), WN43B/123 (1993), prior: various Category One386 1256 Category II 35 1927-1928 Stage 1 unknown, stage 2 A.R. Allen & H.L. Hickson C.M. Ross & Co. Ltd. Stage 1 unknown, stage 2 McMillan Bros PHYSICAL AND SOCIAL HISTORY History Lesley Courtney’s book, The House that Quality and Value Built: The C.M. Ross Co. Ltd. Story (PN, 2008), provides an overview of the lifetime of this building and those it replaced. From small beginnings in 1883, the firm grew to take over much of its end of its block, before spending time as Milne & Choyce (1959), D.I.C. (1966) and Arthur Barnett (1987, renamed Arthur Barnett in 1989), after which was purchased by the Palmerston North City Council in 1992 for redevelopment as the city’s new Central Library. The new library opened after significant upgrading on 25 May 1996. 386 PNCC Schedule of Buildings and Objects of Cultural Heritage Value Page 200 Palmerston North City Council North West Square Heritage Area 2010 been a strip of land it had just bought from the Union Bank of Australia. This development is also covered in the separate studies on the Union Bank and the three-storey building. Then in 1925, the firm built what became Norfolk House between the Union Bank and the three-storey building, and that building is also covered separately. Prior History Scottish-born Charles Macintosh Ross (aged 31) arrived in Palmerston North with his wife and first child in 1883. He had earlier undertaken a drapery apprenticeship, before working in the industry for four years in London. He then migrated to New Zealand in 1878, duly settling in Wellington. He married Mary Isabella Dowdswell there in 1882, and they were to have six children. 2. Original C.M. Ross & Co. shop: CT WN34/110 (issued in 1883 and replaced 1993) records C.M. Ross leasing this part of Section 255 in the Square from Annie Venn, wife of Frederick William Venn, a local cabinet maker, for a period of five years starting 3 February 1884. In 1889 he purchased the property from her. 3. First Expansion: WN54/111 (also issued in 1883 and replaced 1993) records that a few days before Ross ‘bought’387 his original shop site, he had also purchased from the Official Assignee, this neighbouring part of Section 255 from the bankrupt estate of Caleb Whitehead, a local baker. The two 1883 CTs derived from WN28/256, which had been issued to James Linton, in 1882. A new wooden two-storied ‘Bon Marche’ was built on these two properties in around 1890, and that building lasted until c1927 – despite the Union Bank of Australia’s fire in 1910 (see that study).388 4. ‘Cummings Property’: Another CT, WN377/259, covering the balance of Section 255, and also a party wall on both sides of the neighbouring Section 254 (the bulk of Sec. 254 is not part of this CT)389, was issued to C.M. Ross & Co. Ltd. in 1927. In June 1883, he purchased the ‘Bon Marche’, John Fowler’s drapery and clothing business in The Square. The leased premises concerned belonged to Mrs Annie Venn, and C.M. Ross then purchased this property in 1889. The historic Certificates of Titles relating to this block indicate that much of the block bounded by The Square, Main Street, George Street and Coleman Place has in the past belonged to either the Coombs Estate (Main Street end – probably around half the block) or to C.M. Ross & Co. Ltd. One exception was the Union Bank, but C.M. Ross & Co. Ltd. bought up every spare part of that property it could also. The new library took over a significant chunk of the former Coombs Estate land – that fronting George Street - and all the library land was amalgamated onto a single block in 1996 (WN45D/111). The 1915-16 former tearooms building on the corner of Coleman Place and George Street, was then subdivided off in 1997, and that left the current CT (WN48B/603). This amalgamation left many historically interesting, but redundant, CTs, and unscrambling them is complex. Those fronting The Square are covered here – and in the interests of improving ease of understanding, they are covered starting from the Coleman Place side of the façade (or alternatively, at the present alleyway). 1. Alleyway land: In 1914, C.M. Ross & Co. Ltd. began the process of building the three-storey building on the corner of Coleman Place and George Street, and also the new building on this site in The Square. This property (CT WN229/246) had 387 Note that these dates are those shown on the certificates of title and there is therefore a time lag between the purchases and when someone actually wrote the change onto the title. 388 Lesley Courtney, The House that Quality and Value Built, pp. 3-4 389 The same Party wall appears on the Commercial Building’s CT WN328/291 for part Section 254. Page 201 Palmerston North City Council This CT was also applicable until 1993, and its prior CT was WN28/258. The CT for the balance of Section 254 was not sighted for this study. The “Cummings property” was leased by C.M. Ross from 1905, and was purchased prior to the construction of the present building in 1927-28.390 The little acorn from which the library complex grew – the first C.M. Ross & Co shop in The Square, from the company’s advert in the 1937 book From Swamp to City.391 This little shop, with its distinctive upper façade and (obscure) flagpole that is seemingly repeated twice in the present building, also appears in the 1877 panorama photo of The Square, shown in T.L. Buick’s Old Manawatu (PN, 1903, opp. p. 225) The development from 1925 onward is attributed to a suggestion from the ailing C.M. Ross in a memo to the Director’s meeting of August 1924, that the firm should purchase adjoining properties and undertake a further rebuilding programme. Part of the project resulted in the purchase of the leased ‘Cummings building’ in The Square, and also the appointment of 390 Lesley Courtney, The House that Quality and Value Built, pp. 4, 7 Robert H. Billens & H. Leslie Verry, From Swamp to City, 1887-1937 (PN, 1937). The pages are unnumbered. 391 North West Square Heritage Area 2010 architects A.R. Allen and H.L. Hickson in anticipation of the projects ahead.392 However, C.M. Ross himself did not get to see even the first of his suggestions completed. He died on 8 September 1924, aged 72. The Building Architects A.R. Allen and H.L. Hickson published the tender notice for this building in the Manawatu Evening Standard of 8 January 1927. The job was described as business premises in structural steel and reinforced concrete for C.M. Ross & Co. Ltd.393 Building Permit Register, Vol. 3, records that the permit to erect the building was issued in the first half of 1927 (that year the entries were undated until July), with the value of the new building being £27,700, and the builder McMillan Bros.394 However, the contract (valued at £27,746) was let to McMillan Bros. of Wellington in February 1927, and as the construction work went on, the store continued trading throughout by moving departments around the building. The various departments had finally moved to their permanent locations in August 1928, and on 13 September 1928, finally opened their new ‘Rosco Luncheon and Tea Rooms’ on the second floor overlooking The Square.395 The Allen-Hickson plans show the total replacement of the previously rented ‘Cummings building’ and the c1890 two-storied wooden Bon Marche building. The familiar arched windows of the latter are seen in one photo in the book on the firm (p. 13), disappearing beneath the scaffolding 392 Lesley Courtney, The House that Quality and Value Built, p. 12 Pam Phillips Papers, PN Architects 1900-1950, ‘Plans held by PN Architects’, Vol 3, p. 21, and ‘Tenders published in the Manawatu Evening Standard’, Vol. 5, p. 58. Ian Matheson City Archives, PN City Library 394 Building Permit Register, Vol. 3, p. 389, PNCC Archives 4/13/1, Ian Matheson City Archives, PN City Library. This entry has no date given, but pre-dated July 1927. 395 Lesley Courtney, The House that Quality and Value Built: The C.M. Ross Co. Ltd. Story (PN, 2008) pp. 12-14. 393 Page 202 Palmerston North City Council North West Square Heritage Area 2010 of the partly built new building – which is already at full height on the site previously occupied by the ‘Cummings building’. Meanwhile, the 1915-16 building on the land formerly owned by the Union Bank of Australia, is also behind the scaffolding and in the process of being transformed into what it was until the site became an alleyway in the 1990s. Notes on the plans state that its three first floor windows (a large one with smaller ones on either side) were to be taken to the other end of the property to become the main first floor windows in the new George Street façade. The George Street end of the building (built c1905) was also receiving a second storey as part of this job. Two more of the smaller windows were then to be obtained for installation to the outside of each of the smaller 1915-16 windows. This created the present (pre-library) George Street façade, although the main window at least has since been replaced. The narrow 1915-16 building was largely gutted in the course of the work, with its inner wall also going, although whatever could be recycled was to be reused. This included removing the walls of the offices, strongroom and engine room that had been about half way along the block between the two streets. Like so many other businesses and even some private homes, the building had had its own gas-powered electricity generating plant (beneath the ladies lounge!), and with the very belated (compared to the rest of NZ) coming of electricity to Palmerston North in 1924, this generator set was one of the many such sets in the district that were now redundant.396 ‘Rosco’, as it was popularly known, in 1937 (alongside the Union Bank of Australia) from the company’s advert in the 1937 book From Swamp to City. Highlights Lesley Courtney’s book on the C.M. Ross & Co. Ltd. business, provides an invaluable social history of the firm and its premises, changing technology and methods, changing owners and changing property uses. Therefore it is not proposed here to replicate much of that. Possibly the highest of the highlights in the history of this building, was the Civic Banquet held in the firm’s tearooms during the 1953 Royal Visit to the city. Two chairs and a table were especially made for the Queen and Prince Philip. Some two hundred invited guests were also present. The Queen later went out to the balcony to wave to the excited crowd gathered below.397 After starting as C.M. Ross & Co. in 1883, the firm was incorporated as C.M. Ross & Co. Ltd., on 4 September 1914. Although there were plans in 396 Allen-Hickson plans 9 to 11, PNCC 4/13/6, Ian Matheson city Archives, PN City Library; Lesley Courtney, The House that Quality and Value Built, pp. 8, 13-14. Also Bruce Burr of the PN Electric Power Station Inc. and PNEPS Inc. records. 397 Lesley Courtney, The House that Quality and Value Built, pp. 30-31 Page 203 Palmerston North City Council North West Square Heritage Area 2010 1937 to turn the firm into a public company, this did not happen. The firm celebrated its 75th Anniversary in 1958, and then on 22 July 1959, all shares were transferred to the firm Milne & Choyce. The various certificates of title recorded this event as a “change of name of the registered proprietor to “Milne and Choyce (Palmerston North) Ltd.” After the arrival of Milne & Choyce, the popular Luncheon and Tea Rooms closed down and were replaced with a coffee bar accessed from the George Street end of the building. The second floor then became the furnishing department. The landmark ‘Rosco’ sign also vanished and was replaced with a ‘Milne & Choyce’ sign. The name also changed on the front of the building. In 1964, the CTs record that the various properties were transferred to the Australian Mutual Provident Society (AMP), and then these were leased to Milne & Choyce, starting 1 August 1964. However, Milne & Choyce then changed its focus and the firm was sold to the D.I.C. group. The firm took over on 3 October 1966, and so again the roof sign and the façade were changed. The AMP owned the building until 1987, when the CTs record its transfer to The D.I. C. Properties Ltd. Then in 1990, the name of the registered proprietor was changed on the CTs to The A H Properties Ltd. The firm Arthur Barnett had purchased the D.I.C. group in 1987, but did not start trading under its own name until July 1989. The D.I.C. sign then vanished from the roof and was not replaced. However, the huge department store was becoming a dinosaur in the wrong part of town. The CTs duly recorded the surrender of the Arthur Barnett lease on 15 October 1992.398 The CTs record the property’s transfer to the Palmerston North City Council on the same date.399 398 The various CTs also state that the name of the lessee was changed to Huttons Kiwi Ltd. in 1992, but this aspect has not been researched further. Lesley Courtney’s book (p. 34) also states that the building was owned at one stage by Apparel Holdings (AH Properties Ltd. ?) and Brierley Cromwell, and as these firms An overhead view from around 1950. Photo: Whites Aviation Ltd., Palmerston North & District, New Zealand (Auckland, 1950), p. 2 The Legacy C.M. Ross, both the company and the man, have left some significant legacies to the city. The old Ross house, ‘Rangimarie’, is one of the surviving Featherston Street ‘big houses’, albeit now sandwiched between Rangiora and Moheke Avenues. This area was once know as the Ross Block, after the family property that became the site of the city’s second are not clearly shown on the CTs, they are assumed to be owners of the companies that are listed on the CTs, and the relationships have not been further researched. 399 The above cites as examples CTs WN229/246, 377/259, 34/110, 34/111. These were all replaced on 18 August 1993 with WN43B/123, as the titles were amalgamated. Page 204 Palmerston North City Council North West Square Heritage Area 2010 State Housing subdivision. The wave of nappies that rolled northward toward Tremaine Avenue then became the Roslyn State Housing suburb, as a result of the Ross Block identity. Roslyn Kindergarten and Roslyn and Ross Intermediate Schools quickly followed on, and then Rossmont Shopping Centre was so christened because another post office in the South Island already had the preferred name. Meanwhile, the city’s main library remains as the most visible built monument to the man and his dream. However, the building still has “The D.I.C. Ltd.” on its upper façade as a legacy to the Rosco firm’s successors. Occupants In addition to the library, the Public Trust office also occupies a shop in the building, which has the address No. 7, The Square. The George Street end of the building is listed separately in this study. Comments: Additional information may be found in the records of C.M. Ross & Co. Ltd., held by the Te Manawa Museums Trust. A bird’s eye view of most of the library complex, from the PNCC website. ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION The style of the building is Chicagoesque. This was a style that came from the steel framed buildings of Chicago of the early 20th century which were faced with a façade using the architectural language of Classical Page 205 Palmerston North City Council North West Square Heritage Area 2010 architecture. Consistent with the style, the Library exterior design is characterised by the exuberant use of Classical elements such as large cornices, and giant orders, but with a horizontal and vertical emphasis and large areas of glass, allowed for by the use of a steel frame. The building is 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. The interior of the building was largely removed in the 1997 redevelopment of the library, leaving only the exterior walls. The building’s above verandah street façade design is largely authentic. ASSESSMENT SUMMARY STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE This entire library building has high regional significance for historical and design values, representivity of building style and level of external authenticity. This entire library building has high historic and emotional values in its historic 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. The building has successfully been redeveloped as the city library, which retains the focus it once had as the premier department store. The building also has high historic values in its association with the architect of the 1928 alterations, 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. It is also associated with the architectural firm, Athfield Architects Ltd., who designed the redevelopment and whose design was awarded a NZIA National award. Significance Existing category PNCC District Plan Criteria 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 The whole of the library building has high design values as a rare and successful example of Chicagoesque while the building’s scale, style, and location give the building landmark significance in the urban design of central Palmerston North. Page 206 H H H H Palmerston North City Council The Square, 10-15 Commercial building North West Square Heritage Area 2010 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: 996 square metres more or less Pt Lot 3 DP 16927 WN32A/749 (1988); prior CT WN605/95 (c1953)400 Nil Nil Nil 147 1926 C. Tilleard Natusch & Sons Coombs Estate Unknown PHYSICAL AND SOCIAL HISTORY History This substantial building appears to have been constructed in stages over a two-year period between late 1925 and mid-1927 when a permit was finally requested to build the shop fronts. It was also built around an existing shop that was - or is – near the Main Street end of the building. 400 Note that three c1920’s CTs that cover this property all state that the subsequent CT dated 11 December 1953 was WN605/92, rather than “/95”. These three prior CTs are WN328/291 (1925, its own prior CTs including WN15/102), WN342/286 (1927) and WN344/9 (1927). However, WN344/9 appears to apply to the (two?) shops in the Commercial Hotel building and property behind part of the Commercial Building. Among the leases referred to in that building are (from 1946) are Boniface Bros. Ltd’s ‘Pink Cake Shop’ in Shop 5 (Boniface Bros., which is covered elsewhere in this study, opened this once well-known shop in 1935) and Leary’s Pharmacist Ltd., which was next to the Commercial Building. Page 207 Palmerston North City Council Prior History This building gets its name from the Commercial Hotel that once stood alongside it. Notes on the back of a photo of this building state that the original hotel there was known as Walkley’s Hotel in the 1880s, Ryan’s Hotel in the 1890s, and then as Child’s Commercial Hotel, until the new one, known simply as the Commercial Hotel, was built in 1935. That hotel was, in turn, demolished some years go.401 Photo Sq193d from the Photographic Collection at the PN City Library, shows about four single storey shops on this site in 1913-14 – three appearing very similar - with Fuller’s huge His Majesty’s Theatre seemingly looming over them from the far side of George Street. Names on the shops include (from left) obscure #1; obscure #2 (due to a tree in The Square); A. De Luen & Co., tailors; N.D. Stubbs, Hepworth; and ‘Capstan’, suggesting a tobacconist. The 1914 Wises Directory lists these as (from left) Henry Billens, photographer; Richardson & Co., bootmakers; Ravenhill & Co., land & insurance agents; de Luen & Co. (Arthur), tailors; Norman David Stubbs, watchmaker; Herbert Hepworth, chemists; and Frank Mowlem, tobacconist. CT WN 15/102 (first issued 1878 and owned by William Coombs since 1900) records John Hepworth leasing a shop site on the property in 1900. This lease was transferred to Herbert Hepworth in 1907. Herbert Hepworth, a pharmacist, built a new shop in 1917 (now a listed building known as ‘Steeles’ after a later occupant) near the BNZ bank. The partnership of Edgar Barnaby Pearce and George Wright Ravenhill also leased their property in 1900, as did jewellers Patrick O’Connor and Frank George Tydeman, who in turn had links to N.D. Stubbs. The 1925 Wises Directory lists the businesses on this site just prior to the construction of this building. At the time, the local landmark of this block (other than the Union Bank of Australia on the corner of Coleman Place) was the old Commercial Hotel, then run by Mrs Annie Clark. Shops that probably were on the site of the future Commercial Building, however, 401 Photo Sq217, Photographic Collection PN City Library North West Square Heritage Area 2010 were those of Miss Mary Billens, photographer; Albert Edward Hansel, pork butcher; Bodelia & Co., fruiterers; and Crawford & Neal, tailors. Of these, Hansel’s shop (and perhaps a ‘small goods factory’?) is likely to be that referred to in the Natusch plans mentioned below, while Crawford & Neal were to go on to occupy a shop in the new building until the 1940s. The Pam Phillips Papers, which list the activities of architects in Palmerston North between 1900 and 1950, record that a tender notice for a brick factory (site not recorded) designed by R. Thorrold-Jaggard for “A.F. Hansel”, was published in the Manawatu Evening Standard on 8 July 1926. It is not known if there is any connection between Hansel’s 1926 factory and the ‘small goods factory’ that was once behind the Commercial Building.402 CT WN342/286 (1927) states that his sublease on this property was due to run out on 31 December 1928. The sublease of a second tenant, Hilton Thomas Strawbridge, was also due to run out then. These two had sublet their premises from William Henry Payne, who had in turn leased part of the property from Alice Coombs for a 21-year period starting 1 January 1908.403 It seems likely that these two subleases influenced the decision to build their premises into the new building. The Building The original plans for this building, drawn up by C. Tilleard Natusch & Sons variously in July or August 1925, are held in the Ian Matheson City Archives. These state that the three-storey building was in part built around “existing shops” near the Main Street end of the building, and whose walls and ceilings were to remain intact. A ‘small goods’ factory at the back of the building (directly behind the ‘existing shops’) was also to remain intact. The new work included 13ft 5ins added to the Main Street side of the ‘existing buildings’ (which in turn was 25ft 11ins wide), and 50ft 11ins 402 Pam Phillips Papers, ‘Palmerston North Architects 1900-1950: Tenders in order of Architect’s names’, Vol. 4, p. 47, Ian Matheson City Archives, PN City Library Albert Edward Hansel, described as a company director, died 30 May 1972, aged 79. William Henry Payne might be the same as William Payne, a gardener who died on 9 September 1932, aged 85. (Ref: PNCC cemetery records) 403 Page 208 Palmerston North City Council added to the Coleman Place side of it – a total of 91ft of road frontage (including walls). The main entrance hall was at the centre of four shops, and this led to the space for the lift, the meter room and the stairs, behind which was a strongroom. A bicycle shed and three toilet blocks protruded from the new parts of back of the building, and were of brick – the ‘existing’ building’s layout not being defined. Part of the new area protruded out the back to match the length of the existing small goods factory, and the plan of the first floor shows that this contained three of the floor’s nine offices built to that time. Again the ‘existing’ area (and its 13ft 5ins extension) was not developed fully at that time, with the area having a note “No ceiling finish to this portion of the building.” Thus only a little over half of the first floor was to be completed as offices from the start. The partitions between the offices were to be of brick, and, as well as doors onto the main passage, most also had doors that opened onto one of the adjoining offices. The second floor had a further ten rooms (excluding toilets etc), and these were all evidently developed from the start. A few of these rooms also had interconnecting doors. The PNCC Building Permit Register records that the Coombs Estate applied for a permit for this building in November 1925. It was to be built of concrete at a cost of £16,083.404 Natusch & Sons advertised on 10 August 1925 seeking tenders to building an unidentified block of shops and offices in Palmerston North, in reinforced concrete and brick. Tender notices were to be sent to the architects care of the offices of Clifton Mowlem, a land agent who was executor of the Mowlem Estate, however, the date doesn’t coincide with the Mowlem shops and offices covered in this study405 Although this tender notice post-dates the Commercial Building’s plans, it was still three months prior to the council issuing the building permit. Pam Phillips’ records of the tender notices published in the Manawatu Evening North West Square Heritage Area 2010 Standard, lists no other Natusch tender notices between this one and the March 1926 one that does apply to this building.406 On 20 March 1926, Natusch & Sons advertised in the Manawatu Evening Standard seeking tenders from electrical engineers to undertake electrical installation work, and also to install an electric elevator and a goods lift. They added that these were required for the “building in the course of erection for the Coombs Estate” in the Square.407 The 1925 plans also noted that no shop fronts had been included in the original contract. Accordingly, the Building Permit Register records that the Coombes Estate applied for a permit to build the shop fronts in July 1927, to a value of £900.408 In May 1948, R. & W. Thorrold-Jaggard drew up plans for a bulk food store on the property for Wilson’s Small Goods Specialists.409 This will have been for A.S. Wilson, who had a delicatessen in the building, his shop then being numbered 98 The Square. Photo Sq 267, from the PN Library photographic collection, shows this building around 1930-32, dwarfed by the new Rosco building (the present library), but towering over the old Commercial Hotel, which was duly replaced in 1935. Photo Sq284 (1937) shows the newly built hotel. The title “Commercial Buildings” is not visible on the façade of this building in the photo – just as it is not shown on the original plans. The title is, however, present on photo Sq217, taken around 1971. This photo identifies the shops as from left: Gerald Taylor Ltd., Williams Saddlery, John’s Meat Market, Gerrands Jewellers, British Office Supplies. The 406 404 Building Permit Register, Vol. 3, p. 384, PNCC 4/13/1, Ian Matheson City Archives, PN City Library. Manawatu Evening Standard, 10 August 1925 2(2) 405 Pam Phillips Papers, ‘Palmerston North Architects 1900-1950’, Ian Matheson City Archives, PN City Library 407 Manawatu Evening Standard 20 March 1926 2(1) 408 Building Permit Register, Vol. 3, p. 389, PNCC 4/13/1, Ian Matheson City Archives, PN City Library 409 Pam Phillips Papers, ‘PN Architects 1900-1950: Plans held at Palmerston North Archives’, Vol.3, p. 21, Ian Matheson City Archives, PN City Library. Page 209 Palmerston North City Council building was, however, referred to as the “Commercial Building” in the 1933 Stones Directory. The PNCC Building Permit file on this building (T25/14-19) includes information on the alteration to its shop fronts. The first of these was for W.A. Knight & Son, in plans dated January 1960. This shop had access to the strongroom behind the staircase and so the firm must have replaced Turnbull & Jones. W.A. Knight & Son Ltd. had previously occupied one of the shops in the Norfolk House building in Coleman Place between about 1953 and 1960. Another shop front was replaced in early 1980, this time for Leader & Watt’s Retail Showroom alongside the (then) D.I.C. A third was replaced in mid-1981. North West Square Heritage Area 2010 A Geo-Guide view of the Commercial Building from the PNCC website. In the original plans, the ‘new’ office wing and the ‘small goods factory’ wing (which was about where the number ‘14’ is) extended back to approximately the same distance from the road. The photos below give a different perspective. The pre1926 small-goods factory site is now a carpark, although the ground level building with the windows, shows signs of previously being attached to some other building The Building Permit file also records that the Medici Italian Restaurant occupied most of the second floor by 1980, and the phonebooks indicate that it was there until about 1986. The building was re-roofed in 1996. The Coombs Estate The Coombs family owned a significant chunk of the land at the Main Street end of the block where this building stands. Some of this land is now occupied by the library buildings. The book Colonial Homes of Palmerston North states that William Coombs had farmed a large property at Linton before taking up a considerable block of land at Tukituki, near Havelock North. There he built a 20-room homestead, only to die soon after. Mrs Coombs then returned to Palmerston North and bought land in Featherston Street, Terrace End, where she had a replica of the Tukutuki house built, and she remained there for the rest of her life.410 410 Eileen Revere Wright & Edith Doretta Woodhouse, Colonial Homes of Palmerston North (Wellington, 1973), p. 30 Page 210 Palmerston North City Council William Coombs died on 14 September 1907 aged 65, and the PNCC cemetery records describe him as a grazier of Tuki Tuki, Hawkes Bay. Born in Gloucester, England, in 1842, he had migrated to New Zealand, via time in Australia, and then settled in Wanganui, where he was proprietor of a hotel. He later owned land in Fitzherbert (Linton) and Aorangi, which he eventually sold, and then “invested largely in property in the Square, which he retained up to the time of his death.” About eighteen months before his death, he bought property in Hawkes Bay and moved there. However, that was resold about two months before his death – which, due to long-standing health problems, was not unexpected.411 He had been married twice, and at the time of his death, in Hastings, his 412 eldest child was about eighteen years old. Although the historical CTs for this property were not sighted during this study, others from the set involving the library property show that a number of CTs for land in the vicinity were issued to William Coombs in 1881413, and that he was described as a settler of Palmerston North. The CTs further record that in 1907, his property was transmitted to his widow, Alice Coombs of Tukituki. In 1921, Alice Coombs transferred the property to her four children. These are Alice Elizabeth Collins (married woman of Hawera), William Alfred Coombs (clerk of PN), Nina Edith Coombs, and Ella Mavis Coombs (both spinsters of PN) as tenants in common. In 1926, notices of marriage were added to the CTs for Nina Edith Coombs, who had married John Elliot 411 An online research stream in the genealogical website Rootsweb states that William Coombs owned Tukituki Station, and that a report of his sale of the property appears in the Hawera and Normanby Star of 1 August 1907, p. 5. The same online stream states that the original homestead on the property burnt down in the early 1990s. This matter has not otherwise been researched. 412 Manawatu Evening Standard 16 September 1907 5(1) 413 Note that the number of these involving this block that were first issued in 1881 might suggest something other than that the purchase occurred in 1881. For example, the Union Bank of Australia’s CT for example, was issued to Sylvester Coleman, after whom the street is named, the same day in 1881 that it was issued to the bank. North West Square Heritage Area 2010 Lindsay Gardner, a local land agent; while Ella Mavis Coombs had married William Blair Tennant, a dentist. Members of the Coombs family appear to 414 have remained owners of the property until at least the early 1950s. Ella Mavis Coombs, the youngest daughter of the family, had married 415 William Blair Tennant on 11 August 1925 , and his dental surgery was to be based in this building until the 1950s. He also served as Member of Parliament for Palmerston North (1949-1954) and later Manawatu (19571966). There is a belief referred to in the Historic Places Trust (Manawatu) file for this building that Natusch came to design this building as a result of a marriage between one of the Natusch sons and a relative of the Coombs family. The marriage in question occurred on 19 May 1914 between Charles Aleck Natusch, eldest son of Mr and Mrs C. Tilleard Natusch, of Wellington416; and Georgina Isabel, fifth daughter of Mr and Mrs Robert Gardner of Palmerston North. The Gardner home, ‘Te Karina’, was at Terrace End.417 Thus Ella Gardner (nee Coombs) and Charles Aleck Natusch were married to Gardner siblings. Alice Coombs, widow of William Coombs, and herself owner of the future site of the Commercial Building for over a decade, died at her home ‘Birchanger’, in Featherston Street, Terrace End, on 9 January 1940, aged 82. Her obituary recorded that she was born in Essex, England, in 1857, and came to New Zealand in 1887. She then married William Coombs, who at the time was farming at Fitzherbert. She was described as “of outstanding character and marked ability, (and who) always took an active 414 Sources viewed are CTs WN 26/136 (Main St.) and WN25/174 (cnr George & Main Sts.). These CTs and others were combined in 1953 as WN 605/92. The Commercial Building’s prior CT is WN605/95, suggesting that it dates from the same time. 415 Manawatu Evening Standard 12 August 1925 9(1) 416 See also: Guy K. Natusch, ‘Natusch, Charles Tilleard, 1959-1951’ in The Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, Vol. 3 (Wellington, 1996), pp. 356-7 417 Manawatu Evening Standard 20 May 1914 6(3) Page 211 Palmerston North City Council interest in religious and social welfare wherever she had lived and particularly has Palmerston North benefited by her activities. Her outstanding work on the Patriotic Society during the Great War and later her untiring work as president of the Plunket Society will not be forgotten. Many will mourn her passing in addition to her own immediate family circle.” North West Square Heritage Area 2010 1927, however, all have since been ‘modernised’. 419 This shop front was apparently replaced in 1960 when the jewellery firm W.A. Knight & Son took over this shop.420 Alice Coombs is also remembered for her large home in Featherston Street – one of the surviving Terrace End ‘big houses’, known nowadays as ‘Hillcrest’. However, contrary to popular belief, during the Coombs family’s occupancy the house was named ‘Birchanger’.418 Turnbull & Jones Ltd. Turnbull & Jones Ltd. advertised themselves in the 1937 book From Swamp to City as ‘The Electrical Firm’ that provided ‘Everything Electrical for the Home’. This included Moffatt electrical ranges and refrigerators, Washmaster electric washing machines, and a wide range of other domestic electrical ‘labour-saving devices. The firm had arrived in Palmerston North about 1929 and for the first six years was based in King Street. It moved to The Square in the mid-1930s. The firm undertook wiring installations etc. as well as retail. Among Turnbull & Jones’ industrial work was the electrical fitting out of the Palmerston North Electric Power Station itself, in Keith Street, in 1923-24. The firm’s shop in the Commercial Building was present until about 1960, and had been joined by their workshop on the first floor by the early 1940s. The photo below shows their shop front in 1937 from the aforementioned publication. Presumably this one was typical of the shop fronts built in The Art Cabinet Co. Ltd. The Art Cabinet Company occupied the shop closest to the present library building for about 25 years. Its entry in From Swamp to City, states that the shop opened in The Square in October 1935. However, the firm had been operating in Wellington for some thirty years before that. In its first two years, its business had done so well, that its floor space had trebled, 418 The house is referred to as ‘Birchanger’ when the Tennant-Combs wedding occurred there in 1925, and also when Alice died there in 1940. The source of the subsequent name ‘Hillcrest’ is unknown, and the house’s architect is also unknown. Manawatu Evening Standard 12 August 1925 9(1), 10 January 1940 11(4). 419 ‘Turnbull & Jones Ltd.’, Robert H Billens & H. Leslie Verry, From Swamp to City (Palmerston North, 1937). Pages unnumbered. Also PN Electrical Power Station Inc. history per V.A. Burr (Secretary, PNEPS Inc.) 420 PNCC Building Permit file T25/14-19, Durrant & Cantlon, Jan. 1960 plans. Page 212 Palmerston North City Council and its staff had also. The firm stated that “having absolute faith in the future of Palmerston North, the Art Cabinet Co. today has a modern and spacious showroom, carrying complete stocks of furniture of all descriptions, including bedding, carpets, upholstery, soft furnishings, etc. There is no doubt that an increasing number of Palmerston North homes will in time come to reflect the discrimination always exercised by the Art Cabinet Co. Ltd.” The article was illustrated with a view of a well-furnished ‘modern’ sitting room. North West Square Heritage Area 2010 First Floor Stones 1933 Wises 1936-39 Wises 1939-44 Shop (1) nearest Main St. Stones 1933-44 106/96 The Square - Crawford & Neal, tailors and costumiers (& Wises) Wises 1953-4 96 The Square - W.M. Sexton Ltd., drapery Wises 1957-60 96 The Square - Fraser Munro Ltd., Drapers Photo Sq 217 c1971 Gerald Taylor Ltd., Now 14 The Square: DTR, 14 The Square www.dtr.co.nz (incl. shops 2 & 2a) Shop (2) that predated 1925 Wises 1925 Albert Edward Hansel, pork butcher (his lease to at least Dec. 1928) Stones 1933 108 The Square - Mrs Jean Page, mens and boys footwear (& Wises) Wises 1936 107 The Square - William Whaley, grocer Wises 1939-60 107/97 The Square - Schneideman & Co., tailors (Also UFSD Bdg, Square) Photo Sq 217 c1971 Williams Saddlery (previously in Nash Bdg, George St.) Shop (2a) (Shop 2 subdivided?) Wises 1939-57 108/98 The Square – Mrs A.S. Wilson, delicatessen Wises 1959-60 98 The Square - Wilsons Delicatessen, L.A. Mitchell, prop., crumpets, pies, small goods manufacturer Photo Sq 217 c1971 John’s Meat Market Wises 1953-4 Wises 1957 Wises 1959-60 Now Second Floor Stones 1933 Wises 1939 Wises 1944-60 About 1980-86 phonebooks) Now 109 The Square - Miss Annie Cottom, hosiery repairer; First Church of Christ Scientist (Reading Room); William Blair Tennant, dentist; Colonial Mutual Life Assurance Soc. Ltd.; W. Wilson, inspector 109 The Square - William B. Tennant, dentist; Colonial Mutual Insurance Co. Ltd. 99 The Square - William B. Tennant, dentist; Hollywood School of Dressmaking; Colonial Mutual Life Assurance Soc. Ltd.; Ms Frances E. Revere, music teacher 99 The Square - Turnbull & Jones (works); William B. Tennant, dentist; Hollywood School of Dressmaking; Mrs F.M. Anderson, piano teacher; W.A. Waters, construction engineer; W.A. Waters, construction engineer; J Mrs Robinson, dentist; Colonial Mutual Life Assurance Soc. Ltd. 99 The Square - Turnbull & Jones (works); Antoinette Dressmaking Salon; Mrs F.M. Anderson, music teacher; Hong & Robinson, dentists 99 The Square - Turnbull & Jones (works); Antoinette Dressmaking Salon; Mrs F.M. Anderson, music teacher; J.M. Robinson, dentists Unknown NZ Express Co. Ltd. sample rooms Child Bros. sample rooms Dept. of Agriculture Medici Italian Restaurant (Bdg Permit files & Unknown Page 213 Palmerston North City Council North West Square Heritage Area 2010 110 The Square - John Aitchison Ltd., grocers façade (east) has nine bays with the central seven bays projecting slightly forward with pilasters dividing the bays. Above each of the pilasters and windows are roundels. 110 Ms Kitty Emden, milliner 110/100 The Square - Turnbull & Jones Ltd., electrical engineers, latterly as Head Office c1960 (Bdg Permit files) W.A. Knight & Son (jeweller ex-Norfolk House, Coleman Pl) Photo Sq 217 c1971 Gerrands Jewellers Now 11 The Square: Asset Finance, http://www.assetfinance.co.nz/finance-companypalmerston-north.php The ground floor plan is ‘U’ shaped and has four shops and central entry, which leads to a central lift and stair, which wraps around the lift. The first floor has an open space to the southern half of the building with an east/west central corridor from the stair landing. Off the corridor are offices facing the street. The central corridor turns at right angles along the north wall with further giving access to further offices, which overlook a central open area. Shop (3) Stones 1933 (branch) Wises 1936 Wises 1939-60 Shop (4) nearest Coleman Place Stones 1933 111 The Square - Mrs Elizabeth Croucher, art needlework specialist. Wises 1936 111 Mrs L. Croucher, draper 1935- Wises 1960 111/101 Art Cabinet Co. Ltd., house furnishers Photo Sq 217 c1971 British Office Supplies By 1980-1991 Leader & Watt retail showroom (Bdg Permit files & phonebooks) Now 10 The Square: NZCU Baywide, MidCentral, http://www.nzcu.co.nz/default_022.html The second floor has matching corridors to the first floor but with larger rooms access from it. Construction is reinforced concrete floors and frame with brick internal walls. STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE This building has high local significance for historical and design values, representivity of building style and type and level of external authenticity. Comments: Some of this building’s historic Certificates of Title, needed to clarify its succession of owners since 1953, were not sighted in the course of this study. This building has high historic values in its connection to the Coombs family, who were substantial property owners in the Hawkes Bay and Manawatu, as well as the Turnbull and Jones Ltd, an electrical business that occupied a shop in the building for over 30 years. ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION The building is designed in the Inter-War neo-Georgian style, which is a related style to the Stripped Classical style where the composition is Classical with limited, stylised Classical detailing. Georgian is a more simple interpretation of the Classical style and, as with this building, is symmetrical with modest detailing. The building is three storied with ground floor central entry, a piano nobile, and attic storey. The street The building’s architect, C T Natusch whose practice was one of the most significant of the first half of the 20th century in New Zealand contributing a high level of historic values. The original and later ownership and tenants reflects a moderate level of continuity as a typical pattern of similar commercial buildings throughout the city. Page 214 Palmerston North City Council North West Square Heritage Area 2010 The building has high design values as an excellent and rare representative example of the Inter- War Neo-Georgian style. 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. The building has high external authenticity. ASSESSMENT SUMMARY Significance Proposed category PNCC District Plan Criteria Cultural Emotional Historical 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 H H H H H H Page 215 Palmerston North City Council The Square, 153-154 UFSD building North West Square Heritage Area 2010 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: 466 square metres more or less Lot 2 & Lot 4 DP 6285 WN304/270 (1923); prior CT WN133/184 (1904) Nil Nil Nil Nil 1928 A.R. Allen The Palmerston North United Friendly Societies’ Dispensary F. Jackson & Sons PHYSICAL AND SOCIAL HISTORY History This building was designed to house Palmerston North’s United Friendly Societies’ Dispensary. It also contained a second ground floor shop, along with office space upstairs for more tenants. In addition, it has also had what seems almost obligatory for this block, a fire and a billiard parlour. However, it can claim something more unique – its rather spectacular encounter with the 1936 Gale. Many tenants seem to have had some relationship to the ‘health’ industry. The property on which it stands runs through to Cuba Street, and the U.F.S. Chambers at the Cuba Street end, and which for two decades housed the city’s Urgent Medical Dispensary (later called the Urgent Pharmacy) is also part of this study. Page 216 Palmerston North City Council Prior History CT WN 133/184 was issued on 9 June 1904 to James Carroll, hotelkeeper – being the owner of the Clarendon Hotel. This hotel had burnt down on 28 January 1904, along with some of its neighbours. However, a photo taken the next day (PN Library photo Sq 250) shows the building on this site, which had been saved by its brick wall. The CT reveals that in 1900, Carroll had leased space in this building to Arthur Hopwood for a period of ten years. Hopwood, in turn, had transferred his lease to Alexander Youngson in April 1905. The CT also records that James Carroll died on 21 May 1905. The book on the history of Hopwood’s firm reveals that although his business survived due to the brick wall, he did lose stock due to smoke damage, and to the pilfering that followed the fire. A newspaper reported at the time that Hopwood’s shop was among the heavy losers to this pilfering. Hopwood had then moved down the road to the newly converted former Theatre Royal building – now the site of the Mowlem Buildings covered in this study. The latter was built in 1925 after the former Theatre Royal building burnt down in 1924. Again Hopwood’s firm survived a major fire – this time by having relocated again about four years earlier421 The building on this site before 1928, was distinctive due to a partially enclosed balcony above the verandah. This balcony appears to have served as a prime vantage point for photos of parades on the street below. A long time occupant of this building was Mrs Jinnie Rawlins, who operated ‘The White House’ dining and luncheon rooms there from 1908, when she had taken over the aforementioned Alexander Youngson’s lease. Her regular advert in the newspaper stated that she catered weddings and smoke concerts, and that catering dances was a specialty. She also served afternoon tea on the balcony.422 North West Square Heritage Area 2010 Two other prominent tenants appear on CT WN 304/270. Henry Llewellyn Young, of the well-known stationery firm of the recent past, H.L. Young Ltd., appears to have leased the building then on the site now occupied by the U.F.S. Chambers, from 1906. The other was Henry Meredith Garner (and later with his wife Elizabeth) who leased part of the property from 1905 – their Cuba Street ‘Garner Bros.’ shop opening in February 1906.423 By 1923, the property had been subdivided into four parts, and that year the Garners firm purchased Lots 1 and 3. The firm then relocated to The Square end of their property – before moving on again in 1937 to become one of the best-known Broadway businesses of its era. Meanwhile, Lots 2 and 4, of DP 6285 (CT WN 304/270) were also sold in 1923, these going to the Trustees of the Palmerston North United Friendly Societies’ Dispensary The new CT records that Jinnie Ann Rawlins renewed her lease for five years starting 22 March 1923, and then transferred the lease to J. Rawlins Ltd., in 1924. That lease was then transferred to Gertrude Elizabeth Freeman, wife of Leonard Robert Freeman, hotel broker, in 1925. Her firm was called Freemans’ Caterers. The lease was due to expire in March 1928.424 The Building Permit Register, Vol. 3, records two entries in its Additions & Alterations section, for work for the UFS in The Square, to be done somewhere on this property. The first permit was issued on 6 June 1924, for work done with wood and valued at £26. The second job was much more substantial. This was permitted on 27 July 1924, and the work, in brick and concrete, was valued at £700.425 Unfortunately the work involved is not apparent. 423 421 Keith Goldsack, More than Hardware: Arthur Hopwood and the business he founded (Palmerston North, 2000), p. 18, 23. 422 Manawatu Evening Standard, 8 November 1912 1(3) regular advert for ‘The White House’ Ian Matheson, ‘The Birth of Palmerston North’, Evening Standard Centenary Supplement, 13 March 1971, advert inside front cover. 424 PN Library photo Sq 402 (1927) show “Freeman’s Caterers” on the upper façade. 425 Building Permit Register, Vol. 3, PNCC Series 4/13/1, Ian Matheson City Archives, PN City Library Page 217 Palmerston North City Council The present building A.R. Allen’s plans for this building, dated 12 May 1928, indicate that it consists of a basement beneath the back of the building (measuring 12 ft by 25 ft. and containing the building’s heating system and coke chute426), two ground floor shops, the first floor consisting of two rooms, and a second floor meeting room (which served at the UFSD’s boardroom), which protrudes from the roof. This meeting room, along with the stairwell, contained “old material” presumably recycled from the previous building. The shop on the Rangitikei Street side was described as “Shop 1”, and the basement is beneath this shop. The staircase to it, however, is from “Shop 2”, which was the UFS’s chemist shop (or dispensary) in this building and which was also in the same location in its predecessor. There was also an opening in the party wall on the western side of the building that led to an existing staircase in the neighbouring building that in turn led from the first floor directly to the street. A feature of the building was a large louvred skylight mounted on the roof, which was described as being of Pinkerton wired glass and supported by Pennycook’s ‘F’ bars. This was about two-thirds of the width of the building, and was atop a glazed light and air well that reaches down through the first floor’s Room 2, to the ceiling of the ground floor overlooking the actual dispensary. A second smaller skylight in the roof of the second floor room, overlooked the two staircases that, in turn, began in Shop 2 and passed across Shop 1. Although Shop 2 was narrower than Shop 1, it clearly predominated in terms of use of space.427 426 The plans for the U.F.S. Chambers in Cuba Street show a long internal passage along the western side of that building. This passage and presumably one like it in the previous building on that site, are the means by which coke, etc. would have been delivered to this location in this building – other than through the middle of the shops. 427 Plan 530/186-187, PNCC 4/13/6, Ian Matheson City Archives. North West Square Heritage Area 2010 The permit was duly issued on 18 June 1928, and the brick building was to cost £5,141. Its builder was F. Jackson & Sons.428 The angled skylight on the roof of UFDS building is clearly visible above, alongside the second floor meeting room where the UFS committee held its board meetings. The separate access to the first floor is through the side of the dark-roofed building sometimes referred to as the McDuff building (or its replacement), and at other times as the Woolworth’s building. Photo: Whites Aviation Ltd., Palmerston North & District, New Zealand (Auckland, 1950), p. 2 The Occupants Mortgages listed on CT WN 304/270 between May and November 1928 are doubtless applicable to the construction of the new building. The first lease involving the new building, was the letting of Shop 1 to J. R. MacKenzie Ltd. for a seven-year term starting on 14 November 1928. By the 1933 Stones Directory, this firm had moved to a neighbouring shop, a location that firm occupied for decades (albeit that its building was 428 Building Permit Register, Vol. 3, PNCC 4/13/1, Ian Matheson City Archives, PN City Library Page 218 Palmerston North City Council replaced during that time). Thereafter no shop leases are referred to on the CT. Various upstairs rooms within the building were leased for five-year terms, starting on 1 April 1930, with Charles George Wilson. He leased Rooms 1, 2 and 3 (effectively the entire first floor), with rights over Rooms 5, 6 and 7 (the latter being the toilets etc.). Wilson is listed in the 1933 Wises Directory as operating it as a billiard parlour. The CT indicates that the side stairwell through the adjoining building served the billiard parlour. This also causes problems in terms of outlining with certainty the occupancy of the first floor of this building, as the Directories tended to assume that known occupants of this building, were in fact upstairs in the neighbouring building. Possibly some were. Wilson must have departed about 1933, as he was gone before the 1933 Stones Directory was published in November 1933, which indicates that he had been replaced by a dentist, a music teacher and Miss Maud Pritchard, a dressmaker who was still there in 1960. A new lease in 1935 for the same rooms that Wilson had, plus the passageway, was to Jack Goldie Anderson. This in turn was transferred to William John Anderson in 1938 – with the lease ending 1940. Their use of the building is unclear, however, a sign on top of the building’s façade in the 1930s reads “Anderson & Bell”.429 The 1936 Gale Photo Stm8 in the PN City Library’s photographic collection shows Shop No. 2’s front entrance smashed and scattered on the footpath. At the time, Schneideman Bros. occupied the shop, however, the display items from their advertised annual suit sale are nowhere to be seen. The photo was taken just after the 1936 Gale passed through the region on Sunday, 2 February, killing a man in Elmira Avenue and causing serious and widespread damage. Described as the worst in living memory to that time, it had struck in the early hours of the morning and had lasted unabated for North West Square Heritage Area 2010 most of the day. The Manawatu Evening Standard recorded, amongst its extensive report of the event, that: When the gale had subsided the Square presented an amazing spectacle with its broken hoardings and broken plate glass windows. Heavy damage was done to those in the shopping area; particularly on the north-western side of the Square, where the footpaths were littered at frequent intervals with broken glass. Inside the pharmaceutical premises there was a scene of chaos where the wind had ravaged the dispensing room after a skylight had been stove in.430 The Wises Directories appear to list the address of the first floor according to its street access in the adjoining building. Therefore in 1936, this floor had the address 134 The Square and had three occupants. The 1939 Directory lists one of the occupants at this address as William J. Anderson, a dentist. By the 1944 Directory, the street number is 121 The Square, and the occupants include known tenants of the first floor, namely Glaxo Laboratories and the Standard Optical Company. Ronald Gordon Spence leased Rooms 1 and 2 (with right of way over Rooms 5-7) for five years starting 10 June 1940. The Standard Optical Company of Australasia Ltd. then leased Room 3 (plus access to Rooms 5-7) from 1 August 1940. In 1950, they added Room 2 to their lease for another five years. Stanley Kenneth Phillips (a dentist) then leased Room 1 (“together with use of WC’s on the first floor and the passages…”) from 1 April 1954, until the lease was taken over by Henry Charles Brian Wycherley in 1962. Thereafter no leases are recorded on the CT. The history of the Glaxo firm, Glaxo: From Bonnie Babies to Better Medicine, records that in 1942, the company’s main office moved from their Bunnythorpe factory, to the area above the chemist shop within this building. This was due to the need to make room for the expanded manufacturing programme at the factory. The company also rented space 430 429 PN Library photo Sq 250 (c1936). Manawatu Evening Standard, 3 February 1936 7(4). Part of a much larger report. Page 219 Palmerston North City Council North West Square Heritage Area 2010 in the neighbouring MacDuff building (since demolished – probably once Garners’ shop), although this might have been a misinterpreted reference to the lease of the staircase in the McDuff building. The Glaxo office remained there until 1950, when that company’s new premises in Botanical Road were completed.431 The Fire This building has not escaped the tendency to serious fires that afflicted this block in the past. The Manawatu Evening Standard of 15 October 1948 recorded: Early morning fire: Building in city, Brigade’s good save An outbreak of fire gutted part of the first floor of the United Friendly Societies’ building in the Square in the early hours of this morning. Considerable damage was done to manufacturing equipment in the Standard Optical Company’s premises, where the fire is believed to have started, and in the office of Glaxo Laboratories (NZ) Ltd. Pieces of framing from the skylight fell through the floor of Schneideman and Sons’ shop and set the linoleum alight, but this portion of the fire was extinguished before the flames could spread. The alarm was given at 5:30am by a passing motorist who noticed smoke emitting from the ventilators in the roof of the building. The Palmerston North Fire Brigade dispatched two engines, under Superintendent N.G. Buick, to the scene of the fire. At first there was some doubt as to where it was situated, as no flames were visible. Hook ladders were erected up the face of the U.F.S. building, and entry was eventually gained by forcing a glass door at the back of the building. The seat of the fire appeared to be beside the skylight near a temporary partition between the Standard Optical Company’s premises and Glaxo’s offices. The partition was quickly burnt through though, and the fire spread through both offices. Fortunately, the building is a concrete one, and the absence of draught prevented a further spread of the flames. Little material damage was done, though heat, smoke, and water took their usual toll. A large stock of optical lenses was untouched by the fire. It is not yet certain what the cost of the damage is, but a large amount of papering and plastering work will have to be done. The premises and equipment were fully insured. When flames were discovered at the back of Schneideman’s shop, the front door was forced open and the blazing linoleum was extinguished before the fire could spread to the valuable stock in the shop. Firemen also gained access to the first floor through the damaged skylight. The cause of the outbreak is not yet definitively known, but investigations are being carried out.432 This building’s original June 1928 entry in the Building Permit Register (Vol. 3, p. 394) includes the note “loaned L.G. West 21/10/1948”, indicating that this architectural firm probably did the repairs. The CT records that in 2002, the property was sold to present owners, Simon Francis and Catherine Russ. In May 2003, Catherine Russ opened the Thermostat Art Gallery on the first floor of the building overlooking The Square, in space previously occupied by dentists and a beautician. There were also three flats on the property – two of these being in the U.F.S. Chambers. In 2005, this gallery was described as one of the two main private galleries in town (along with Taylor Jensen Fine Arts in another building being studied here). The article stated that the gallery was “a space created to cultivate artists. Run under the most optimal conditions to see art with huge windows pooling natural light into the room and bare white walls…”433 432 431 Julia Millen, Glaxo: From Bonnie Babies to Better Medicine, the people who made Glaxo (Palmerston North, 1991), pp. 93, 107 Manawatu Evening Standard, 15 October 1948 4(6) Manawatu Evening Standard 10 May 2003, p. 4 ‘Hot art chemistry’, & 21 January 2005, p. 18 ‘Doubletake. 433 Page 220 Palmerston North City Council North West Square Heritage Area 2010 The United Friendly Societies’ Dispensary The friendly society movement originated in England where local communities formed voluntary associations for mutual aid. This was a forerunner to medical benefit funds and the aim was to serve the ordinary person by providing sick pay if they were unable to work, funeral allowances if the family breadwinner died, and to permit them access to reasonably priced quality medicines. Over time these local groups joined with other similar groups, and these became the basis of the friendly societies. The local groups were known as lodges. Some of these lodges combined to establish medical benefit societies that contracted doctors to serve their members. At first these doctors supplied the medicine they prescribed, however later the united friendly society dispensaries were formed to supply medicine to the lodge members.434 this study, and the building concerned is now 207 Cuba Street and occupied by the Crankit cycle shop. The dispensary is listed in this location in the Wises Directories between at least 1916 and 1922, and it probably remained there until 1923, the year the UFSD bought the site being studied here. A meeting held on 13 March 1906 with a view to starting a United Friendly Societies’ dispensary in Palmerston, failed to gain enough support at that time to proceed with the attempt. Only 206 shares, out of the 2,000 needed to start the project, were applied for. Of the ten lodges involved, the Druids, at 115 shares offered, were the most enthusiastic about signing up. Four lodges did not apply for any shares.435 The UFS Dispensary’s shop closed down in about 1998, after about 75 years on this site – in two different buildings on the same site. The UFS Chambers facing Cuba Street, which was built in 1961, had earlier ceased operating as the Urgent Pharmacy by 1982. The organisation’s name was then changed to the Palmerston North United Friendly Societies Board in 2000, along with a number of other rule changes that were previously required when running the dispensary. By that time the organisation consisted of only five lodges. The funds from the sale were then invested and the resulting interest is in part used for active members of the Friendly Societies in Palmerston North, and for subsidising prescriptions.439 In November 1912 another meeting was called by the United Friendlies’ Council, met with much more success. The council was “now very hopeful of establishing the dispensary at a very early date.”436 The “Palmerston North United Friendly Societies’ Dispensary” was duly registered on 16 October 1914.437 What appears to have been the UFSD’s first dispensary was located in Cuba Street, in the oldest of the block of three near identical two-storied buildings on the corner of Cuba and Lombard Streets. This block is part of 434 http://www.terrywhitechemistslaunceston.com.au/history.php “What are Friendly Societies?” - Launceston Friendly Society Pharmacy Ltd., Australia. Manawatu Evening Standard, 15 March 1906, 4(6) 436 Manawatu Evening Standard, 13 November 1912 4(7) 437 No. 1803008, Companies Office website: www companies.govt.nz 435 The NZ Truth published an article on the Palmerston North United Friendly Societies’ Dispensary’s first annual report in January 1916. This recorded that 1949 shares at ten shillings each, had been taken up, resulting in a paid up capital of £933. “With that small sum a very promising chemist’s business has been built up. To prove that statement we have the fact that a gross profit of £942 was made in the first year of operation.” The society had made a nett profit of £159/9/10 in that year.438 At present there are eleven UFS Dispensaries in New Zealand, the closest being in Hawkes Bay and Wellington.440 438 NZ Truth, Issue 554, 29 January 1916, p. 4 ‘ Palmerston North United Friendly Societies Dispensary’ (my copy from paperspast.natlib.govt.nz) 439 Manawatu phone books; Companies Office website: www companies.govt.nz ; and Mather Papers, Cuba Street (PN Historical Society Inc., 2007) p. 31. Note that UFSD rules are also available on the Companies Office website from when the dispensary was operating. 440 http://www.hibernian.org.nz/ufsdispensaries.htm Page 221 Palmerston North City Council North West Square Heritage Area 2010 Schneideman & Sons Ltd. Schneidemans had a long connection with this building. The millinery and tailoring firm, which had arrived in Palmerston North about 1922, was burnt out in the major fire of 22-23 February 1924 that destroyed the former Theatre Royal building. It is not clear when the firm took over the lease of their shop in this building, but they had replaced a branch of the tailoring firm Burton Montague by the mid 1930s. tradition of a firm which has extended throughout New Zealand and has an exceptionally large staff at its command. Selecting, with the aid of competent buyers, all the latest in suit fabrics, both for quality, serviceability, pattern, and all the factors which go to the making of smart clothes, they are in a position to fit every customer and to satisfy every desire as to style. With years of tailoring experience to stand them in good stead, they have perfected the art of giving a man the clothes that make him at ease on all occasions. Whether for the office, sports or social occasions, a Schneideman suit lends the assurance indispensable to success. This hallmark of quality, coupled as it is with a record of prices that make tailoring by Schneidemans an economy, have brought to the Palmerston North branch a large and appreciative clientele, including many country residents…441 The naturalisation records of six male members of the Schneideman family – one dated 1911, while the rest were either 1920 or 1921 – indicated that they were from Riga, Latvia, and that the three oldest of them had previously been naturalised in the United Kingdom. All six were tailors living in Wellington at the time of their various naturalisations.442 It is not clear which if any members of this family came to Palmerston North. Their entry in the 1937 Palmerston North Diamond Jubilee book, From Swamp to City, included the above photo that shows the leadlight upper windows that survived the 1936 Gale the previous year. The article also gave an indication of the firm’s perception of its place in the local market: It was about fifteen years ago that Messrs Schneideman and Co., a tailoring and suiting house with a fine reputation already established elsewhere for high quality workmanship, realised something of the great future that awaited Palmerston North and decided to extend their activities to this centre. Since then they have built up, by unfailing care and service, a large business in keeping with the The shops’ front doors have since been relocated nearer to the footpath edge from the 1928 originals. However, the position of the original front walls is still evidenced by tar sealed patches on the footpath. The 1941 Manawatu phone book lists a second business as part of this firm. That is Schneideman & Co., which advertised itself as a Ladies’ tailor, and as coat and costume specialists, with Mae E. Dalefield as its manageress. Schneidemans was still there in the late 1950s. 441 R.H. Billens & H.L. Verry, From Swamp To City (Palmerston North, 1937) ‘Schneideman & Sons Ltd.’ (page unnumbered). This photo is also PN City Library photo Bc219 442 Register of Persons Naturalised in NZ before 1948: Non-Commonwealth Page 222 Palmerston North City Council Shop nearest Rangitikei Street (153 The Square) 1928 J. R. MacKenzie Ltd. (leased Shop 1, ref: CT WN 304/270) Wises 1933 Burton Montague, tailors (branch). Wises 1936-60 Schneideman & Sons Ltd., tailors c1993-now The Shearing Shed Shop nearest George Street (154 The Square) 1928-1998 United Friendly Society Dispensary (same site in previous building) Now Recycle Boutique, www.recycleboutique.co.nz Upstairs (Some tenants were listed in the Directories as if they were in the neighbouring building. However, this was because the direct street access was and still is in the neighbouring building) Wises 1933 Charles George Wilson, billiard parlour Stones late 1933 134 The Square – Miss Evelyn M. Rawlins, teacher of music; Rapid Dental Repair Service, E.E. Boock proprietor; Miss Maude Pritchard, dressmaker; Caleb Lincoln Carr, manufacturer’s representative Wises 1939 134 The Square - Ms Maude Pritchard, dressmaker; McLeavey & Loveday, dressmakers; William J. Anderson, dentist; Ernest E. Boock, dental repairs Wises 1944 121 The Square - Ms Maude Pritchard, dressmaker; Standard Optical Co. of Australasia Ltd.; Ernest E. Boock, dental repairs; Glaxo Laboratories (NZ) Ltd.; A.E. Higgins First Aid Supplied Co. Wises 1950-51 121 The Square - Ms Maude Pritchard, dressmaker; Rapid Dental Repair Service; Standard Optical Co. of Australasia Ltd.; Ernest E. Boock, dental repairs; Glaxo Laboratories (NZ) Ltd. Wises 1953-54 121 The Square - Ms Maude Pritchard, dressmaker; Rapid Dental Repair Service; Standard Optical Co. of Australasia Ltd.; Stan K. Phillips, dentist North West Square Heritage Area 2010 Wises 1959-60 121 The Square - Ms Maude Pritchard, dressmaker; Stan K. Phillips, dentist; H.C. Wycherley, dentist; Kon-Tiki Beauty Salon; Classic Studios, photographers 2003-now Thermostat Art Gallery Comments: The relationship with the neighbouring building/s in terms of the staircase is of note – as is the original decision not to give the first floor its own separate direct street access in the first place. Ian Matheson’s notes on the plans for that building (McDuff’s Ltd., 530/168169, PNCC 4/13/6) indicate that the original building that supplied that staircase, has been demolished and replaced – possibly around 1947, with earthquake repairs being referred to. ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION The original plans show a three-storied building with basement. On the ground floor are two shops, which are divided longitudinally into two unequal sized shops with angled ingos. The smaller of the two shops has the dispensary and ladies toilet half way between the street and rear, with the rear space a store and with the stairs to the basement. The rear (north) of the shop gives access to four toilets serving both shops. The larger shop is shown as a large undivided space. The first floor is shown as two spaces a corridor on one side. The rear space is approximately one third of the floor area and is separated from the front space with a glazed light well. In the centre of the front space are the stairs, which lead to a room, noted as “existing room” on the roof with roof access. The drawings note that this is “former with old materials as directed”. Access to the first floor from the ground floor is not clear, as there are no stairs shown from the ground to the first floors. An extension to the east suggests that access is from another building. Page 223 Palmerston North City Council Construction appears to be reinforced concrete floors and frame, rendered on the exterior. Above verandah windows are steel and the drawings note that the shopfronts are bronze with lead light toplights and timber double doors. The style of the building is Inter-War Stripped Classical with a symmetrical street façade comprising a balustraded and pilastered parapet, cornice, and panelled pilasters. Window glazing bars are divided into Classical patterns. STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE This building has moderate local significance for historical and design values, representivity of building style and level of external authenticity. This building has moderate historic values in its association with the United Friendly Society Dispensary, a mutual aid society first established in England, for which the building was constructed. It is also has moderate historic associations with the International firm Glaxo as its headquarters for six years after the firm outgrew its Bunnythorpe premises and until the firm’s new Botanical Road factory was ready. North West Square Heritage Area 2010 ASSESSMENT SUMMARY Significance Proposed category PNCC District Plan Criteria 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 Rarity Landmark Representative Design Setting Materials Craftsmanship M H The building is also associated with its regionally significant architect, A R Allen, a Palmerston North architect of the mid twentieth century who designed buildings in Napier, Gisborne, and Palmerston North. The building has moderate design values as a representative example of the Inter- War Free Classical style. 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. The exterior of the building has moderate levels of authenticity. Page 224 M M H Palmerston North City Council The Square, 161-163 Mowlem buildings (formerly Bares Building) North West Square Heritage Area 2010 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: 578 square metres more or less Part Section 258-259 Town of Palmerston North WN342/285 (1927) Prior CTs WN316/200 (1924), WN27/123 (1881) Nil Nil Nil 117 1925 H.L. Hickson & A.R. Allen, Associated Architects Frederick Mowlem Unknown PHYSICAL AND SOCIAL HISTORY History The present property consists of two ground floor shops and office space upstairs, and is also closely associated in terms of ownership and shared history with the other Mowlem/Bares building on the property that faces Cuba Street. That building is also part of this study. Prior History This is one of the more historic sites covered in this study, albeit that this building follows on from the main historic events. This was the site of the two-storied Foresters’ Hall, built by the Foresters’ Lodge in about 1875. The hall was used as a lodge room and public hall, and many of the social events of the fledgling town occurred there. This status was enhanced further when local land agent, Frederick Mowlem, and his business partner Page 225 Palmerston North City Council James Linton, bought the property in 1884. They altered and added to the property and named it the Theatre Royal.443 The first fire to directly affect this property occurred on the 14 March 1895, when fire broke out at the Theatre Royal, destroying that building and also its neighbour on the site of what is now 164-165 The Square (see that study also).444 The small pair of shops still on that site, were built in 1895 as a result of that fire. However, while that building survives today, the replacement Theatre Royal Mk. II, was not so lucky. It saw in the earliest silent movies around 1900, but by 1904, the Mowlem family (J. Linton having sold them his share in 1897) had decided that its time as a theatre was up. The Opera House was due to open in 1905, and so in 1904 it was converted into shops - part of which was leased, from 1 April 1904, to Arthur Hopwood to house his ironmongery business. Hopwood’s four-yearold business had been sited a few doors down the road, however, the Clarendon Hotel fire (corner of the Square, Cuba and Rangitikei Streets) occurred on 28 January 1904, and although Hopwood’s shop was protected by a brick firewall, thereby suffering relatively little, it was time for the firm to move on. The firm relinquished the lease on this building in mid-1919, however the firm’s history publication states that it remained in this building until 1920, when it moved to the Main Street site where the Downtown carpark now is. This firm survives now as the local Mitre 10 Mega Store.445 The second fire to strike the former Theatre Royal Mk. II, which occurred on the night of 22-23 February 1924, was much larger that the 1895 fire. It started in the centre of the block, at the back of the Empire Auction Mart, 443 Ian Matheson, ‘The Birth of Palmerston North’, Evening Standard Centenary Supplement, 13 March 1971, p. 96. (Note that some of these dates do not correspond with the CT.) 444 Manawatu Herald, 16 March 1895 2(7) ‘Fire in Palmerston North’. Note that this page was microfilmed without cutting the binding, meaning the right side of the item is hard to read due to the fold of the volume. 445 CT WN27/123; Keith Goldsack, More than Hardware: Arthur Hopwood and the business he founded (Palmerston North, 2000) p. 23. North West Square Heritage Area 2010 which fronted Cuba Street and which had been the Theatre Royal’s main hall. That building was entirely destroyed. The fire cleared a path through the block between The Square and Cuba Street, much like the nearby 1904 Clarendon Hotel fire had done. At the time, the Square frontage of the former Theatre Royal was occupied by Schneideman’s millinery and tailoring shop, Stanley’s drapery store, and Miss Finnigan’s “Bobby’s” confectionary store. It is not clear how these last three shops had been set up within this large former theatre building, however, they also were destroyed. The two brick Kerslake buildings alongside them also suffered badly, the two-storied Cuba Street building being gutted, while one of the two shops in the Kerslake building fronting The Square was also gutted. However, they were rebuilt and survive today.446 A few days later the Manawatu Daily Times reported that “The fire brigade desires to acknowledge with thanks a cheque for £5 from Messrs F. and J. Mowlem for services rendered at the recent fire.” Mowlem Bros then invited tenders to remove the fire debris, with all debris to become the property of the successful tenderer.447 Given the recent fire, the 1925 Wises’ Directory lists no entries between L Giorgi’s shop (now 164 The Square) and King’s Chambers - which for many years included the McKenzies shop, but since demolished. Although, one shop still listed as present in the King’s Chambers building, that of Ernest D. Wycherley’s men’s outfitters, had suffered damage during the fire. The Mowlem Building - 1925 The architects for the replacement of The Square end of the property were H.L. Hickson & A.R. Allen, their plans being dated 14 November 1924. They had designed comparable buildings for each end of the property, but only the one at the Square end was built. The other one is crossed out on the plan, and the present Natusch building was erected on that site by the 446 Manawatu Evening Standard, 23 February 1924 5(2-4) ‘Huge Conflagration from Cuba Street to Square’. Manawatu Daily Times 29 February 1924 4(5), 3 March 1924 10(5) 447 Page 226 Palmerston North City Council Mowlem Estate in 1928. However, the joining structure, which included toilets etc., was built, and in 1928 the two buildings were linked. Noticeably absent from this building’s present façade are the words “Mowlems Buildings,” that were to be created as “V-cut lettering” in the flat space just above the centre upstairs windows. It is not known if they were ever constructed, although a 1986 photo of the building shows a something in this location, although it is illegible and shorter that what had been planned in 1924.448 The PNCC Building Permit Register records that a permit was issued on 10 February 1925, for this brick building, which was valued at £8,887. The (completed?) building was then inspected in December 1925.449 North West Square Heritage Area 2010 Owners Fred Mowlem’s involvement with this property began when he and James Linton bought it in partnership in 1890. It was next transferred to James Linton alone in early 1895, and then back to the previous partnership a few months later. Then in 1897, when James Linton moved to Sydney, his share was transferred to Fred’s brother James Mowlem – and this was the ownership in place at the time of the 1924 fire. Later in 1924 (the resulting CT WN 316/200 is dated 12 September 1924) the property was transferred to Fred Mowlem alone. However, Fred did not live to see even the first of his new buildings completed. After a long and very significant contribution to the business and local body political development of Palmerston North, he died on 22 November 1925, aged 79. His extensive obituary commented that after the fire he had bought out his brother’s interests in the property and “decided to build a handsome two-storeyed building which, unfortunately, he was not destined to see actually completed.”450 His wife Mary Emma Mowlem then died on 26 August 1926 aged 76. She had still owned the nearby Arcade building at 19-21 Coleman Place at the time of her death. The 1925 Mowlem in about 1950, showing the little 1895 Kerslake building alongside, and the Union Building alongside that. Photo: Whites Aviation Ltd., Palmerston North & District, New Zealand (Auckland, 1950), p. 2 448 The Square Circular, Vol. 2, No. 1, published in The Tribune, 6 April 1986. This copy from research file A 175/375 Architecture, Ian Matheson City Archives, PN City Library. This erroneously gives Natusch as the architect of this building. 449 Building Permit Register, Vol. 3, PNCC 4/13/1,; also PNCC 4/13/6, Plan 530/196-198, Ian Matheson City Archives, PN City Library In 1926, this property was transmitted to Arthur Maxwell Mowlem, stipendiary magistrate of New Plymouth; Clifton Leslie Mowlem, land agent of PN; and Josiah Batchelor, farmer of Linton, as executors of Fred Mowlem’s estate. The current CT (WN342/285) was first issued to them in 1927. These were the people in charge of the property at the time the Mowlem estate had the Cuba Street building erected in 1928 – and so they chose its architect and approved its design. Thereafter, this building was owned by various members of the Mowlem and Batchelor families and their descendents, and others in partnerships with them, until 1967, when it was sold to Bares Buildings Ltd. 450 Manawatu Evening Standard 23 November 1925 7(2) Page 227 Palmerston North City Council North West Square Heritage Area 2010 Palmerston North is a branch of the well-known company which today operates sixteen stores in New Zealand, and was founded by Mr G.W. Skellerup, of Christchurch. To this day the firm is entirely owned in the Dominion. It is nineteen years since the Para Rubber Co. Ltd., opened their first shop in Palmerston North, nearly opposite the Empire Hotel. From there they went to Rangitikei Street, and after occupying three different premises there owing to the uninterrupted expansion of the trade, they moved nearly three years ago to their present shop in the Square. They have been fortunate in that Mr G.D. Prattle, who opened up the branch, remains today as manager and is a wellknown figure in the community. Among agencies carried by the Para Rubber Co. Ltd., is one for the world-famous Seiberling tyres, while Palmer tyres and Minor Rubber Co’s summer footwear and gumboots are among other distinguished lines, as is latex waterproof clothing. The firm, the largest in New Zealand engaged in retailing tyres and rubber goods, has made for its motto: ‘We stock it, will get it, or it’s not made of rubber.’ To enter the shop and realise what comprehensive stocks are carried brings home that fact that that is no idle boast. The firm specialises, among other things, in rubber floorings, while the supply of milking machine rubbers is a business in itself. Repair work of all kinds for rubber products is also undertaken, and among the enterprise shown by the Para Rubber Co. is this and other avenues is justified by the steady record of progress which it can lay claim to. This is the age of skilfully-made secondary products, and in their distribution the firm plays a vital part.452 In 1981 it was transferred to the present ownership of John Bares, Irene Bares and Jim Demetre Bares owning one half share, and Jim Demetre Bares, Stella Bares and Peter James Bares owning the other half share.451 Occupants The shop with the known longest connection to this building to date was the Para Rubber Company, which took over the building in about 1934 and remained until 1983. Wise’s Directories also indicate that the firm also used the Cuba Street end of the building as a repair depot. Para Rubber Co. Ltd. was established by George Waldemar Skellerup, and Australian of Danish extraction, who emigrated to New Zealand in 1909. He had worked for the Dunlop Company in Australia, and once in Christchurch he started a rubber store marketing bicycle tyres and other rubberware imported from Dunlop Australia. He formed the Para Rubber Company in 1910, so named after a variety of rubber tree that grows in the Amazon jungle and produced high quality raw rubber. The company started its Palmerston North business in about 1918 and then moved to Rangitikei Street in 1920. The shop moved to this building in about 1934, and its original manager, Gerald Prattle, remained in that role until 1946. He subsequently became a director of the Para Rubber Company. Para Rubber Co. Ltd.’s article, which was accompanied by the photo below, in the 1937 book From Swamp to City provides a snapshot of the company at that time: Able to claim that they are the pioneer rubber retailing organisation in New Zealand, the Para Rubber Co. Ltd., have a convincing record of expansion to their credit. The shop in 451 Sources: Certificates of Title and the 1980 Land Ownership study of this property by Victoria University students, as part of their work on properties in this block – Research File George Street – Cuba Street – Coleman Place A175/154, Ian Matheson City Archives, PN City Library. 452 ‘Para Rubber Co. Ltd.’, Robert H Billens & H. Leslie Verry, From Swamp to City (Palmerston North, 1937). Pages unnumbered. Page 228 Palmerston North City Council North West Square Heritage Area 2010 than double the size), it was one of 30 branches throughout New Zealand.453 Shop closest to Rangitikei Street (161 The Square) Wises 1927-28 Albert G. Richards, ladies outfitter Wises 1930 John Murray, tearooms Stones 1933 The Royal Dutch Ltd, luncheon & tearooms 1934-1983 The Para Rubber Co. Ltd. 1983-1990 Hatters Restaurant (phonebook) 1994 Park Square Restaurant & Takeaways (CBD Heritage Inventory SQ20) Now Hana Mizu Ki Japanese Restaurant The Para Rubber Company acted as the retail division of Skellerup Industries Ltd., the products of which ranged from milking machine components, vinyl flooring, furniture, rubber footwear and salt. The salt production came about during World War II when the government of the day introduced stringent import controls on some products, including salt, from which some chemicals used in the rubber manufacturing process were derived. As a result, G.W. Skellerup (who was in due course knighted for his efforts toward New Zealand industry) decided to try to establish a homegrown salt supply and, along with Dr. Marsden of the D.S.I.R., his firm began to develop the salt works at Lake Grassmere. By the time the Para Rubber Company relocated to its next site in 1983 (the former Salvation Citadel in Broadway – now Barris - which was more Mowlem Buildings (162 The Square - upstairs tenants) Wises 1927 Wellington Publishing Ltd.; Mrs E. Matthews, hair specialist; H. de Courvosier, Masseur Wises 1930 Wellington Publishing Co.; H:I.M.S. Runnicles, music teacher; Miss M. Johansen, costumer Stones 1933 The Dominion (branch) Wises 1936 Wellington Publishing Co. Ltd. Wises 1944 The Dominion (branch) Wises 1953-4 A Christie, flooring specialist; Bruce Watt, photographer; The Dominion newspaper; Flooring Distribution Co. Ltd.; & Adele Wilson, dressmaker Wises 1957 Ms Isabel Stewart, dressmaker; Herbert A. Seifert, journalist; The Dominion newspaper Wises 1959-60 The Dominion newspaper Now unknown 453 Manawatu Evening Standard 1 September 1983, p. 17 ‘New Para almost ready to bounce into action’; 21 September 1983, p. 13 ‘Firm’s founder went from rags to riches’; 21 September 1983, p. 12 ‘Leisure display a feature’. See also: G.W. Crozier, If its made of Rubber: Para 75 Years, 1910-1985 (Para Rubber Co. Ltd., 1985) Page 229 Palmerston North City Council Shop closest to George Street (163 The Square) Wises 1927 L. Noedl, fancy goods Stones 1930-36 Offers Ltd., footwear specialists (D G Walker local manager); Wises 1944-60 James Stenberg, boot retailer (possibly until well into the 1960s) Last there 1986 Broadlands Centre/Broadbank (photo Squire Circular Vol. 2, No. 1-phonebook) 1994 Scotch Wool Shop (CBD Heritage Inventory SQ20) 2001-Now Pompeii Gourmet Pizza Restaurant, www.pompeii.co.nz North West Square Heritage Area 2010 floor from a central entry. corridors either side. The first floor has a central light well with The structure appears to be concrete encased steel beams with reinforced concrete façade and timber flooring and roof framing. Windows to the above verandah street elevation are steel with oak framed shopfronts STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE This building has moderate local significance for historical and design values, representivity of building style and level of external authenticity. This building has moderate historic values in its historic associations with the Mowlem family who built it and who owned it for over 40 years. Additions & Alterations PNCC Building Permit file T25/196-198 includes an application for a permit relating to Broadlands Finance, which had first floor accommodation above their existing retail shop. In 1983 an application was made for a permit for interior alterations for the Hatters Restaurant, while another was made for a sign for this restaurant in 1988. In 1987 alterations were to be done for a shop for Millers Ltd., by architect C.B. Wells of Christchurch. While in 1997 new entry doors were to be installed for the Players Bar at 196 The Square. A note in the file from 2001 said that this restaurant had now closed, but another had opened in its place. The original and later ownership and tenants reflects a moderate level of continuity as a typical pattern of similar commercial buildings throughout the city. File T25/196 covers the conversion in 2001 of a shop in the building to the new Pompeii Restaurant, which included the installation of a log-fired pizza oven. The building has moderate design values as a representative example of the Inter- War Free Classical style, a not uncommon style for commercial buildings from the late Victorian period. ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION The plans available from the PNCC Archives show elevations and sections, but no floor plans. It appears from the cross section that the two storeyed building was divided longitudinally into two shops with central dividing wall with stairs either side of the central wall leading to the first The building is also associated with its original architect, A R Allen, a regionally significant Palmerston North architect of the mid twentieth century who designed buildings in Napier, Gisborne, and Palmerston North. 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. The exterior of the building has moderate levels of authenticity. Page 230 Palmerston North City Council North West Square Heritage Area 2010 ASSESSMENT SUMMARY Significance Proposed category PNCC District Plan Criteria 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 231 Palmerston North City Council The Square, 164-165 Kerslake Building (now part Monsoon Asian Kitchen) North West Square Heritage Area 2010 BUILDING DETAILS Building’s Address: 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: 164-165 The Square (renumbered from #199-200) 455 square metres more or less Part Section 258 Township of Palmerston North WN 27/124 (1881) Nil Nil Nil Nil 1895 Unknown Harriet Elizabeth Kerslake Unknown PHYSICAL AND SOCIAL HISTORY History This relatively simple building is the oldest covered in this study. It is by far the older of only two single storey buildings left in the Square, and also has the remarkable situation in that it retains a section of a telegraph pole dating from the 1890s or earlier, that once served as its central verandah post. This pole had lost its top portion by the 1920s, and more recently the bottom portion has been replaced by a plain pipe verandah post. However, the central metre or so of the telegraph post remains in its original place within the verandah roof. This building also shares its property and some if its more dramatic history with one of the oldest Cuba Street buildings under study here - the C 2 C Surf Shop, also referred to here as the ‘Kerslake Building – 1906’. Page 232 Palmerston North City Council North West Square Heritage Area 2010 The Previous Building This seemingly insignificant building replaced a two-storied wooden building that in November 1880 had opened as the ‘Temple of Fashion’. This business was owned by Thomas Tozer Kerslake, a tailor, who was born in Devon, England, but trained in America. He arrived in New Zealand in 1877, on a small sailing ship full of circus animals, and soon began tailoring in Wellington. In due course he moved to Bulls, but then visited Palmerston North one day and decided it had more promise than Bulls. So he immediately relocated and established his business here. A serious fire occurred at Palmerston North on Thursday morning at 2 o’clock, the Theatre Royal, owned by Mr Linton, and two shops owned by Mr Kerslake, being burned to the ground. The front of the Theatre was occupied by Donnelly, hairdresser; Wood and Wishart, watchmakers; Perrin, painter; Percival, music teacher; and Mowlem and Linton, land and financial agents. One of Kerslake’s shops was occupied by the Singer Sewing Machine Company. The theatre was insured for £(illegible) - $500 each being in the Alliance and London and Lancashire; Kerslake’s building was £400 £250 in the Standard and £150 in the London Liverpool and Globe. Donnelly’s stock was insured in the Imperial for £40. None of the others were insured. Most of the stock was saved. Carmody’s Central Hotel, adjoining, was slightly damaged. The insurance on the building, in the New Zealand office, is $800; on stock £150 and the furniture £400 (or £40??) in the North German. Mr Waldegrave lost his stable and Mr Linton had a room damaged at the back of the theatre, on which there is no insurance. The Pollard Company, which is playing a season there, lost part of its wardrobe, scenery, etc., on which there is no insurance. The cause of the fire is unknown. It was first discovered on the s (side?) of the theatre. 454 Soon after he opened his new shop, the Theatre Royal was established on the Rangitikei Street side of it (in the pre-existing former Foresters’ Hall), while the City Butchery opened on the other (probably in another preexisting building). It appears that Kerslake’s original building contained two shops as at present. In 1893, Kerslake sold his goodwill in his business to the United Farmers’ Co-operative Association and he then took over management of that firm’s tailoring department. However, the ‘Temple of Fashion’ site remained in the name of Kerslake’s wife, Harriet Elizabeth Kerslake (nee Best), as it had been since 1883. The property had been granted to George Snelson in 1881 and had been transferred to Harriet’s father, George Best of Ohariu in 1882, following the couple’s marriage in 1881 (the couple met in Wellington in 1878). The CT recorded in 1883, in the transfer to Harriet, wife of T.T. Kerslake, that it had been transferred to her “for her own separate use”. This suggests that George Best was aiming to ensure that she was the clear owner of the property, and that it was not to become caught up the property of her new husband – such as in the event of his business or even the marriage perhaps failing. And so it was to remain in her name until her death in 1949. It is not clear whether the tailoring business was still operating from the shop in March 1895. However, that date marks the origins of the present building. No Palmerston North newspapers survive from the 1890s, but Foxton’s Manawatu Herald records the events of 14 March 1895: At that time, the best Palmerstonians had in the way of fire fighting appliances was a manual engine, with wells about 20 feet deep in each corner of the Square.455 The fire station of the day was also handily located in this instance – several doors down the road in Coleman Place! Furthermore, T.T. Kerslake was a foundation member of the P.N. Fire Brigade, which was formed in 1888. This did not save his building from the first fire, but the reason his two buildings are still standing now, despite 454 Manawatu Herald, 16 March 1895 2(7) ‘Fire in Palmerston North’. Note that this page was microfilmed without cutting the binding, meaning the right side of the item is hard to read due to the fold of the volume. 455 Manawatu Evening Standard, 23 February 1924 5(4) ‘History of Building. Old Memories Recalled’ Page 233 Palmerston North City Council 75% of them having subsequently been burnt out, certainly means he learned from the experience. T.T. Kerslake remained with the United Farmer’ Co-operative Association for some years and then in 1906 he built the other building still standing on Cuba street end of this property (in 2010 it is the C 2 C Surf Shop). However he retired after a relatively short time in the building, and thereafter, the business continued as the partnership Kerslake & Usmar until at least 1918.456 However, the firm was gone by the 1920 Wises Directory. The Present Building The 1896 PN Borough Council Rate Book lists this property (Pt. Sec. 258) under the name of T.T. Kerslake, and as having a rateable value of £737.10. A pencilled-in note states “New valuation add £350.” The 1897 Rate Book gives the new total value as £1,087.10. It seems certain, therefore, that the present building was complete before the 31st March 1896 – and 1895 is therefore a viable construction date. The tenants with the longest connection to this building were the Giorgi family, who occupied the now-empty shop on the Rangitikei Street side of the building. Ulisse Giorgi (known as ‘Lou’) was probably one of the original tenants, and his brief entry in the Cyclopedia of New Zealand, Vol. 1, published in 1897, suggests that he occupied the shop in 1896 (when information was being collected for that book). Certainly the new building appears in two photos in the book.457 Ulisse died on 26 May 1959 aged 89, suggesting that he would have been aged about 26 when he leased the shop. The 1917 Alien Register describes Ulisse as 46-year-old widower (his wife Alice died in 1913, aged 36), who was a hairdresser and tobacconist, and who had been in New Zealand for 44 years. 456 Wise’s Directory, 1918 Cyclopedia of New Zealand, Vol 1 (Wellington, 1897) pp. 1141 & 1141. Architect L.G. West’s article (p. 1176) also refers to his having “designed and supervised the rebuilding of the Theatre Royal.” 457 North West Square Heritage Area 2010 The Naturalisation records (to 1948) list three Giorgis, all immigrants from Livorno, Italy. As all three were connected to Palmerston North, they were almost certainly closely related. When naturalised in 1896, Dario Giorgi (53) was a watchmaker in the town. Possibly he was the father of the other two. When he was naturalised in 1925, Ulisse stated that he was aged 49 years, and was a retired tobacconist. He was in fact probably aged about 55. The remaining one, Arturo (‘Arthur’) Giorgi (born 1873) was a clothier of Hastings when naturalised in 1930. However, at the time of the 1917 Alien Register’s compilation (as a wartime measure), Arturo had been a clothier of Palmerston North. He was a partner in the well-known firm Miller & Giorgi, that had been formed in 1902 and which soon had branches in both Palmerston North and Hastings.458 In 1912, another relative, Chas F. Giorgi, a cabinetmaker and upholsterer, took over the Coleman Place building that several years later became the site of Everybody’s Theatre. However, in 1912 it had recently been vacated by the Nonpareil company, which had just moved next door to take over the former Arcade building.459 Ulisse died in Wanganui on 26 May 1959, aged 89, being survived by a widow, two daughters and his son Lance.460 Lance Giorgi, whose full name was Dario Lanciotti Giorgi and who was born about 1899, appears to have been in charge of the shop from soon after the First World War. In 1996, Ian Matheson interviewed Peter Gordon in relation to the ‘Everybody’s Theatre’. Gordon said that Lance Giorgi had been the projectionist at the theatre, which operated between 1915 and 1924. This was before he took over his father’s shop. He also was noted as a “bookie”.461 458 Register of Aliens, 1917 (NZ Dept. of Internal Affairs, Wellington, c1918); Register of Persons Naturalised in NZ before 1948: Non-Commonwealth; R.H. Billens & H.L. Verry, From Swamp To City (Palmerston North, 1937) ‘Millar & Giorgi’ (page unnumbered) 459 Manawatu Evening Standard 16 October 1912 1(3). Also 1914 Wise’s Directory 460 Manawatu Evening Standard, 29 May 1959 461 Ian Matheson’s interview with Peter Gordon. 25 July 1996, in research file A175/148, Films & Cinemas, Ian Matheson City Archives. Page 234 Palmerston North City Council North West Square Heritage Area 2010 Pictorial Chronology Photos in the Palmerston North Library photographic collection provide an invaluable chronological record of this building and its telegraph pole. The earliest relevant photo traced is Sq398. This G.W. Shailer photo - thought to have been taken in the early 1890s - shows the previous building on the site, but no telegraph poles. Next is another Shailer photo, Sq112, still showing the previous building, but the telegraph poles are in place, including the one that became the verandah post of the present building. Photo SQ407 shows ‘our’ building – complete with the telegraph pole substituting as its central verandah post – alongside Mowlem’s newly rebuilt Theatre Royal. However, the buildings on either side of these two are the same ones present before the 1895 fire. In this photo and those taken over the next several decades, ‘our’ single storey building is distinctive because of its two original towering triangular parapets. These reached two-storey heights like their neighbours, but clearly were for show only. The name “L. Giorgi” is also clearly displayed above his shop, however, the name of the occupant of the second shop (now Monsoon Asian Kitchen) is illegible. Meanwhile Sq129, taken from the fire bell tower overlooking the building, shows an above-and-behind-the-scenes view of the telegraph pole disappearing into the verandah sometime before 1910 when the fire bell tower was removed. This cropped version of Photo Sq142, taken about 1912, shows the original twin points this building had until the 1930s at the centre-right of the photo. To the right of it is the former entrance to the Theatre Royal, by this time Arthur Hopwood’s ironmonger’s shop, and which burnt down in 1924. The Nonpareil company’s rooftop sign marks the former ‘The Arcade’ building, while over on Cuba Street, Stage One and Two of the three-stage Bryant building are visible above the “Co” of Nonpareil’s sign. (This photo copied from G.C. Petersen’s Palmerston North: A Centennial History [PN, 1973]. Opp. p. 137) Photo Sq388, taken between 1915 and about 1920, shows that the line of telegraph poles in this section of The Square have gone. However, photo Sq402, taken in 1927, shows that part of this telegraph pole remains as the thick lower part of the central ‘verandah post’ (of three), and that it is now striped in the traditional fashion for barber’s shops. Photo Sq218, taken in 1937, shows that the twin upper parapets on the building are both gone, and that the building appears to have the same Page 235 Palmerston North City Council type of plain upper façade as it does now. Given their height, they may have been vulnerable to earthquake anxieties or strong winds – and perhaps in particular the 1936 Gale. The Second Fire (Giorgi’s Hairdresser’s & the Universal Supply Store) This building came close to a premature end on the night of 22-23 February 1924, when half of the building – that part now occupied by Monsoon Asian Kitchens – was gutted by fire. The other Kerslake building in Cuba Street was also completely gutted. Some of their neighbours, however, faired much worse, with the four wooden shops that were formerly the 1904 Theatre Royal (No. 2), and which were owned by Messrs J. & F. Mowlem, being totally destroyed. The fire had begun behind the Empire Auction Mart (formerly the theatre’s main hall) in the centre of the block, and had then spread to the back of the Universal Supply store, fanned by a fresh north-easterly breeze. Little of its stock survived the smoke or water damage, and when the shop reopened nearby a few days later in the Cuba Street end of the former Arcade building (also covered in this study), the firm made a point of advertising that it was offering all new stock for sale. Giorgi’s shop, however, suffered only slightly from fire at the rear of the premises, and from water damage. Furthermore, he had been able to rescue some of his stock as the other buildings burnt. When the wooden shops had been deemed impossible to help, the fire brigade had focussed its attention – and hoses – onto this shop and the frontage of the Universal Supply store, both of which had brick walls. However, a storeroom at the rear of Giorgi’s shop, containing a number of cases of kerosene, was considered to be the source of “frequent dull reports” emanating from its vicinity. Considerable effort was also put into preventing the fire, with its clouds of sparks, from igniting the “Soldiers’ Club” - the former RSA building on the corner of George and Cuba Streets. At the time this building was insured with the Standard and Yorkshire Insurance Companies for a total of £1,600. The Universal Supply store North West Square Heritage Area 2010 held insurance policies to the value of £3,000, while Giorgi’s shop had an insurance policy for £1,000.462 The 1936 Gale Although there is no certainty that the upper façade of this building was lost to the 1936 Gale (it may even have been removed after the 1931 earthquake), it certainly disappears within that timeframe. This ‘infamous’ Gale passed through the region on Sunday, 2 February, killing a man in Elmira Avenue and causing serious and widespread damage. Described as the worst in living memory to that time, with winds estimated at a velocity of 100 miles an hour in its fiercest gusts, it had struck in the early hours of the morning and had lasted unabated for most of the day. Nearly every hoarding in an exposed position was destroyed, some shop fronts were badly damaged, verandahs collapsed, and there was general chaos throughout the district. The Manawatu Evening Standard recorded, amongst its extensive report of the event, that: When the gale had subsided the Square presented an amazing spectacle with its broken hoardings and broken plate glass windows. Heavy damage was done to those in the shopping area; particularly on the north-western side of the Square, where the footpaths were littered at frequent intervals with broken glass. Inside the pharmaceutical premises there was a scene of chaos where the wind had ravaged the dispensing room after a skylight had been stove in.463 Ownership This property is still on its original CT, (WN27/124) which was issued in 1881. Thomas Tozer Kerslake died on 18 June 1932, aged 80 years, and 462 Manawatu Evening Standard, 23 February 1924 5(2-4) ‘Huge Conflagration from Cuba Street to Square’; Manawatu Daily Times 23 February 1924 7(4-6) ‘Disastrous Blaze’ 463 Manawatu Evening Standard, 3 February 1936 7(4). Part of a much larger report. The pharmaceutical premises referred to is the UFDS Building, also covered in this study. Page 236 Palmerston North City Council Harriet Kerslake died on 25 May 1949, age 98.464 The property was transmitted the same year to the couple’s son Alfred Edward Kerslake, an accountant of PN, as executor, and then, again in 1949, ownership was transferred to A.E. Kerslake, Harold James Lancaster, a Levin farmer, and Frank Wakefield Verry, and Kairanga farmer, the latter two being the husbands of two of the three Kerslake daughters.465 In 1951, the property was transferred into the ownership of the property’s neighbour, McKenzie’s (PN) Ltd. Then in 1954 to R.E. Harrison & Co. Ltd., a firm that occupied a garden supplies shop in the neighbouring Union Building in Coleman Place. In 1965, the property was transferred to The Church Street Flats Company Ltd., of PN.466 In 1985 it was purchased by members of the Bares family. The first were Peter and Maria Bares. Then in 1991 it was transferred to Maria Bares and Alan McKenzie Larsen, a chartered accountant. In 1995 it was transmitted to Alan McKenzie Larsen as survivor, and the same year it was transferred to Alan McKenzie Larsen, John Bares, Jim Dimitri Bares and Mercina Viatos. In 2004 it was transferred to the present ownership: John Bares, Jim Dimitri Bares and Mercina Viatos. Occupants of this building The Manawatu Evening Standard documented some of the building’s history in 1976, at the time the hairdresser then in the shop ceased operating from this premises. Entitled “Coleman Mall’s clippers 464 Manawatu Evening Standard, 20 June 1932 6(7), Obituary: Mr Thomas Tozer Kerslake; and 25 May 1949 11 (6), Obituary: Mrs T.T. Kerslake. The obituary says she was aged 98, while the cemetery records say she was 97. 465 Their eldest son, H.G. Kerslake, who had been chief sub-editor of the Manawatu Standard for many years, had predeceased his mother. (Manawatu Evening Standard, 25 May 1949 11 (6), Obituary: Mrs T.T. Kerslake 466 Document ‘D1’ in Research file ‘George Street-Cuba Street-Coleman Place Properties,’ land ownership data prepared by Victoria University students in 1980, in A 175/154, Ian Matheson City Archives. North West Square Heritage Area 2010 muted after 80 years”, the article does not identify the tenant at that time, however, a tobacconist/barber known to have been there in 1974 was a Mr Kerr: A symbolic cut with Palmerston North’s past was made at 9 pm yesterday when the last hair was snipped at a men’s hairdressing shop on the edge of Coleman Mall. And on Monday morning, for the first time in at least 80 years, there will not be a hairdresser’s shop on that site. Except in recent years, the shop has always been known as Lance Giorgi’s, a father-to-son business. Mr Giorgi junior died in February 1972, aged 73. The shop was opened in the wild and woolly days of Palmerston North, when men were men with beards, and hairdressers were barbers. It was opened by Mr Dario Lanciotto Giorgi some time in the 1890s. The Cyclopedia of New Zealand lists L. Giorgi as a hairdresser and tobacconist in 1896467, along with six others in the town. Six of the seven had shops on the Square. But the shop could have opened earlier. The old rate books show Mr Giorgi as a ratepayer on two Bourke Street properties in 1891. It is an ironic twist that, while he paid a total rates of only £1 10s 11d on those properties, it is rates which have closed the shop he started. The present lessee said his lease was expiring. And his rent would be increased too much because of the City Council’s differential rating system to be introduced on April 1. In its heyday Lance Giorgi’s boasted four chairs. Jeanne Brown, who worked there for 35 years from 1940, remembers it well. “It had the best fireplace in town out in the back room,” she said. “I think Lance Giorgi must have been one of the finest men in town. I never heard him say a cross word. He once told a soldier during the war, when he said ‘damn’, to refrain from such language or leave the saloon.” Miss Brown was a ladies hairdresser, teaching in Wellington at £3 11s a week, when she got the job with Lance Giorgi after the men had gone to war. She then got £7 a week. 467 Cyclopedia of New Zealand, Vol. 1 (Wellington 1897), p. 1183 Page 237 Palmerston North City Council Jack Hamilton, who worked for Lance Giorgi for 11 years, described him as equal to the best boss he ever had. He was honest, quiet, and helped many people who weren’t even aware of the assistance.468 PNCC’s Building Permit file T25/200 shows alterations to this shop, dated 6 October 2003 – which by then was Kan King Lun’s Monsoon Asian Kitchen restaurant. This involved the relocation of the kitchen from the side to the rear of the premises. The restaurant’s address was last listed at a Ferguson Street address in the 1999 phone book, and was at this address in 2000, and so the restaurant probably relocated to this address in 1999. Shop nearest Rangitikei Street (was #199, now #164 The Square) This shop has served at least eighty years as a hairdresser’s, with varied use thereafter. 1896-1972 Lou Giorgi, followed by Lance Giorgi, barber/tobaccanist 1973 Gray’s Tobaccanist469 barber/tobaccanist 1974 Kerr’s Tobaccanist470 barber/tobaccanist 1993 Cameron for Jewellery (Photo in 1994 CBD Heritage Inventory (SQ1) Moved to Regent Theatre building (MES 17/08/1993 p. 12) 1996 Pets 4 U opens (MES 28/08/1996, p. 23) Gone by 1999 phone book. 2001-3 Rapport Hair Gallery (phone books) Most recent tenant: “moved to 274 Rangitikei St.” Alexander’s Barber’s Shop 2010 Empty Shop nearest George Street (was # 200, now #165 The Square) This shop has had a wide array of tenants, although for at least 50 years it was a grocery shop. For the past decade it has been a restaurant. Dates are listed according to source dates (primarily Wises’ and Stones 468 Manawatu Evening Standard 27 March 1976, p.1 PN Library photo St 69; 1973 Manawatu phonebook 1974 Manawatu phonebook 469 North West Square Heritage Area 2010 Directories, and later from photos and phone books), rather than indicating when tenants came or left. 1904-7 PN Library photo Sq 116 shows “G-D---“ (obscured by the pole and a tree) Wises 1908 John R. Graham, storekeeper Wises 1911 Campbell & Worrall, storekeepers Wises 1914 H.A. Worrall, grocer (also listed in other Kerslake building, Cuba St.) Wises 1916 James William Rimmer, store (also PN Library photo Sq 388) Wises 1920-22 Universal Supply Co., grocers (burnt out 1924) Wises 1925 No occupant listed (burnt out in the 1924 fire when this list was compiled) Wises 1927-31 A.J. Hickin, store Latter 1920s PN Library photo T28 (& Sq 401, 1927) show “King” on shop frontage Stones 1933 Thomas Edward Barton, grocer, A.L. Hickin, manager Wises 1936-44 Leonard Hughes, grocer (also PN Library photo Sq 284, 1937) Wises 1950 PN Library photo Sq 219 shows no name on signage Wises 1950-7 Watson Bros. Ltd., grocers Wises 1959-60 No occupant listed 1993 Haworths Souvenirs (photo in CBD Heritage Inventory SQ1). moves to Downtown complex (MES 06/04/1993, p. 9) c1999-now Monsoon Asian Kitchen Ltd. Comments: The PNCC Building Permit file for this building states that it is earthquake-prone – however, it is also a proven survivor of some note. ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION Available plans of the building show the existing Monsoon Asian Kitchen as large open space with kitchen at the rear. There is no drawing available of the other space nor any construction or elevational drawings. 470 Page 238 Palmerston North City Council The existing buildings have angled ingos with timber shop fronts and metal cladding above the verandah. Verandah posts are chamfered timber. Photographic evidence suggests that the building was originally designed in the Late Victorian Free Classical style. STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE This building has moderate local significance for historical and design values. This building has moderate historic values in its association with Italian Giorgi immigrant family. Ulisse Giorgi was noted as having a number of interests in Palmerston North, among them being a projectionist and bookie. As the building is now over 100 years old it has high age values. The telegraph post in the verandah is over 100 years old. 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. North West Square Heritage Area 2010 ASSESSMENT SUMMARY Significance Proposed category PNCC District Plan Criteria 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 The exterior of the building has low levels of authenticity. Page 239 M L H Palmerston North City Council BIBLIOGRAPHY The footnotes throughout this study provide the sources used for specific buildings, including some publications that are unique to those buildings. The following, however, are the sources used repeatedly throughout the historical component of this document. Publications Billens, Robert H., & Verry, H. Leslie (comp.), From Swamp to City, 18871937: Commemorating the Diamond Jubilee of the City (Palmerston North, 1937). A number of the buildings covered in this study appeared in this book in 1937 Bowman, Ian, & Kelly, Michael Kelly, Palmerston North CBD Heritage Inventory for PNCC (1993) The Cyclopedia of New Zealand, Vol. 1 (Wellington , 1897) The Cyclopedia of New Zealand, Vol. 6, (Christchurch, 1908) Whites Aviation Ltd., Palmerston North and District, New Zealand (Auckland, c1950). The aerial photo of CBD and part of Cuba Street in about 1950 that is shown on page two of this booklet, provided as invaluable resource for this study. Palmerston North City Council records • • Building Permit files of the various buildings PNCC also obtained the certificates of title (CTs) for this study North West Square Heritage Area 2010 • • • • • Manawatu Evening Standard microfilms Manawatu Phonebooks (also Val Burr’s private collection) Photographic Collection Stone's Wellington, Hawke's Bay and Taranaki commercial, municipal and general directory and New Zealand annual Wises New Zealand Post Office Directories (and microfiche) Palmerston North City Library website http://citylibrary.pncc.govt.nz • Online newspaper index (mostly Manawatu Evening Standard) Ian Matheson City Archives • • • • • Building Permit Registers – PNCC Archives 4/13/1 Building Plans (hard copies) - PNCC Archives 4/13/6 ‘George Street-Cuba Street-Coleman Place Properties’ land ownership data prepared by Victoria University students in 1980, in Research File A 175/154 ‘Palmerston North Architects 1900-1950’ – PNCC Archives, Pam Phillips Papers, Series 2, Folder 1 Also other files related to relevant buildings and individuals NZ Historic Places Trust (Manawatu Committee) • Files on about half of the buildings covered, most quite slim Palmerston North City Council website www.pncc.govt.nz • Geo-Guide Property Search • Cemetery & Cremation Search (including some headstone photos) Palmerston North City Library • • Manawatu Daily Times microfilms Palmerston North Electoral Rolls Page 240 Palmerston North City Council GLOSSARY OF ARCHITECTS Allen, A R Building Progress lists Allen as being an architect in Napier in 1915. Buildings he is known to have designed include the C M Ross and Co. Ltd. building on the Square in Palmerston North (in association with H L Hickson) in 1927, the United Friendly Societies Dispensary Board in Palmerston North in 1928 and the building for W. Pettie and Co. Ltd in Gladstone Road, Gisborne in 1929. In 1940 he is noted as working on the Bank of New Zealand Chambers in Palmerston North and in 1950 he is listed as being an architect/draftsman for the Ministry of Works and Palmerston North. He was awarded an FNZIA. Blackbourn, Charles William 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 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 471 (later Ballroom Astoria) in George Street, built in 1910. Clere, Frederick de Jersey Frederick de Jersey Clere was born in Rochdale, Lancashire, the son of an Anglican clergyman the Rev. Henry Clere, and spent his early youth in Tickenham, Somersetshire. He was educated at St John's School, Clapton, London. He was taught drawing by M.R. Hagreen, head 471 Cyclopedia of New Zealand, Vol. 6, (Wellington, 1906), pp. 674-5, ‘Blackbourn, Charles William’ North West Square Heritage Area 2010 architectural drawing master at South Kensington. Clere was articled to Edmund Scott, an ecclesiastical architect of Brighton. While with Scott he would almost certainly have observed at close hand the architect's early use of concrete in the construction of two Brighton churches, St Bartholomew's and St James'. Once articled he joined Robert Jewell Withers, a London architect and a follower of the Ecclesiologists. Clere became his chief assistant and joined the Architectural Association in London. Clere arrived in New Zealand in 1877 and spent a short period in private offices and in the Government. He commenced private practice, firstly in Fielding where firm was established as F de J Clere in 1881 and then in Wanganui, where he formed the firm Atkins and Clere in 1883. By 1886 Clere had dissolved the firm and moved to Wellington. He practised there for the next 58 years. In 1891 Clere joined E.T. Richmond in practice and this partnership lasted until 1895 when Gerald Fitzgerald joined Clere in partnership, although the Richmond name continued to be associated with the firm. Fitzgerald had just retired from the government where he had been an engineer with the Public Works department. In 1900 the firm became Clere and Swan, and from 1905 Clere and Clere after Swan left the partnership to form his own firm. Clere was elected an associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1882 and a Fellow in 1886. He held office for 50 years as one of five honorary secretaries in the Empire. In 1883 he was appointed Diocesan Architect of the Anglican Church, a position he held for most of his professional life. Clere was also a member of the Concrete Institute of London and an enthusiastic advocate of its building properties. He was a pioneer in reinforced concrete construction in New Zealand but it took him some time after his arrival in the country to put his ideas into practice. His first ferro– concrete ecclesiastical design was the Anglican Church of St Mary of the Virgin, Karori (1911). He followed this with St Matthew's Anglican Church, Hastings (1913), the first Gothic church built in concrete. St Mary of the Angels (1922) is the most outstanding example of this oeuvre and certainly Page 241 Palmerston North City Council North West Square Heritage Area 2010 his best known church. Another fine design is the brick All Saints Church, Palmerston North (1911). registered with the New Zealand Historic Places Trust relate almost entirely to work by R W England. While several of his outstanding churches were constructed in concrete and brick, Clere is known for his timber churches extending throughout the lower North Island and Motueka in Nelson. Anything designed by England Brothers after 1908 through until the 1930s is likely to have the hallmark of Edward (‘Eddie’) England, although he may have given some design work to junior staff of the firm. England was quick to embrace the Arts and Crafts and Modernist influences, albeit in relatively conservative form. Indeed, Edward England was the contemporary of fellow innovator, Cecil Wood, the architect for Memorial Hall. They were of similar age and almost certainly would have known one another personally. The firm of England Brothers was a co-contractor for the construction of Memorial Hall. As well as being pre–eminent in church design, Clere was responsible for many domestic and commercial buildings among the best known of which are the Harbour Board and Bond Store, Wellington (1891), a number of other Wellington Harbour Board Buildings and, in association with his son, the Renaissance–styled AMP head office (1928). Clere was also involved in the design of large wool sheds in Hawkes Bay and Wairarapa. According to Clere historian, Susan Maclean, Clere designed over 370 buildings in total . Clere was active in the formation of the New Zealand Institute of Architects and served on their council for many years. He was a member of the Wellington Anglican Diocesan Synod and the General Synod. He was also a life member of the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts. Clere was a Councillor for a short period in 1895 in Wellington, and in the early part of the twentieth century was a Councillor in the Lower Hutt City Council. Clere was a foundation and life member of the Waiwhetu Lodge. England Brothers In the late 1920s the offices of England Brothers were located at 169 Hereford Street. Little is known of the staffing of the firm at this time, but the name England Brothers is clearly misleading. In actual fact the chief architect, Edward H England (1874-1949), had been in sole charge of the business since 1908, after Robert West England (1864-1908), his older brother, had died prematurely. The brothers therefore only worked in partnership between 1906-1908. Their father Robert West senior and uncle Kelynge had been in business as contractors from 1860-80. The England Brothers (second generation, as architects) buildings currently Edward England was elected as a fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Architects in 1905. In 1912 he became a member of the Canterbury Branch of NZIA. Edward England designed many opulent domestic residences in Christchurch in the first three decades of the 20th century, along with many commercial premises in the central city, such as the Hallenstein’s Building, Triangle Chambers, the Beath’s Building, the Dalgety Woolstores, and Hereford Court. Although these have survived, usually in radically altered form, many others have been lost to inner city redevelopment. One of the main difficulties in establishing provenance of Edward England’s work, and that of England Brothers in general, is that Edward’s only son appears to have destroyed or misplaced the firm’s files when his father died in February 1949. Edward England is a regionally significant figure in Canterbury. His contribution to Canterbury’s architectural heritage is only now being recognised and, arguably, Lincoln University has the ‘jewel in the crown’ of England’s commercial designs. Edward England often used slate tiles, tall well-lit windows with metal mullions and surrounds, and brick construction. Other Christchurch buildings designed by Edward England include domestic buildings on Rolleston Avenue, The Deanery, Carlton Mill Road, and on the corner of Springfield Road. Other buildings include the church (1911) on the main Page 242 Palmerston North City Council road at Dunsandel (now a craft shop); the BNZ bank (1915) in Leeston (now a private residence) and St Andrews Presbyterian church in Ashburton. Photocopy of plans of two commercial buildings by England Brothers (Canterbury Museum) – lots of window space. Edward England has designed numerous utilitarian and domestic buildings in the Canterbury region. A number of his buildings in Christchurch city have been demolished or altered considerably Fielding, William, (1876–1946)472. William Fielding was born in Lancashire, England around 1875 and began his architectural career with a firm in Manchester. He later became a junior partner there. In 1900 he married Lily Midgley and their daughter May was born in 1904. About 1908 the family migrated toWellington, and they lived in Matai Rd for many years. A son named Robert was born in 1921. Mr Fielding was the architect for several prominent buildings in Wellington including the Congregational Church in Cambridge Tce (1916), the Evening Post building in Willis St (1927), as the Working Men's Club, the Trades Hall, Lampard Flats, the Evening Post Building and the Methodisyt Church in Waitoa Rd, Hataitai (1928). He was for a time chairman of the Wellington branch of the New Zealand Institute of Architects, and in his private life was a member of the Hataitai Bowling Club and the Hataitai Municipal Electors’ Association. William was a member of the choir at the Congregational Church, and fittingly, his funeral took place there in July 1946. Lily died in 1951 and their son Robert died at sea during a yacht race only two weeks after his mother. May married Paul R Coloney of the US Navy and died in Florida in 1990. Hood, Robin (1880-1953) Robin Hood was born in Dunedin in 1880 to Ellen and William Hood; William being an upholsterer, wood carver and sculptor. Robin moved to Feilding in 1908 where he spent time labouring while studying to be an 472 North West Square Heritage Area 2010 architect. By the time of his marriage to Ethel Moore in 1912 he had established a practice in Feilding as an architect. By 1920 the Hoods moved to Palmerston North where he continued to practice architecture, with his offices at the Manawatu Racing Club Building at 84-94 Rangitikei Street. Robin Hood designed a significant number of buildings in the Manawatu, Rangtikei, Palmerston North districts. These include: Coronation Building, Progress Building, Broadway Chambers on Broadway, Palmerston North; The Strand Building, the Square Palmerston North; The Shop and Post Office, Snells Butchers at Terrace End, Palmerston North; St Columbas Church at Ashurst; Catholic Church, Dannevirke; 86, 90, 103 Fergusson Street, Feilding; 78 Pines Court, Feilding 566 Church Street, Palmerston North; 73 North Street, Palmerston North; and many other houses in Palmerston North, Feilding, Marton and elsewhere. Jorgenson, Oscar Oscar Albert Jorgensen was born on 28 April 1882, in the town of Hillerød, North Zealand, Denmark. He arrived in Wellington on the ‘Monowai’ in December 1902 at the age of 20, duly finding work there as a cooper with Chalmers Cooperage. His parents and three brothers then joined him in New Zealand in 1905, and the family lived at Newtown. He was naturalised on 30 May 1905, aged 22, at which time he was still working in Wellington as a cooper. In 1907, Oscar, his brother Valdemar, and Carl George Johann, formed the building firm of Jorgensen & Johann Ltd., and Wellington City Council records list four houses they built. http://www.heritagehelp.co.nz/locals.html Page 243 Palmerston North City Council North West Square Heritage Area 2010 It is believed (despite no written evidence found as at 2001) that Oscar qualified as an architect through the Wellington Technical College. However, by 1910 he was designing houses in Wellington. He then briefly lived in Dannevirke. His first known tender notice to appear in the Manawatu Evening Standard, was in February 1912, while his last was in December 1930. However, there were three gaps in this time: the periods February 1916 to February 1919, August 1919 to April 1923 (the partnership Jorgensen & Jamieson operated in this timeframe), and December 1926 to August 1928. He advertised himself as an architect registered with the A.N.Z.I.A. from 1915, and by 1928 he was advertising himself as a registered architect and structural engineer with the same body. his wife’s serious illness and their house burning down in October 1925, while the family was away for the weekend. The Pam Phillips Papers on architects working in Palmerston North between 1900 and 1950 lists many houses and buildings Oscar Jorgensen designed around Manawatu, Horowhenua and Dannevirke. These include the Elgin Buildings on the corner of Cuba and Bourke Streets, and the Andrews Building and Stage 2 of the Nash Building, both in George Street – all covered in this study. Larcomb , Ernest Ernest Larcomb was born in Southampton, England, on 20 July 1855. He and his four sisters were orphaned four years later, and he and the youngest sister were then adopted by an uncle and grew up in London. He served four years as a mechanician in London, and then a year as a contractor’s surveyor at the erection of Holloway’s Sanitorium in Berkshire. He was one of three who always got marked excellent at freehand drawing, from 350 scholars, and he was also taught instrument drawing by his uncle, Edward Ingres Bell, then Chief Draughtsman in the War Office, Whitehall. Others he designed included the dairy factory at Rangiotu, additions and alterations to the Glaxo factory in Bunnythorpe, the present Manakau Hotel (1920), the Bryant Buildings in The Square (till recently McDonalds restaurant), and the now demolished Methodist Church in Cuba Street. Between about 1913 and 1915, architect R. Thorrold-Jaggard (who had just arrived in New Zealand) worked for Oscar Jorgensen’s firm. In 1917, Jorgensen was aged 34 and married when he registered under the Registration of Aliens Act (although, being naturalised, he did not need to register). He stated at this time that he had been in New Zealand for 14 years, and that he was an architect of Botanical Road, Palmerston North. In September 1919, he took on Ebenezer Hislop Jamieson as a partner, using the name Jorgensen & Jamieson, Architects. This was dissolved in 1923, but ended up with Jamieson winning a March 1926 court case against Jorgensen re money Jorgensen apparently owed Jamieson. By June 1926, Jorgensen was bankrupt - something he partially attributed to He unsuccessfully ran for seats on the Palmerston North Borough Council in 1925 and 1927, and in 1926 he became a member of the newly-formed Guild of Architects in Palmerston North. He moved to Lower Hutt in 1931 and by 1936 he was working for Bulleyment Fortune, Architects, of Wellington. He also for the Government Housing Department. He continued working until about 1949, while living in Newtown near his siblings. Meanwhile, his marriage had ended in divorce. He died in Wellington on 26 January 1967, aged 84.473 Larcomb came to New Zealand on the ‘Corona’ in 1874, and entered the Public Works Department, Wellington, as a draughtsman. He worked on the plans of all the Government railways in New Zealand and in 1876 worked on the plans of the Timaru breakwater. Other jobs included 473 File A 175/175, Research file O.A. Jorgensen, (including Manawatu Evening Standard 10 March 1926 8(4); & Manawatu Daily Times, 6 June 1926); ‘Palmerston North Architects 1900-1950’ in Pam Phillips Papers, Vol. 4, pp. 31-35, Ian Matheson City Archives, PN City Library. NZ Dept. Of Internal Affairs: Register of Aliens 1917 (Wellington, c1918), p.487. Register of Persons Naturalised in NZ before 1948: Non-Commonwealth. ‘Hillerød’, Denmark: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiller%C3%B8d Page 244 Palmerston North City Council working on the plans of the Baker’s Hill gully dam at Karori and supervising its construction. After 2½ years, he was loaned to the Wellington City Corporation as a civil engineer for three years, following which he established his own architectural and civil engineering practise in Wellington. He married Mary Anne Rivers in 1877 and the couple moved to Palmerston North in 1881. Here he again established himself as an architect and civil engineer. He also went on to serve two stints as a Palmerston North Borough Councillor, between 1884 and 1885, and between 1888 and 1891, as well as other community roles. In 1934, Larcomb wrote of his life (this is largely reprinted in Nancy Smith’s biography of him in And So We Began). He stated that he was the first to introduce “the present mode” of lighting and ventilating shops above the verandah roofs. Prior to the Wade’s patent skylights, he had also “introduced a stormproof skylight consisting of one sheet of glass clipped down to a wooden frame and projecting over all round at edge.” Other adaptations included using steel railway rails as lintels over shop fronts, prior to the introduction of steel or iron girders and guarding against leaky window frames by having them housed and with tilted sills. At the first Sawmillers’ Conference he got resolutions passed that all run and dressed timber should first have been seasoned; that all knives for running etc. should be sharpened to templates, and that all timber should be cut to exact standard dimensions. Accordingly, in 1907 his regular advertisement in the local newspapers stated that he was “designing handsome buildings of moderate cost, which will be proof against earthquakes, fire, weather, vermin and will last for ages.” Larcomb designed and superintended at least six of the local churches, including the Wesleyan, Anglican, Catholic and Presbyterian Churches. He also designed about eighteen of the district’s hotels, including the Club, Occidental, Empire, Albion and Royal Hotels. By 1900, about half of the shops and business premises then in The Square had been erected under his oversight, including the substantial United Farmers’ Co-operative North West Square Heritage Area 2010 Society, Messrs’ Ireland & Co.’, and the Law Chambers buildings. He designed the original Union Bank of Australia, whose replacement is part of this study, and also the first Palmerston North Hospital. Other buildings known to have been designed by Larcomb, and which are covered in this study, include three in Cuba Street (The Arcade/Mr Models, Pink & Collison/Coo-ee Drycleaners and Kerslake/C 2 C Surf Shop) and the Union Building/Studio 31 in Coleman Place. The small 1895 Kerslake building in The Square has more than a 50% chance of also having been one of his. Among the many houses he designed, was William Park’s large house then on the corner of College and Linton Streets. He also designed J.A. Nash’s house ‘Waimarama’ in Alfred Street, which was built in 1905 and which is still standing. In about 1894, Larcomb successfully advocated for public rights-of-way to be placed at the back of business premises that fronted The Square, as he thought that the cart entrances previously alongside each of these properties were a waste of space. Other achievements included Palmerston North’s first water reticulation system. He was also responsible, while chairman of the Acclimatisation Society, for liberating the first possums near the headwaters of the Turitea reserve (with three other local citizens), the first trout in adjacent rivers and the first sambur and red deer in the surrounding country. In 1908, after 26 years in Palmerston North, the Larcomb family moved to Wellington, where Mary Anne Larcomb subsequently died at Taita on 29 July 1917. Although apparently in semi-retirement at the time, Larcomb resumed his architectural practice in Palmerston North in September 1918, and his last known tender notice was in June 1928. By 1930 he had retired to live in Christchurch, where he died on 17 April 1936.474 A 175/28, Research file: Cr E. Larcomb; A 175/83, Research file: Architects (re Larcomb); & ‘Palmerston North Architects 1900-1950’ in Pam Phillips Papers, Vol. 4, pp. 35-39, Ian Matheson City Archives, PN City Library. These include: 474 Page 245 Palmerston North City Council Natusch, C T Natusch founded his practice in Wellington in 1886, having completed his architectural studies in England in 1882. He immigrated to New Zealand in 1886 after spending the intervening time in the United States, Canada and working in town planning in England. Over the years, Natusch was based in Wellington, Masterton, Pahiatua and finally Napier. When he was commissioned to work on the Feilding Club, his three sons had joined the practice and the firm had offices in Wellington, Pahiatua, Napier, Gisborne and Palmerston North. Natusch is particularly well known for his residential buildings, which include Bushy Park (Register Number 157), Gwavas (Register Number 173) Matapiro (Register Number 171), Maungaraupi (4916) and Wharerata (Register Number 1188). Penty and Lawrence Francis Penty was born in Yorkshire in 1841. He was educated at private schools and studied to become an architect in York. After completing his articles in 1862, he spent five years on the Liverpool Exchange works, seven years in Manchester, and 15 months in Windsor. He then joined the civil staff of the Royal Engineers, where he was engaged in constructing new barracks, and afterwards took charge of the architectural branch of the London and North Western Railway, retaining this position for 12 years. Penty emigrated to Wellington, New Zealand, in 1887 on the ship Kaikoura. By 1896 he had designed 150 private houses at a cost of £60,000. Other buildings designed by Penty by this time included the Convalescent home in Oriental Bay, the warehouse and livery stables of Townsend and Paul in Victoria Street, the fruit market in Harris Street, and George Webb’s premises in Tory Street. That same year he was building Manawatu Evening Standard 25 April 1908 (Personal Column), 14 July 1908 (Personal Column), 7 September 1918 (advert), 3 September 1918 5(2), 29 November 1930, p. 12. Also, Nancy Smith, And So We Began (PN, 1971), pp. 5154. Much of Smith’s article is based on Larcomb’s 2-page memoir, a copy of which to be found in A175/28. Heritage Trails: Architects Walk, Palmerston North, pp. 2-3 North West Square Heritage Area 2010 a brick warehouse for the Wellington Woollen Company on Jervois Quay and some brick shops in Willis Street. Country houses designed by Penty included Te Nui, the twenty-roomed home of Messrs R. and J.F. Maunsell. Francis Penty was a member of the Wellington City Council for Cook Ward from 1892 to 1895. He took a keen interest in sanitation, and did much to improve drainage in the city. 475 In 1902 Francis Penty had premises at the New Zealand Insurance Buildings, Lambton Quay and E.M. Blake at number 10 Featherston Street, Wellington. By 1903 ‘Penty and Blake Architects’ had established themselves at 28a Lambton Quay. They were to remain in partnership for just six years. By January 1910 the firm Penty and Blake had evolved into Penty and Lawrence Architects and were situated at Australasia Chambers, Customhouse Quay, Wellington.476 In October 1908 Penty was elected vice president of the Institute of Architects and both Penty Blake were elected delegates to the New Zealand Institute.477 Thorrold-Jaggard, R Reginald Thorrold-Jaggard was born and educated in England. He received his articles there before emigrating to New Zealand in 1913. He settled in Palmerston North and soon met and married Lily Daisy Collier who had been recruited in London by the local firm of Collinson and Cunningham as a dressmaker. Jaggard was initially in the employ of Oscar Jorgeson, a well known local architect, before setting up his own practice. In the ensuing years many local buildings and domestic dwellings were designed by Jaggard. Among those still standing are the Former Hepworth Building (1917), King St Flats (1925), Square Edge (1945), Ward Brothers building (1936), Family Entertainment Centre, The 475 The Cyclopedia of New Zealand. Vol.1. – The Wellington Provincial District. (Cyclopedia Company Ltd, Wellington, 1897): 304, 582-3. Evening Post, 27 September 1902; 17 October 1903; 7 January 1910. 477 Directory of British Architects. Vol.1. (Continuum, London, 2001): 198; Evening Post, 24 October 1908. 476 Page 246 Palmerston North City Council North West Square Heritage Area 2010 Square (1935) and House, 314 Church St. The firm was carried on by his son Bill Thorrald-Jaggard who sold the practice in 1962. West, Ludolph Georg (1846–1919) Ludolph Georg West was born in Denmark and arrived in New Zealand in 1868. He quickly went to the North Island and settled in Palmerston North. He married the daughter of a Johnsonville settler called Bannister. His first wife died in 1891 and he remarried in 1894. It was some years before West set up in practice as an architect but, 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), the Church of Christ. Scientist (1931) and Ward Brothers Building (1935). George West (he Anglicised his name) was Mayor from 1886–87, a borough Councillor and a prominent freemason. His son Ernst was a borough Councillor 1921–25. Page 247