Palmerston North City Council North West Square Heritage Area 2010 INVENTORY OF BUILDINGS Page 18 Palmerston North City Council Coleman Place, 1-3 Former Hallensteins and International Harvester 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: 362 square metres more or less Lot 1 DP 76119 WN43A/713 (1993); prior CT WN252/194(1918), WN23/105 (1881) Nil Nil Nil 152 1913 Stage 1 England Brothers, stage 2 Clere and Clere Joseph Edward Henrys Stage 1 unknown, stage 2 H E Townshend PHYSICAL AND SOCIAL HISTORY History This building has adapted from an agricultural machinery showroom, to a men’s wear store, and to a bar. Its first floor has been removed and much of the interior is now open from ground level to the ceiling of the former upper floor. It was also at the heart of a clash between the Borough Council and a multi-national company - that included a ratepayer poll - in the course of its construction in 1913. Prior History CT WN23/105, which was issued in 1881, transferred this property from George Matthew Snelson to Charles Hosking, who is described as a local settler. The property was then leased to various people before Charles Hosking, who had a well-known blacksmithing business in The Square in the early days, transferred it to his wife Mary Jane Hosking in 1900. She Page 19 Palmerston North City Council North West Square Heritage Area 2010 transferred it to Charles Robert Hewett in 1902, and he then transferred it in 1903 to Joseph Henrys, who is described on the CT as a local settler. him as ‘Henrys’ until 1907, although the Wises Directory had begun listing him as ‘Henrys’ by 1902. The section Joseph Henrys became the owner of in 1903, was responsible for the bottleneck in Coleman Place, and A.G.S. Bradfield covered this topic in his 1956 book Forgotten Days. He said that Coleman Place had been developed some years after the original survey of the town, when it was realised that there was a need for this cul-de-sac to join up with George Street. Two small sections were in the way, and while the council was able to buy one section, the owner of the other section (Charles Hosking) wanted more money for it than the council could find. Bradfield added that years later another attempt was made to buy the section, but again the owner (Joseph Henrys) demanded too much for it.2 It was in the course of the latter attempt - in 1913 - that this building has its origins. Six decades later, in 1972, PNCC finally did become owner of the section for a time as part of a land swap – along with its formerly unwanted building. By August 1888, his shop had become the Empire Tobacconist shop, complete with a billiard room. By October 1888, it was the Tattersall’s Hairdressing Saloon and Tobacconist Shop, and a ‘reading and smoking room’ had also been added. He had also employed a professional hairdresser, and ladies hairdressing was a specialty.5 Possibly he left Feilding soon after this, however, his handicapping activities continued being reported in detail. The Mercury newspaper described him in 1892, as “the handicapper of the North Island, and success has not spoilt him. 6 He is always modest, courteous, and obliging.” In 1893, the Feilding Star stated that: (His) ability as an adjuster of weights is undoubted, and he now stands out prominently as by far the best handicapper of racehorses in New Zealand. This position has been achieved by sheer hard work on Mr Henry’s part, he having devoted all his time and energies in order to qualify himself for the responsible position he holds in the sporting world.7 Joseph Edward Henrys J.E. (‘Joe’) Henrys became New Zealand’s best-known racing handicapper over a 45-year period, eventually having handicapped races for some 80 racing clubs throughout the country.3 His first appointment as a handicapper was with the Feilding Jockey Club in 1888, and he had been a steward with the club prior to that time. Joe Henrys lived in Feilding in the latter 1880s and his career thereafter is covered extensively in the index of the Feilding Star, held at the Feilding Public Library. He first appears in December 1887 opening the Empire Fruit Shop and Confectionary, in Fergusson Street, Feilding, next to the Empire Hotel.4 At this time his surname was referred as ‘Henry’ – including in adverts he placed in the newspaper. The Feilding Star does not refer to By 1894 he was handicapper for the following racing clubs: Canterbury, Manawatu, Feilding, Rangitikei, Egmont, Nelson, Marlborough, Marton, Turakina, Woodville, Warrengate, Sandon, Waverley and Waitotara, Patea, Ashhurst, Otaki, Waitara, Lower Valley, Taratahi Carterton, Pahiatua, Rowar Pass, United Hunt Club and Wairarapa Hunt Club. When interviewed at Feilding in 1907, he said he was by then handicapping for over thirty clubs, and was in his seventeenth year with the Canterbury Jockey Club, then the country’s premier club.8 By 1909, he had been in the business for 20 years and had been handicapper for 64 clubs. In this time he had been subject to only eight written complaints, five being from one wealthy Hawkes Bay owner. However, an investigation in January Feilding Star 22 December 1887 3(2), 15 August 1888 3(5), 5 October 1889 3(2) Feilding Star 5 January 1892 2(3) 7 Feilding Star 3 August 1893 3(4) 8 Feilding Star 20 July 1894 2(4), 2 December 1907 3(2) 2 5 3 6 A.G.S. Bradfield, Forgotten Days (P.N., 1956), p. 164 John Costello & Pat Finnegan, Tapestry of Turf: The History of New Zealand Racing 1840-1987 ((Auckland, 1988), p.36 4 Feilding Star 22 December 1887 2(3) Page 20 Palmerston North City Council North West Square Heritage Area 2010 1909 found that man had no cause to complain. In explaining the process at this time (as Henrys had just “exhaustively” done for the investigating committee), the Feilding Star stated that one of the most difficult tasks for a handicapper was to adjust the weights so that every owner would believe that their horse would win the race handicapped. If that belief did 9 not happen “woe be to the reputation of the paid weight-adjuster.” It is possible to question how this technique might have been applied in Palmerston North in the lead-up to the 1913 Coleman Place issue. Joe Henrys is said to have been linked to Cashel Street, Christchurch, around 1913 and it was suggested that perhaps he had some connection to the International Harvester Co. Ltd. However, the source of this information has not been traced – and certainly it is clear that he lived in Wellington.11 It is possible to speculate, however, that his links with the Canterbury Jockey Club might have brought him into contact with the Christchurch-based International Harvester Co. Ltd. Joe Henrys does not appear to have lived in Palmerston North for long – and certainly not around the time he became the owner of this property. The 1887 Manawatu Electoral Roll lists him as a resident of Palmerston North (spelt “Henry”), with his occupation given as a fruiterer. He and his wife Nellie had their first son, John Louis Henrys, in Palmerston North in about 1888. They moved to Wellington at some point after this, but had probably lived in Feilding around 1887-88 as well. John Louis was later to attend college in both Wellington and Sydney. However, Joe also paid rates to the Palmerston North Borough Council between 1892 and 1901, although the property concerned was not researched. This Controversial Building The Manawatu Daily Times of 23 April 1913 announced the pending arrival of this building under the headline “Palmerston’s Progress: International Harvester Coy to open here – in Coleman Place.” We learn that the International Harvester Company has acquired (through Mr Fred Herring’s Land Agency) Mr J. Henry’s (sic) premises in Coleman Place and intends establishing a branch here and erecting a large two-storeyed warehouse and showroom. The section acquired is the site at one time occupied by Mr Bunting’s studio.12 The Harvester Coy. is one of the largest caterers for farming implements in the world. The New Zealand manager, Mr F.W. Jones, selects Palmerston for its central position and its excellence as a distribution centre. Mr Jones’ American business instincts tell him Palmerston is going to be a boom centre. It is understood that the Wellington agency is to be closed in favour of Palmerston. The possibilities of this district, have, of course been tested by the firm’s operations conducted on a minor scale, and the result is the decision to establish a base here. The 1902 Wises Directory lists Joe Henrys as a handicapper of Grant Road, Wellington. However, by the 1905-6 Wellington North Electoral Roll, the family lived in Thorndon Quay – where they remained until at least the mid-1920s. Much of what little biographical information that is available on Joe comes from reports of the death of his son, John Louis, who was killed in a car crash at Eketahuna on 13 September 1918, aged 31. John was also a handicapper (as well as being an agent for the Wairarapa Farmers’ Co-operative Association), and at the time of his death, he was the handicapping for the Masterton, Opunake, Stratford, Avondale, Marlborough and Rangitikei Racing Clubs. John and his mother Nellie (who died in 1924, aged 56) are buried together at Karori Cemetery, while another son Stuart Joseph Henrys died in 1928.10 9 Feilding Star 11 January 1909 2(7) Karori Cemetery and Death Registration microfiche held at PN City Library. 10 11 David Dench. International Harvester: A New Zealand point of view, reunion 2002 (Palmerston North, 2002) p. 88. 12 CT WN23/105 records that William Bunting had leased the property for 7 years starting 1 January 1895. However, Photo Sq142 (c1912) in the PN City Library’s Photographic Collection shows large trees on at least part of the section. Page 21 Palmerston North City Council The building will be an imposing one and an ornament to the town. The top storey will probably be let as offices or for some other similar reason.13 On 25th April (the last meeting of the Council’s term), the Council’s Public Works Committee discussed the situation in relation to its wish to widen the street in this location, and passed a resolution: That the Council be recommended to take steps to take a poll to raise a loan to secure the land required to widen Coleman Place; the amount of the loan is to be £3500, and the land is to be acquired under the Public works Act; and that Mr Henrys be informed accordingly.14 The tender notice for this building was duly advertised in the Manawatu Evening Standard for the first time on 2 May 1913. The description was of a “premises (in brick) at Palmerston North, for the International Harvester Co.,” and the architects were England Bros., of Christchurch. The plans and specifications were available to be seen at the Palmerston North office of architects Messrs F. de J. Clere & Son.15 Tenders were to close on 19 May. This is the only England Bros. building listed in the Pam Phillips Papers on the activities of architects in and around Palmerston North between 1900 and 1950.16 The written application for a building permit received in early May, brought the matter to a head for the newly elected councillors. The mayor adjourned the initial meeting so the council could inspect the section. The matter was then to come up at the first full Council meeting of the new Manawatu Daily Times 23 April 1913 4(7) Manawatu Evening Standard 26 April 1913 4(7) 15 Herbert Clere was involved with erecting a new building on the adjoining site for Arthur Hopwood at this time, and its party wall also came under consideration as a means to get rid of the planned International Harvester Coy.’s building [Ref: MDT 21 May 1913 3(5)] 16 Pam Phillips Papers, Ian Matheson City Archives, PN City Library 13 14 North West Square Heritage Area 2010 term, to be held the following Friday night.17 The day after that meeting, the Standard reported that it had been resolved that the use of the party wall by the applicants, would be refused, and that the plans would be referred back to the Engineer. Another resolution was also passed to take steps to hold a poll of ratepayers with a proposal to raise a loan for £3500 to acquire the Coleman Place section for street widening purposes.18 Both local newspapers covered the story with interest. The Times interviewed Cr. Armstrong, who had been a councillor for about sixteen years, and who was firmly against the polling of ratepayers before the Council knew what the position was in respect of the land. Previously the potential transaction had only been a question of the cost of the freehold between Henrys and the Borough, but: “Now the whole of the section of land has been leased by a most powerful American company, the Harvester Co. That company has entered into a contract for the erection of a building to cover the entire space, the Coleman Place frontage being entirely reserved for other purposes. Heavy shipments of goods are now either shipped or in process of shipment. Every inch of the leased land is required, and the representative of the Harvester Co. has declared his determination to proceed with the building in its entirety and against all opposition.” Cr. Armstrong wondered what the ratepayers would face if they approved the loan to pay for the land. He anticipated that this would include (1) Paying for the freehold of the land. (2) Compensating Henrys for the loss of the 10-year lease. (3) Compensating the Harvester Co. for the loss of the lease. (4) Further compensating the Harvester Co. for its losses and expenses through inability to store them in the building intended for them. (5) Compensating the contractor. (6) Paying the architect’s fees and costs. And finally (7) “heavy and costly litigation.”19 Manawatu Evening Standard 7 May 1913 5(1) Manawatu Evening Standard 10 May 1913 5(1) 19 Manawatu Daily Times 26 May 1913 5(1) 17 18 Page 22 Palmerston North City Council North West Square Heritage Area 2010 Despite the protests, the Building Permit Registers record that the permit for this building, described as brick shops, was granted to J.E. Henrys on 28 May 1913.20 A letter published in the Times two weeks later stated that the work involved was a £2,900 contract.21 Work began immediately and on 5th June, the Times reported that: The contractor has made a start with the foundations of the Harvester Coy.’s new building in Cuba Street (sic). Tonight in the Municipal Hall at 8 o’clock, the Mayor (Mr J.A. Nash) will address the ratepayers upon the question of the loan which it is proposed to raise to acquire the section for street widening purposes22. The Times editorial expressed concern that this meeting was being called at such short notice – when ratepayers had not had time to understand the complexities of the matter under consideration.23 The Standard’s editorial added that when the problem had been discussed in the past - where the public had been interested at all - opinions had been very divided. It added that at least this opportunity would mean that in future, critics who only partially understood the situation, could not say that the ratepayers were ignored.24 The following day the two local newspapers reported extensively on the meeting. The Times said that 43 ratepayers attended. The Mayor had told them that Mr Henrys had offered to sell the council the section for £5,500, and an exchange for a larger adjoining site (then leased to Arthur Hopwood) had also been considered. However, the council considered the asking price too high – given that Henrys’ land had a Government valuation of £2,500. The Mayor explained that the need to widen the road was because: Building Permit Register, Vol. 1, PNCC Archives 4/13/1, Ian Matheson City Archives, PN City Library 21 Manawatu Evening Standard 10 June 1913 5(5) 22 Manawatu Daily Times 5 June 1913 4(6) 23 Manawatu Daily Times 5 June 1913 1(4) & 4(6) 24 Manawatu Evening Standard 5 June 1913 4(5-6) 20 The corner was very dangerous, and if any of those present would go between 12 and 2 o’clock and 5 and 6 o’clock in the evening they would see for themselves by the amount of traffic that (passed) around that way. Fully one-third of the population of the Borough lived in the small area in the western side of the Borough. The Council felt that full opportunity should be given to the ratepayers to express an opinion as to whether the land should be taken or not. In a lighter moment, the Mayor commented on the foundations of the new building having been started, and how: Personally he had seen men shovelling concrete as fast as ever they could, and, in fact, he had never seen workmen working harder. However, there was not much time for them to shovel between now and the poll. An audience member commented that these “would be good men to employ as Borough staff – (laughter).”25 The Times’ editor reported that little additional information had been provided on the matter at the meeting. The editor added that: The demand for (Coleman Place) is not as great as has been urged and it never will be, for there are too many other adjacent avenues (for) traffic; and the street also is a chain wide at present.26 The Standard added that one questioner queried had asked if George Street was the same width as the existing entrance to Coleman Place. They were, but the Mayor said the crookedness made the road dangerous. A number of shops were (years later) to face Coleman Place. One suggestion was to buy the lease. Another was to take the whole property and widen George Street as well. It was widely regretted that the matter had not been attended to years earlier. The Mayor said that Henrys had asked the council several times to buy the property, but that he had always wanted to much for it. Henrys had told the 25 26 Manawatu Daily Times 6 June 1913 5(1-2) Manawatu Daily Times 6 June 1913 4(6) Page 23 Palmerston North City Council Mayor some 18 months previously that he was contemplating building there. A councillor remarked that Nash had considered this a bluff – which he denied. He added that: Mr Henrys is a personal friend of my own, and a gentleman, and in all matters I believe he will give a fair and square deal.27 One of the letters sent to the two newspapers, written by ‘Town Planner’, agreed that the traffic through the Coleman Place ‘funnel’, was very great, especially at Show times and on market days, let alone on ordinary week days. However the writer also believed that the suggested damages to the lessee at were “bunkum,” and that people who did not know the thoroughfare’s importance, would oppose the loan.28 The Times’ editor responded to the heavy usage viewpoint by saying that on Saturday evenings the traffic flow was so light that street orators held lectures there, and at other times it was the rendezvous point for military gatherings.29 ‘Ratepayer’ defied anyone to state one accident that had happened on the corner in the previous 25 years, and questioned the point of widening the intersection and leaving George Street as it was. He or she suggested other “fine, wide” alternative streets available to people wishing to avoid Coleman Place.30 North West Square Heritage Area 2010 The Times of 18 June 1913 reported that the Harvester Coy. had applied to the Council for permission to use Mr Hopwood’s wall on Borough Council property as a “parting” wall for their new building. The Council’s fortnightly meeting had referred the matter to the Works Committee to consider the opinions of its engineer and solicitor, with power to act.32 This appears to have ended the matter. The property was leased to The International Harvester Company of New Zealand Ltd., for a term of ten years starting 1 July 1913.33 A small strip of the land was later transferred to the Manawatu Patriotic Society for the Anzac building, including party wall rights. The Ratepayer poll was held on Wednesday, 11 June, and the following day the Times editor reported that the result was both decisive and as expected. The loan would not happen. Of the 586 people who voted, 415 had voted against taking out the loan, 171 wanted it. There were also 12 informal votes.31 Manawatu Evening Standard 6 June 1913 6(2-3) Manawatu Evening Standard 10 June 1913 5(5) 29 Manawatu Daily Times 11 June 1913 4(6-7) 30 Manawatu Daily Times 11 June 1913 5(3) 31 Manawatu Daily Times 12 June 1913 4(5-6) & 5(2). The results by the three polling places were Opera House: 92 for & 249 against; Oddfellows Hall, Cuba Street: 57 for & 96 against; fire station, Main Street, Terrace End: 22 for & 70 against. 27 The building, with its original huge plate glass windows, as the International Harvester Company’s showroom (probably the George St. frontage). Photo from: 28 Manawatu Daily Times 18 June 1913 5(2) CT WN23/105 records that this lease was in fact not entered on the CT until 15 December 1914, while a mortgage had been entered in March 1914 and this was replaced by another in November 1914 – the first with the Bank of Australasia, and the second with the Public Trustee. 32 33 Page 24 Palmerston North City Council David Dench. International Harvester: A New Zealand point of view (P.N., 2002), p. 89. The International Harvester Company David Dench’s 2002 book, International Harvester: a New Zealand point of view, includes a photo (above) of staff outside the Coleman Place building in the latter part of the firm’s time there (between 1919 and 1923). At that time the brickwork was unpainted and the building did not have a verandah on its George Street frontage (the other two frontages would have shown doors). Also, instead of the present substantial ground floor concrete supports that date to 1998, the ground floor exterior walls of the showroom section of the building, were primarily huge plate glass windows with narrow supports – between the concrete pillars at each corner of the showroom. While this building was the International Harvester Company’s first premises in Palmerston North, other local companies had sold its products before that time. For example, Manson & Barr, in Rangitikei Street, sold Keystone farm machinery in the early 1900s, and the International Harvester Co. had bought the Keystone Company (Illinois, US) in 1904.34 North West Square Heritage Area 2010 replaced) was later re-established. During the time the firm occupied this building, it sold a wide array of farm machinery and implements, including reapers and binders, mowers, hay-rakes, tillage and seeding machines.35 The lease to the International Harvester Co. had been due to end in May 1923, and that year the company moved to Rangitikei Street, which was the hub of farm equipment sales yards etc. rather more so than Coleman Place - just as that area has continued to be identified with car sales yards and the like ever since (although there was a blacksmith’s shop and a stable across the road in George Street during this period). The firm was issued a permit to build its new £6,100 brick building in Rangitikei Street on 30 November 1922. CT WN23/105 had been issued to Joseph Henrys, still erroneously described as a settler of Palmerston North, on 12 February 1918, and this lists the transfer of the property from Henrys to Hallenstein Bros. Ltd. in late 1923. The International Harvester Company had been formed the United States in 1902, and it was a combination of other much older firms that were producing agricultural machinery there. These included the Deering, and McCormick firms, that are still well-known names in vintage machinery circles. The firm, as The International Company of America, established its first branch in New Zealand in 1905, choosing Christchurch for the branch due to its principal machine being a reaper and binder, and Christchurch being the area where there was the most demand for these. The International Harvester Company of New Zealand Ltd. was formed in Christchurch (where its head office was based) on 1 July 1912, and it soon established branches in Auckland, Palmerston North and Dunedin. A short-lived branch in Wellington (which the Palmerston North branch David Dench, International Harvester, p. 41; Manawatu Daily Times 23 April 1913 4(7) 35 34 David Dench, International Harvester, p. 89 Page 25 Palmerston North City Council These photos of the International Harvester Co. of NZ Ltd., building in Cashel Street, Christchurch (built about 1912), show design similarities to the Palmerston North building. The upper photo was taken in the late 1920s and the lower one after 1945. This building’s current status has not been researched, however, it is not on the Historic Places Trust’s list. Photo from: David Dench. International Harvester: A New Zealand point of view (P.N., 2002), p. 42. Hallenstein Bros. The architectural partnership that drew up the plans – dated 28 September 1923 - for converting this building from a seller of agricultural machinery to a seller of men’s clothing, signed its name on them as ‘Clere & Clere’. Susan Maclean’s book, Architect of the Angels: The Churches of Frederick de Jersey Clere, states that this partnership, between Frederick de Jersey Clere and his son Herbert Clere, was formed in 1923 after Herbert Clere left Palmerston North to live in Wellington. However, the book states that he probably did most of the designing of buildings in and around Palmerston North that were done in the Clere firm’s name between 1911 and 1923, including some 33 houses.36 36 Susan Maclean, Architect of the Angels: The Churches of Frederick de Jersey Clere (Wellington, 2003), p. 24 North West Square Heritage Area 2010 Clearly, there was a relationship between the Clere firm and this building from the start, even though another architectural firm originally designed it. The plans for these alterations record that Permit 578 was issued for the work on 26 October 1923, and that the builder was H.E. Townshend. The Building Permit Register further added that the value of the job was £2,559.37 The work included installing three pair of overhead electric light pendants in back part of the shop (which also had two pits for working under vehicles), a verandah around part of the building, two sets of double front doors, removing internal partitions on the ground floor and replacing them with an additional two cast iron columns (there were about ten others already helping support the upper floor, as shown in the photo above). Office space on the first floor was also altered and two 12ft wide arches that perhaps had previously marked the division between International Harvesters’ showroom and workshop, were now bricked up to form a party wall. Window display cases were installed and the windows were altered to include the familiar “HB” sign that identified this firm in those days. The main upper façade of the building (the end facing Main Street) was also decorated with the words “New Zealand HB Clothing Factory”, “Clothing, Mercery, Hats, Boots” H.E. Townshend also undertook unknown alterations to the building in 1934, this work being valued at £100.38 Further internal alterations also occurred there in 1961.39 In 1968, the firm celebrated its 85th anniversary in Palmerston North, having first opened in September 1883 in a building in Coleman Place owned by the Waldegrave family – possibly on the site of the Union Building (now Studio 31). In 1900, it had moved to a building next to where Building Permit Register, Vol. 3, p. 219, PNCC Archives 4/13/1; Plan 207/11-31, PNCC 4/13/6, Ian Matheson City Archives, PN City Library 38 Building Permit Register, Vol. 3, p. 406, permit issued 5 June 1934, PNCC Archives 4/13/1; Plan 207/11-31, PNCC 4/13/6, Ian Matheson City Archives, PN City Library 39 PNCC Building Permit file C70/1-3 37 Page 26 Palmerston North City Council North West Square Heritage Area 2010 the Royal Hotel then was, and where the BNZ now is.40 It then moved to this building, although the 1968 article erroneously states that the firm moved to the building in 1921. In the early days, the firm – and this building - was known as a branch of the NZ Clothing Factory, but the “HB” on the exterior tied the building to the firm’s founders, Hallenstein Bros. The Hallenstein brothers, led by Bendix Hallenstein, had opened their first store in Dunedin in 1876. Another 35 branches opened around the country over the next 25 years, and their familiar “HB” sign was displayed prominently and through the country, including at such remote places as the wall of Ormondville Railway Station (c1902).41 Hallensteins remained in this building until 1972, when, following an agreement with the PN City Corporation (as it then was named) the previous year, the corporation gave Hallensteins the old Midland Hotel building three doors away, in exchange for the Hallensteins property. No money changed hands, but Hallensteins then had to demolish the old hotel (formerly ‘Everybody’s Picture Theatre’) and build their new premises (now Trumps Fashions’ shop). Hallensteins’ new building opened on 17 October 1972. They intended to stay there “forever”, but thirteen years later, that building was also sold to PNCC (which was preparing its pre-‘Rosco building’ library relocation plans) and Hallensteins followed the pedestrian traffic flow elsewhere in the CBD.42 The Manawatu Evening Standard of 22 April 1921 (p. 5[2]) records that the tearooms above their shop (which was owned by the Waldegrave Estate) had been gutted by fire the previous evening, and although they managed to salvage their stock, there was a great deal of water and smoke damage. 41 Manawatu Evening Standard, 16 September 1968, p. 12; Records of Ormondville Rail Preservation Group Inc (per V.A. Burr) 42 Manawatu Evening Standard 11 August 1971, p. 3; 16 October 1972, ‘opening supplement’; 4 December 1990, p. 1; 5 December 1990, p. 12 The dark-roofed area is the former International Harvester showroom and warehouse – by this time shared by Carl Neilsen’s car repair shop and Hallensteins – photographed in about 1950. The Midland Hotel (which was later swapped for this property) is in the upper left corner of the picture. Between this building and the Midland is the former Hopwood building (later part of the Midland Hotel) that the Council tried to use the party wall of, to block construction of this building. Meanwhile the former RSA building is in the bottom left corner. Photo: Whites Aviation Ltd., Palmerston North & District, New Zealand (Auckland, 1950), p. 2 40 Occupants (to 1960) Wises 1915-16 Coleman Pl. – International Harvester Co.; Cuthbertsen & Spelman, coal merchant. Probably also A.J. Patterson, civil engineer in 1915 only Page 27 Palmerston North City Council Wises 1920-22 Coleman Pl. - International Harvester Co.; E.J. Spelman & Co., merchants; & possibly Fitt & King, manufacturing jewellers in 1920; & Cliffe & Remington, manufacturing jewellers, and J. King, jeweller, in 1922. Wises 1925 Coleman Pl. – C. Neilson, motor garage; Hallenstein Bros. Ltd., clothiers; Hume Pipe Co. (Aust.) Ltd. and possibly others. Stones 1933 Coleman Pl. – NZ (HB) Clothing Factory Ltd. (manager: C.A. Bierre). George St. - ‘H.B. Buildings’: Miss Amy Gertrude Low, dressmaker; Miss Molly Townsend, teacher of dancing; Lionel Andrew Johnston, tailor; Robert A. Bruce, tailor. Also Justice & Edmunds (used car dept.) Wises 1936 Coleman Pl. – Hallenstein Bros. Ltd., clothiers. George St. - Miss A. Low, dress specialist; Miss Molly Townsend, teacher of dancing; Miss Margaret Stock, teacher of dancing; Lionel A. Johnston, tailor; Robert Bruce, tailor Wises 1939 Coleman Pl. - Hallenstein Bros. Ltd., clothiers. George St. – HB Buildings – Miss Amy G. Low, dressmaker; Miss M. Harper, fancy goods; Charles H. Salter, tailor. Also Justice & Edmunds, used car depot. Wises 1944 1 Coleman Pl. - Hallenstein Bros. Ltd., clothiers. George St. – HB Buildings: Miss Amy G. Low, dressmaker; Miss M. Harper, fancy goods Wises 1950-51 1 Coleman Pl. - Hallenstein Bros. Ltd., clothiers. George St. – Miss Amy G. Low, dressmaker; John F. Johnstone, tailor; Mrs Georgina West. Also 11 George St. – Carl Neilsen, motor engineer Wises 1953-54 1 Coleman Pl. - Hallenstein Bros. Ltd., clothiers. George St. – HB Buildings: Miss Amy G. Low, dressmaker; Reece & Alcock, solicitors. Also 11 George St. – Carl Neilsen, motor engineer. Wises 1957 1 Coleman Pl. – Reece & Alcock, solicitors; Hallenstein Bros. Ltd., clothiers. George St. – HB Buildings: Miss Amy G. Low, dressmaker; Reece & Alcock, solicitors. Also 9-11 George St. – Syd Jensen Motors Ltd. North West Square Heritage Area 2010 Wises 1959-60 1 Coleman Pl. - Hallenstein Bros. Ltd., outfitters. HB Buildings: First Floor: Reece & Alcock. Also 9-11 George St. – Syd Jensen Motors Ltd.; Aviation Sales & Service Ltd. Post-Hallensteins The knitwear supplies firm Willie Weavers occupied the old building by 1990, but by 1992 and the purchase of the present library building, the old Hallensteins building was no longer required by PNCC. The property was then subdivided into two parts, and the part containing this building received CT WN43A/713 in September 1993. However, in 1992 this building had been sold for $300,000 to bar and grill operator Dean Phillips, to be converted to Deano’s Bar & Grill.43 The Building Permit records state that this work was complete by 8 December 1992.44 Although the transfer of the property on the CTs did not occur until 1995, Phillips had a caveat on the property from 1992. Late on the evening of 9 March 1998, the unoccupied first floor of the building caught fire in a “spectacular” blaze that drew six fire appliances and 40 fire fighters. This was partly out of fear that the fire might spread to other buildings, although the firewalls prevented this from happening. However, damage to the upper floor was estimated at 80%, while downstairs there was considerable smoke and water damage. A spokesman for Deanos said that although they paid rent for the upper floor, it was condemned and they only used it for storage.45 In mid-1998, the building was transferred to the present owner, the Manawatu Development Co. Ltd. The firm then undertook a major refurbishment of the building prior to The Loaded Hog bar opening there in November 1998. This work included fire reinstatement and major seismic 43 Manawatu Evening Standard 5 December 1990, p. 12; 6 October 1992 p. 3 PNCC Building Permit file C70/1-7. C70/1-3 also relates to the property and contains the 1923 alteration plan. 45 Manawatu Evening Standard 10 March 1998, p. 1 44 Page 28 Palmerston North City Council strengthening work. The building was completely gutted back to the three walls, and the present ‘ground floor’ concrete-work that was not present at the time of the fire, appeared during that time. Most of the upper floor had also gone, meaning that nowadays, the ground floor ceiling is effectively now that formerly belonging to the upper floor. The Loaded Hog departed about 2004.46 The last occupant was Bar Mode, which finally departed in 2009 after a troubled tenancy.47 The building is now empty, but has recently undergone some more renovations. Comments: David Dench’s book on the International Harvester Company is not a ‘business history’ as such, focusing to a large extent on its US background and products - and on the later years of Palmerston North branch. Therefore, there may be more information to be found on the management history of the firm in NZ, and also on senior personalities such as the American Mr F.W. Jones. Joseph Henrys himself is deserving of further interest. Council records will hold more specific information on the long-running section issue – and also on the 1913 clash. The Building Permit files state that this building is listed as earthquake-prone. Although the note concerned is on a PNCC Building Permit file that is separate to the one containing the 1998 strengthening work. ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION The building is designed in the Edwardian Stripped Classical style where Classical elements and details are used in a simplified manner. The 1923 drawings available show the two-storied building with symmetrical façades facing Coleman Place and the Square while the façade facing George Street is not symmetrical. The original drawings show the building with a central triangular pediment to the parapet to the façade facing Coleman Mall with a cornice, and 46 Manawatu Evening Standard, 2 November 1998, p. 13; 6 December 1998, p. 1; 2004-05 phonebooks 47 http://www.bebo.com/barmode North West Square Heritage Area 2010 pilasters, which break the façade into three equal bays. The façade facing The Square also has a central triangular pediment to the parapet but is divided into two equal bays with pilasters. The Cuba Street end of the George Street elevation has a plain rendered wall with curved stepped parapet with doors and windows on the ground floor only. The remainder of the building has the same Classical language as the other façades but with subtle difference. It has a parapet with a ‘pavilion’ pediment forming one unequal bay with two other equal bays separated by pilasters. Each of the pilasters extends to the parapet on all elevations and the cornice is continuous. The ground floor has almost continuous shop fronts with a corner entry facing the C M Ross building, and another on the George Street/Coleman Place corner. The plans show the shop fronts to be deeply recessed display windows. The ground floor plan is show as being a largely open space but with an office and store to the rear. Stairs rise up to the first floor centrally on the George Street wall. The first floor is shown as having a central ‘L’ shaped corridor off which were a number of offices. Most of the first floor has now been removed. The verandah design is shown as incorporating the ‘HB’ sign on both corners of Coleman Place. The construction of the building is not shown on the available drawings. STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE This building has high local significance for historical and design values, representivity of building style and level of external authenticity. This building has high historic significance in its historic association with the first occupier, International Harvester and a subsequent occupier, the clothing firm Hallenstein Brothers. It is also associated with the well Page 29 Palmerston North City Council recognised Christchurch architectural form England Brothers who designed the building and with the architects of later modifications, Clere and Clere, a highly regarded architectural practice in the lower half of the North Island from the late Victorian to the Inter-War period. The building has moderate design values as a good representative example of the Edwardian Stripped Classical style, a popular style for commercial buildings in the period. The building has high design values as one of a number of buildings in the Cuba Street, George Street, Coleman Place, and The Square area which, when considered collectively, form a coherent group of buildings of a similar age, general style, form, use, and scale. North West Square Heritage Area 2010 ASSESSMENT SUMMARY Significance Proposed category PNCC District Plan Criteria Cultural Emotional Historical The building has high external authenticity. Design Technology Spiritual Sentimental Symbolic Political People Events Age Tradition Continuity Style Materials Group Materials Construction high local 2 Contextual Measure Authenticity H Rarity Landmark Representative Design Setting Materials Craftsmanship M H Page 30 H H H Palmerston North City Council Coleman Place, 2-6, George Street, 31 Former Rosco Tearooms 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: 130 square metres more of less Lot 1 DP81805 WN48B/603 (1997); Prior CT WN45D/111 (1996)48 Nil Nil Nil 151 1915-16 William Fielding, of Wellington C.M. Ross & Co. Ltd Unknown PHYSICAL AND SOCIAL HISTORY History While the Coleman Place façade of this building remains intact, the back three-fifths of the building was sheared off in the mid-1990s as part of the conversion of the old C.M. Ross Co. Ltd. (and successors) department store, into the present library complex. The upper floors are now accessed from the alleyway between The Square and George Street that leads to the library’s main entrance part way between the two. The street address to the upper floors is now 31 George Street. An early CT connected to this property was WN8/199, which predates 1880. However, none prior to 1996 were sighted for this study. The ‘historical CT’ of WN48B/603 was also not sighted in relation to any ownership changes that might have occurred between 1997, and Valmont Ltd.’s ownership of it. 48 Page 31 Palmerston North City Council Prior History George F. Roe purchased this property, as Section 331 of the Township of Palmerston, from the Crown in 1867. Its CT prior to 1880 was probably WN8/199. The portion of George Street between Main Street and Coleman Place was then created from Section 331, with the land on either side of the street becoming Deposited Plan 27. A.G.S. Bradfield, in Forgotten Days, credits Roe, a building contractor, as the source of the name ‘George Street’. Roe subdivided the Main Street end of the street in 1875 (DP27), while the Cuba Street end (DP155) was subdivided in 1979.49 Thus this property became Lot 8 of DP27. Lots 3-6 of DP27 (at least) were bought by William Coombs in 1880 and 1881 (see the ‘Commercial Building’ in The Square re the Coombs Estate). C.M. Ross also leased his original George Street property (Lot 7 DP27) in 1905, but owned that by 1928. That property’s ‘prior CT’ is WN19/167, which corresponds with Lot 6’s WN19/170 (1880) owned then by William Coombs. By late 1914, however, this property was in the hands of C.M. Ross.50 The business that became C.M. Ross Co. Ltd., began as John Fowler’s Bon Marche drapery shop in The Square. Scottish immigrant Charles Macintosh Ross arrived in the town in 1883, and purchased the Bon Marche business. Thus from those relatively small beginnings, the present set of Rosco buildings eventually grew. In about 1905, the firm built a single storey brick building fronting George Street, which gave the building a second street frontage, and also allowed furnishings to be added to the firm’s product lines The George Street building was given a second storey in 1927-8, thereby taking on its present form. The company was incorporated on 4 September 1914.51 A.G.S. Bradfield, Forgotten Days (PN, 1956), p. 167 50 Wellington Provincial Government Gazette 1867, p. 19. Section 331 was purchased for £25 and measured 1 acre, 1 rood. The remaining CTs referred to are from the other library properties covered in this study. 51 Lesley Courtney, The House that Quality and Value Built: The C.M. Ross Co. Ltd., Story (PN 2008), pp. 4, 6 49 North West Square Heritage Area 2010 The Building The tender notice for this building was published in the Manawatu Evening Standard on 23 December 1914 - the architect, William Fielding of Wellington, seeking tenders for a steel-framed brick building to be built for C.M. Ross & Co. Ltd., in the Square.52 The Building Permit Register records that Permit No. 1998 was issued for this building on 16 February 1915. The permit covered both this building and a new one facing The Square (Sections 255/6 and 331 Pt 7 & 8), and these were to be of brick and were to cost £10,000.53 As preparations to erect the new building progressed, there was still the matter of the attractive two-storied house, with an upstairs balcony for enjoying the afternoon sun, which was already on the site.54 Accordingly the Building Permit Register lists Permit No. 2007, dated 23 February 1915, which was issued to C.M. Ross & Co. Ltd. to remove a building from Coleman Place and to take it to Pt. Section 645 in Main Street. The value of the building was given as £130. Then on 26 April 1915, Permit No. 2050 was also issued to the firm. This was to reinstate the building on Section 645 in Main Street using timber, and the end value of the building was £300. The house had gone to a property close to where Marece Court (574 Main Street) now is, but clearly it is now long gone. The Manawatu Evening Standard of 19 April 1916 reported the following description of the Rosco premises as they were at that time – and as they would be until the next major upgrade just over a decade later. Some indication of the impact of the First World War then raging, is also apparent: 52 Pam Phillips Papers, ‘Tenders in the Manawatu Evening Standard’, in PN Architects 1900-1950, Vol.5, p. 58, Ian Matheson City Archives, PN City Library 53 Building Permit Register, Vol. 1, Permit 1998, PNCC Archives 4/13/1, Ian Matheson City Archives, PN City Library 54 This house appears in Photo St10 in the Photographic Collection of the PN City Library, and on page 4 of Lesley Courtney’s book The House that Quality and Value Built. Page 32 Palmerston North City Council The C.M. Ross Co. Ltd.: Fine New Premises Shortly after the C.M. Ross Co. Ltd., acquired the oldestablished business in Palmerston North of C.M. Ross and Co., the directorate was faced with the necessity of enlarging the premises, the business having grown to such proportions that it was found it could not be handled satisfactorily under the old conditions. Accordingly, the sections at the corner of George Street and Coleman Place and a strip of land fronting the Square between the then existing buildings and the Union Bank of Australia were acquired and arrangements made for the erection of additional suitable buildings. These have now been completed, making a fine structure of steel frame with reinforced concrete, with imposing frontages to the Square and George Street. The portion fronting the Square is two-storeys, while that with a frontage to George Street and Coleman Place is three storeys. Right throughout the buildings, everything has been carried out on a generous scale, giving a maximum of display space, and that important matter, light for the interior. The floor space is very considerable, being in all very near equal to an acre. Entering through the four handsome arcade windows from the Square, the Manchester department is reached, this having now been in use for a few months. A panelled stairway leads to the flat (floor) above which is given over to that important part of the company’s business, dressmaking. The workrooms facing the Square are lofty and well lit, and occupy the greater portion of this flat, a suite of fitting rooms and ladies’ waiting rooms also occupying a considerable amount of room. Along the corridor from the Manchester department, and passing the commodious office the furnishing department is reached, this department having also entrances from George Street. Panelled and beamed ceilings, white plastered walls, and the latest and best in composition flooring, with plenty of light and space, make this a most desirable room in which to select furnishings. A handsome staircase leads to the second flat, which will at a later date be used as a tea room. North West Square Heritage Area 2010 The third storey is for the present to be used to store the large reserve stocks the company is carrying. The firm, having command of ample capital, was able to place extensive orders for all classes of drapery goods prior to the recent increases of price, and they are thus in the fortunate position of having large stocks of goods that at present can only, in some cases, be obtained at a large advance in price – and in some cases cannot be obtained at all. In this connection the large space at the company’s disposal will be of extreme benefit, as it will enable it to carry exceptionally large stocks, and give their customers the benefits of advantageous buying. Apart from the possibility of supplies in many cases being unprocurable consequent on the number of workers withdrawn from their manufacture at Home on account of the war, a very serious position is threatened, as in many cases “famine” prices are likely to prevail. Considerable alterations have been made to the interior arrangements of the existing buildings, the display windows of which have been modernised, and with their richly panelled backgrounds present a handsome appearance. The boot department has been enlarged, and is now better lighted, thus affording better opportunities for displaying the goods. The departments that cater for the etceteras of a lady’s toilet, laces, gloves, hosiery, neckwear, etc., have been brought together, and are all handy to the main entrance. The dress department occupies three sides of a square, and in this spacious, well-lighted room, ladies will be able to make their selections in comfort. Alongside is the ladies’ underclothing and children’s section, compactly arranged, yet sufficiently roomy. The showroom, which has an entrance from George Street, is a most attractive quarter of the premises. Carpeted and panelled in brown, it presents a pleasing appearance with its fine display of millinery, costumes, coats, etc. A special feature about the firm’s premises is the ample space afforded for window displays. These are particularly large, giving opportunity to make displays that are both striking and artistic. In all the company has for the display of their goods some Page 33 Palmerston North City Council North West Square Heritage Area 2010 18 windows that are tastefully dressed and enhance the general appearance of the building. That full advantage is taken of the space is evident by the fine result of the window dressers’ efforts. The firm at present employs about 100 hands in the various branches, and from time to time it is necessary to increase the number as business increases –this also being the reason for the large additions to the premises that has lately been made. The firm is now in a position to satisfactorily display their wares and deal with their steadily increasing business. The firm invites the public and visitors to Palmerston to pay a visit of inspection to their new premises.55 women under the name of “The Manawatu County Club,” and at last their labours have nearly reached completion. The clubrooms are situated in the huge, well lit room that was formerly the C.M. Ross Co.’s tea room, with its entrance on Coleman Place. This has been divided so as to form a lounge and reading room, tea room, rest room, card or tearooms, and big entrance lobby where members can read the latest periodicals, entertain a friend to afternoon or morning tea, or while away an hour in comfortable idleness. A big membership is already making the committee’s effort worthwhile and naturally, as the membership grows, so will the comforts and advantages of the club keep pace.57 Lesley Courtney, in her book, The House that Quality and Value Built, writes that not long after the new buildings opened, a tea and luncheon room was established on the first floor of the new Coleman Place building. This room not on a grand scale, but was convenient for shoppers and could be hired for functions. The tearooms were not a great success, losing money from the start. This was blamed on poor management, but changing that in the early 1920s did not resolve the problem. In 1922, the tearooms were re-equipped and re-established. When the new building facing The Square was complete in 1928, the new Rosco tearooms were on the second floor of the building overlooking The Square. The old tearooms then closed, and a week later - on 13 September - reopened in their new location as the ‘Rosco Luncheon and Tea Rooms’.56 However, the old tearooms soon had a new tenant that remained for the next five decades. The following day, the club held its first meeting, the report duly featuring in the newspaper the day after: At half-past two yesterday afternoon the Manawatu County Club held its first general meeting in its newly established clubrooms, Coleman Place. A big muster of members turned up and everything helped to make the occasion a great success. Mr W.L. Fitzherbert kindly presided at the meeting and at the end auctioned the periodicals for the ensuing year. After the meeting the president and committee of the club entertained the members and friends at an afternoon tea and the clubrooms were most beautifully decorated for the occasion. The entrance lobby is done in blue and gold, with all woodwork stained dark walnut, which shows up the curtains of gold striped silk and the chair cushions of gold. Three small card rooms and a tea room open off the lobby which has a big blue and rose Malabar rug on the floor. The tea tables this afternoon were dainty with Iceland poppies and bowls of yellow irises and antirrhinums were placed on tables and ledges to complete the colour scheme. Swing doors lead from the lobby to the lounge which has large Malabar rungs in soft shades of pink and maize and blue. Comfortable chairs and roomy sofas have cushions of blue and gold and the softest pink and the curtains of maize coloured net at the Manawatu County Club Inc. On 28 November 1928, the Manawatu Evening Standard’s reporter, writing under the non-de-plume ‘Germaine’, wrote in her column ‘Women’s World’ of a new club that had arrived on the local scene: For several weeks past an energetic and well organised committee has been working and planning and forming a club for 55 56 Manawatu Evening Standard 19 April 1916 6(2) Lesley Courtney, The House that Quality and Value Built, pp. 8, 11 57 Manawatu Evening Standard 28 November 1928 11(4) Page 34 Palmerston North City Council windows match the colouring of the long cretonne ones. Here, artists in floral decoration had placed large bowls of pink and white Watsonias, blue delphiniums and larkspurs, catmint and lupins and roses, and again roses. The article then went on to describe in detail the clothing worn by the president (Mrs Putnam), the vice-president (Mrs Fitzherbert), the Treasurer (Mrs Davis) and the six committee members. In addition to adding that the rooms were filled almost to capacity, and that the daughters of the committee members served the afternoon tea, the report named some 128 women who were present, before finishing the list with the words “and many others”.58 The club was duly incorporated on 5 December 1928.59 Club members accessed the clubrooms through the entrance on the left side of the building’s Coleman Place façade. At the top of the stairs, they turned right to the club, or left to visit the various tenanted offices in the Norfolk House building. If they needed to use a lift, they used the department store lift to the first floor and came into the clubrooms through the back way. Noticeable amongst those present at the first general meeting in 1928 was Mrs J.A. Nash, owner of the Nash Building across the street in George Street. Also present was Mrs Relling, who five years later bought the (yet to be so named) Norfolk House building. It must have been with some relief that the women found they now had some control over future tenants of that building, and therefore whom they might meet in the staircase. For example, this study has shown that there were probably enough billiard parlours in the immediate vicinity already. Local historian Noeline Penny, who has been a member since the 1950s, said that country women would spend time at the clubrooms when they North West Square Heritage Area 2010 came to town with husbands who were going to stock sales, or to conduct business, etc. A 1992 article on the club said that it was originally formed after several women had felt the area had a need for a women’s social club. The resulting club had been based on an English idea in which members took part in ‘circles’ or interest groups. At that time, the circles included bridge, arts and garden circles.60 Plans dated February 1967 in the PNCC Building Permit file for this building, are for alterations to the Manawatu County Club’s rooms. At this time, the room inside the bay windows transformed from a library to being a powder room, with two toilets being installed there. Meanwhile a small lounge became an enlarged office and the new library. The kitchen was also upgraded and the old toilet area was remodelled into a small lounge. Thus the clubrooms now had two toilets, instead of previously just one.61 The Manawatu County Club occupied the first floor of this building until 1980, when the building’s current owners required the space for themselves. The club had learned that it was to lose its home in 1979, and the following year, after almost 52 years in the building, it relocated to the Grand Hotel building. A short time later it moved to the Manawatu (men’s) Club on the corner of Linton and Church Streets. The club stayed there until 1992 when it purchased its present rooms, the former Salvation Army Hall on the corner of Fitzroy and Main Streets.62 At present the club is in the process of compiling its history by taping interviews with older members for eventual deposit in the city’s community archives. 63 Owners The C.M. Ross & Co. Ltd. department store, popularly known as “Rosco’s”, became Milne & Choyce in 1959, and then the D.I.C. in 1966. Manawatu Evening Standard 2 September 1992, p. 14 PNCC Building Permit file ‘C70 County Club’ 62 Manawatu Evening Standard 2 September 1992, p. 14 63 Personal interviews with Judy Yates (current president) and Gregor Yates, 6 March 2010, and Noeline Penny, 5 March 2010. 60 61 58 Manawatu Evening Standard 30 November 1928 8(5). Also 1 December 1928 18(2) 59 Companies Office website. No. 215589 Page 35 Palmerston North City Council North West Square Heritage Area 2010 The D.I.C. group was sold to the Arthur Barnett firm in 1987, and then in 1989, the building was rebranded as an Arthur Barnett store. The store closed in August 1991, and the Palmerston North City Council then purchased the property in 1992 for conversion to the present city library. The new library opened on 25 May 1996. Following the subdivision of the former Arthur Barnett store property, this property (Lot 1) was sold, while the balance (Lot 2) is now the library land. Lot 1 is now owned by Valmont Ltd. Additions & Alterations Leaving aside the dramatic library alterations to the back of the building (these being covered in PNCC Building Permit file C70/10-16), a noticeable change is to some of the building’s first floor windows. The bay window and left side window appear to be the same as original, however, the pair of triple windows on either side of the bay window had an upward rise at the centre of the cross bar below the fanlights. This rise affected the middle panes only. The first floor windows on the George Street façade of this building were identical, as was the main window above the George Street entrance (now the library’s George Street entrance). The latter window and the two side windows closest to it (of four, the remaining two being new) were recycled from the 1916 building in The Square during the 1927-28 rebuild. The windows in the building being studied here were still present around 1950, but were gone by the 1980s, and different ones still are there now.64 (Left) This (partly obscured) view of the building shows one of the original first floor windows, with the rise in the centre of the cross bar still apparent. (Right) The remaining portion of this building after library conversion work. (Sources: Whites Aviation Ltd., Palmerston North & District, New Zealand (Auckland, 1950), p. 2; and Geo-guide photo from PNCC website) Occupants The above 1916 article refers to the other George Street entrance (now the library’s George Street entrance) as being the main one to the store from that street, and it is unclear as to activities on this building’s ground floor. Early photos of the building only show signage for the tearooms. By the 1980s it housed the DIC’s home appliance department.65 Ground Floor Now Angkor Family Restaurant, (4 Coleman Place) First Floor 1916-1928 Rosco Tearooms 1928-1980 Manawatu County Club Now 31 George St. Black Sheep www.blacksheepdesign.co.nz 64 Lesley Courtney, The House that Quality and Value Built, pp.12, 35 65 Design Lesley Courtney, The House that Quality and Value Built, pp.12, 35 Page 36 Palmerston North City Council Second Floor 1916 Rosco storage space for stock Now Unknown Directories (Coleman Place entries only, some certainly in the next building) Wises 1922-25 C.M. Ross tearooms; C.M. Ross & Co Ltd, drapers (branch) Stones 1933 Rosco Buildings: John King Watchmaker etc; Bradfield’s Florist Studios (Miss Joan Bradfield, manageress); Grover & Whitehead (Frank G. & Miss Elsie W.), pram & seagrass furniture; Williams & McKegg (Amos R. McKegg & O.H. Williams), dentists (who are understood to have been upstairs in the Norfolk House building, but using the staircase in this building); Manawatu County Club (Mrs Madge Harman, secretary); C.M. Ross & Co. Ltd, furnishing depts. Wises 1936-54 10 Coleman Pl. - Williams & McKegg, dentists; Manawatu County Club; C.M. Ross & Co. Ltd., furniture dealers Wises 1957 10 Coleman Pl. – Mrs H.M. Foster’s dressmaking service depot; McKegg & Andrews, dentists; Manawatu County Club; C.M. Ross & Co. Ltd., furniture dept. Wises 1959-60 10 Coleman Pl. - H.M. Foster Ltd., dress accessories; First Floor: McKegg & Andrews, dentists; Manawatu County Club; C.M. Ross & Co. Ltd., furniture dept. Comments: Only limited CTs were sighted relating to this building - during this study of what is a complex collection of library-land CTs prior to the current ones. For the purposes of assisting future researchers of this site, some additional background detail has been supplied above. When the history of the Manawatu County Club is compiled and/or deposited in the Ian Matheson City Archives as is planned, it should contain some very useful social history relating to the club’s time in this building. C.M. Ross & Co. Ltd. records held by the Te Manawa Museums Trust, would also add to the story. North West Square Heritage Area 2010 ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION The building is designed in the Inter-War Free Classical style where Classical elements and details are used in the elevation design in a nonacademic manner. Above the verandah is an asymmetrical façade design including a parapet with pilasters, a curved pediment with apron panel with AD 1915 inscribed, an exaggerated cornice with dentils, giant ordered pilasters with panels and brackets in an Art Nouveau style, and a bay window with a half domed roof in an Arts and Crafts style. The ground floor shop fronts have been modified significantly. The description of the planning and construction of the building are given above. STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE This building has high regional significance for historical and design values, and representivity of building style. This remaining building has high emotional and historic values in its association with the CM Ross and Co. department store and its successor, Milne and Choyce. The store was regarded as an institution in the city. The 1927 building was the firm's crowning achievement and at the time the grandest department store yet erected in Palmerston North. It is also associated with the Manawatu Country Club a tenant for over 50 years. The building is also historically associated with its architect, William Fielding, who maintained a successful practice in Wellington in the first half of the twentieth century. The original and later ownership and tenants reflects moderate continuity as a typical pattern of similar commercial buildings throughout the city. The building has high design values as a rare and successful example of Free Classical design, which incorporates elements of Art Nouveau and Page 37 Palmerston North City Council North West Square Heritage Area 2010 Arts and Crafts and which gives the building landmark significance in the Coleman Place and George Street areas of 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 building’s above verandah street façade design has moderate levels of 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 regional 1 Contextual Measure H Authenticity H Rarity Landmark Representative Design Setting Materials Craftsmanship H H M H M H H Page 38 Palmerston North City Council Coleman Place, 8-14, George Street, 33 Norfolk House 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 Pt Lot 1 DP 3075 WN329/71 (1925); prior CT WN229/280 (1914) Nil Nil Nil 150 1915-16 H.L. Hickson & A.R. Allen The C.M. Ross Company Ltd. Unknown PHYSICAL AND SOCIAL HISTORY History This building was designed as four small ground floor shops, with office space upstairs that was accessed through a front door and staircase inside the adjoining Rosco Tearooms building. When buildings in the vicinity were adapted to suit the new library, a new entrance to the first floor was opened up at the back of the building, leading up from the library’s alleyway. This floor now has a George Street address. Prior History This building was part of the C.M. Ross cluster of buildings for its first decade. The site was the former back garden of the Union Bank of Australia – which included a residence for bank managers and their families - and C.M. Ross Co. Ltd. purchased the site in late 1925. The Union Bank had been enlarged to its present form in 1925, and thus the garden was already surrounded by buildings at least two stories in height. Page 39 Palmerston North City Council North West Square Heritage Area 2010 CT WN329/71 reveals that the bank even provided the C.M. Ross Ltd. with a mortgage for it. In her book The House that Quality and Value Built, on the history of C.M. Ross Co. Ltd., Lesley Courtney notes a memo from the ailing Charles Ross that was read at a Director’s meeting in August 1924. This suggested that the firm purchase adjoining properties and that it plan a further rebuilding programme. The architects H. L. Hickson and A.R. Allen were appointed to be part of the programme. This building was the first project they were to work on, and it was intended to be leased out to commercial tenants, rather than become part of the main department store.66 The Building C.M. Ross Ltd. applied for a permit to erect this building in August 1925, and the new building was to cost £6,000.67 H.L. Hickson & A.R. Allen duly published the tender notice relating it in the Manawatu Evening Standard of 1 August 1925. It was described as being built of concrete, steel and brick.68 Norfolk House overshadows by its neighbours in about 1950. Photo: Whites Aviation Ltd., Palmerston North & District, New Zealand (Auckland, 1950), p. 2 The building was sold in 1933, which might have been an economy measure during the Depression, as the firm was also cutting salaries around that time.69 The new owner was Edith Sylvia Relling, a married woman of Palmerston North. Lesley Courtney, The House that Quality and Value Built: The C.M. Ross Co. Ltd. story (PN, 2008), p. 12 67 Building Permit Register, Vol. 3, p. 381, PNCC 4/13/1, Ian Matheson City Archives, PN City Library 68 Pam Phillips Papers, PN Architects 1900-1950, Vol. 5, p. 32. Ian Matheson City Archives, PN City Library 66 Mrs Relling was the wife of Thorsten Frederick Relling, a local solicitor. He died on 29 August 1939, aged 59, and his obituary reveals that he had been a solicitor in Blenheim until moving to Palmerston North around 1922, where he also worked as a barrister and solicitor. His fellow legal practitioners thought highly of him. He had served in the New Zealand Forces in the South African War, and had been keen on athletics, rifle 69 Lesley Courtney, The House that Quality and Value Built, p. 21 Page 40 Palmerston North City Council North West Square Heritage Area 2010 shooting and racing. He had also been the honorary solicitor to the Plunket Society for some years. Amongst his pallbearers were J.A. Nash MP and L.A. Collinson (owner of Collinson & Sons). Edith Relling died on 22 July 1963, and nothing more was traced on her during this study. CT WN329/71 reveals that in 1963, the building was transmitted to Alexander Thorsten Relling, a solicitor, and Robert Hamilton Grey Connal, a retired bank manager, both of Wellington. In 1964, it passed to the Norwich Union Life Insurance Society. The next owner was Westmark Holdings Ltd. of Whangarei, who bought it in 1986. The present owner, Donald Justin Pescini, a local stock agent, bought it in 1989. The Name: Norfolk House Early post-1928 photos of the building (i.e. showing the present main Rosco/library building in place) show no apparent signage on the building’s façade, while its western neighbour is clearly identified as a Rosco building. Similarly, neither photo Sq267 (c1932) nor Bc200 (1937) from the PN City Library’s photographic collection, show anything apparent in the spot where the building’s name now is. However, Photo St69, taken in February 1973, does show the name, which inspection reveals is metal and is bolted to the building. Therefore the name almost certainly relates to the Norwich Union Life Insurance Society’s ownership of the building, as the city of Norwich, where the society (now part of Aviva) was founded in 1808, is in the English county of Norfolk. A Geo-guide version of Norfolk House with the library alleyway now behind it, from the PNCC website. Additions & Alterations PNCC Building Permit file C70/10-16 includes plans of the offices for the Norwich Union Insurance Society, drawn up by architect David Taylor and dated 5 February 1965. Architectural firm Gillman Garry Clapp & Sayers drew up more floor plans dated October 1980, showing the existing and new (relatively open plan) layout on the first floor. The permit file contains plans of the new layout at the time of the floor’s conversion to the art gallery, including the new access from the area of the library’s main entrance, including occupants in the downstairs shops that coincide with 1995 phonebook entries The file also contains a permit application for the strengthening and upgrading of the building, dated 20 December 1995 – coinciding with the new library’s development behind the building. Occupants Due to repeated numbering changes in this vicinity – and often no street numbers used at all in the Wises and Stones Directories - it is not possible to conclude with any certainty who was in which shop, and which might Page 41 Palmerston North City Council North West Square Heritage Area 2010 have been empty (or using two shops at the same time) at any given time. Also, upstairs occupants of both this building and the former Rosco Tearooms building next door, all used the same street access and therefore all shared the same street number. Contributing to this is the Union Bank extension that also dates to 1925, and the occupants of one of its shops are not certainties either. It is, however, possible to conclude that one shop in this building was a stationery shop, while the others included a jewellery shop and a florist, during the period 1933 to 1960. Shop 3- 14 Coleman Pl. Plan c1995 14 Coleman Pl. - Empty Now Bruce McKenzie Booksellers, Discounted Books The 1933 Stones Directory lists Colin McTurk’s stationery shop; John King, ‘watchmaker etc.’; and Miss Joan Bradfield’s ‘Bradfield’s Florist Studios’, while Grover & Whithead sold pram and seagrass furniture somewhere in the vicinity of the building. By the 1936 Wises Directory, C.M. Hastings had the stationery shop, while the other three remain (also though the florist shop is now A.C. Bradfield’s). By 1939, Ronald K. Beale had the stationery shop; and E.D. Bennett is now the florist, but King the jeweller remains. In the 1944 Directory, only Beale remains. However, Salon Marlene’ beauty specialist, has arrived. By the 1950-51 Directory, Thomas Devine has the stationery shop, and while G. Simes, chiropodist is new, the salon remains. By 1953-4, W. Knight & Son Ltd., jewellers & watchmakers, have joined Devine and Simes. By 1957, Heaphys (PN) Ltd., have the stationery shop, while Simes and Knight remain, and the three are still there in the 1959-60 Directory. It is also possibly that one of the two shop occupants attributed in this study to the neighbouring Union Bank building, might instead have been in this building. It is certain, however, that the Scotch Wool Shop was in the Union Bank, as its advertising appears there on signage shown in photos. Upstairs – Now 33 George Street 1964-86 Norwich Union Life Insurance Society 1980 plans L.W. Pirie, registered surveyor (office at back left corner of building) Now Taylor-Jensen Fine Arts Shop 1 – 14 Coleman Pl. (The Square end of building) Plan c1995 18 Coleman Pl. - Playthings Toy Shop Now 8 Coleman Pl. - Your Top Drawer- Lingerie on Coleman www.yourtopdrawer.co.nz Shop 2 – 12 Coleman Pl. Plan c1995 16 Coleman Pl. - ‘Cable Reskery Company’ (?) Now Generate Shop 4 – 8 Coleman Pl. (George Street end of building) Plan c1995 12 Coleman Pl. - Glassworks Now 14 Coleman Pl. – Personage clothing www.personage.co.nz shop ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION The style of the building is Edwardian Stripped Classical, which has stylistic references to the main C M Ross building including swags and triangular pediments. This was a popular style for commercial buildings in the Edwardian and Inter-War periods. The characteristics of the style as seen in the building include symmetry, shallow triangular pediment, parapet, cornice, and subtle steps in the façade breaking it into three bays with implied pilasters. The ground floor plans show four shops with the two central shops being of equal size and smaller than the two outer shops. The central shops have a square ingo, while the outer shops have angled ingos. Toilets are at the rear of the two central shops in a light well. The shop fronts appear to be original with granite spandrels and steel window frames. Most of the partitions to the upper floor have now been demolished and the original stair access has been blocked off. Access to the upper floor is now by way of an external stair from the George Street entry to the library. Page 42 Palmerston North City Council STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE This building has high local significance for historical and design values, representivity of building style and level of external authenticity. This building has high historic values in its historic association with the CM Ross and Co. department store. The store was regarded as an institution in the city and has high emotional values for residents. Their 1927 building was the firm's crowning achievement and at the time the grandest department store yet erected in Palmerston North. Following its sale in 1933 the building has been associated with the Relling family. The building is also historically associated with its original architect, A R Allen, a Palmerston North architect of the mid twentieth century who designed buildings in Napier, Gisborne and Palmerston North. H L Hickson, with whom Allen designed the building, practised for a period up until 1935 with Rotorua architect H E Goodwin. The original and later ownership and tenants reflects a moderate level of continuity as a typical pattern of similar commercial buildings throughout the city. 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 M H H The building has a moderate level of representivity as a good example of the Edwardian Stripped Classical style, a popular style for commercial buildings in the Edwardian and Inter-War periods. The building 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 external authenticity, particularly the shopfronts. Page 43 M H H Palmerston North City Council Coleman Place, 19-21 “The Arcade” (latterly Noodles ‘n Dumplings) 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: 248 square metres more or less Part Lot 3 Section 257, Town of Palmerston North and Lot 2 DP 33477 WN10C/692 (1972) Prior CTs WN282/160 (1922), WN24/199 (1876) Nil Nil Nil Nil 1906 Chas. Blackbourn Mrs F. (Mary Emma) Mowlem Chas. Blackbourn PHYSICAL AND SOCIAL HISTORY History In 1906, the new building at 19-21 Coleman Place and the nearly new building at 256 Cuba Street were linked together by the firm J.A. Nash & Co. Ltd. and christened ‘The Arcade’. Later this half of The Arcade appears to have been converted to two shops, and these were amalgamated into one shop again sometime since the 1970s. The upstairs hall has been used for social gatherings and also as a billiard room. Its current use is uncertain. The Designer: Charles William Blackbourn This building was designed by Charles William Blackbourn, a builder and contractor who had studied architecture and who designed most of his largest building contracts. He was born in Okato, Taranaki, in 1876, before serving a building apprenticeship in Palmerston North and Wanganui under Mr Coupe. He worked as a journeyman until starting his own Page 44 Palmerston North City Council business in Palmerston North in 1900. By the time Volume 6 of the Cyclopedia on New Zealand was published in 1908, Blackbourn employed forty staff in relation to his business and his contracts. Another of his buildings that survives is the façade of the former His Majesty’s Theatre (later Ballroom Astoria) in George Street, built in 1910.70 Prior History The land, upon which this building stands, was granted on 15 November 1876, as CT WN24/199, to James Harris, a settler of Palmerston North. He leased it to Andrew Steven Bentley for a 7-year term starting 1 March 1883, and in turn the lease was passed to William Bentley, a draper, in 1885, before Harris sold the property to William Gardner, a farmer, in 1889. The property then passed through the hands of Mary Lang of Wellington (1891), Samuel Gardiner (1895), and then in 1897 to Mary Emma Mowlem, wife of Fred Mowlem, a commission agent of Palmerston North. The property also passed thought the hands of a number of tenants over the years. After Mary Emma Mowlem purchased the property, she leased it to William Murrell Jamieson for a 5-year term starting 8 May 1897. The following year this was transferred to Edwin Grove. In 1903 Grove’s lease was renewed for seven years and four weeks, starting 14 December 1903, before being transferred in 1904 to John Reid Graham. This lease was then surrendered early, presumably in anticipation of the new building. The next activity on CT WN24/199 was the Mary Emma Mowlem’s 15-year lease of the property to J.A. Nash & Co. Ltd., starting 1 May 1906. The Bentleys traded as Bentley Bros. and were a drapery firm. They leased the two-storied wooden building shown on the site in early photos of this part of The Square, until William Bentley moved the business in 1886. However, the building was not present when the well-known 1877 Cyclopedia of New Zealand, Vol. 6, (Wellington, 1906), pp. 674-5, ‘Blackbourn, Charles William’ 70 North West Square Heritage Area 2010 panorama set of photos was taken.71 Edwin Grove, the second to last lessee of this building, was a grocer according to PNCC burial records. ‘The Arcade’ Built in 1906, both this building and the one behind it at 256 Cuba Street had a shared history for their first fifteen years. At the start they were leased to the firm J.A. Nash & Co. Ltd. and were known as ‘The Arcade’. Customers could walk the length of the two buildings between Cuba Street and Coleman Place, with Cuba Street being a very busy shopping street in those days. Although the previous building on this site had probably simply outlived its usefulness and been demolished, the new Cuba Street building was erected to replace its old wooden predecessor that had been burnt out on 16 August 1905. Although the insurance companies concerned tried to have the damaged building repaired with wood, it was evidently considered too badly damaged - and new buildings in this area were now required to be built of brick.72 Property owners in this block had graphic evidence in the form of the first Hotel Royal fire in 1895 and the major Clarendon Hotel fire in 1904, that fires in this block had a history of causing a great deal of damage to more than just the building where the fire started. The 1924 fire that destroyed a number of buildings in the block was to emphasise this. However, there was nothing in the reports on the aforementioned 1905 fire to suggest the old building in this site had been damaged by that fire. 1877 photo is G.C. Petersen, The Pioneering Days of Palmerston North (Palmerston North 1952) Photo between pages 76 & 77. Also SQ112, (c1889) Photographic Collection, PN City Library. The building is the dark building third on the left side of the Theatre Royal; and Manawatu Evening Standard 12 March 1886 3(1) 72 Manawatu Evening Standard 16 August 1905 5(2), 17 August 1905 5(1); Manawatu Daily Times 21 August 1905 1(3) 71 Page 45 Palmerston North City Council North West Square Heritage Area 2010 J.A. Nash & Co. Ltd. – the original tenant On 1 December 1902, the new firm J.A. Nash & Co. made a special announcement that it had taken over the “old-established firm of F. Ireland and Co., wholesale and retail merchants of Palmerston North.” The firm was to be run by James Alfred Nash, who had already been manager of the Ireland business for many years – on behalf of the estate of Mr F. Ireland, who had died in 1893. began working for F. Ireland & Co. Porteous’ obituary described J.A. Nash & Co. Ltd. as having been a wine and spirits merchant.75 Nash had arrived in Palmerston North (from Foxton), and in reports on the 1902 takeover, both local newspapers recorded that (at age 13) Nash had “first joined the trade in 1882, when he entered the service of Messrs J. Nathan & Co at the Ready Money Store in Palmerston North, which has since developed into that important institution, the U.F.C.A. After nine years’ service with that firm, Mr Nash accepted a position as manager for the late Mr F. Ireland, and since the death of that gentleman in 1893, has carried on the business for the executors of the estate. The business under Mr Nash’s watchful care has grown from small things to great, until the firm has become a household word throughout the district.”73 The Wellington and Manawatu Hardware Company The Manawatu Daily Times of 26 October 1905 published J.S. Watchorn & Co.’s notice advising that they had purchased the business of Wilson, Thompson & Co., and that they would begin selling that company’s “full range of general ironmongery” from that same day. The new Watchorn business was described as “wholesale and general ironmongers, of George Street.76 Nash’s obituary later added, in relation to J.A. Nash & Co. Ltd. that “A store in Bunnythorpe was conducted in conjunction with it (i.e. the main shop in The Square) and branches were also opened in Coleman Place and in Foxton.”74 Nash’s partner in the new business was Irelands’ long-time Henry Stratford Porteous, who had arrived from England in aged 16 and settled in Collingwood, where he farmed and schoolteacher. He arrived in Palmerston North in 1890, and accountant, about 1878 was later a before long 73 Manawatu Daily Times 1 December 1902 2(4 & 6), Manawatu Evening Standard 1 December 1902 4(2), however, the latter is barely legible. Presumably this was a press release by the company. 74 Manawatu Daily Times, 25 July 1952, p. 8. Nash is also the subject of a biography in Vol. 4 of The Dictionary of New Zealand Biography (Wellington, 1998) pp.370-371, however, this devotes only about four lines to Nash’s extensive business career. The Arcade, however, was an amalgamation of J.A. Nash & Co. Ltd. and the firm The Wellington and Manawatu Hardware Company. This firm had leased the new Cuba Street building about three months before The Arcade development was complete. The Evening Standard of 17 March 1906 then announced that Watchorn’s business, the Wellington and Manawatu Hardware Company, had landed 150 bedsteads and cots, and “being short of room in our present premises we shall be showing and offering these tomorrow & following days at the NEW BRICK PREMISES opposite (the) Working Men’s Club, Cuba Street.”77 Watchorn and Sutton leased the property in their own names for about six months, before the lease was transferred to Messrs J.A. Nash & Co. Ltd., which then leased the property its own name until 1908. The 1902 Wise’s Directory lists Leonard Sutton as a storekeeper at Collingwood and Golden Ridge. He had previously lived in Palmerston North, before being “in business in Nelson, Woodville, and other places, and until (May 1906) represented the well-known firm of J.H. Cock and Co., of Wanganui.” Sutton was to manage the new shop. Possibly he was Manawatu Evening Standard 28 August 1948 5(4) Manawatu Daily Times 26 October 1905 1(7) 77 Manawatu Evening Standard 17 March 1906 4(1) 75 76 Page 46 Palmerston North City Council also the person of the same name who was a Rongotea storekeeper by 1914.78 John Samuel Watchorn was a very well known early resident of Palmerston North. He had been apprenticed in the drapery trade in England and arrived in New Zealand in 1880, aged 22. He settled in Palmerston North in 1883, and began working for Messrs Joseph Nathan & Co.’s Ready Money Store. This firm became the Manawatu Farmers’ Co-operative Association in 1893, at which time he became manager of the firm’s drapery, clothing and boot departments. His 1933 obituary recorded that many of the town’s prominent businessmen of that time had received their early training under him. In 1899, he and his family returned to England to settle, but two years later had returned. He then set up the Victoria House Co. in The Square, on the future site of (the former) PDC department store. He duly disposed of this business and later started another millinery and drapery in a different building that came to be associated with this family for some years, before giving that up also in 1917. His obituary did not mention his connection to the firms The Wellington and Manawatu Hardware Co. and J.A. Nash & Co. Ltd., or to The Arcade.79 The Official Opening ‘The Arcade’ was officially opened by the Mayor, Maurice Cohen, on 6 June 1906. The upstairs area of the end Coleman Place building had been converted into a tearoom for the occasion, and had been decorated with flags and other such trappings. A “very large number of people” were also present to witness the event, including many Borough Councillors. Wise’s Directories of 1902 and 1914; Manawatu Evening Standard 7 June 1906 7(3-4) 79 Manawatu Evening Standard 9 May 1933, 6(7); Cyclopedia of New Zealand, Vol. 1 (Wellington, 1897), p. 1190. See also the PDC department store history published in the (unnumbered) book From Swamp to City (Palmerston North, 1937). 78 North West Square Heritage Area 2010 The “commodious two-storied brick structure” had been built for Messrs J.A. Nash & Co. Ltd., and during the ceremony the mayor praised Mr Nash for his achievements, including that his role as president of the local Chamber of Commerce. Nash, in turn, explained the current structure of the business and the backgrounds of his business partners. The new business was an amalgamation of those previously carried on by Messrs Watchorn & Sutton (the Wellington & Manawatu Hardware Co.), and Mr Porteous and himself. After all the praise was duly bestowed, a “dainty afternoon tea was served to those present on a lavish scale. As its consumption was to the seductive strains of music (provided by Messrs A. McMinn and F. Meyrick), a highly enjoyable time was spent.” The new building was then described: The new structure is on one of the best ‘stands’ in the town from a business point of view. Its chief frontage (83 feet) is to Coleman Place, but as it runs right through to Cuba Street its value may be easily estimated. The total length of the shop from street to street is some 155 feet. The Coleman Place end is two stories in height, the remainder of the building being one storied. The principal end is, of course, that nearest the Square. Here the passer-by is struck by the two great plate-glass windows, which afford an unexampled opportunity of displaying various wares. One, that on the left of the entrance, is at present devoted entirely to the firm’s famous ‘Temple’ brand of tea. This window has been most artistically dressed by one of the employees, Mr Barron, there being a figure pushing a barrow full of tea and bearing the appropriate legend ‘We push tea.’ The other window contains a very fine assortment of building tools, clocks, lamps etc. The front shop itself contains two departments, the grocery being on the left and the ironmongery on the right. The fixtures are well designed and substantially built, and appear most suitable for the purpose. A good effect is produced by the insertion of mirrors at intervals. Midway along the grocery side is a desk for the cashier, being provided with all the necessary openings for working from various parts of the shop. The accountant’s office is placed at the end of the ironmongery department. The display of goods coming under the latter heading is Page 47 Palmerston North City Council undoubtedly one of the most extensive in town. It will be under the control of Messrs W. White and E.W. Simmons, who recently had control of the Hardware Company’s business in George Street. Upstairs there is the spacious apartment wherein the firm will store its groceries. Here also the tea packing, quite a big affair, will be conducted. The Cuba Street end will at an early date be utilised for the crockery part of the business, and also for the storage of the heavy lines of bulk ironmongery. The whole structure is in the form of an arcade, as customers may walk uninterrupted from street to street. The establishment is under the experienced management of Mr L. Sutton, a former resident of Palmerston. Latterly he has been engaged in business in Nelson, Woodville, and other places, and until last month represented the well-known firm of J.H. Cock & Co., of Wanganui. The establishment next to Mr Pegden will be conducted as hitherto. The front of the shop (the two-storied portion) is the property of Mrs F. Mowlem, and has been taken on a lengthy lease by the firm. The contract for its erection was placed in the hands of Mr Chas. Blackbourn, the well-known local builder, and has been carried out in an eminently satisfactory manner by him. Mr Blackbourn also constructed the numerous and intricate fixtures in a good style and with commendable promptitude. Mr James Nash, the managing director of the firm, will remain in charge of the old premises, together with Mr Porteous, the secretary. Altogether the new structure is a credit to the town, and one of which Palmerston may well be proud. The enterprise of its owners will doubtless be amply rewarded.80 Despite his plans for the new Coleman Place-Cuba Street shop in June 1906, Nash sold his shops in 1907 and became a valuer, estate and insurance agent for a firm entitled Messrs Nash & Lovelock. His biography in The Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, Vol. 4, mostly follows his 80 Manawatu Evening Standard 7 June 1906 7(3-4) North West Square Heritage Area 2010 subsequent extensive career from Palmerston North Borough Councillor (1907), to Mayor 1908-1923, and then Member of Parliament (191981 1935). The cause of the business’ sudden demise has not been researched, however, in January 1908, the firm L.D. Paterson announced that it had taken over J.A. Nash & Co. Ltd’s Wine and Spirit business. At the same time, J.A. Nash & Co. Ltd. still advertised its ‘Temple’ brand of Ceylon tea 82 on sale at its ‘Arcade Stores’. Leases and Sub-leases CT WN24/199 records that J.A. Nash & Co. Ltd. leased the property for a fifteen-year term starting 1 April 1906, and this lease follows a very similar pattern for both ends of The Arcade. In June 1908, H.S. Porteous announced that he had commenced business as a grocer in the premises in The Square formerly occupied by J.A. Nash & Co. Ltd. At the same time, J.H. Gilchrist, of ‘The Arcade’, announced he had taken over from J.A. Nash & Co., selling groceries and tea in the firm’s former Coleman Place shop.83 Accordingly, CT WN24/199 records that the lease was transferred from J.A. Nash & Co. Ltd. to James Henry Gilchrist in July 1908 (Note that the transfer dates are when the records were amended on the CT, and not the date when the transaction actually occurred). Gilchrist later became a land agent according to his cemetery record.84 ‘Nash, James Alfred,’ in The Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, Vol. 4, 19211940, (Wellington, 1998), pp. 370-371; Manawatu Evening Standard 7 June 1906 7(3-4), 9 May 1933, 6(7); Manawatu Times 25 July 1952 p. 3. 82 Manawatu Evening Standard 15 January 1908, 2(1-2) 83 Manawatu Evening Standard 1 June 1908 2(1-2) & 4(7) 84 Gilchrist died on 20 September 1938, however, no obituary was traced. PNCC Terrace End Cemetery online record. He was possibly part of the hardware firm Permain & Gilchrist in 1902 (re Manawatu Daily Times 1 December 1902, 1(5) 81 Page 48 Palmerston North City Council Then in June 1909 the lease was transferred to John Samuel Watchorn. The lease of the Cuba Street end of The Arcade was transferred to him that month also. In October 1909, Watchorn transferred both leases to a partnership of Hugh Duncan Buchanan, Thomas Thompson Hillas and Frederick William Henry Kummer. T.T. Hillas died on 4 May 1915, aged 65, and was replaced within the partnership by his wife Agnes. The Hillas’ were from Mauriceville and are buried at Masterton Cemetery, which also contains many members of the Krummer family. However, their connection 85 to Palmerston North is unclear. This partnership leased the property until the 15-year lease ended in April 1921, at which time the property returned to its owner, Mary Emma Mowlem. Various members of the Mowlem family then owned it until 1966, and no subsequent tenants were listed on the relevant CT WN282/160.86 Australian-born Mary Emma Mowlem was the widow of prominent local businessman, Fred Mowlem, who owned buildings nearby at the time of their deaths on 26 August 1926 (aged 76) and 22 November 1925 (aged 79) respectively. Described as being “of a quiet and shy disposition”, but with “time to do those many deeds of kindness which endeared her to all who knew her”, and as someone who “found opportunity for quiet and unobtrusive service” as a member of the local Methodist Church, there is little in her obituary to explain her ownership of this building. However, records from the era show that businessmen often put homes and properties in their wives’ names, in order to protect these properties in the event of financial problems with their own businesses.87 85 Manawatu Evening Standard 12 January 1934 1(1); Headstone at Masterton Cemetery per Cemetery microfiche, PN Public Library. 86 Note that CT WN282/160 was not sighted for this study (its number is misrecorded on the subsequent CT). However, its contents are listed as part of the 1980 study by Victoria University students in Research File A175/154, George Street-Cuba Street-Coleman Place, Ian Matheson City Archives, PN City Library. 87 Manawatu Evening Standard 23 November 1925 7(2), 26 August 1926 7(1) North West Square Heritage Area 2010 Nonpareil & the Pees family The next known occupant of the building was the Nonpareil Cycle & Motor Co. - the word ‘Nonpareil’ meaning “a person or thing having no equal.” According to CT WN24/199, Eric Stanley Pees, co-owner of the Nonpareil Cycle & Motor Co., leased this building from 1 November 1911 until 29 April 1921 (the existing 15-year lease was set to end on 30 April 1921. The Cyclopedia of New Zealand, Vol. 6, published in 1908, provided a description of the firm. However, at the time Nonpareil occupied the neighbouring building on the western boundary of this building. The aforementioned article reads: The Nonpareil Cycle and Motor Company (E.S. Pees and C.S. Pees): The Square, Palmerston North. Branch business at Wellington and Newtown. This firm, which now stands well to the front in the Wellington province, was established in Ghuznee Street, Wellington, in the year 1902, and the Newtown branch was opened in 1905. In November 1906, the firm bought out the retail cycle business of Messrs J.B. Clarkson and Company, Limited88, of Palmerston North, and removed the headquarters of the firm to that town. The premises are amongst the finest in the town; they have 2000 square feet of floor space, are fitted up and appointed in the most up-to-date and attractive manner, and comprise a commodious showroom (capable of displaying 100 machines), a suite of offices, and large workrooms. This firm make a fine display in their showrooms of the ‘Nonpareil’ cycle (their own manufacture), also the ‘Centaur’ and ‘Premier’ cycles, for which they are agents. A large stock of accessories is kept, and repairing is also done on the premises; in which latter connection the firm have a good reputation for reliable and trustworthy workmanship. The Wellington and Newtown branch shops are also spacious and up-to-date, and both carry a fine stock of bicycles, etc. 88 Refer to the ‘Pink & Collison Building’ at 260-262 Cuba Street, which the Clarkson firm later occupied. Page 49 Palmerston North City Council The firm do an extensive trade in all parts of the North Island, and employ twenty-five persons. Agencies have been established in 89 Foxton, Otaki, and Shannon.” The article also includes biographies on the owners, London-born brothers Eric Stanley Pees (born 1882) and Charles Sydney Pees (born 1880). E.S. Pees emigrated to New Zealand aged 16 (c1898), being joined by C.S. Pees, an engineering draftsman, in 1902. They established their business in Wellington in 1906, before acquiring the Palmerston North branch and turning it into their head office, with E.S. Pees moving to the town. C.S. Pees remained in Wellington, where he managed the Wellington branch.90 The firm held its official opening in this building on the evening of 17 November 1911, during which, Mr E.S. Pees described their “new and commodious brick business premises,” as “one of the largest (premises) of their kind in Australasia.” In the course of the evening, the Mayor, Mr J.A. Nash, complimented Pees on “acquiring such fine premises.” The newspaper did not comment on Nash’s former association with the building.91 There is no corresponding entry on the CT for the other end of The Arcade, although that lease covers only the land (it was on a Borough Council reserve). The 1911-16 Wises Directories list other firms with links to J.A. Nash & Co. as occupying that building. However, Nonpareil occupied it as part of what then became 7,500 square feet of showroom arcade, from mid-February 1914. The 1920-22 Directories state that Nonpareil Motor Co. had its motor garage there.92 North West Square Heritage Area 2010 The firm probably remained in this building until its lease ran out in 1921, and its departure marked the end of the two buildings being operated together as an arcade. Subsequent occupants One early tenant that still exists is Goldfinch & Cousins. Its founders were Vic Goldfinch and Fred Cousins, who had learned their trade at McGruers Ltd. and Collinson & Cunninghams, before enlisting for service during World War One. They opened the shop soon after the war, and remained there until about 1925, when they moved to a shop in the former Clarendon Hotel building. When that building was demolished in 1975, the firm moved to its present location, still in the same part of The Square.93 Another well-known long-time local firm was Arthur J. Berryman’s music shop, which was described as “The Home of Music” and later of radio. Berryman bought the firm in 1920 and had moved it into this building by 1925. C. Tilleard Natusch & Sons drew plans dated March 1928 for the Mowlem Estate. A note on the back said that these were for Berryman’s Music Shop. They show the shop fronts and entrances to the building were being significantly altered from an inverted ‘V’ shape that had doors opening on an angle to the road. The new doors to the two shops were side by side and parallel to the road, but were still set into the building as far has they had previously been. At that time there were no other doors at the front of the building, as there are at present.94 Manawatu Evening Standard 16 July 1972, p. 6 Natusch plan dated March 1928, misfiled as Plan 530/196-198, PNCC 4/13/6, Ian Matheson City Archives, PN City Library. Earlier in 1928, Natusch designed the Mowlem building in Cuba Street (latterly Costa’s) on behalf of the (Fred) Mowlem Estate, resulting in the filing error, as these alterations were for the (Mary) Mowlem Estate. 93 Cyclopedia of New Zealand, Vol. 6, Taranaki, Hawkes Bay, Wellington (Christchurch, 1908), p. 685 90 Ibid. p. 685 91 Manawatu Evening Standard 18 November 1911 5(6) 92 See also: ‘The Arcade – Cuba Street’s’ history, and also the plan of DP 2639 89 94 Page 50 Palmerston North City Council When in 1932 Arthur Berryman realised that Broadway was becoming one of the city’s chief shopping areas, he relocated there, where his former 95 building and Berrymans Lane still survive. Triggs & Denton (Nth. Is.) Ltd. occupied the building for at least thirty years, before moving to Cuba Street. Subsequent tenancies appear to have been relatively short-lived. It is not known when the upper floor began being used as a billiard room. However, the door on the left side of the building that gives it separate street access does not appear to have been present in photos dating from the mid-1960s (i.e. Photo Ho14). The Deluxe Billiard Room last appeared in the phonebook in 1991 after at least two decades. However, it may have spent its last years in the neighbouring Union Building. The name McConachy Hall, that was associated with the building in the early 1990s, was perhaps in memory of Clark McConachy MBE (1895-1980), who is described as New Zealand’s greatest billiards and snooker player.96 In 1966, the Mowlem family sold the building to Peter Nicoletatos, a local fish shop proprietor, and his wife Eva. He died in Greece on 23 April 1982, and accordingly in 1983, the property was transmitted to Eva Nicoletatos as survivor97, and then transferred to Ruapapa Ltd., in 1984. It was sold to Cecilia Mary Stewart, company director of Levin, in 1989. Then in 1993 it was sold to the current owners, Hoi Chi Lee, restaurateur, and Joe Woo Sing, photographer (jointly inter se ½ share) and Cheng Yun Kam Lee, restaurateur, and Joe Woo Sing, photographer (jointly inter se ½ share), as tenants in common. North West Square Heritage Area 2010 Shop nearest Rangitikei St Wises 1922 Coleman Pl. - Warren & Ganderton, cycle engineers Wises 1925 Coleman Pl. - Arthur J. Berryman, music dealer Wises 1936 Coleman Pl. – E.B. Borham, radio dealer (left 98 1935) Wises 1939-44 27 Coleman Pl. - H.H. Blandford Ltd, furriers Wises 1950-60 27 Coleman Pl. – F.G. Everson Ltd, furriers Photos Stc39 & Ho14 27 Coleman Pl. - Smiths Women’s Wear Specialists (moved out late 1970s) Phonebook 1991-94 27 Coleman Pl. – Vegas Video Games 1996-c1999 27 Coleman Pl. - Sun Sing Restaurant 2009 27 Coleman Pl. – Le Petit Bistro (since closed)99 2010 Noodles ‘n Dumplings Shop nearest George St. Wises 1922-25 Coleman Pl. -Goldfinch & Cousins, drapers Stones 1933 Coleman Pl. – Mrs Mabel Isabel Lewis, arts & crafts shop Wises 1936 Coleman Pl. – nil Wises 1939-60 25 Coleman Pl. – Triggs & Denton (Nth Is) Ltd. leather goods 1968-late 1970s 25 Coleman Pl. – Athenia Milk Bar (Bdg Permit records & phonebook) By 1996 The two shops amalgamated as a restaurant Upstairs Photo ST67 Phonebook 1992-94 95 Robert H.Billens & H. Leslie Verry, From Swamp to City (Palmerston North, 1937) ‘Berryman’s Radio & Music shop’ article (no page numbers in this book) 96 N.A.C. McMillan, ‘McConachy, Clark’, in The Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, Vol. 5 (Wellington, 2000) pp. 307-8 97 Manawatu Evening Standard 27 April 1982, p. 23 Deluxe Billiard Room (1973 - phonebook c1991, but possibly in the Union Building next door by 1985) McConachy Hall 98 A regular advert in the Evening Standard of 30 July 1935 1(3) advises that Borham’s Radio Service is relocating from Coleman Place to The Square. 99 Le Petit Bistro: http://www.stuff.co.nz/manawatustandard/news/2287228/Eateries-flourish-despite-gloom Page 51 Palmerston North City Council 2010 unknown Photographic Record This building appears in a number photos held in the Photographic Collection at the PN City Library. These show changes of occupancy and signage over the years, but the only noticeable differences relate to the verandah. Sq142 - Nonpareil Cycle & Motor Co., in a photo taken from the old main Post Office Clock Tower. A sign consisting of very large (tin?) letters on an open framework runs along the length of the roofline reading “NONPAREIL CYCLE Co”. The photo was taken between late 1911 when Nonpareil took over the shop and when work started on the 1913-built (former) Hallensteins building on the corner of George Street and Coleman Place. Visible on the immediate left of the Nonpareil building is its previous building, formerly occupied by the Clarkson firm. Mr C. Giorgi, a cabinetmaker and upholsterer, moved into that building in 1912 after Nonpareil moved into The Arcade.100 Bc431 – Nonpareil Cycle & Motor Co. No signage indicating any other occupants. This is a Nonpareil promotional photo and about 15 motorbikes and their ‘riders’ are lined up in front of the building, while five carts and horses are lined up behind the motorbikes. Signage on the carts says “Indian”, as does a sign on the building’s upper facade. The verandah has four verandah posts and name sign on the front of the verandah has three posts protruding almost a metre above Nonpareil’s sign. Presumably a previous occupant had a much larger sign. The photo was taken between 1915, when the Everybody’s Theatre was built next to this building, and 1921, when Nonpareil’s lease ended. Sq388 - Nonpareil Cycle & Motor Co. A postcard showing neighbouring buildings. Signage on the building is the same as Bc431. The verandah is the same as Bc431 and the roofline signage is still present. The photo was taken between 1915 when the 100 North West Square Heritage Area 2010 Everybody’s Theatre was built and 1920 when Hopwood’s Hardware left its nearby building. Bc127 – This is a ‘portrait’ of the building and its staff. “Berrymans Home of Music” is the main signage on the upper façade of the building, and the firm occupied the shop closest to Rangitikei Street. Goldfinch & Cousins occupied the other shop. Photographed about 1925 – the point where both these businesses were present together. Photo T28 shows a wider view of this scene. Meanwhile Ho12 shows the same façade alongside the new Midland Hotel in 1928 – although Goldfinch & Cousins was theoretically long gone by this point. The verandah has been changed and is now suspended from above and the verandah posts gone. Stc39 & Ho14 - (both around 1960-65) show the building occupied by Triggs & Denton Ltd. and Smiths Women’s Wear Specialists. There is no signage on the upper façade, which looks tired. ST67 - Coleman Place from the Manawatu Evening Standard of 26 February 1973, shows Smiths still in its shop, while the other shop occupant’s name is illegible. The upper façade is headed “Deluxe Billiard Room”, which occupied the first floor. Additions & Alterations PNCC’s Building Permit records (file C70/27) on this building relate to the conversion in 1996 of what appears to have already been by then a single shop (as it also appears to have been before 1921) into the short-lived Sun Sing Restaurant. The cost was $64,000, and the designer was Theos Design & Draughting. The work included installing the kitchen and other restaurant trappings, removing the former window display area inside the front windows, and changing the front double doors so that they swung outwards instead of inwards. This modified the Natusch alterations dating from 1928.101 Natusch plan dated March 1928, misfiled as Plan 530/196-198, PNCC 4/13/6, Ian Matheson City Archives, PN City Library. Permit No. 431 dated 29 May 1928 covered these alterations, which were undertaken by H.E. Townsend. 101 Manawatu Evening Standard, regular advert 16 October 1912 1(3) Page 52 Palmerston North City Council An item in the Building Permit file for the neighbouring building (C70/2931) is an application dated 1 February 1968 to convert a shop to a milk bar, snack shop and cafeteria for P. Nicoletatos. This was identified as the Athenia Milk Bar, although it soon became the Athenian Lounge. This was at 25 Coleman Place until at least the 1977 phonebook, but by 1980 was 102 listed in the phonebook as 29 Coleman Place . It therefore appears to have moved to the neighbouring building. ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION The building is designed in the Italianate Palazzo style with symmetrical façade, Classical details such as a pediment as part of the parapet, pilasters on opposite corners, an ornate cornice, and vertically proportioned windows with architraves all on the above-verandah part of the façade. The below verandah has been modified from the original. A ground floor plan available from the PNCC archives shows a stair to the first floor on the Hallenstein’s side with access from the street. The remainder of the ground floor plan shows an open planned restaurant with kitchen and toilet facilities at the rear. North West Square Heritage Area 2010 Square. It is one of the few buildings in the central city over 100 years old giving it high age value and it also has high historic values as an early mall. The building has moderate design values as a representative example of the Edwardian Italianate style, a popular for commercial buildings in the late Victorian and Edwardian period. The original and later ownership and tenants reflects a moderate level of continuity as a typical pattern of similar commercial buildings throughout the city. 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. The exterior is cement rendered and newspaper descriptions state that it was constructed of brick. 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 associations with builder/designer, Charles Blackbourn, a successful local building contractor, who built a number of buildings in the city with the former Ballroom Astoria being another surviving example of his work. The building is associated with the Mowlem family who also owned 161-163 The 102 The intervening phonebooks (1978-79) were not available. Page 53 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 54 Palmerston North City Council Coleman Place, 23-25 Former Union building (now Studio 31) 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 of less Lot 1 Section 257 Township of Palmerston North WN 684/80 (1955) Prior CTs WN485/13 (1941), WN384/274 (1928), WN25/220 Nil Nil Nil Nil 1922 E. Larcomb J.M.W. Rhind, H.R. Waldegrave, C.E. Waldegrave estate & F.G.B. Waldegrave Unknown PHYSICAL AND SOCIAL HISTORY History This building is one of a number around the central city (past and present) built by the Waldegrave family and the Waldegrave estate. Its main occupancies have included teaching, producing and retailing as part of the clothing industry, garden supplies and books and stationery. In recent years, its primary focus has been in the personal appearance industry. Prior History This property was originally granted to Robert Johnson, a tailor of Palmerston North, in 1876. He leased it in 1877 to Thomas Moffatt, a butcher of Palmerston North, and thereafter the original two-storied wooden building on this site appears to have been occupied by butchers for its first several decades. Johnson sold it to John James Waldegrave in Page 55 Palmerston North City Council 1880, and thereafter the property remained in the Waldegrave family until 1955. After Thomas Moffatt, the property was leased to Joseph Dinsdale (occupation unknown, 4-year lease from 23 October 1883) and then Robert Bryant (butcher, 5-years, from 1 September 1892). Notes referring to this building on PN City Library photo SQ112 describe this building as the ‘City Butchery’, which business was owned by Mr Miller when the photo was taken. The firm was then sold to William Reed by early 1886103, and in due course he went into business with Frederick Bryant (almost certainly the brother of Robert Bryant), who subsequently became a property developer in post-1900s Palmerston North.104 The Wises’ Directories of 1914-1922, advise that during the last few years, this building’s two shops were occupied by cycle shops in the shop on the right, and by initially confectioners and then a Chinese fruiterer in the shop on the left. This Building The tender notice for this building was published in the Manawatu Evening Standard of 17 June 1922. Architect E. Larcomb sought tenders for a brick building to be erected in Coleman Place, and these were to be addressed to the owner, H.R. Waldegrave, care of Dempsy & Litchfield. This was the second attempt at seeking tenders for the building. The original notice a few days earlier did not include the location or the owner.105 Manawatu Evening Standard regular advert including 10 March 1886 1(3) Manawatu Evening Standard, 19 June 1939 8(2); See also the Bryant buildings at 201-207 Cuba Street. An item published in the Manawatu Daily Times of 17 May 1922 4(2) describes F. Bryant’s beef prices in that newspaper in 1897. The Times’ for the period 1885-1899 were destroyed about ninety years ago. 105 ‘Palmerston North Architects’, Pam Phillips Papers, Vol. 5, p. 32, Ian Matheson City Archives, PN City Library. Manawatu Evening Standard 12 June 1922 6(6), 17 June 1922 6(4). 103 104 North West Square Heritage Area 2010 No indication has been located to explain why this building was given the name ‘Union Buildings,’ however, the name appears in the Wises’ Directories from 1925 to 1960 (at least). Most likely it relates to the presence of the Union Bank of Australia which was (and its former premises still is) on the opposite side of Coleman Place. The Owners When John James Waldegrave (who bought the property in 1880) died in 1891, the property was transmitted to his children, Julia Mary Waldegrave (later wife of Flinders Scott McRae, of the still-extant McRae Homestead, Napier Road), Henry Richard Waldegrave II, Charles Edward Waldegrave and Frank Geoffrey Burton Waldegrave. However, Julia died in 1894, four days after giving birth to her only child. In 1919 her share was transferred from trustees to her by now adult daughter, Julia Mary Waldegrave Rhind, nee McRae.106 Then Charles died on 24 August 1920, aged 65, and two of his six children received his share. Henry Richard Waldegrave, whose name is listed as owner in the building’s 1922 tender notice, died aged 70 on 18 December 1923. Two of his sons and a son-in-law, G.C. Keeble, (of his six children) inherited his share. As at 1923, Frank Waldegrave was living in retirement in England. Although his date of death in not apparent, his name was substituted with that of the Public Trustee in 1927. The Waldegrave family were farmers. John James Waldegrave arrived in New Zealand in 1855 (from England, via Sydney), and eventually arrived in Palmerston North in 1872, and took up land at Fitzherbert East (opposite Te Matai). His sons H.R. and C.E. Waldegrave also farmed very successfully in the area, with H.R. Waldegrave developing a very good farm at Awapuni. He retired in the early 1900s.107 106 Julia senior died of pleurisy on 22 August 1894, four days after giving birth to Julia junior (Ref: ‘Notes on the McRae Homestead, Napier Road’, September 1997, by Val Burr) 107 Manawatu Evening Standard 24 August 1920 5(1), 19 December 1923 5(2) Page 56 Palmerston North City Council By 1952, Julia (by then of Auckland) owned a quarter of the property, with the rest held by the Public Trustee and the NZ Insurance Company. Then in 1955, her share was also transferred to the Public Trustee (⅔ share) and the NZ Insurance Co. (⅓ share), and these two organisations ran the property until it was sold to the Bares family in 1973. The new partnership comprised of John Bares (restaurateur ½ share), Peter Bares (retired restaurateur ¼ share) and Maria Bares, married woman ¼ share). The Bares partnership also adapted to departures/deaths of members and their replacements by other members of the family. By 2001 it was solely owned by John Bares. It was transferred to the current owner, Melville House Ltd., in 2003. Occupants Occupancy of this building has included a number of retailers and others involved in the clothing industry. As well as an “outfitter,” a milliner and a “costumer,” the building accommodated furriers between at least 1925 and 1960, dressmakers in the 1930s, and a school of dressmaking throughout the 1930s. The two furriers traded from this building for around forty years. The PNCC cemetery records list Henry Herbert Blandford, a furrier, who died on 27 August 1948, aged 57, and Muriel Irene Scoble, who died on 23 March 1973, aged 81. Miss Scoble lived in a flat in the Nash Building in George Street in the 1930s and 1940s, but lived in Rangiora Ave. at the time of her death. The cemetery records list her occupation as ‘spinster’, despite her having still apparently been working as a furrier until at least 1960, by which time she would have been aged about 68. The two shops also had long histories with single lines of business. The shop on the right has been a bookseller and/or stationer from the 1930s to the present, albeit with the occupancy in the mid-1990s not having been traced. The 1967 phonebook lists both Fox’s Stationers and Wills Bookshop as being at the same address and with the same phone North West Square Heritage Area 2010 number. However, E.J. & A.E. Wills Ltd. had occupied this shop since at least 1963 when they had the front of the shop altered. By the early 1930s, the shop on the left side was occupied by R.E. Harrison & Co. This firm – which later had a well-known garden centre in Albert Street - used this shop as a retail outlet until about 1965. The next occupant was Garden Supplies, which already had a garden centre at Avon House in Broadway (about where Downtown now is), and the Coleman Place Garden Supplies shop last appeared in the phone book in 1973. Occupancy of this shop was not again traced until 1986, when Studio 31 was first listed in the phonebook, with separate phone numbers for the firm Golden Tan Solarium Ltd., Reflexions Hair Design and Super Nail. The Studio 31 website108 does not provide any background to the business, but does list other present-day Studio 31 shops in Feilding, Taihape, Foxton and Wanganui. Additions & Alterations. PNCC Building Permit file C70/33 for Wills’ Bookshop includes the March 1963 plans by Durrant & Cantlon for changing the front entrance of the shop from the old style deeply stepped-in central entrance, to a sliding door on the right side of the frontage, and sited near the edge of the footpath. This work included re-using existing glass and installing glazed tiles beneath the window. The PNCC Building Permit file C70/29-31 includes a permit application to convert a shop into the Athenia Milk Bar for P. Nicoletatos, dated 1 February 1968. However, this appears to be for the neighbouring building, which Nicoletatos then owned – although his restaurant, then called the Athenian Lounge, moved into this building in about 1980. This business appears for the last time, still in this building, in the 1983 phone book. Nicoletatos had died in 1982.109 108 109 www.studio-31.co.nz Manawatu Evening Standard 27 April 1982, p. 23 Page 57 Palmerston North City Council North West Square Heritage Area 2010 In 1981, the Scotch Wool Shop applied for a permit for a new shop front for their shop at 31 Coleman Place. The phonebook lists their address as 31A Coleman Place, and so it is not clear where in the building this shop was located. Previously this shop was at 18-20 Coleman Place, and later (from the 1992 phonebook) it was as at 198 The Square. The main information recorded in the file relates to alterations to the building done for the C.A. Thompson Family Trust in 1985, by Ormond Stock & Associates, Consulting Engineers. A permit application in February 1985 sought to alter the shop at 29 Coleman Place. This involved striping out all electrical work back to the main board under the stairs, while leaving intact all wiring to the upstairs tenancy, which was a billiard saloon. The upper floor was to be propped up to ensure that the floor did not sag. The central partition and a partition across the back of the building were to be demolished. A new steel support beam was to then be installed to support tie upper floor. The kitchen area of the previous coffee lounge was also to be thoroughly cleaned. In June 1985, Golden Tan Solarium Ltd. applied to undertake internal alterations to the upper floor of the building. This work appears to have involved installing a shower, three hand basins, a sink and a hot water cylinder. Shop nearest Rangitikei Street Wises 1925 Mrs M. Bevan, outfitter Stones 1933 Martin Leonard, stationer Wises 1936-54 33 Coleman Pl. – Martin Leonard, stationer Wises, 1957-60 33 Coleman P. – Fox’s Stationers Ltd. Bdg Permit file 1963 EJ & AE Wills Ltd change shop front (file C70/33) Phonebook 1967 phone number Photo ST67 ES 26/2/1973 Fox’s last entry & Wills’ first entry - same Wills Bookshop 1991 phonebook The Square) About 1998-now Wills Bookshop last entry (1992 only at 1 now 25 Coleman Pl. - The Bookshelf First Floor (was 31 Coleman Pl.) Wises 1925 Macpherson & Randle, milliner; Jno King, watch specialist; Miss Evelyn Trask, costumer Stones, 1933 Miss Muriel Irene Scoble, furrier; Mrs Annie Maclean, school of dressmaking; Purser & Martin (Misses Annie Amelia Purser & Barbara B.Martin), dressmakers Wises, 1936 Ms Murial Scoble, fur representative; Mrs Annie Maclean, teacher of dressmaking Wises, 1939 Ms Murial Scoble, fur representative; Ms E. Pavelka (sic), teacher of dressmaking Wises, 1950-60 Miss Muriel I. Scoble, furrier; 1981-91 31A Coleman Pl. – Scotch Wool Shop (Bdg Permit file & phonebooks) c1985 An unidentified billiard saloon (perhaps Deluxe Billiard Saloon displaced from the neighbouring building) 1986 - now Studio 31 and/or Golden Tan Solarium Ltd. Shop nearest George Street Wises 1925 Henry H. Blandford, furrier Stones 1933 R.E. Harrison & Co., seedsmen Phonebook 1965 R.E. Harrison & Co., nurserymen (last entry – also of Albert St.) Phonebook 1966 Garden Supplies (first entry – also Avon House, Broadway)) 1973 phonebook 29 Coleman Pl. - Garden Supplies, D.H. Trim, proprietor Phonebooks 1980-83 29 Coleman Pl. – Athenian Lounge, coffee bar 1986-now Studio 31 Page 58 Palmerston North City Council Comments: Most notable and most confusing amongst the occupants of this building are the number who have come and gone between other buildings in and close to Coleman Place. The Scotch Wool Shop was in three different buildings over the years, while Wills Bookshop and the Athenian Lounge were each in two different buildings. The Deluxe Billiard Saloon may have relocated to this building from its neighbour, along with the Athenian Lounge. Deluxe Billiard Saloon is the only one advertised in the phonebook around 1985 as being in Coleman Place. ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION The building is designed in the Inter-War Free Classical style where Classical elements and details are used in the façade design in a nonacademic manner. The façade design has a parapet with pilasters, a highly ornate and exaggerated cornice with central pilaster in the first floor and large windows either side. The windows and pilaster are framed with Classical mouldings. The below verandah design has been modified so that its original design cannot be determined. North West Square Heritage Area 2010 and later ownership and tenants reflects moderate levels of continuity in being a typical pattern of similar commercial buildings throughout the city. The building has moderate historic values in being associated with locally significant architect, Ernest Larcomb. The building has moderate design values as a good representative example of the Free Classical style of the inter-war 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. Drawings available from the PNCC archives do not show overall planning or construction so that no comments can be made. The exterior is cement rendered. The architect, Ernest Larcomb , designed a number of significant buildings in Palmerston North. These include the main public hospital, many shops around the Square, and several large houses such as the Wattles, the Empire, Albion and Occidental Hotels. 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. This building has moderate historic associations with the Waldegrave family, who owned and built a number of buildings in the city. The original Page 59 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 60 Palmerston North City Council Cuba Street, 137-143 Elgin Buildings 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: Cnr Cuba & Bourke St., 137, 139, 141 & 143 Cuba St. 552 square metres more or less Pt Lot 34 DP 22 WN451/166 (1936), prior CT WN5/191 Nil Nil Nil Nil Stage 1: 1923, Stage 2: 1929 O.A. Jorgenson Messrs A. & W. Clark Stage 1 (1923): Hudson & Williamson Stage 2 (1929): Anderson & Williamson PHYSICAL AND SOCIAL HISTORY History This building began in 1923 as a single storey set of three shops, and then in 1929 a fourth shop and three flats upstairs were added. It was built for Messrs. A. & W. Clark - a partnership consisting of Alexander Clark, a company manager of Palmerston North, and his brother William Clark, an engine driver of Blenheim. The Clark family owned this building until 1958, at which time it was bought by Selkirk Building Ltd. It was then purchased by the neighbouring Boniface Bros. (PN) Ltd. bakery firm in 1963, and that firm owned it for 22 years. At present only one shop is tenanted, while another contains display items from nearby shop. The flats appear to be tenanted. Page 61 Palmerston North City Council Prior History CT WN 5/191 (issued 1875) indicates that the building is sited on part of what was Section 305, Lot 34. This property was owned by Erik Magnus Johansen, a local labourer, between 1878 and 1891 when Jens Carl Hansen, a journeyman, became its owner. He was followed in 1892 by labourer Jens Wilhelm Larsen. What was possibly a simple cottage on the site was then sold in 1905 to Penelope Fraser, wife of William Fraser, a local settler110, before becoming the property of the well-known Dr. Frederick Rockstrow in 1910. However, Jens Wilhelm Larsen, a gardener, still had money tied up the property at the time of his death aged 54 on 31 July 1911. Larsen’s estate passed to even more Scandinavian settlers, the Lutheran pastor, Rev. Mads Christensen and Anders Nielsen, before Dr. Rockstrow (another Lutheran) evidently gained clear title to the property (by transmission) in late 1913 – albeit that he had in fact died some months earlier on 30 May 1913, aged 78. The history surrounding this site is in itself a matter for curiosity, especially given the presence of a kindly old German-born doctor noted for accepting produce (potatoes, bacon, etc.) for his fee rather than concern about personal gain.111 Until 1892 – just after the arrival of the somewhat noisy railway station near its front door - the Danish Lutheran Church had been nearby on the corner of Main and Domain Streets. This was clearly always a working class area, and the type of early occupations of tenants at the Elgin Flats (and one part-owner) indicate that that continued, with NZ Railways employees being well-represented. In 1914, Rockstrow’s estate sold the property to a partnership of Charles Fairweather Russell, a commercial traveller of Wellington, and Alexander Clark, painter and paperhanger of Palmerston North. It is noteworthy that William Fraser, a former goldminer in NZ, Australia and the US, ran a storekeeping and carrying business after moving the Palmerston North in about 1889. The couple’s obituaries: Manawatu Evening Standard 14 August 1912 5(1), 16 August 1912 5(1), and 1 July 1935 8(4). 111 ‘Dr. Rockstrow’ in Cecil & Celia Manson, Pioneer Parade (Wellington, 1966). P. 78-9. 110 North West Square Heritage Area 2010 both Alexander Clark and his wife Florence were also eventually listed as Lutherans on the Palmerston North cemetery records database. In 1919 Russell and Clark ‘sold’ the property to Clark’s company, Alexander Clark Ltd., albeit that Rev. Mads Christensen and Anders Nielsen still held a mortgage over the property until 1923. A month after that mortgage was settled, the property was again transferred, this time from Alexander Clark Ltd., to the partnership of Alexander and William Clark - otherwise known as Messrs A. & W. Clark Elgin Buildings & the Clark family Permit 511 was issued on 25 August 1923 to build a single storey threeshop brick building on the site. This £1,922 block was to become the first stage of the present building. ‘Shop No. 1’ had the present angled door opening out toward the intersection, while ‘Shop No’s 2 and 3’ faced Cuba Street. The plans show that the year “1923” was to be placed on the building’s parapet. The architect was O.A. Jorgenson and the plans were drawn up on 20 August 1923 for Messrs A & W Clark. The builders were Messrs. Hudson & Williamson. Permit 1048 was then issued on 27 November 1924, for a room to be built at the back of Shop 1. The architect again was O.A. Jorgenson and the builder was F. Needham Ltd. Permit 152 dated 7 November 1929 added the second floor to the building, as well as adding Shop No. 4 to the Cuba Street frontage. The upstairs addition consisted of three two-bedroom flats. The plans, again by O.A. Jorgenson, showed panels left for the building’s name on the upper portion of the building. The builders were Anderson & Williamson.112 Although no direct references to this building appear in available biographical information relating to the once well-known city businessman Alexander Clark, he had clear connections to the immediate area. Born in Plan 141/135-141, and Building Permit Register, Vol. 3, p. 375 (25/8/1923), Ian Matheson City Archives, PNCC. Note that the names of the builders are handwritten on the bank of the plans. 112 Page 62 Palmerston North City Council Dunedin and the son of a plumber, he had begun work as an apprentice with a firm of painters, sign writers and decorators in Dunedin in 1896, for a pay of five shillings per week. He remained there for six years until he finished his apprenticeship, before working as a journeyman for another Dunedin firm. He also found time to serve in the South African War in 1902. Once Clark came out of his time, he visited the North Island for a holiday. He liked Palmerston North, and so moved here a month later and lived in a boarding house at 6 Waldegrave Street. Initially he worked for a builder, but in 1905 he began his own business after buying a packing case for two shillings and sixpence and stocking it with paint! Later that year he opened a small shop in front of the Oddfellows Hall113 in Cuba Street, which he stocked with £50 of paint. The business grew rapidly and early the next year he relocated his shop to George Street - to about where the present entrance to the Harvey Norman shop now is. In 1907 he took a business partner and the firm became Messrs. Clark & Thompson. The firm continued growing rapidly and in 1919 they moved to the Fitzherbert Avenue building that his business became best associated with. Clark duly bought out Thompson in 1919 and the firm became Alexander Clark Ltd. The same year Alexander Clark Ltd. bought out Clark’s partner (C.F. Russell) in the land now occupied by the Elgin Buildings. Alexander Clark’s business thrived. His main shop still exits at 27 Fitzherbert Avenue, and is now occupied by the firm Lotz of Potz. A 1967 article on Alexander Clark Ltd. recorded that it then sold mirrors and pictures, did picture framing, and exhibited the work of artists in their upstairs showroom, in addition to the usual sales of an extensive array of paint and wallpaper. Alexander Clark died in 1971 aged 90, after a long career of community roles. His former company’s name continued to appear in the phonebook until the mid-1980s. North West Square Heritage Area 2010 There is nothing clearly apparent as to the origin of the name ‘Elgin Buildings’. It is possible that Clark’s or his Dunedin-born wife’s forebears (they married in 1908) trace to the town of Elgin in Moray, Scotland. This town is the origin of Elgin place names throughout the world, including in Gisborne and in Mornington, Dunedin. Certainly the Christian name ‘Alexander’ has had great prominence in Elgin, with the Scottish monarchs, including Alexander II and Alexander III holding their courts there and hunting in the royal forests. Alexander II was Elgin’s greatest benefactor, giving the town its royal charter in 1224.114 The Elgin Buildings property was subdivided in 1936, with the back half of the section going to James Osborne Boniface and Walter Amos Boniface for their Boniface Bros. bakery. That firm had been on the neighbouring property since 1924. A new CT, WN 451/166, was then issued for the portion that included this building, and this shows that in 1959 the property’s ownership was altered to Alexander and William Clark owning a 46% share in the property each, while Ian Clark (a Wainuiomata carpenter) and Lancelot Hugh Hills (bookseller of PN) each receiving a 4% share, all as tenants in common. In 1958 the property was transferred to Selkirk Building Ltd., and then in 1963, it was transferred to Boniface Bros. (PN) Ltd., which owned the surrounding land. That firm owned it until 1985, when it was transferred to Commercial Nominees Ltd. In 1987 that company changed its name to Elgin Investments Ltd. The present owners Filip and Carla Van Den Hout, farmers of PN, then bought it in 1994. Manawatu Evening Standard 15 May 1967, p. 8 ‘Firm’s founder started in 1896 as apprentice’; 29 November 1971, p. 2-5-9 ‘Obituary: Mr Alexander Clark’. Also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgin,_Moray & http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgin 114 The Oddfellows Hall is now the Watson & Eyre Printers’ building at 184 Cuba Street. 113 Page 63 Palmerston North City Council North West Square Heritage Area 2010 Shop No. 4. The 1929 plans shows that two flats were accessed through a door alongside Shop No. 4. However, the staircase to the flat overlooking Bourke Street was accessed from inside Shop No. 2. In November 1982, Boniface Bros. applied for a permit to cut a doorway between two shops within the building. A great deal of renovation appears to have been done during Commercial Nominees Ltd’s ownership. For example, a plan and documents in the Building Permit file from October 1985, shows a doorway between Shops 2 and 3, near the back of the shops. The verandah was refurbished at this time, along with the installation of new aluminium shop fronts and doors, the floor was levelled in Shop 2, and new stairs were installed. Alterations to the flats were also to be undertaken relative to fire protection. Documents relating to remodelling the “Cuba Street Market” (at 135-141 Cuba Street) from September 1986, do not correspond with a phone book entry, and it is possible this refers to the whole building’s identity at that time.116 Boniface Bros. also sold the land they bought from the Clarks in 1936, to Commercial Nominees Ltd. in 1985, and this was bought by the Van Den Houts in 1994 as well. The couple also own the adjoining property, 145 Cuba St. (now the Rainbow Mart), which for many years was the Boniface Bros. shop and offices. When that company published an article in the book From Swamp to City in 1937, they included a photo of their vehicle fleet outside their shop (built 1930), with the Elgin Buildings shown alongside it (see above). The old Boniface shop is still single storey, however, it now has a very large upper façade making it appear to be of a similar height at the Elgin Buildings.115 Alterations The PNCC Building Permit records for this building include the original plans for the three shops, dated 20th August 1923; the addition to Shop No. 1, dated 20th November 1924; and the plans for the 1929 flats and ‘New Zealand’s Model Bakery’ in Robert H. Billens & H. Lesley Verry, From Swamp to City: Commemorating the Diamond Jubilee of the City (Palmerston North, 1937) un-numbered 8-page history of Boniface Bros.. 115 Tenancies The following list gives an indication of occupants of the shops downstairs and the three flats upstairs. The 1925 Wises Directory shows what appears to be residential property on this site, and the information was probably recorded prior to this building being erected. Also the street numbers seem to have been quite erratic with this building – in addition to the various street number changes affecting Cuba Street over the years. It is noteworthy that the dairy in this building seems to have begun in Shop No. 2, and then expanded into Shop No. 3. Also, Frank Adams who ran the dairy in the 1950s, also lived in one of the flats. As his dairy was in Shop No. 2, he perhaps lived in the flat accessed directly from his shop. Corner shop - Shop No. 1 (built 1923) Stones 1933 87 Cuba St. – Ernest Westley Walters, butcher Wises 1936-39 87 Cuba St. - S. Rush & Co, coal merchants 116 PNCC Building Permit file C100/135-141 Page 64 Palmerston North City Council Occupants not confirmed in this period as either Cuba or Bourke Street listings. Wises 1957-60 141 Cuba St. – Aero & General Instruments Ltd. PNCC Building Permit file: 1983 – 137 Cuba St. - Ray’s Brunch Bar 2009 Totara Ridge New Zealand (out-door clothing) http://www.totararidge.co.nz/ Shop No. 2 (built 1923) Stones 1933 89 Cuba St. – William John Wright, dairy Wises 1936-39 89 Cuba St. - William J. Wright, confectioner Wises 1944 143 Cuba St. – William J. Wright, dairy Wises 1950-54 143 Cuba St. – L.J. Heayns, dairy Wises 1957-60 143 Cuba St. – Frank P. Adams, dairy Manawatu phonebook 1973 143 Cuba – Civic Dairy & Grocery Ltd. 2010 138 Cuba St - shop vacant Shop No. 3 (built 1923) Stones 1933 91 Cuba St. – Nothing recorded Wises 1936-54 91 Cuba St. – Nothing recorded Wises 1957 145 Cuba St. – S. & A.M. Rose, grocers Wises 1959-60 145 Cuba St. – Margaret E. Maidens, grocer Phonebook 1973 145 Cuba – Sandra’s Cake Decorating Studio 2010 139 Cuba St. - shop vacant, signage indicates formerly a food shop Three upstairs flats (built 1929): Nowadays numbers 1/141, 2/141 & 3/141 Stones 1933 93 Cuba St. – (a) Mrs Jean Lemont; (b) William Somerville Farland, engine driver; (c) Herbert Henry Diamond, labourer Wises 1936 93 Cuba St. – Mrs Jean Lemont Wises 1939 93 Cuba St. – “Elgin Flats”: (a) Basil C. McNabb, driver; (b) Joseph H. Rashleigh, painter; (c) Percy Colville, mechanic North West Square Heritage Area 2010 Wises 1944 147 Cuba St. – “Elgin Flats”: (a) Basil C. McNabb, driver; (b) Norman Irvine, airman; (c) Henry D. McManaway (no occupation given) Wises 1950-1 147 Cuba St. – “Elgin Flats”: (a) E. Jenkins, dental mechanic; (b) E. Higginbottom, driver Wises 1953-4 147 Cuba St. – “Elgin Flats”: (a) E. Jenkins, dental mechanic; (b) Rex E. Andrews, teacher; (c) Michael E. Hayman, dry cleaner Wises 1957 147 Cuba St. – “Elgin Flats”: (a) Donald E. Macdonald, upholsterer; (b) Frank P. Adams, dairyman; (c) Jack R. Buxton, land agent. Wises 1959-60 147 Cuba St., - “Elgin Flats”: (a) Brian N. McChesney, clerk; (b) Frank P. Adams, dairyman; (c) Stan Wells, salesman. 2009 141 Cuba St. - Three flats Shop No. 4 (built 1929) Stones 1933 95 Cuba St. – Mrs Skinner, frock shop Wises 1936 95 Cuba St. – Mrs Jessie Skinner, dressmaker Wises 1939 95 Cuba St.- Nil Wises 1944 149 Cuba St. – Ms K. Needham, dressmaker Wises 1950-54 149 Cuba St. - Weightman’s Cake Decorations (A.E. Wood, prop.) Wises 1957 149 Cuba St. – Howard Jones, auto electrician Wises 1959-60 149 Cuba St. – Auto-Electrics Ltd., auto-electricians 2010 143 Cuba St. - part of Mike’s Panel Shop (scooter display area) ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION The building is designed in the Inter-War Stripped Classical style, which was a common commercial style in the period between the wars. The façade has the characteristic simplified or implied Classical elements, with the vertically and horizontally stepped parapet with shallow triangular pediment, simplified cornices, implied pilasters keystones and apron designs. It is apparent that the shopfronts have been modified. Page 65 Palmerston North City Council No plans for the building could be found in the PNCC archives and therefore a description of the plan and construction of the building cannot be given. North West Square Heritage Area 2010 The exterior of the building has moderate levels of authenticity, particularly the above verandah design. ASSESSMENT SUMMARY 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. This building has moderate historic values in its connection to a wellknown city identity in Alexander Clark, and therefore to his other building in Fitzherbert Avenue. It also has connections to the Boniface Bros. bakery firm, in terms of shared ownership and as its neighbour. The early tenancy of the flats is linked to the railway history of the area. One (or probably two joined together) of its shops served as a local dairy for many years, and accordingly was an important feature of its community in the days before weekend shopping. The building is historically associated with its architect, Oscar Jorgenson a well-known local architect, in whose practice R Thorrald-Jaggard first served. Jorgenson also designed 34-40 George Street, another building in the proposed North West Heritage Conservation Area. The original and later ownership and tenants reflects moderate continuity as a typical pattern of similar commercial buildings throughout the city. 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 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. Page 66 M M H Palmerston North City Council Cuba Street, 175-193 Former Carlton Hotel (now Travelodge) 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: 608 square metres more or less Lot 1-2 DP 352 (PNCC Schedule: Lots 1 & 2 DP 352 & Lot 1 DP 22) WN27Z/783 (1985), prior CTs WN430/122 (1931), WN107/175 (1900). Category II117 Nil Nil 143 1927 L.G. West & Son John Lowbridge Bennett unknown PHYSICAL AND SOCIAL HISTORY History Built in 1927, the former Carlton Hotel is one of Palmerston North’s oldest hotels still operating as such. Other clearly older hotel buildings have been converted to taverns, offices, shops, etc. The recently expanded and updated Carlton Hotel building itself is now a key part of the Travelodge Palmerston North complex, and accordingly it is part of the Travelodge hotel chain. Prior History The Carlton Hotel was built on the site of a block of four small singlestorey shops that appear in a pre-1910 photo of Cuba Street.118 According to the 1925 Wises’ Directory, this block was by that time occupied by a 117 118 PNCC Schedule of Buildings and Objects of Cultural Heritage Value Photo STC 14, pre-1910, PN City Library photographic collection Page 67 Palmerston North City Council lingerie specialist, a boot maker, a confectioner (dairy), and Francis S. Birch, a baker. Coincidentally, Francis S. Birch bought land on the corner of Cuba and Waldegrave Streets in early 1927, and tenders were advertised to build his new shop there a week before tenders were advertised to build the Carlton. CT WN107/175 (issued 1900) records the various owners of the block of shops, none of which seem to have also been occupants. In 1911, it was sold to three members of the Mason family, who in turn sold it in 1923 to a partnership of Ada Needham, wife of Frederick Needham, contractor of PN; Margaretta Anne Florence Oram, wife of (later Sir) Matthew Henry Oram, solicitor of PN; and Harry Burrows, land agent of PN, as tenants in common. In 1925, Harry Burrows’ share was transferred to George Ennis McGregor, a PN solicitor. Then in 1926, Ada Needham’s share was transferred to William Keeble Welch, a surgeon dentist of PN. The new partnership of Oram, McGregor and Welch then sold the property to John Lowbridge Bennett, a hotelkeeper of PN, in early 1927. Prior to purchasing the Clarendon Hotel’s licence, John Lowbridge Bennett had an auctioneering, land agents and produce merchants business called “The Mart”, on the corner of Rangitikei and King Streets in Palmerston North. For a while he also had a butcher’s shop next door to The Mart, and he still operated The Mart after building the hotel. He previously had the Wolsley Hotel at Winchester, Canterbury, and later had the Warners Hotel in Christchurch.119 Ownership History Local architectural firm, L.G. West & Son, designed the Carlton Hotel. Tenders were called to construct the three-storey brick and concrete Wises Directories, 1925 & 1929; Ian Matheson’s interview with J.A.L ‘Jack’ Bennett, 16 August 1999, in Carlton Hotel Research File A175/164/9, Ian Matheson City Archives, PN City Library. 119 North West Square Heritage Area 2010 building in January 1927.120 Built at a cost of £13,725, at the time it was one of the largest hostelries in Palmerston North.121 In late 1929, the hotel was sold to Robert Porter, an Auckland hotelkeeper; however, John Lowbridge Bennett’s direct and indirect involvement in the hotel was to remain for at least another three decades. The CT WN107/175 reveals that Bennett briefly held a mortgage (No. 202090) over the property in late 1929, and this was then transferred to the BNZ. In 1931, Bennett (by then a hotelkeeper of Christchurch) again took over this mortgage from the BNZ. The same mortgage then shuttled back to the BNZ in 1932, to Bennett in 1936, and then back to the BNZ the same day. The property itself was then transferred from Porter to Bennett (described again as a PN hotelkeeper) in 1937. The 1937 From Swamp to City article below, and the 1939 Wise’s Directory indicate that George V. Simpson was managing the hotel at that time, while the 1944 edition lists Noel K. Beveridge as the manager. The hotel remained in Bennett’s name until 1955, when it was transferred to Carlton Hotel (PN) Ltd. Then, starting 15th December 1955, the hotel was leased for a three-year term to Norman Charles Currie, described as a PN hotelkeeper, and his wife Muriel Amelia Currie. The Wises’ Directories indicate that Currie was running the hotel by 1950 and that publication further suggests that he did so for the next decade. Bennett retained a mortgage over the property until 1960, when he transferred it to his son John Alexander Lowbridge (Jack) Bennett. In 1963, ownership of the property was transferred to Eric Newton Franklyn, a Wellington company director. This transaction included a mortgage from Manawatu Evening Standard, 26 January 1927, in ‘PN Architects 1900-1950’, Vol. 5, p. 35, Pam Phillips Papers, Ian Matheson City Archives 121 Building No. 13, Carlton Hotel, Ian Bowman & Michael Kelly, Palmerston North CBD Heritage Inventory for PNCC, 1994. Note that the PN Borough Council Register of Building Permits, Vol. 3 (p. 560) gives the cost as £13,300 and the discrepancy has not been researched. PNCC 4/13/1, Vol. 3, Ian Matheson City Archives, PN City Library 120 Page 68 Palmerston North City Council NZ Breweries Ltd and T.G. Macarthy (Wanganui) Ltd., and the start of a relationship of this nature with this brewery – later renamed Lion Breweries Ltd., and then Lion Nathan Ltd. In 1965 the hotel again changed hands, this time to R.M. & A.J. Higgins Ltd, of PN. – these being Alyn James and Rubina Margaret Higgins. D.E. & V.C. Fraser Ltd. of Lower Hutt, took over in 1978, and Lion Breweries then leased the hotel for a 20-year term starting 29 April 1978. In 1979, hotel was subleased for a 15-year term to Halcombe George I--(illegible). However, this was almost immediately surrendered and the sublease taken over by Carlton Hotel Palmerston North Ltd.122 Ownership of the property was transferred in 1989 to Kent King Lambert and Dianne Leslie Lambert, company directors of PN. Then in 1992, it again changed hands, this time to John Russell Forsythe, a PN chartered accountant. The former Lion Breweries, by now Lion Nathan Ltd., then surrendered its lease in 1992, and immediately took out another 20-year lease, starting 1 January 1992. Corresponding with this, Luke David Walding also subleased the hotel for the same 20-year period. The property’s ownership was transferred to Walding Properties Ltd. in 1996, to Cuba Street Holdings in 2003, and then to the present owner, Trust Company Ltd., in 2008.123 The CT does not indicate any adjustment to the status of the 20-year Lion Nathan Ltd lease taken out in 1992. North West Square Heritage Area 2010 General History The 1937 book From Swamp to City: Commemorating the Diamond Jubilee of the City124 contains a brief history of the hotel to that time. It states that: “The Carlton Hotel has the distinction of being associated with the earliest days of Palmerston North as it is holding the licence of the Clarendon Hotel which was situated for many years on the corner of the Square and Rangitikei Street. The present location in Cuba Street on the edge of the business area, handy to the Square, is far enough away to escape all street noises. Rebuilt in 1927, a reinforced concrete structure, it is equipped with every possible modern convenience such as automatic elevator, central heating, bath and shower rooms, and hot and cold water in every bedroom. One of the main features is the spacious lounge. The Carlton is an A.A., C.T. and Civil Servant house and is largely patronised by the tourist trade, Mr G.V. Simpson, the proprietor, can claim to be one of a family of the old pioneers. His father arrived in New Zealand in 1854, and his mother, who is still living, was born in the Nelson district 81 years ago. He is well known to all residents in the Southern part of the North Island, as a commercial representative of one of the largest wholesale houses for the last 20 years. He will be well known to old Palmerstonians as in 1916-1917 he was the organiser for the Crippled Soldiers’ Hostel Art Union, the funds from which did a lot to help make comfortable our crippled boys. With a hotel and popular proprietor such as this visitors to Palmerston North can rest assured of every detail of their personal comfort being attended to.” The original wooden Clarendon Hotel, referred to above, was established in 1873. That building burnt down on the night of 28 January 1904, and was soon replaced by a three-storey brick building. The Clarendon’s 122 The Companies Office website records that No. 35271 Carlton Hotel Palmerston North Ltd. was incorporated on 8 March 1979 and struck off on 20th June 1990. 123 CTs WN107/175 (1900), WN430/122 (1931) & WN27A/783 (1985) 124 Robert H. Billens & H. Leslie Verry, From Swamp to City: Commemorating the Diamond Jubilee of the City (Palmerston North, 1937), unnumbered page: ‘The Carlton Hotel’. Page 69 Palmerston North City Council licence was transferred to the new Carlton Hotel in 1927, and the Clarendon was converted to shops. Renamed the Clarendon Buildings, its third storey was removed after the 1931 Hawkes Bay earthquake, and the building was eventually demolished to make way for the present buildings on the site.125 The Carlton also contained a shop on the Campbell Street side of the building. The typical barber’s shop stripes of Bert Haybittle’s hairdresser’s shop are visible in the c1950 photo of the hotel. The shop was done away with and the space absorbed into the hotel bar area in 1955. Fortunately there had also for decades been a second barber’s shop next door to the Carlton, on the opposite side of the building at 191 Cuba St., and its barber’s shop stripes are also visible in the aforementioned photo. The Carlton was yet another building in the area to experience fire, albeit two minor ones in the incident known of. On 10 October 1986, an 18-yearold city youth lit a fire in a toilet and minutes later another in a storeroom. However, these were soon found and extinguished without any serious damage. The youth was arrested.126 Additions and Alterations Photographic evidence shows that the upper façade of the building has undergone at least three significant changes. The photo published with the above article in From Swamp to City in 1937, shows the words “Hotel Carlton” painted onto the roofing tiles, while a pair of pilasters protrude through the roof at each end of the building. Another photo taken around 1950 shows that the same words were still painted on the roofing tiles, however the pilasters were gone and only a plain front wall appears below the roofline. The most recent alterations have included a pair of semicircular decorations protruding from the locations that once carried the pairs of pilasters. The two sets of plain pipe balcony railings and the North West Square Heritage Area 2010 emergency ladders have also disappeared from the front of the building since the 1990s.127 PNCC’s Building Permit files contain a significant amount of information on the building, especially in relation to the recent redevelopment of the hotel complex. However, earlier work includes altering a shop (formerly Haybittles’ barber’s shop) to a bar in 1955, at a cost of £600. In 1963, the building’s new owner, Mr Franklyn, erected a new bar at a cost of £1,100. Permits for further additions and alterations were also applied for in 1973 and 1987. The records cover the 1991 renovation of the lounge bar to resemble the atmosphere of a London tube station bar. It was renamed the Carlton Underground. The intention, Luke Walding said, was also “to use as much as possible of the Carlton’s original character.” In its previous guise, the hotel had apparently become something of a “notorious meeting place,” and the intention was to attract back some of its former patrons. In earlier times stockcar and sports crowds had packed the hotel after events, but by 1991 it had become known as a students’ bar, with an array of negative effects.128 In 1995, permission was applied for to remove the verandah with reasons including that there was no evidence to show it was original (although the 1993 photo of the verandah looks very similar to the 1937 and c1950 photos – the latter pair appearing identical). Permission was also sought to remove brewery signs on both sides of the building, aimed at improving its appearance. Part of the planned work had apparently included the Carlton Hotel’s then owner, Walding Properties Ltd., leasing the neighbouring shop at 195 Cuba Street for use as a bottle store. However, a letter to PNCC dated 30 127 125 126 Photo Ho33, Palmerston North City Library photographic collection Manawatu Evening Standard 11 October 1986, p. 3 Photos Ho38 (1937); Ho59 (c1950); 1993 photo in Palmerston North CBD Heritage Inventory for PNCC, 1994, building No. 13; Plan in PNCC Building Permit file C100/175-193. 128 Manawatu Evening Standard, 19 June 1991, p. 22 Page 70 Palmerston North City Council North West Square Heritage Area 2010 November 1995 from the shop’s owners, claimed that the hotel owner had reneged on the deal, apparently after gaining their permission to undertake his hotel alterations.129 Preparations then proceeded toward building the new multi-storey block alongside the hotel to add 65 rooms to the 20 the Carlton already had. The hotel was then to be rebranded as Novatel Palmerston North. Work undertaken in the 1995 upgrade included upgrading the façade, the public bar and the back bar as part of the renovations that had been going on since the Walding family took over in 1990 (evidently prior to their formally taking over the lease in 1992). Until that time, the public bar, which was renamed The Local, had not undergone a major renovation since the hotel opened in 1927. Other impacts on the immediate area were the purchase of the single storey block of shops (Harris Meatmarket & others) on the corner of Cuba and Lombard Street adjoining the hotel, in early 2004, and land behind the present Crankit shops on the opposite side of the Cuba-Lombard intersection, which was previously owned by auto-electrician Mike Murphy. This latter land was to become part of the hotel’s carpark.132 The hotel has undergone significant expansion and several name changes in recent years. In April 2002, management of the Carlton was taken over by Accor Hotels and the hotel renamed the Mecure. However, in October 2002, it again became the Carlton and Accor Hotels was gone. This was the result of a split with the hotel’s owners, the Walding family, who were not prepared to build the extra 60 rooms Accor wanted to add to the Carlton’s existing 20 rooms, in the immediate future. Explaining the decision, Accor’s regional general manager said that they did not manage hotels that small. The hotel was to continue operating as an independent four-star facility however. And the expansion process was intended to continue.130 In June 2003, the hotel was in receivership and its ownership company, Walding Properties Ltd., in liquidation and owing millions of dollars. The following month the hotel, which was still trading, was advertised for sale.131 Construction of the new tower block was formally launched on 29 April 2004. It was due for completion in February 2005 and to be officially opened on 4 March 2005.133 The hotel has subsequently been renamed Travelodge Palmerston North, and has been owned by Trust Company Ltd. since early 2008. The hotel was bought by Hanover’s property development and investment arm, Axis Property Group and the hotel was duly transferred into the name of Cuba Street Holdings Ltd. in November 2003. Hanover’s hotel subsidiary Accor then returned to take over the management of the hotel. Noted Heritage Features While undoubtedly the hotel has a number of features that can still be traced to its 1927 beginnings, two are singled out for specific mention here. The first is the hotel’s nameplate on the centre front of the hotel’s facade that still reads “1927 Hotel Carlton,” despite all the recent name changes. The second is its elderly lift. In 2005, promotional material noted that: “as the original cage lift clanks up the lift shaft on its original weights and pulleys, the discerning guest is left in no doubt that the Novatel Palmerston North is a unique combination of heritage building coupled with a contemporary blend of four-star hotel rooms.” Described as “an automatic elevator” on the list of modern conveniences noted in the 1937 From Swamp to City article above, present day guests give it mixed reviews. Online feedback from a Tauranga guest who stayed 129 PNCC Building Permit file C100/175-193 Manawatu Evening Standard 5 March 2002, p. 3; 17 October 2002, p. 1; 18 October 2002, p. 2. 131 Dominion-Post 26 June 2003, p. C2; Manawatu Evening Standard 2 July 2003, p. 1 130 132 Manawatu Evening Standard 27 April 2004, p.3; Harris Meatmarket et al CT WN43A/857 133 Manawatu Evening Standard 27 April 2004, p.3; 30 April 2004, p. 3; 19 October 2004, p. 15; 13 January 2005, p. 4; 24 February 2005, p. 12. Page 71 Palmerston North City Council in the hotel in October 2008, noted that she found a special excuse (to see one of the 1927 rooms) to have to ride in the old lift, as she “just HAD to have a turn” in it. Another feedback, from August 2006 was less flattering. The guest noted that the first thing seen after checking in was that as “part of the refurbishments the management have elected to leave the original 1900’s Elevator in. While the staff eagerly advise you that it is one of only two left in the country, what they don’t tell you is that it regularly fails to operate.” Evidently this guest was then forced to carry his/her belongings up four flights of stairs.134 Finally comes the startling story told to late City Archivist Ian Matheson by a shocked Carlton Hotel cleaner about an incident involving the lift in the early hours of Thursday, 23 July 1998. The resulting (1999) interview with Jack Bennett by Ian Matheson has contributed significantly to this study, but did not resolve the 1998 incident.135 People associated with the hotel John Lowbridge Bennett was the original owner of the hotel in 1927. He and his family lived in the hotel, however, following the sale of the Carlton in 1929, he bought the Warners Hotel in Christchurch. Presumably that was where he was hotel keeping at the time he took over the Carlton’s mortgage again in 1931. The family was back living at the Carlton in September 1932, when their 8-year-old daughter, Gloria, died suddenly of a brain infection. He continued to be involved with the hotel in various ways until 1960, when his son John Alexander Lowbridge (‘Jack’) Bennett, a solicitor, took over from him. The hotel was then sold out of the family in 1963. After the North West Square Heritage Area 2010 sale of the Carlton, John Lowbridge Bennett bought the Empire Hotel (now Cobb & Co.), which he later sold to Ollie Galpin. John Lowbridge Bennett was also interested in Jersey cattle and had a farmlet on the corner of Manawatu and Pahiatua Streets, called Winchester Jersey Stud, after the town in Canterbury where they previously lived. Winchester School is so named after the farm, as a result of the family’s suggestion.136 He died on 27 October 1978, aged 84, and is described as a publican on the Kelvin Grove Cemetery records. George Henry Vernand Simpson managed the hotel in the latter 1930s (at least). He died, aged 81, on 16 July 1979, and is described in the Kelvin Grove Cemetery records as a publican. Norman Charles Currie managed the hotel throughout the 1950s and he and his wife Muriel Amelia leased it for at least three years from 1955. He died on 8 January 1974 aged 67, and is described in the Kelvin Grove Cemetery records as a retired publican. Muriel Amelia was not traced. Herbert William Haybittle occupied the shop in the Carlton Hotel building from the 1930s until about 1955, when the shop was incorporated back into the hotel as part of the bar. Haybittle was a hairdresser and was aged about 63 by the time the shop ceased operating. He died on 5 January 1963 aged 71. The Walding family’s background in the local catering industry includes the well-known firm of its day, Smith & Walding, of which Joe Walding (PN city councillor and MP) was a partner. Joe Walding’s son Luke, along with Peter, Charles, Anne and Catherine, leased the hotel from 1990. CT WN27A/783 indicates that Luke Walding formally leased the property for 20 years in 1992. Ownership was then transferred to Walding Properties 134 www.tripadvisor.com -Travelodge Palmerston North: Traveller Reviews; Novatel Palmerston North insert, in Manawatu Evening Standard, April 2005. Carlton Hotel research file A175/164/9, Ian Matheson City Archives, PN Library 135 136 Ian Matheson’s interview with J.A.L ‘Jack’ Bennett, 16 August 1999, in Carlton Hotel Research File A175/164/9, Ian Matheson City Archives, PN City Library. Page 72 Palmerston North City Council Ltd. in 1996. This firm was placed in liquidation in 2003 and the property sold by the receivers to Cuba Street Holdings Ltd. later that year.137 Known Occupants Shop on Campbell Street side of hotel building (1927-1955) Stones 1933 141 Cuba St. – Sydney Raymond Greer, taxi proprietor Wises 1936 Nil Wises 1939-54 141 (later renumbered to 181) Cuba St. – Bert Haybittle, hairdresser Carlton Hotel (proprietors, where known138) Stones 1933 143-7 Cuba St. – Carlton Hotel, John Lowbridge Bennett, proprietor Wises 1936 145 Cuba St. – Carlton Hotel, John. L. Bennett Wises 1939 145 Cuba St. - Carlton Hotel, George V. Simpson Wises 1944 185 Cuba St. – Carlton Hotel, Noel K. Beveridge Wises 1950-60 181 Cuba St. – Carlton Hotel, N. Currie (3 year lease on CT from 1955) 1963-1965 (CT) Owner: E.N. Franklyn 1965-1978 (CT Owner: R.M. & A.J. Higgins Ltd. 1978-1992 (CT) Lessee: Lion Breweries, later renamed Lion Nathan Ltd. (then renewed 20 years) 1979-1992 (CT) Sub-lessee: Carlton Hotel Palmerston North Ltd. 1978-1989 (CT) Owner: D.E. & V.C. Fraser Ltd. 1989-1992 (CT) Owner: K.K. & D.L. Lambert 1992.1996 (CT) Owner: J.R. Forsythe 1990-2003 Sub-lessee, later owner: Luke Walding and the Walding family (CT and newspapers) 2003-2008 (CT) Owner: Cuba Street Holdings Ltd. 2008-now (CT) Owner: Trust Company Ltd. 137 Manawatu Evening Standard 19 June 1991, p. 23; 7 December 1995, P. 20. Dominion-Post 26 June 2003, p. C2; 138 This tangled list is incomplete as it is unclear in later times what owners were also the hotel managers, the latter being the main target of this list. North West Square Heritage Area 2010 Comments: This building has impacted significantly over its lifetime on some of the other buildings involved in this study. In 1927, when the hotel was built, it displaced the Birch Automatic Bakery shop, which relocated to the corner of Cuba and Waldegrave Streets. In 1928, at least three of the four shops in the block between the hotel and Lombard Street were built, and as the hotel owners now also own it, its future will probably be decided by the hotel’s progress. The back portion of the Crankit buildings across Lombard Street, which is likely to have included early bakery buildings, now serves as part of the hotel’s carpark. ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION The building is consistent with L G West’s free ranging use of architectural styles. In this case the building loosely uses the Spanish Mission style with overhanging eaves, supported on brackets, Marseille tile roofing, gables, but with a sense of Neo-Georgian in symmetry and fenestration. The interior ground floor has bars, management and service areas, with the upper floor bedrooms located off an ‘L’ shaped corridor. The stair is centrally located on the south wall and winds around a wire-caged lift. Interior joinery is oak, with dado panelling to the stair and ground floor. 1991 floor plans for the hotel show a central entry from Cuba Street with bars either side, leading to a central reception area with lift and stairs. The dining room and kitchen are opposite the entry. The first floor plan shows an ‘L’ shaped central corridor access from the stairs and lift with rooms off and a lounge opposite the stairs. 2001 plans show a significant rearrangement of rooms and corridors on the first and second floors. No construction drawings are available. STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE This building has high regional significance for historical and design values, representivity of building style and type and level of external authenticity. Page 73 Palmerston North City Council This building has high historic values as one of the oldest extant hotels in the city and its association with publicans and customers. It is also associated with the architect, L G West, who, in conjunction with his son Ernst Vilhem, he was responsible for a large number of Palmerston North's buildings. Among those still standing designed by the practice are the Former Club Hotel (1905), the Manawatu–Kilwinning Masonic Lodge (1908), the Old Soldiers Club (1917), and the Church of Christ. Scientist (1931) and Ward Brothers Building (1935). North West Square Heritage Area 2010 ASSESSMENT SUMMARY Significance Existing category PNCC District Plan Criteria Cultural Emotional The building has high design values as an individual and rare interpretation of the Spanish Mission style, which has good but simple detailing on the interior and exterior. Because of its scale, form and style the building is a landmark in Cuba Street. Historical 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. Design The building is largely authentic on the exterior and interior, and is significant in its style, and contribution to the streetscape. Technology Spiritual Sentimental Symbolic Political People Events Age Tradition Continuity Style Materials Group Materials Construction high regional I Contextual Measure Authenticity H H Rarity Landmark Representative Design Setting Materials Craftsmanship M H Page 74 H H H Palmerston North City Council Cuba Street, 193-199 Snelling Building (now Harris Meatmarket and others) 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: 608 square metres more or less Lot 3-4 DP 352 WN43A/857 (1993); prior WN88/159(1897) Nil Nil Nil Nil Stage 1 Construction date: Architect: Original Owner: Builder: 1902-3 rating year (or early 1928) Unknown Herbert R. Brewer (or G.L. Snelling) Unknown Stage 2 Construction date: Architect: Original Owner: Builder: 1928 Unknown G.L. Snelling N.M. McLean CT: Description: The exterior of Stage 1 (butcher’s shop) has white tiles, while Stage 2 has grey tiles. PHYSICAL AND SOCIAL HISTORY History It is not clear who built the first stage of this building – the butcher’s shop on the corner. However, it is likely that it was built during the 1902-3 Rating year, and then has been modified gradually to the stage it was at in Page 75 Palmerston North City Council 1928, where it appears on the plans for Stage 2 as an “existing shop”. A very similar building to the present one appears on this site in the pre-1910 photo STC14 of Cuba Street held by the PN Library. The building has the (painted over) words “Snelling Buildings, Est. 1920” on the upper façade above the butcher’s shop door. However, in light of no corresponding increase in value to the property in the c1920 Rate books, this date is probably only applicable to the year the business was formed. Prior History CT WN88/159 was issued in 1897 to Rose Mary Aisher, the wife of Frederick Aisher, described as a fruiterer139 of Palmerston North. The 1897-98 Rate Books reveal that at that time, the two properties concerned, Sections 303 Lot 3 and 303 Lot 4, were both bare land. The butcher shop was to be sited on Lot 4. The 1898-99 Rate Book shows Lot 4 has gained a £4 improvement (a shed perhaps), while Lot 3 has increased in value by £340. The aforementioned photo shows a house on that site (the future site of Stage 2), and this seems likely to have been the Aishers’ new home as certainly they lived in Cuba Street. The Aishers were Irish and had migrated to New Zealand in about 1879. They settled in Palmerston North in 1888 and soon established a business in The Square, manufacturing confectionery in a shop between Coleman Place and The Square. During the 1880s and 1890s, Frederick Aisher was the sole manufacturing confectioner in Palmerston North. His obituary in 1933 stated that his shop was “well remembered by many people. As was not unnatural the premises were the rendezvous of the majority of the young folk in the town.” The Aishers disposed of their business in 1900 and later Frederick undertook an array of community and public roles, including serving as a 139 The term “fruiterer” seems to have meant more than just selling fruit in earlier times, and he in fact made and sold lollies etc. North West Square Heritage Area 2010 PN Borough Councillor. It seems likely that the property being studied here was also disposed of as part of this transition.140 First Stage? (1902-1928) CT WN88/159 records that property was sold in 1902 to Penelope Fraser, wife of Palmerston North storekeeper, carrier and former goldminer, William Fraser.141 Within about a month, she had sold it to Herbert Richard Brewer, whose occupation was not given other than he was a “settler” of Palmerston North. In mid-1903, Brewer sold the property to Joseph Johnson, who was described as a “gentleman” of Palmerston North. The 1902-03 Rate Book records the transfer of the property from Rose Aisher directly to Herbert Brewer. It also records that something valued at £150 had been added to the now combined property (Sec. 303, Lots 3 & 4), and this subsequently appears as the increased value of Lot 4. Given the amount, this is almost certainly the shop shown in the c1910 photo STC14. The 1903-04 Rate Book records the transfer from Brewer (of Cuba St.) to Joseph W. Johnson, who is usually referred to as Joseph Webb Johnson. The two sections are valued separately from this point onward, with the house section having a significantly higher value than the shop site. Joseph Webb Johnson, of Broad Street, sold off some of his properties during the 1905-06 rating year, which is probably when he left Palmerston North. However, he retained this property, the 1906 Wises Directory listing George Cotton, butcher, as occupant of both the shop and the house next door.142 Joseph Webb Johnson then leased it during the 1906-07 rating year to Patrick O’Connor. O’Connor, who the 1908 Wise’s Directory also 140 Manawatu Evening Standard: Obituary R.M. Aisher, 6 April 1923 4(8); Obituary F. Aisher, 26 May 1933 6(7), 27 May 1933 2(4). 141 Manawatu Evening Standard: Obituary W. Fraser, 14 August 1912 5(2), 16 August 1912 5(1); P. Fraser 1 July 1935 8(4) 142 Possibly this is George Cotton, farmer of Bourke St., PN, who died on 12 April 1943, aged 83. Ref: PNCC cemetery records & Manawatu Evening Standard 12 April 1943 1(1) Page 76 Palmerston North City Council lists as a butcher (the latter volume adding that his private residence was next door), retained it until the 1908-09 rating year, at which time it passed to Henry Couper, another butcher. Patrick O’Connor had earlier taken on Henry Couper as a partner in a firm they named ‘O’Connor & Couper’, and the regular notice to this effect that they published in the Manawatu Evening Standard for their ‘Cuba Street Butchery, dated the event as 1 August 1907.143 The CT records that Joseph Webb Johnson died on 28 December 1911, and as his death is not on local records, it is likely that he was in Auckland. The property was transmitted in 1912 to Johnson’s widow Eliza Jane Johnson; Joseph Kew Hartz, insurance manager; John Peter Heaton, merchant (all of Auckland) and John Howe Oscar Colby, gentleman of Onehunga. Mrs Johnson must have died around 1924, as that year the property was transmitted to the other three as survivors. The 1914 Wise’s Directory records that Henry Couper’s butcher’s shop was then numbered 60 Cuba St. The rating records state that he remained the occupant of the property for rating purposes until the 1924-25 rating year, however, this seems unlikely. Work valued at £45 had been done on the shop site during the 1914-15 rating year, meaning that it had almost the same value by then as the house section (the shop section had a higher unimproved land value). In the 1921-22 rating year, the house section received a £93 increase in value due to unknown work being carried out. CT WN 88/159 records that the property was leased in 1920 to Edsel Charles Gray and George Lelliott Snelling for a 5-year period starting on 1st February 1920. Local cemetery records reveal that both of these men were butchers, however, their relationship with Henry Couper is unknown. The 1922 Wise’s Directory lists “Grey & Snelling”, butchers, as occupants of this shop, now 65 Cuba St. Meanwhile the house next door at 63 Cuba North West Square Heritage Area 2010 St., was listed as occupied by Sidney William Jones, another butcher. The 1927 Directory lists Snelling as at the shop’s occupant, while the house was now his private residence. In 1922, Snelling took over the lease from Gray, and then in 1924 he took over ownership of the property from Hartz, Heaton and Colby. The 192425 Rate Book notes the transfer of ratepayer from Couper to Snelling The house site also receives more work to the value of £43. Its capital value is now £1073, while the shop site’s capital value is £920, their sections having an unimproved value of £530 and £660 respectively. Stage 2 (1928) The next improvement activity on these two sections was in the 1927-28 rating year. This saw the shop property’s capital value increase by £200. It is possible this was a rebuild of the shop, or more likely it was additions and alterations. The next rating year, 1928-29, saw the house section increase by £1,100. A pencilled note in the rate book says that this was “four shops”. The buildings on the property were then more or less as they are now in terms of their street appearance. The PNBC Register of Building Permits, Vol. 3, records (p. 393) the application for a permit to build something to the value of £200 on the shop section in March 1928. The register then records (p. 395) G. Snelling being granted Permit No. 496 on 12 July 1928 to build the shops in brick to the value of £1,100.144 The architect is not identified on the plans held by PNCC, however the builder of these shops was recorded on the plans as being N.M. McLean. George Snelling died on 21 July 1946, aged 59, and in 1947, the property was transmitted to his wife Rubina Adeline Snelling, and Cecil Grant Wood, a Palmerston North farmer, as executors. Rubina Snelling died on 20 December 1950, aged 61, and in 1956 the property was transmitted to Cecil Grant Wood as survivor. On the same date (15 March 1956) Wood 144 143 Manawatu Evening Standard, this copy 5 October 1907, 3(2) PN Borough Council Register of Building Permits, Vol. 3, PNCC 4/13/1, Vol. 3, Ian Matheson City Archives, PN City Library Page 77 Palmerston North City Council transferred the property to Marjory Sophia Hall (married woman of PN); Duncan William Snelling (dental surgeon of London); Kate Rebecca Tankard (married of Browns Bay); Patricia Ayson Snelling (spinster of PN); Peter George Snelling (dental surgeon of Browns Bay); and Peggy Winifred Donaldson (married of PN) as tenants in common. These people probably constitute the ‘Snelling Trust’. After more than six decades in the Snelling family, the property was sold in 1987 to Avedon Holdings Ltd. It was then transferred in 1992 to Garry Wong, a market gardener, and his wife Kaye Wong. Ownership was transferred to Cuba Street Holdings Ltd. (then owner of the neighbouring Carlton Hotel as part of Axis Property Group) in 2004 and then in 2008 to the current owner, Trust Company Ltd., which also owns the former Carlton Hotel. When work to enlarge the Carlton Hotel began in 2004, this building was also mentioned: “The hotel expansion leaves Lombard corner shops intact. Axis Property general manager Patrick Daly said that while Axis now owned the property there was an agreement in place that protected the current residents. Some retail space not in use will become the builders’ site office. At some future stage, Mr Daly said, the corner block may be considered for redevelopment.”145 Additions & Alterations The PNCC Building Permit file on 199 Cuba St (C100/199) records that in 1959, the Snelling Trust applied to alter the butcher shop for Snelling Bros. Then in 1969 the Trust applied to build a new verandah and to add an extension to the rear of the three shops. Building Permit file C/195-197, entitled ‘P.O. Fish Supplies’ outlines the conversion of the two shops nearest to the hotel into the Post Office Fish Supply shop, in early 1988. This involved removing much of the wall between the two shops. As the altered shop was considered large enough 145 Manawatu Evening Standard 30 April 2004, p. 3 North West Square Heritage Area 2010 to hold more than 30 people, the doors were also required to swing outward to permit an easier exit in case of emergencies. This shop last appeared in the phonebook in 1994.146 The building permit file also records that the building was re-roofed in 2006. Of note are the loss of the caps from three of the pilasters. These were still present in a 1950 photo of the Carlton Hotel.147 Known Occupants Shop nearest Carlton Hotel148 Stones 1933 147 Cuba St. – Ernest Williams, hairdresser Wises 1936 147 Cuba St. – Edward Wilkins, hairdresser Wises 1939: 147 Cuba St. – Edward Williams, hairdresser Wises 1944-54 191 Cuba St. – Bernard C. Williams, hairdresser Wises 1957 191 Cuba St. – Jack O’Leary, hairdresser Wises 1959-60 191 Cuba St. – Basil J. Parkinson, hairdresser (last entry in phonebook 1987) 1988-c1994 195 Cuba St. – Converted to part of the Post Office Fish Supply shop 2010 (former 191 Cuba) - No signage on this shop Middle Shop Stones 1933 Wises 1936 Wises 1939 Wises 1944 149 Cuba St. – Arthur James Pascoe, herbalist 149 Cuba St. – Oliver P. Liddell, pastry cook 149 Cuba St. – Mrs Mary Tongs, pastry cook 193 Cuba St. – Ronald K. Beale, dairy 146 Note that the Post Office Fish Supply shop was then moving from 489-491 Main St. The photo of the demolition of the original Post Office Fish Shop, sited between the old main Post Office and Princess Street and built before 1900, was published in the Manawatu Evening Standard on 16 August 1966 (p.3, [1-4]) 147 Photo Ho59, Photographic Collection, PN City Library. 148 Note that until 1955, the Carlton Hotel’s shop, on the opposite side of that building, was also a men’s hairdresser. So the Carlton’s patrons were well provided for should they be in need a quick trim. Page 78 Palmerston North City Council North West Square Heritage Area 2010 Wises 1953 193 Cuba St. – Howard Rowland, radio manufacturer (Phonebook: moved c1988) 1988-c1994 197 Cuba St. – Post Office Fish Supply shop 2004 Builders’ site office during Carlton Hotel upgrade (MES 30/4/2004, p. 3) c2005-now 195 Cuba St. - Westside Foods The shop fronts are tiled with black trim to grey tiles in the two central shops and white with black tiles forming a panel in the spandrel of the butcher shop on the corner. It appears that the tiled surfaces are of a similar period to the construction of the building. The two central shopfronts are timber with toplights over the shopfront and entry doors. There are clerestory windows above the verandah. Shop nearest Butcher’s Shop 1933-mid-‘50s 151 (later 195) Cuba St. – Joe & Joe, fruiterers Wises 1957-60 195 Cuba St. – Joe Wah, fruiterer c2003-now 199 Cuba St. - Hana Mart Asian Grocery Shop 1928 plans for the shops show the layout of each shop with an open space facing the street with an angled ingo on one side and corridor with room to the rear. The exterior appears to have been all tiled except for the pilasters. Known occupants of the Butcher’s shop Ratebooks c1902-4 Herbert R. Brewer (occupation unknown) Ratebooks c1904-6 Joseph Webb Johnson, “gentleman” (occupation unknown) Wises 1906 George Cotton, butcher Ratebooks c1906-8 Patrick O’Connor, butcher Ratebooks c1908-c1920 Henry Couper, butcher (still charged the rates till 1924??) Lease (CT) 1920-2 Edsel Charles Gray & George Lelliott Snelling, butchers Lease (CT) 1922-4 George Lelliott Snelling, butcher Owner 1924-46 George Lelliott Snelling (died 1946) Wises 1950-c1975 V.J. Toohey, butcher (at least) Phonebook mid ‘70s Harris Meatmarket (to present day) 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 as the butcher’s shop in this building seems likely to be one of Palmerston North’s oldest (if not the oldest) butcher’s shops still in continuous operation for at least 105 years. Further investigation of the period 1902-5 could reveal that it was always a butcher’s shop. The original and later ownership and tenants reflects moderate continuity as a typical pattern of similar commercial buildings throughout the city. The building has moderate design values as a very representative example of the Inter- War Free Classical style. ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION The building is designed in a very simple version of the Inter-War Stripped Classical style, which was a common commercial style in the period between the wars. The main indicators of the style on the building are the pilasters on the above verandah section of the building, which project beyond the parapet. The pilasters are repeated in the below verandah section of the building and coincide with the shop divisions. simple The building 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 is largely authentic. Page 79 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 80 Palmerston North City Council Cuba Street, 201-207 Bryant Building North West Square Heritage Area 2010 BUILDING DETAILS Stage 1 Building’s Address: Owner: Owner’s Address: Assessment Number: Property ID: Land Area: Legal Description: Certificates of Title: Construction date: Architect: Original Owner: Builder: Stage 2 Building’s Address: Owner: Owner’s Address: Assessment Number: Property ID: Land Area: Legal Description: Certificates of Title: Construction date: Architect: Original Owner: Builder: 207 & (upstairs) 205 Cuba St. (shop nearest Rangitikei St.) 202 square metres more or less Part Lot 6 DP 352 WN220/118 (1913); prior CT WN96/294 (1898) 1905 unknown Frederick Bryant unknown 203 Cuba St. (middle shop) Michael David Murphy & Jan Marie Murphy 202 square metres more or less Part Lot 5-6 DP 352 WN220/117 (1913); prior CT WN96/294 (1898) 1911 unknown Frederick Bryant unknown Page 81 Palmerston North City Council Stage 3 Building’s Address: Owner: Owner’s Address: Assessment Number: Property ID: Land Area: Legal Description: Certificates of Title: Construction date: Architect: Original Owner: Builder: PNCC Classification: NZHPT No. NZHPT Classification: NZHPT Manawatu No: North West Square Heritage Area 2010 201 Cuba St. (shop nearest Lombard St.) Michael David Murphy & Jan Marie Murphy 202 square metres more or less Part Lot 5 DP 352 WN220/119 (1913); prior CT WN96/294 (1898) 1915 F. de Jersey Clere & Son, Wellington Frederick Bryant unknown Nil Nil Nil Nil PHYSICAL AND SOCIAL HISTORY History This block of three two-storey shops appears at first glance as being likely to have been built together. However, early photos held in the Palmerston North City Library’s photographic collection reveal otherwise. At present the three are leased as a single shop, and possibly two of them have been operated as one shop for many years. The upper floor is understood to be rented as flats, and this area, numbered 205 Cuba Street, is accessed from Cuba Street via a stairway in (but walled off from) the oldest of the three shops. Prior History CT WN96/294 was issued in 1898 to Carston Jesson Hansen, a draper, and the pre-1910 photo of Cuba Street (STC 14) reveals a two-storey building on the site that appears to have been a pair of shops. This building occupied the space now occupied by Stages 2 and 3 of the present building – and Stage 1 of this building is already present in the photo. In 1899, the property, Lots 5 & 6 of DP 352, was transferred to Frederick Bryant, a butcher, and the Bryant family was to own two-thirds of the property until 1960. The remaining third belonged to Frederick Bryant’s wife until her death in 1929, and then passed to a woman in England, who owned it until 1971. Frederick Bryant Frederick Bryant was born in Auckland in 1860, to parents from Bristol, England. He later lived in Thames before moving to Palmerston North in 1883, where he soon established himself in business, buying Joseph Beale’s butcher shop in 1885, then the town’s oldest butcher shop. His business partner in Palmerston North was William Reed, who eventually predeceased him by a few months. In 1899, Bryant began farming and took up a large acreage at Shannon. He was still one of the largest landowners there at the time of his death. His obituary states that although not involved in municipal affairs, he had substantial property interests in Palmerston North, including business blocks in The Square, Rangitikei Street and Cuba Street. He had also owned a large area of land in the vicinity of Bryant and Chelwood Streets, as well as land in Roslyn opposite Featherston Street. He was responsible for subdividing and roading these areas for residential sections. Bryant had bought the Roslyn land during the 1903-4 rating year and subdivided it between 1911 and 1913. He bought the Bryant-Chelwood area land during the 1910-11 rating year, and subdivided it between 1911 and 1915. Possibly these sales influenced his decision to build this building in stages and at the times he did. Of these streets, Bryant Street was obviously named after the family. Chelwood Street was named after Chelwood, Tunbridge Wells, his wife Mary Ann Bryant’s home village. Kingswood Street was named after Kingswood Road, Tunbridge Wells and Lyndhurst Page 82 Palmerston North City Council Street traces to Lyndhurst Gardens, Tunbridge Wells. In Roslyn, Keith Street was named after his son Keith.149 Frederick made 16 trips to Tunbridge Wells, where his family was raised. His business interests ensured, however, that New Zealand was really his home. Mary Ann Bryant died at Tunbridge Wells in 1929. The couple’s son Frederick William Bryant, then 41, had also died there in 1927.150 Frederick Bryant senior died at his Wood Street home aged 74 on 18 June 1939. The couple were survived by sons Dr E.H. Bryant, a medical practitioner in Auckland; A.G. Bryant, a partner in the legal firm Roche, Neale & Son, Old Jewry, London; and Keith Bryant, who was then a commercial artist in Sydney.151 Stage One The first stage of this building appears in the aforementioned photo STC 14, taken from the old fire station bell tower in Coleman Place, which was removed in 1910. The streetscape in the photo includes many shops, and the dozens of people strolling individually and in small groups down along Cuba Street at the time, suggests that they are probably heading for the showgrounds. While no specific information has been found in relation to the actual construction of this building, the 1904-5 Rate Book shows that at the time, Section 303, Lot 6, was bare land, having the sum of £214 as both the unimproved and the capital values. Meanwhile, Lot 5 (the corner section with the older shop on it) had an unimproved value of £231 and a capital value of £531. 149 A.G.S. Bradfield, Forgotten Days (Palmerston North, 1956), pp. 162-176. Manawatu Evening Standard 10 November 1927 1(1) 151 Manawatu Evening Standard, 19 June 1939 8(2); F. Bryant file, Ian Matheson City Archives, PN City Library. ‘The Manawatu Meat Market Co. Ltd’ in Robert H. Billens & H. Leslie Verry, From Swamp to City (Palmerston North, 1937) page unnumbered; I.R. Matheson, ‘The Birth of Palmerston North’, Manawatu Evening Standard supplement, 13 March 1971, p. 69. 150 North West Square Heritage Area 2010 The 1905-6 Rate Book, however, shows two additional sums written in red ink (i.e. new entries) for Lot 6. The greater of the two is £1080 – being the value of this new building – and a further £250, which could relate to the construction of a bakery elsewhere on the property. CT WN96/294 records the lease for seven years of this building, starting on 20 October 1905, to Walter Thomas Cotton. The 1906-7 Rate Book then records the lease of the new building to Cotton, described as a baker. Thereafter for the duration of this lease, the tenant had responsibility for the rates. The 1908 Wises Directory lists Walter Cotton, baker and confectioner as occupant of this shop. However, he may have moved on early, as the 1911 Wises Directory lists William Everitt, baker and confectioner, as the shop’s occupant. There are no other entries on this CT except those relating to the subdivision of the property into three parts in 1913, by which time planning for the third stage was probably in progress. CT WN220/118 was issued to Frederick Bryant in 1913. It records the transfer of this property in 1921 from Frederick, to his wife, Mary Ann Bryant. Doubtless this was to protect it from potential loss in the event of any business failures he might experience – as was often the case when land was transferred into the names of businessmen’s wives. However, she predeceased her husband in 1929. In 1933 the registered mortgagees exercised the power of sale in Mortgage 98423 on the property (the mortgages had undergone a lot of activity since 1930), and the property was sold to Nellie Stevenson, a spinster of Tunbridge Wells, who was probably a sister or niece to Mary Ann Bryant (nee Stevenson). The property remained in her name until 1973, when it was transmitted to Laurie Laurenson as executor, before being transferred to Peter Bares, retired restaurateur, the same year. It was then transferred to Alan Terry Ibbotson, a Nelson businessman, in 1987, at which time the three titles came under the same ownership again. Page 83 Palmerston North City Council Stage Two The first evidence of the arrival of Stage 2, the middle section sited on both Lots 5 and 6, is also photographic. This is PN Library photo Sq 142, taken from the old main Post Office Clock Tower This photo was taken about 1912, based on the presence or otherwise of buildings shown, and certainly the future site of the (former) Hallensteins building, built on the corner of Coleman Place and George Street in 1913, still has trees standing on it. In the background of this photo are the upstairs windows of the two buildings, with visibility that was previously blocked by the older building, now being unobstructed. The 1910-11 Rate Book records the property’s changed value and so indicates the construction of Stage 2. With the rates due on the Stage 1 of the building now charged to W. Cotton, the rest of Lot 6, plus Lot 5, are now rated as bare land with both their unimproved value and a capital value being £528. Noted in red ink with the entry are the sums of £600 and £250 (presumably caused by the boundary line this building sits on), and the following year the capital value is £1,378. A further £40 was added to the property’s capital value the 1912-13 rating year. CT WN220/117 was issued to Frederick Bryant in 1913. It was duly transferred in 1931 to his son, Keith Bryant, then an artist of Tunbridge Wells. He retained it until 1960 (with the help of a mortgage from Nellie Stevenson in 1950), when it was sold to Peter Bares, retired restaurant proprietor of PN. It was then transferred to Alan Terry Ibbotson, a Nelson businessman, in 1987, at which time the three titles came under the same ownership again. Stage Three The third stage of this building has a little more known detail. Tenders to build it were called by architects F. de Jersey Clere & Son, of Wellington, in the Manawatu Evening Standard of 1 June 1914. The building was North West Square Heritage Area 2010 described as being two-storied and of brick.152 Given that architectural firm’s prior involvement with the Manawatu, it is likely that the other two buildings had the same origin. The 1914-15 Rate Book then shows an additional sum of £1,088 being added (in the usual red ink) to the property’s capital value. With the lease of Stage 1 to Cotton and later Everitt now apparently over, and the presence of Stages 2 and 3, the property now had an unimproved value of £988 and a capital value of £4,326. A plumbing plan for this building, dated 10 October 1914, survives in the Plans section of the Ian Matheson City Archives. This shows the plumber to have been C. Whithers, and that the bakehouse was directly behind the “new shop”. However, it is not clear if the bakehouse and shop were built at the same time.153 The 1915-16 Rate Book records the five-year lease of Part Lot 5 (Stage 3) to baker and confectioner William B. Everitt, of an area some 22 feet by 99 feet. As he had been listed in the 1911 Wises Directory as an occupant of this shop, he evidently switched from his original shop (Stage 1) to the new shop. Things did not go as well as expected though, and by June 1917 he had gone. The Manawatu Evening Standard duly announced that William Benjamin Everitt, of Pokeno, Auckland, had been adjudicated a bankrupt on the petition of Wellington and Palmerston North creditors, and that the case was being transferred from Auckland back to Palmerston North.154 This shop was by this time leased to by the bakery firm Boniface Bros. CT WN220/119 was also issued to Frederick Bryant in 1913. It too was transferred in 1931, along with the Stage 2 shop, to his son, Keith Bryant. He retained it until 1960, when it was sold to Peter Bares, retired restaurant proprietor of PN. It was then transferred to Alan Terry Ibbotson, 152 Pam Phillips Papers Vol. 5, p. 35, Ian Matheson City Archives, PN City Library. Plan 141/205-7, PNCC 4/13/6, Ian Matheson City Archives, PN City Library. This plan was for Permit 221, 10 October 1914. 154 Manawatu Evening Standard, 12 June 1917 4(6); 4 July 1917 8(7) 153 Page 84 Palmerston North City Council a Nelson businessman, in 1987, at which time the three titles came under the same ownership again. Combined Ownership In mid-1987 all three properties again came under single ownership, that of Nelson businessman, Alan Terry Ibbotson. They were then immediately transferred to Brian W. Donnelly of Palmerston North, and he duly sold them in 1995 to Malcolm Henry Johnson, a PN clinical psychologist, his wife Marion Ethyl Helen Johnson (being a half share), and Stephen Raymond Rowsell, a PN builder, and his wife Bridget Meryon Joan Rowsell (as the other half share) as tenants in common in equal shares. The property was then transferred to current owners Michael David Murphy and his wife Jan Marie Murphy, in 2004. Some Occupants Stage 1 – 207 Cuba Street Shop nearest Rangitikei Street (1905) 1907 (CT) Leased for 7 years to William J. Cotton, baker Wises 1911-14 56 Cuba St. – William B. Everitt, baker & confectioner Wises 1916-20 56 (later 71) Cuba St. – United Friendly Societies’ Dispensary Wises 1925 71 Cuba St. – Louis Noedl, fancy goods 1933-44 161 (later 207) Cuba St. - Hugh Olliver, store (ref. Stones & Wises) Wises 1950-60 207 Cuba St. – Cuba St. Consumers Co-op (Manawatu) Ltd., grocers c1998-2008 Housing Advice Centre Now Part of Crankit Cycles shop Upstairs – 205 Cuba Street - unknown North West Square Heritage Area 2010 Stage 2 – 203 Cuba Street Middle shop (1911) Currently wall open between this and 1915 shop – these two having always had the same owners. Wises 1914 58 Cuba St. – Percy Morgan, store Wises 1916-20 58 Cuba St. – William J. Horn, grocer Wises 1925 William J. Wilby, grocer Stones 1933 Nil c1989-c1992 Trenz Cycles & Mowers (phonebooks) c1993-c2006 Affordables /Methodist Social Services (phonebooks) c2007-now 203 Cuba St. - Part of Crankit Cycles shop www.crankitcycles.co.nz Stage 3 – 201 Cuba Street Shop nearest Lombard Street (1915) 1916 Leased for five years to William B. Everitt. Wises 1916 58a Cuba St. – William Everitt, baker & confectioner Wises 1920-25 67 Cuba St. – Boniface Bros., bakers 1933-36 157 Cuba St. – Sid Clarke, confectioner (ref: Stones & Wises) Wises 1939 157 Cuba St. – Whitcombe & Son, bakers Wises 1944-54 205 Cuba St. - Baigent & McKenna, pastry cooks Wises 1957-60 205 Cuba St. – The Larder, pastry cooks c1989-c1992 Trenz Cycles & Mowers (phonebooks) c1993-c2006 Affordables /Methodist Social Services (phonebooks) c2007-now Part of Crankit Cycles shop Significant Tenants During its first half century at least, this building had two especially noteworthy types of occupants, namely a bakery lineage that began in one shop and then swapped to another. The second noteworthy line of occupants is the series of grocers that culminated in the arrival of a branch of the well-known community grocery store of its day, the Consumers Coop (Manawatu) Ltd. Page 85 Palmerston North City Council A third occupant of note in this study is the presence of the United Friendly Societies’ Dispensary in the Stage 1 shop around 1916-1920 (based on the Wises Directory dates), and possibly until about 1923 when that organisation bought the property at part Lots 2 and 4, of DP 6285 stretching between The Square and Cuba Street. They later built the U.F.S.D. building at 153-154 The Square that is also part of this study. Boniface Bros. Bakery The most prominent business known to have traced to this building was Boniface Bros. Ltd., which occupied the Stage 3 building, and the outbuildings (i.e. the bakery itself) once behind it, from 1916 until 1930, when the firm completed a gradual move to its long-term premises near the corner of Cuba and Bourke Streets (see also the Elgin Buildings). The brothers John and Amos Boniface who formed this business were the Australian-born sons of an English farmer who migrated to Australia and in due course built an oven to supply his family with bread. As the neighbours came to like the bread also, the Boniface family began supplying them too. John Boniface came to NZ in 1904, and by 1910 he was back in the baking trade. He and Amos purchased a farm in Taranaki, but when the First World War broke out in 1914, Amos left for the front. John then set about looking for an occupation with more scope for the pair when the war ended. Seeing Palmerston North as a suitable business possibility, on 31 July 1916 John purchased the small bakery and confectionary business of the soon-to-be-bankrupt William Everitt. At the time there were five bakeries in Palmerston North and this was the smallest. However, by the firm’s 50year jubilee celebrations in 1966, it was the only one that remained. When Boniface Bros. took over the bakery, the deliveries were done by pushbike. The bakery premises had no real place to stable horses and so in order to make the deliveries, John bought a model T Ford in November 1916 - the first of many Fords the company was to own. This was the first North West Square Heritage Area 2010 delivery van to be used in Palmerston North, and other businesses soon followed his example. When Amos returned from the war in 1918, it was soon necessary to find increased accommodation for the rapidly growing business. Consequently the two main sections of the business were separated, with the pastry-cook and confectionery portion being continued in the Cuba Street premises (wedding cakes being a specialty), while the bread making was removed to Waldegrave Street, where a bakehouse had been acquired. Before long, even the two sites were too small for the business and in 1924, the firm acquired its future site near the corner of Bourke and Cuba Streets. In 1929 they built their new bakery there. They retained their shop in the original building for a further year, by which time a new shop and offices had been built at the new site – adjoining the Elgin Building. The firm continued to grow at its new premises and in 1935 John Boniface became president of what subsequently became the NZ Association of Bakers Inc. He was later to recall that this “was a crucial period for the association as Palmerston North was in the middle of a bread war. A chain of recently established grocery stores were being supplied with bread on contract from a baker and they were in some cases selling this for less than what it cost them in an effort to capture a share of the market.” In November 1935, the Labour Government took office and set out to end the war by stabilising prices. By the time of the 50-year Jubilee in 1966, the firm was producing many types of bread, rolls and fancy breads, buns, pies and cakes. At that time, the firm also donated £500 to build a pergola in the rose garden at the Esplanade “in gratitude to the city for 50 years of successful trading.” In 1969, the firm opened a new bakery in Tremaine Avenue and production was due to end at the Cuba Street site on 15 May 1970. The firm was taken over by Quality Bakers of NZ Ltd. in August 1970, and then the Palmerston North bakery merged with A.S. Paterson & Co. Ltd. in Page 86 Palmerston North City Council 1973.155 The subsequent history of the Tremaine Avenue bread factory has not been researched. However, it is understood that the last baking occurred there in late 2008 and that it is now a distribution centre.156 North West Square Heritage Area 2010 In their 1937 article in From Swamp to City, Boniface Bros. published a photo (above) of their Balmoral Tea and Luncheon Rooms in Cuba Street. This shop was in this building, but changes since that time cause some identification problems. The Balmoral Luncheon Rooms were advertised in 1916157 as serving morning and afternoon teas, arranging wedding breakfasts, and preparing wedding and birthday cakes, etc. Possibly it operated in this building until Boniface Bros. left in 1930. That year another new shop was started at the site of their new bakery. In 1935, they opened the Pink Cake Shop in The Square. The Cuba Street Co-op The Stage 2 shop very likely started as a grocery shop, and sometime between 1925 and 1933 (these dates based on the Wises’ and Stones’ Directories) this business appears to have shifted into the Stage 1 shop. Hugh Olliver ran the grocery store throughout the 1930s and into the mid1940s, before selling out to the Consumers’ Co-operative Society (Manawatu) Ltd. (generally known as ‘the Co-op’). As a result, the Cuba Street Co-op opened for business in September 1945. The company also purchased Anthony’s Butchery as a going concern and renamed it in June 1947 as the Cuba Street Butchery. This is possibly the Co-op Butchers on the corner of Bourke Street opposite the Elgin Buildings, according to the 1950-51 Wises’ Directory. However, the butchery shop had already closed in August 1949.158 155 Manawatu Evening Standard 17 December 1930 19(5-8), 19 August 1966 p. 67, 16 August 1966 1(2), 5 November 1969 3(6-7), 11 May 1970 3(1), 28 August 1970 p. 1, 5 June 1973 p.1; ‘New Zealand’s Model Bakery’ in Robert H. Billens & H. Leslie Verry, From Swamp to City (Palmerston North, 1937) eight un-numbered pages. 156 Personal conversations on 12 January 2010 with Steve of Steve’s Bulk Barn, Midway Plaza; and Paul Burr of Manawatu Hydraulics Ltd., whose firm maintained the bakery’s equipment and overhauled its oven three weeks before the decision to stop baking in November 2008. He said the small goods baking had stopped there a few years earlier - VAB The Consumers’ Co-operative Society (Manawatu) Ltd. was founded in 1935 with the aim that the customers owned the business; that no individual or firm could take it over; and that no person could profit at the expense of another. By the end of the Second World War, the Co-op had established seven grocery shops, seven butcher’s shops and a bakery. After continuing growth, the Co-op then bought the PDC department store in 1956. 157 Manawatu Evening Standard, regular advert 2 September 1916 1(2) ‘Jubilee & History Notes’, in Consumers’ Co-op Society (Manawatu) Ltd., Folder 5, Box 2, Series 26, Ian Matheson City Archives, PN City Library. 158 Page 87 Palmerston North City Council After twenty-two years, the Cuba Street Co-op had evidently outgrown this shop. As a result the neighbouring property was obtained and a purposebuilt Co-op building was erected there. This single-storey building, now Moose’s Sports shop at 211 Cuba Street, was designed by David Lough & Associates, the plans being dated 7 March 1967. By the 1980s, the Co-op was under increasing pressure from supermarket chains and high interest rates, and began selling off its satellite stores. The Cuba Street Co-op last appears in the phonebook in 1982, and the Co-op in due course went into voluntary receivership in 1988. A brief administrative history of the business written in 1993, notes however, that “The Co-op played an important part in the development of Palmerston North and the life of its citizens, as it was often the establishment of a Coop store in a suburb which led to the growth of a suburban shopping centre.”159 Correspondingly, the failure of the very influential Co-op to establish a Co-op store in a new suburb was also attributed with stunting the growth of suburban shopping centres in some places.160 Additions & Alterations The PNCC Building Permit records (C 100/203-207) are fairly limited. The earliest application, by Cameron Investments, is dated 14 September 1987, involves refurbishing the building. Next is an application from March 1989, to erect new shop fronts and upgrade the interiors to a value of $5,500. The plan of this shows the three shops, plus the single-storey 159 Plans for new shop at 215 Cuba St., dated 7 March 1967, Building Plans, Folder 1, Series 33, Misc Building Plans; Penny Allen, ‘Consumers’ Co-operative Society (Manawatu) Ltd.: Administrative History’ (1993) Preamble to the Consumers’ Co-operative Society (Manawatu) Ltd.: Administrative History files in the Community Archives Series List, Vol. Co-Cy, Ian Matheson City Archives, PN City Library. 160 Personal conversation with former PNCC planner Ken Tremaine around 1990, who said that the Co-op had actively prevented any small grocery shops being established in Kelvin Grove suburb between the suburb’s beginnings in the mid1960s, and the early 1980s (when the present two shops were built), by which time he had acted to end this Co-op position - VAB North West Square Heritage Area 2010 Shop 4 and the two-storey Shop/Studio 5 both facing Lombard Street. These were part of the old bakery dating to between 1905 and 1915. Cameron Investments has not been researched, however, at the time Brian W. Donnelly owned the building. Finally in 2004 permission was sought to demolish the buildings previously listed as Shops 4 and 5, as their sites were to become park of the Carlton Hotel’s carpark.161 Comments: The foundations at the front of this block show some evidence of their having been constructed in stages. Other variations beneath the verandah might also reflect this, with the first stage building having original-type windows directly beneath the verandah roof. It also has an old-style tiled floor inside the entrance that the other two shops do not have. The rear of the building shows the outlines of the demolished buildings. 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 and flat pediments over the windows. The timber verandah appears to be original although shopfronts are not. The available plan of the buildings of 1987 shows three similar sized open shops on the ground floor with toilets at the rear and two further shops on Lombard Street. These shops now no longer exist. No construction information is given on the drawings. The description above states the building is of brick construction and from observation it has a timber framed verandah and timber joinery. 161 Manawatu Evening Standard 30 April 2004, p. 3 Page 88 Palmerston North City Council STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE This building has high local significance for historical and design values, representivity of building style and level of external authenticity. This building has high historic values in its connection to Frederick Bryant, a businessman with significant property interests in Palmerston North as well as being the largest landowner in Shannon at the time of his death. Reflecting a high level of continuity is the continuous tenancies of bakers from 1907 to 1957. The building has high age value as is one of the few in the central city over 100 years old. Contributing to high historic values is the likelihood that all stages of the building were designed by F de J Clere and sons, a highly significant practice in the lower half of the North Island from the late Victorian to the Inter-War period. North West Square Heritage Area 2010 ASSESSMENT SUMMARY Significance Proposed category PNCC District Plan Criteria Cultural Emotional Historical The building has moderate design values as a representative example of the Late Victorian/Edwardian Italianate style. Design 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. Technology Spiritual Sentimental Symbolic Political People Events Age Tradition Continuity Style Materials Group Materials Construction high local 2 Contextual Measure Authenticity H H Rarity Landmark Representative Design Setting Materials Craftsmanship H M H The building’s street façade design has a high level of external authenticity, particularly above the shopfronts. Page 89 M H H Palmerston North City Council Cuba Street, 213-217 Ward Brothers Buildings 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: 413 square metres more or less Lot 2 DP 53140 (PNCC Schedule Lot 2 DP 53140; Pt Lot 9 DP 352) WN27D/944 (1985), prior CT WN522/280 (1947), WN 104/256 (1900) Category II162 7360 Historic Place – Category II 144 1935 L.G. West, Son & Hornibrook Ward Bros. (W.E. & E.E. Ward) A. Holmes PHYSICAL AND SOCIAL HISTORY History This building is considered one of the finest Art Deco buildings in Palmerston North, and has Category II listings with both PNCC and the Historic Places Trust. Prior History The site of this building, Lot 8 DP 352, belonged to Arthur Edward Clausen in 1900 according to CT WN104/256. In 1905, he sold it to James Miller, a storekeeper of Glen Oroua, and in turn Miller leased part of the property to William James Horn (a grocer, according to PNCC cemetery records) for a five-year period in 1909. It was then leased to property developer Frederick Bryant in 1914 for another five years with a purchasing clause. 162 PNCC Schedule of Buildings and Objects of Cultural Heritage Value Page 90 Palmerston North City Council Miller evidently died later in 1914 and the property passed first to the Public Trustee in 1914, and then to Miller’s widow, Catherine Miller, in 1917. In 1921, the property was transferred to William and Edward Ward as tenants in common. However, the pair had leased the building from 1919, presumably after Bryant’s lease ended, and certainly they are listed 163 there in the 1920 Wises’ Directory. The Ward family William Ercott Ward and his younger brother Edward Ercott Ward were respectively the fourth and sixth sons of George and Eliza Ward, who had emigrated from England aboard the Lady Jocelyn in 1875. At first George ran a carrying business at Akaroa, before the family moved to the Manawatu in 1887, where he took up a block of standing bush near Linton. The family turned this property into a prosperous farm. George was a member of the first Linton School Committee in 1888, and three of the ten Ward children (Albert, Alex and Isabella) are thought to have been first day pupils at the school the following year. The couple raised nine sons and a daughter at Linton. Their eldest son George Jocelyn Ward, who was born on the immigrant ship after whom he was named, was very active in the development of the Linton community in the early 1900s. He also established the Linton Public Store in 1904. This was sold in 1911 and by 1937 he lived in Auckland.164 North West Square Heritage Area 2010 who died in July 1914 after an operation, having become ill at a military training camp.165 While no information was traced for William that indicated his training for his future occupation, Edward’s obituary records that he was apprenticed to Messrs. Osgood & Hancock, painters, of Rangitikei Street. That firm had been established in 1896 and undertook the same type of work (painting, wallpapering, glass, picture-framing etc.) that the Ward brothers later 166 did. On 10 May 1911, William and Edward went into business together as painters and paperhangers, starting their business in the washhouse of William’s Bourke Street home. Noticeably this was the same year their older brother sold up at Linton and also that their father died, but what significance if any this timeframe had is not known. It was not until 1919 that William and Edward moved their business to the Cuba Street property where the present building now stands. However, one imagines that this belated decision to leave her backyard was applauded by William’s wife, the former Lillian Gordon Beattie, whom he had married in 1908. Edward married Ada Lewer in 1912 and doubtless she sympathised with her sister-in-law.167 George and Eliza moved to Frits Street (now Russell Street), Palmerston North, in 1905, and it was there that they were living when George died on 17 October 1911 aged 59, after a brief illness. Eliza moved to Auckland in 1914, following the death of her 18-year-old eighth son, Stanley Arthur, The New Building Plans to build a workshop on this property were drawn up by architect O.A. Jorgenson in 1923. Then in January 1935, the architectural firm L.G. West, Son & Hornibrook (then comprising of architects Ernst West and Francis Hornibrook) called for tenders to build the present retail showroom building in reinforced concrete.168 163 165 Manawatu Evening Standard 24 March 1943 2(6) Cyclopedia of New Zealand, Vol.6 (Christchurch, 1908), p. 689; W.J. Lauridsen, Linton 1889-1989: A School and District Centennial History (Palmerston North, 1989), p.126. Note that the index of the latter book mixes up George Ward senior and George J. Ward junior. 164 Manawatu Evening Standard 17 October 1911 5(1), 8 July 1914 5(2), 10 July 1914 5(2), 21 August 1937 2(7) Cyclopedia of New Zealand, Vol.6 (Christchurch, 1908), p. 677 167 Manawatu Evening Standard 15 October 1908 5(1) & 13 July 1912 7(4) 168 Manawatu Evening Standard 31 January 1935 2(1) 166 Page 91 Palmerston North City Council North West Square Heritage Area 2010 The building permit (No. 701) was issued on 4 March 1935, with the building costing £2,214 to erect. The builder’s name has in the past been read on permit documentation variously as AG Holmes or AC Holmes. However, no-one with those initials appears in the local Electoral Rolls around that time, and the only ‘Holmes’ traced who was connected to the building industry at that time was Arthur Edward Holmes, variously described as a carpenter and a builder. He died on 23 April 1961, aged 73, however, no obituary was published.169 The CT shows two party wall arrangements with neighbours that correspond with the construction of the new building – one with Andrew Ruthven Buchanan and Lionel Martyn Abraham, and the other with Walter Henry Franks, a fruiterer. PNCC Building Permit records for this building (C100/213-217) contains L.G. West, Son & Hornibrooke’s original specifications for this building. Although they are difficult to read, they indicate that the property was to be cleared of the previous building by the firm’s employees prior to construction of this building. The ground floor of the new building was designed as two shops. The original plans show Shop 1 on the Lombard Street side of the building was the larger of the two and that the stairs ran upstairs from it. This was the Ward Bros. shop, and the upstairs area served as the firm’s wallpaper showroom. The showroom was dominated by leadlight windows and by a large and elaborate domed leadlight skylight. 169 Building Permit Register, Vol. 3, p. 405; ‘Art Deco Jewel in Manawatu’ in Community Manawatu, April 1998, Vol. 2, issue 4 (Ward Bros., A175/381 ‘Businesses.’, Ian Matheson City Archives, PN City Library. PNCC Cemetery online records. Ian Bowman & Michael Kelly, Palmerston North CBD Heritage Inventory (1994), No. 14. 1931, 1935 & 1938 Palmerston North Electoral Rolls, 1935 & 1938 Manawatu Electoral Rolls. The 1937 book From Swamp to City: Commemorating the Diamond Jubilee of the City170 includes the above photo of the near new building, and also an article entitled: “Ward Bros.’ Record of Progress”. This states that: Few businesses in Palmerston North afford an example of consistent progress so striking as that of Ward Bros. Briefly, a business started in a washhouse twenty-six years ago today has one of the most architecturally modern premises in the whole of the city. It was in 1911 that Mr W.E. Ward and his brother, Mr E.E. Ward, commenced in the washhouse of the former, who was living in Bourke Street, a humble business as painters and decorators. The reliability of their workmanship soon won them some credit, and about eighteen years ago they were able to move to premises in 170 Robert H. Billens & H. Leslie Verry, From Swamp to City: Commemorating the Diamond Jubilee of the City (Palmerston North, 1937), unnumbered page: ‘Ward Bros.’ Record of Progress. Page 92 Palmerston North City Council Cuba Street. There they set to work to cater for diverse decorative needs, and two years ago had the pleasure of opening up the modern shop and showroom which they conduct today. The building itself is designed on most unusual lines, and is an asset to the architecture of any city. There is also a workshop attached to the premises, employing a considerable staff of highly competent men. Painters and decorators carry out skilled work of many kinds, for Ward Bros. are, among other things, mirror-makers, brilliant cutters, and picture framers. In the showroom itself, there is today a very large range of English wallpapers. An important and popular agency is that for Berger’s paints. An important department of the business is that devoted to the provision of plate glass, while all classes of glass for motorcars are also stocked, including triplex glass. Carrying stocks to suit all tastes, with a large following of satisfied customers, Ward Bros. occupy a position in the community which can be attributed only to the absolute integrity of their trading, the courtesy of their business conduct, and the readiness with which at any time they advise all who wish to avail themselves of their accumulated knowledge. North West Square Heritage Area 2010 Ward Bros. (P.N.) Ltd. in 1947, and a new CT was issued the same year WN 522/280. In addition to the original property, this CT added part of the back yards of the Lombard Street Sections 9, 10 and 11 of DP 352, and also a right of way to Lombard Street through Section 9. William subsequently married Vera Isabel Mary (previous surname unknown), and they had a son, Raymond, born when his father was aged 57. William then died on 22 March 1950 aged 65, his death notices sharing the same newspaper column as the seventh anniversary memorials to his brother. Edward’s widow Ada, by then of Manawatu Heads, Foxton, died on 6 June 1951, aged 59.172 Despite the setback of losing its founders at relatively young ages, the business continued. Raymond Ward, known as ‘Ray’, began working for the business in 1956.173 In 1969 an article in The Tribune outlined the firm’s history and its current activities. It undertook all kinds of glazing work; did safety glass work on cars; reinstated shop fronts, contract glazing and picture framing. Staff at this time included: Mr M. Howell, who was the manager, Ray Ward, who was a director, and his mother Vera was also still active in the business. Other staff members were Mr I. McRae, Mr W. Bethell and the apprentice Mr H. Hughes.174 The business grew considerably and by the time the Second Word War broke out, they had a staff of 22. However, not all ran smoothly. Firstly, Eliza Ward died in Auckland on 17 August 1937, aged 84171, followed by William’s wife Lillian, who died on 29 September 1937 aged 56. Then Edward died suddenly on 23 March 1943, aged 51. In 1972 the firm added a new glass store to their buildings. This was located at 87 Lombard Street, and the extension traced to a plan devised by William Ward years earlier. It then gave the firm a total storage and work area of 4,100 square feet.175 The Building Permit records state that in In 1944, Edward’s share of the partnership was transferred to his wife Ada, who was to act as administrator. The property was then transferred to 172 171 Manawatu Evening Standard 21 August 1937 2(7) Note that George, Eliza and Stanley Ward’s grave at Terrace End Cemetery is decorated with a tall monument and a black and white rectangular tile mosaic covering half the plot, that resembles a large leadlight window or perhaps more correctly a ‘skylight’. Manawatu Evening Standard 30 September 1937 1(1); 23 March 1943 1(1); 24 March 1943 2(6); 23 March 1950 1(1); PNCC Cemetery records. 173 Unsourced and undated notes in HPT Manawatu file No. 144 on this building, which are probably information obtained from Ray Ward. 174 The Tribune, ‘Central City Review’, August 1969, p. 7 175 Manawatu Evening Standard 8 June 1972, p. 10 Page 93 Palmerston North City Council 1975, a wall was added to the premises at 217 Cuba Street, at a cost of $2,000. Shop 2 W.A. Pickup, a manufacturer’s agent who was listed at 175 Cuba Street in the 1939 Wise’s Directory, possibly occupied Shop 2 (Ward Bros.’ address was then 173 Cuba Street). By the 1944 Directory, the National Cash Register Company N.Z. Ltd. occupied the shop, and that company remained there until the 1950-51 Directory. Thereafter there is no separate occupant listed for Shop 2. After NCR’s departure, Ward Bros. opened up the wall between the two shops and used the whole area. The paint department was in the Shop 2 area, while the mirrors and the picture-framing area were in Shop 1. The façade downstairs was also altered then.176 Changes of use Vera Ward died on 21 April 1980, and this timeframe also marked a change in the story of the firm and this building. The business was sold in 1981, with the paint and wallpaper section of the firm going to the PWF Home Decorating Centre, which remained in the Ward Bros. building. The glass section of the business was sold to Keith Seiverts, and the 1982 phonebook lists it as Ward Glass of 85 Lombard Street. Ray Ward continued working as a picture framer upstairs. The PNCC Building Permit files include a 1981 application to repair the wall between the building’s two occupiers. The property was subdivided in 1985 and the portion containing this building was issued CT WN27D/944, being Lot 2 DP 53140. 176 Unsourced notes in HPT file No 144 North West Square Heritage Area 2010 PWF moved out of the building in 1987 and then Wilson’s Army & Navy Store leased the premises. Unsourced notes in the Historic Places Trust file on this building (probably an interview with Ray Ward) say that around this time (c1987), the partition between the two former shops was reinstated, with Wilson’s have one side and Ray Ward the other. However, that might be the aforementioned 1981 repair work. In 1990, an application was made to fit out the upper floor of the building as a restaurant for B.J. Meekings. A permit was also applied for relating to access/egress for the restaurant. The stairs were to be moved from the middle of the showroom, to a set of stairs on either side of the building, where restaurant customers would have direct access from the road. The entrance to the ground floor shop was also to be altered. The phonebook listings indicate that in about 1991, Ray Ward established his furniture shop called ‘Leonardos’ on the ground floor, selling furniture made from new and recycled timber. This business relocated from the shop in about 2004, doubtless coinciding with the sale of the property in 2004. Star Secondhand Books & Music then moved into the shop, where it remains. The Spostato Italian restaurant was listed in the phonebook at this address between 1991 and 2008, and it has recently reopened under new management. The Ward Bros. building was awarded Category II status with the NZ Historic Places Trust on 13 December 1996. As a result, the Manawatu Evening Standard interviewed Ray Ward about the building in January 1997. At the time his intentions were to restore the entire building to its original splendour, including the frontage. He stated that he “remembers now with sadness when the ground floor frontage was being redesigned and seeing the original bevelled glass doors and windows being removed and taken to the dump.”177 177 ‘Inbusiness’ supplement, in Manawatu Evening Standard 27 January 1997. Page 94 Palmerston North City Council North West Square Heritage Area 2010 However, this goal was not to be in Ray Ward’s time. The property was transferred to the present owner, Raymo Properties Ltd. in 2004. Raymo Properties Ltd., in turn, is owned by Maurice Lionel Ray and Moreen Janet Ray, and was registered as a company on 16 April 2004.178 This building has high historic values in its associations with the Ward family who established their painting, glazing, and paperhanging business in the building and who worked from it from 1935 to 1981 and one member, Ray, operating again from it 1991 to 2004. The old firm Ward Bros. still exists, although whether or not it is still trading has not been researched. It is owned by Ray and Nesta Ward, now of Masterton. It was first registered on 17 September 1946 as Ward Bros PN 179 Ltd., however, the name was altered to Ward Bros. (PN) Ltd. in 1999. The building also has high historic values in its historical association with the architect, L G West, who, in conjunction with his son Ernst Vilhem, he was responsible for a large number of Palmerston North's buildings. Among those still standing designed by the practice are the Former Club Hotel (1905), the Manawatu–Kilwinning Masonic Lodge (1908), the Old Soldiers Club (1917), and the Church of Christ. Scientist (1931) and the Carlton Hotel (1927). ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION The building is designed in the Inter-War Art Deco style with a symmetrical, shallow stepped façade, horizontal stepped parapet style, sunburst, linen fold, and zigzag decoration on the exterior. The first floor has a central stepped bay window while the ground floor has two timber framed shop fronts. The original drawings show the ground floor divided longitudinally into two shops with a chamfered ingo serving both shops. Both shops are divided into a front display area and smaller working area and toilets at the rear. The east shop has central stairs leading to the first floor, which is divided, centrally into two spaces The building has high design values as a an exceptional example of the Inter- War Free Art Deco style, which is rare in Palmerston North. 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 external authenticity, particularly above the shopfronts. The drawings shows the building being constructed of reinforced concrete and cement render and timber joinery. The bay window has leaded toplights. STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE This building has high regional significance for historical and design values, representivity of building style and level of external authenticity. 178 179 Companies Office website: Company No. 1505173 Companies Office website: Company No. 4949. Page 95 Palmerston North City Council 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 Authenticity H Rarity Landmark Representative Design Setting Materials Craftsmanship H H H H H H Page 96 Palmerston North City Council Cuba Street, 227 Former Beattie and Proctor Ltd. 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 Pt Lot 3 DP 36 WN245/213 (1916), prior CT WN29/122 (1882) Nil Nil Nil Nil 1919 Unknown Beattie & Procter Ltd. Unknown PHYSICAL AND SOCIAL HISTORY History This small shop was designed as the showroom and workshop of a small plumbing business. Its frontage appears to be fairly original. Prior History There is nothing recorded in the 1914 and 1916 Wises’ Directories for this site. At the time, the property was bounded on the Lombard Street side by Mrs Elizabeth Barnett’s Temperance Hotel, and on the Taonui Street site by grocer George G.H. Miller and Sam Lee’s laundry, both of which shared a property. The property belonged to William Sykes, described as a settler, from 1882 until 1885, when it was transferred to his wife Emma Ann Sykes. Thereafter it was transferred in 1888 to Mary Ann Tarrant, a widow, and then in 1897 to Elizabeth Miller, wife of George Miller, a Palmerston North Page 97 Palmerston North City Council North West Square Heritage Area 2010 settler. In early 1916 it was transferred to George Clisham Keeble, an accountant, with a right of way over the adjoining property to Taonui Street, and a new CT (WN 245/213) was issued180 personal supervision of Mr A.N. Beattie, who holds the City and Guilds of London Institute certificate.182 Keeble was from a very well connected local family and had a successful future ahead of him, while his wife Beatrix was a member of the prominent Waldegrave family. However, whatever plans he might have initially had for this property, they were probably disrupted by World War One, where he saw service in the infantry in France.181 Although the original plans of this building survive, there is no indication on them as to who designed or built the shop. The property was transferred into the name of Beattie & Procter Ltd. in December 1919, and the building was probably constructed soon after. This agrees with the above 1927 article. An entry on the Certificate of Title in January 1920, in relation to a party wall between this property and its western neighbour, supports this as its time of construction. The property was next transferred in late 1919 to Beattie & Procter Ltd., and the Beattie family was to own it until 1977. Beattie & Procter Ltd. An article in the 1927 Manawatu Standard describes the early years of this firm. It was entitled: “Beattie and Procter Ltd.: A progressive firm” To commence in a small building with a staff of only two, and to grow to the extent of having 14 hands, in seven years, is a fair criterion of good service to the public and the gaining of their confidence. This has been accomplished by Messrs. Beattie and Procter Ltd., plumbers, gasfitters and sanitary engineers. In 1917 they commenced business in a shop of modest dimensions but soon – the inevitable reward of expert workmanship and reasonable rates – the business dealt with began to expand rapidly, and in order to cope with the expansion up-to-date and more spacious premises were necessary. Accordingly, in 1919, Mr G.B. Cope joined the firm, and it was made a limited liability company; spacious premises were secured in Cuba Street, and a fine modern building erected. Expert workmanship and considerate attention is the slogan of this enterprising firm. All work is under the 180 181 CT WN 29/122 Manawatu Evening Standard 21 August 1912 5(7), 7 March 1973, p. 3 Noticeable on the building’s upper façade in the aforementioned plans, is the spelling of the surname of Arthur Nelson Beattie’s original business partner. This is spelt “Proctor” on the plans, while the name on the upper façade of the building itself is spelt “Procter”. The spelling is also “Procter” in the property’s CT, as part of the company’s registered name. It is known that the partnership split in difficult circumstances at a very early stage – probably about 1919. While this person has not been identified in this study, it is noteworthy that there was a plumber named ‘Proctor’ in Palmerston North in 1919, while another plumber named ‘Procter’ was advertising regularly in the local newspapers in the 1930s.183 The 1920 Wises’ Directory lists two properties in Cuba Street as occupied by the partnership. Both are spelt “Beattie & Proctor”. One is the building being studied here, while the second is on the other side of the road and on the corner of Cuba and Andrew Young Streets (on the side closest to George St.). This is thought to include land still occupied by the plumbing 182 Manawatu Evening Standard, 26 February 1927, p. 31 (4) ‘Beattie and Procter Ltd.: A progressive firm’ 183 Ref: 1919 Palmerston North Electoral Roll (re Proctor), and a regular daily advert that was sighted during this study in 1930s local newspapers, but the date was not noted (re Procter). Probably this person also appears in the Palmerston North Electoral Rolls around this time. Page 98 Palmerston North City Council firm trading as Beattie & Horne (founded by Arthur Nelson Beattie’s son Joseph, known as ‘Joe’), the address of which is now 8 Andrew Young Street. North West Square Heritage Area 2010 grandsons has just joined the firm as an apprentice, thus becoming the fourth generation of Beattie plumbers in Palmerston North.186 Arthur Nelson Beattie (of Ngaio Street) died suddenly on 1 September 1941, aged 55, and his obituary described him as having been one of West End’s most ardent supporters. He had done a great deal to further the interests of the suburb during the 31 years he lived there. He was a member of the West End School Committee for 15 years, and was one of those mainly responsible for the provision of the school’s tennis courts and swimming pool. This building appears to have ceased being used as a plumbing shop in about 1958, by which time G.B. Cope was aged about 75. CT WN 245/213 records that the building was leased for a period of ten years with right of renewal, to Auto Electrics Ltd., the lease beginning on 1 November 1958. In 1959, the property was transferred from the name of Beattie & Procter Ltd., and into the names of Joseph Powick Beattie and Arthur’s widow Delpha Beattie as tenants in common in equal shares. The former manager of Beattie & Procter Ltd., Gerard Brentnall Cope (an accountant), died on 17 July 1971, aged 88, after some four decades with the firm Born in Denniston and educated in Westport, Arthur was subsequently apprenticed to the plumbing firm Larsen Bros. He later worked for the same firm in Greymouth. He then came to Palmerston North in 1910, where he worked for W.A. Kyle Ltd. until 1917, at which time he entered a business partnership with Mr Proctor. Delpha Beattie died on 1 March 1974, aged 85, and Joe Beattie died on 2 September 2003, aged 87. Joe Beattie was at an Air Force training camp at the time of Arthur’s death.184 He had done his plumbing apprenticeship with A & T Burt in Wellington, as his father had not wanted him to do his apprenticeship at Beattie & Procter Ltd. When Joe returned from the Second World War, he discovered that there was still no place for him in his late father’s firm, now managed by G.B. Cope185. So he and an ex-Air Force friend named Horne established a new plumbing firm called Beattie & Horne in Andrew Young Street. Horne returned to the Air Force several years later, however, his name remains with the present firm. Arthur’s ‘City and Guilds of London Institute certificate’ still hangs on the wall at Beattie & Horne, and Joe’s well-known brown and cream 1947 Chev Thriftmaster ‘one-owner’ plumber’s truck is still in daily use around the city on behalf of the firm, and driven by one of his sons. One of his 184 Manawatu Evening Standard, 4 September 1941 6(6); 11 September 1941 2(6) ‘Obituary’ 185 1944 Wises’ Directory, p.568 The property was transferred to Wai Buildings Ltd., in 1977, and then to Roger Edgar George Holmwood, company director of Palmerston North, in 1978. In 1985 an undivided half share of the property was transferred to Vera Lily Holmwood, married woman, of Palmerston North. A subsequent unclear transfer that evidently occurred in 2007187 moved the property entirely back to Roger Edgar George Holmwood’s ownership. The building was then sold in late 2009 to a partnership of Filip Van Den Hout, Carla Van Den Hout and Ian Gordon Stuart Donald. The building was tenanted by auto accessory businesses for over forty years. Auto Electrics Ltd. that leased the building in 1959, was in due course replaced by Auto Electrics 1973 Ltd. In the latter 1970s the shop became the Auto Accessory Centre. From around 2003 the building was occupied by Dynamic Computer Solutions. That firm left in late 2009, and 186 Interviews with Roger Beattie (10 January 2010) and Drew Beattie (November 2009) Note that the entry on CT WN245/213 is in fact dated “20.11.1007”. 187 Page 99 Palmerston North City Council the removal of its signage revealed the old Beattie & Procter name on the concrete façade. Its new tenant is Livingstone Business Equipment. The frontage of this building appears to be generally unaltered from the original plans, other the altered spelling of the word ‘Proctor’, a replacement verandah, and some differences to the two central pillars. However, the present verandah may be covering some of the original decoration in that area. An old gantry behind the building is thought by Roger Beattie to date to the Beattie & Procter business. ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION The original drawings of the building show the façade style as symmetrical Art Nouveau with shallow curved parapet, central projecting parapet supported on bracketed pilasters with a projecting fine cornice and matching pilasters projecting above the parapet, also with projecting fine cornices. The below verandah designed shows the pilasters with tiled panels and a wide shallow chamfered ingo . It is not certain whether this was built, but what survives today is a very simple Stripped Classical styled building lacking the central pediment and Art Nouveau detailing. The plan shows the single storeyed building with the shallow ingo leading to an ‘L shaped building with an open shop with two office on one side at the front and a narrower work room at the rear. The work room has large, possibly steel windows and a sliding timber door. North West Square Heritage Area 2010 This building has moderate historic values in its association with Beattie and Procter Ltd who owned and built the building, using it for their plumbing business. The building continued to be owned by the Beattie family until 1977. The building has moderate design values as a representative example of a simple version of the Inter- War Stripped Classical style. The building 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 above verandah street façade design is largely authentic. ASSESSMENT SUMMARY Significance Proposed category PNCC District Plan Criteria Cultural Emotional Historical Construction appears to be concrete with timber roof framing and timber joinery. STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE This building has moderate local significance for historical and design values, representivity of building style and level of external authenticity. Design Technology Spiritual Sentimental Symbolic Political People Events Age Tradition Continuity Style Materials Group Materials Construction moderate local group Contextual Measure Authenticity M Rarity Landmark Representative Design Setting Materials Craftsmanship M H Page 100 M M H Palmerston North City Council Cuba Street, 233 Former Cosmopolitan Club 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: 2322 square metres more or les Lot 2 DP 12322, Lot 1 DP 24441 & Lot 56 & Part Lot 7 DP 36 – this being the main building WNB1/1062 (1963), prior CTs WN397/47 (1929), WN39/268 (1885) & WN131/120 (1904?), [also prior to WNB1/1062 are: WN407/171 (1929) & WN487/168 (1941)] Nil Nil Nil 142 1928 L.G. West & Son (E.V. West) Palmerston North Cosmopolitan Club P.B. Torstonson PHYSICAL AND SOCIAL HISTORY History Much of this building’s history is recorded in the chronological publication Palmerston North Cosmopolitan Club – Centennial: A recorded history of the club 1889-1989. The club sold the building in 1990 and since then it has had a range of uses, including part being a massage parlour. Prior History – the club The Cosmopolitan Club was formed in 1888 as ‘The Palmerston North Working Men’s Club and Mutual School of Arts.’ Its first clubrooms were a rented building on the corner of Rangitikei and King Streets, and faced down Cuba Street. Despite its name implying that its membership might be Page 101 Palmerston North City Council dominated by the ‘working class’ (labourers and wage earners), when writing the Foreword for the above book in 1987, late City Archivist Ian Matheson noted that the key figures in the club’s history were business and professional men, and included to that time six Members of Parliament, three Mayors of Palmerston North and sixteen Palmerston North Borough or City Councillors. However, its early membership also included bushmen, labourers, fellmongers, storemen, railway workers and a wide cross-section of other occupations. The club received its Permanent Charter as ‘The Palmerston North Workingmen’s Club’ in 1889, having satisfied the Colonial Secretary that “the said Club is a voluntary association of persons combined for promoting the common object of private social intercourse, convenience and comfort, and providing its own liquors, and not for the purpose of gain…”188 A fire that destroyed the club’s building in about 1894 resulted in the club moving to a new building in Cuba Street on the other side of the road to the present building, and which was rented from the Borough Council. Then in 1903, two of the club’s trustees purchased land across the road on the club’s behalf, and thus the club soon had its first purpose-built clubrooms. The new building was officially opened on 30 November 1904189, and then on 16 August 1905 the building they had just vacated burnt down.190 This unusual tradition reoccurred on 31 October 1925, when the 1904 building’s large billiard room was badly charred by fire, although the bar remained operational.191 North West Square Heritage Area 2010 Prior history – the land CT WN39/268, which consisted of Lots 5 and 6 of DP 36, was issued in 1885 to William Jones, a local coach proprietor. It was transferred in 1891 to his wife, Maria Josephine Jones. William Jones, described in PNCC cemetery records as a coach driver, died on 22 March 1895 aged 40. In 1912 the property was transferred to the Palmerston North Workingmens’ Club & Literary Institute. CT WN131/120, which covered Part Lot 7 of DP 36, was issued to Maria Josephine Jones in about 1904 (the last number is semi-legible). The Club also purchased this land in 1912. Maria Jones died aged 70 on 28 May 1928. The club’s Jubilee Souvenir booklet, published in 1939, recorded that the club had entered into negotiations to buy the future site of this building in 1906. However, the parties involved could not agree on a price. The eventual price was £5,500, with a deposit of £2,000.192 From 1904, the club was located next door to the future site of this building, at what is now the site of the Oroua Building. In 1914, the clubrooms’ address was 34 Cuba Street and the 1914 Wise’s Directory shows Joseph York Oliver, a “ch painter” and Walter Frederick Bell, a paper ruler, at street number’s 36 and 38 respectively, situated between the club and Taonui Street. J.Y. Oliver was the club president in 1906, and as at 1989, he had still been the only man to have held all executive positions (between 1902 and 1928) within the club.193 The 1916 and 1925 Directories show Robert Tulloch, a saddler, at the corner site, while in 1916 the intervening site was occupied by Henry Lyall, a teacher, and in 1925 by James Dawber, a salesman. 188 Centennial Committee, Palmerston North Cosmopolitan Club – Centennial: A recorded history of the club 1889-1989 (Palmerston North, 1989), p. 12 189 Manawatu Evening Standard 1 December 1904, 7(4-5) & 4(6-7). Note that this building is covered in more detail in relation to history of the Oroua Buildings. 190 Manawatu Evening Standard 16 August 1905, 5(2); 17 May 1905, 5(1) & advert 3(5) 191 Manawatu Evening Standard 2 November 1925, 2(5) & 8(5) Note that the PN Cosmopolitan Club Jubilee Souvenir booklet (published 1939) erroneously dates the fire 25 October 1925. This copy in ‘PN Cosmopolitan Club’ research file A175/436, Ian Matheson City Archives, PN Public Library. Note that the booklet does not have page numbers. 192 PN Cosmopolitan Club Jubilee Souvenir booklet 193 PN Cosmopolitan Club Centennial, p. 58 Page 102 Palmerston North City Council The Present Building In his speech at the opening of the £13,698 Cosmopolitan Club building in 1928, the Hon. J.A. Nash M.P. (who was also a life member of the club) said that the ongoing growth of the club’s membership had long taxed the available space in the 1904 building. In October 1912 the club had purchased the land for the proposed building. However, at the point where financial arrangements were almost ready for building to commence, World War One intervened and the matter was deferred until the latter1920s.194 In 1926, preliminary plans for the present building were drawn up by architect Ernst West, of the firm L.G. West & Son. His late father, Ludolph Georg West, had been an original member of the club. At a Special General Meeting on 29 January 1927, the club resolved to proceed with the new building. The plans held by PNCC are dated 15 May 1927, and tenders to build the new clubrooms for the ‘Palmerston North Working Men’s, Club and Literary Library’ were advertised in the Manawatu Evening Standard on 28 May 1927.195 (The club’s name was then changed to the Palmerston North Cosmopolitan Club in December 1927.196) The successful tenderer was Percival Bernhardt Torstonson, a member of a Swedish immigrant family that had a timber yard and sash & door factory (G. Torstonson’s Ltd.) in Ruahine Street.197 The official opening was held on the afternoon of Wednesday, 15th August 1928, in the presence of several hundred members, and their wives and 194 Manawatu Evening Standard 16 August 1928 2(5). Note that the article published the same day in the Manawatu Times (p. 4(4-5) states that the club paid £5,000 for the land. The correct amount has not been researched. 195 Pam Phillips Papers: Vol. 5, p. 35, and Vol. 3, P.5. Ian Matheson City Archives, PN City Library 196 PN Cosmopolitan Club Centennial, p. 27. 197 Manawatu Evening Standard 19 July 1924, 4(8) & 20 February 1926 9(1) reports on fires at the timber yard. P.B. Torstonson died on 24 April 1961, aged 81, but no obituary was found. North West Square Heritage Area 2010 friends. At the time, the club had a membership of around 1,000, and about 200 of these were life members.198 The Palmerston North branch of the Wellington Commercial Travellers’ Club was also to have their headquarters upstairs in the building, and this st group had their own official opening on Saturday afternoon of 1 199 September 1928. The Centennial publication quotes a newspaper article from around the time of the building’s opening, which stated that: The building is constructed of brick with a very pleasing appearance – cement cornices neatly finished with white joints keeping the building looking quite fresh – there are four shops – the main entrance is nicely tiled and finished with white plaster – there are arches giving relief to the back portion of the building – a manager’s office – and wash up room – telephone room and spacious bars well finished – a tiled dado around the walls finished with white plaster – well lighted and containing three tables – a credit to any club - five card rooms –while the outside is nicely concreted with a covered in stand for bicycles – upstairs there is a large social room with a lift and supper room – gents convenience – a ladies waiting room with conveniences – an up to date library with an entrance from Taonui Street – there is a cellar 45 feet by 30 feet – well lighted – damp roof and cool and is centrally heated.200 The Manawatu Times added that two of the four shops were already leased, and that the ground floor contained “the commercial rooms, reading room, a spacious billiard room, four card rooms, gents’ retiring room, and a large circular refreshment booth.” Upstairs were “the library, 198 Manawatu Evening Standard 16 August 1928, 2(5) Manawatu Evening Standard 3 September 1928, 5(5) 200 PN Cosmopolitan Club Centennial, p. 27 Note that this undated article was not located in a brief search of the Manawatu Evening Standards (to which the book attributes it) and Manawatu Times’ from the time of the official opening. The book also erroneously states that the official opening occurred on 13 August 1928. 199 Page 103 Palmerston North City Council ladies’ rest room, the Commercial Travellers’ new headquarters and the spacious social hall.” It added that there were steam heaters throughout the building and that it was well-equipped with electric lights.201 North West Square Heritage Area 2010 parking. The new extension included plans to amalgamate titles for the property as an alternative to upgrading a wall at the rear of the shops. In 1985, Human Movements (now of 97 Taonui Street) occupied the first floor of the building, and a Building Inspection Sheet in the file refers to showers and toilets.202 Land Ownership In 1955, land that had been purchased in 1941 became the club’s first car park. The 1904 clubrooms had been sold to Arthur Hopwood for £4,000 on 1 November 1928. However, in 1963, the back part of this property –the land behind the Oroua Building - was repurchased for £4,750. A building on it – almost certainly the 1904 clubrooms, though this has been only moderately researched - was then demolished and a large extension built in its place to accommodate an additional five billiard tables. This extension, which was officially opened on 9 December 1963, is now the Better Bargins secondhand shop at 247 Cuba Street. Under construction in 1928 Additions & Alterations The PNCC Building Permit files contain an assortment of material relating on the building, its shops, and the various extensions. An undated letter mentions the wish to demolish a shop front, and to replace it with an office and strongroom. This is the second shop from the corner, now occupied by The R18 Shop. The club applied for permits to undertake alterations in 1953 and 1968, structural alterations in 1961, a new billiard room in 1963 (behind the Oroua Building), and for interior alterations in 1982. In 1978 they applied for a permit to undertake a range of alterations, including adding a predominately single storey addition at 101 Taonui Street (now the Power House Tattoo Studio), and also sought dispensation from off-street 201 Manawatu Times 16 August 1928, p. 4 (4-5) In 1975, the club purchased the Oroua Building for £86,000, thereby increasing the club’s Cuba Street frontage to 42.6 metres. At the time, this building contained three shops and five small flats. However, the 1978-9 alterations included converting one of the shops into a direct access between the billiard room and the street, and this is now the entrance to Better Bargins. In 1976, a Taonui Street section (Lot 70) and two Lombard Street sections (Lots 11 and 12), with a combined total area of 1,695 square metres, were purchased and converted to parking for 104 cars. The expansion programme during 1978 and 1979 saw the club’s original car park absorbed, and the building extended to allow the billiard table numbers to rise from 10 to 14. A “new kitchen-dining area, a new bar, indoor bowlscum-dance floor, upper floor appointments, updated toilets and showers, space for two pool tables, eight dart board cabinets (and) a store room” 202 PNCC Building Permit file C100/233-239 Page 104 Palmerston North City Council were added to create an atmosphere of space. This addition was officially opened on 30 May 1979. In 1986 consideration was given to redeveloping the club’s existing site, however, when that proved too costly, the club began seeking a new and more suitable premises Relocation At a special meeting on 20 September 1987 attended by 260 members, all but four members voted to move to a new site. They had voted to take an option on the former Nivens Engineering workshop in Pitt Street,203 and that building, after extensive modification, duly opened on 31 July 1989, just in time to celebrate the club’s 100th birthday. While not much bigger than the Cuba Street building, its space was better utilised and there was provision for 80 car parks.204 Four years later the Pitt Street purchase was regarded as having been a disaster, as an anticipated increase in membership hadn’t happened. Accordingly, plans were made to purchase a smaller building in Church Street that was in close proximity to the Palmerston North Bowling and Squash Clubs – in the hope that this proximity to the others would be beneficial to all three.205 However, by December 2004, the Pitt Street building had been sold, but was being leased back by the club. Meanwhile, construction of stage one (of three) of the next building, which the club was to share, was due to begin in February 2005.206 The resulting building is Club Palmerston, in Linton Street, which was officially opened on 2 November 2006. This facility is run by an amalgamation of the Cosmopolitan Club, the Palmerston North Squash Club (est. 1936) and the Palmerston North Bowling Club (est. 1889).207 North West Square Heritage Area 2010 Women Members One of the last significant events to occur during the club’s occupancy of the Cuba Street building was the vote to allow women to become members. Although the building always had some provision for women, such as the ladies waiting room, for a century this was an all male club. At the 1988 AGM, the membership voted against women becoming members – although women had been employed there as barmaids or stewardesses since 1974. There were also female librarians in the club library from 1926 (in December 1986, the club’s library had 6,700 books catalogued).208 At the club’s next AGM in February 1989, those present voted 56-48 against admitting women as members. This was the second year the matter had been voted on, and it was noted that the figures were moving in the women’s favour. At the time almost two-thirds of the country’s 240 chartered clubs now permitted women to become members. In July 1989, a special meeting revisited the decision following a petition by 50 members. Around 200 members attended and the vote went 113-83 in favour of permitting women to join. The club president said at the time that, “an adverse reaction had followed the publicity about the ban. Women’s libbers stuck hand-bills on our new building, which we move into in August.” Accordingly, in mid-August that year the club accepted its first female member.209 Disposal of the Cuba Street Building In 1987, at the time the club began planning to leave the Cuba Street building, it owned its clubrooms, the Oroua Building, a wholesale carpet shop, four sections and a warehouse in Taonui Street.210 203 Manawatu Evening Standard 21 September 1987, p. 3 Manawatu Evening Standard 27 February 1989, p. 3; 1 August 1989, p.3 Manawatu Evening Standard 17 September 2003, p.1 206 Manawatu Evening Standard 24 December 2004, p. 44 207 Manawatu Evening Standard 1 November 2006, p.22 204 208 205 209 PN Cosmopolitan Club Centennial History, pp. 38, 40, 47 Manawatu Evening Standard 27 February 1989, p. 1; editorial 28 February 1989, p.2; 18 July 1989, p. 1; 18 August 1989, p. 1 210 Manawatu Evening Standard 21 September 1987, p. 3 Page 105 Palmerston North City Council On 31 July 1989, the day the bar opened for the first time in the new Pitt Street clubrooms, the anticipated sale of the Cuba Street property to Niven Enterprises Ltd. fell through. The club was left with a debt of over $2 million, created by its move to Pitt Street. Preparations were then made to auction the former building and the neighbouring properties in September 1989. However, while three other properties sold, the main club building (including the Oroua Building) failed to attract a single bid.211 The club’s departure from Cuba Street and the financial distress resulting from the Niven Enterprises default, led to an array of rumours regarding the club’s future. This was also believed to have deterred potential new members. The club responded in December 1991 with a two-page advertising feature on what it had to offer – and also explained its recent difficulties under the headline: “Closure rumours ‘utter nonsense’”.212 CT WNB1/1062 records that the building was sold to Palmerston North businesswoman Kah Hong Tan in 1990. She sold it to the present owner, Mountain Productions Ltd., in 2006. Shop 1 (cnr Cuba & Taonui St.) Stones 1933 nil Wises 1936 197 Cuba St. – Arthur P. Taylor, licenced dealer Wises 1939-57 243 Cuba St. - Grover & Whitehead, pram manufacturers Wises 1959-60 243 Cuba St. – Ms E.V. Whitehead, pram retailer By 1978, this was the Cosmopolitan Club’s library (Ref: Plan in PNCC Bdg Permit file C100/233-239) 2010 233 Cuba St. - empty Shop 2 1933-60 245 Cuba St. - Bert A. Polanski, hairdresser & tobacconist (Wises & Stones) 211 Manawatu Evening Standard 11 August 1989, p. 1; 8 September 1989, p.1; 12 December 1991, p.10 212 Manawatu Evening Standard 12 December 1991, pp.10-11 North West Square Heritage Area 2010 Altered to 2 offices & a strongroom before 1978 (Ref: Plan in PNCC Bdg Permit file C100/233-239) 2010 237 Cuba St. – The R18 Shop Here is the old Cosmopolitan Club double-door main entrance (numbered 247 Cuba St.) Shop 3 Stones 1933 Wises 1936-9 Wises 1950-51 2010 nil 203 Cuba St.- Woskett Radio Ltd. 249 Cuba St. - H & P Clifford, antique dealer 241 Cuba St. – Macs Used Appliances Shop 4 1933-60 205 / 253 Cuba St.- W. Jewett & Sons, bootmakers. (Wises & 1933) 2010 243 Cuba St. - About Time At present the Power House Tattoo Studio (www.tattoos.co.nz) occupies the single storey building at 127 Taonui Street that was built as an enlargement of the billiard room. It had been officially opened on 30 May 1979, taking billiard table numbers from ten to fourteen. Between c1996 and c2007, a massage parlour named The Lounge Bar operated behind the large red exterior doors on the Taonui Street side of the building. By the time of the 2008 phone book, this massage parlour had been renamed The Red Doors. It closed amidst controversy relating to its liquor licence about 2008-9. Comments: The history of this property is complicated by the numerous property additions and subtractions, and by the Oroua Building having been more or less integrated into the main club building. L.G. West & Son’s sketch of the building is shown on the front cover of the Cosmopolitan Club’s centennial publication (surrounded by men, women and cars whose appearances reflected the late 1920s). This shows design features on the Taonui Street side of the building that are different to the Page 106 Palmerston North City Council existing building, while the Cuba Street frontage is the same as now. Possibly it was initially intended that the building’s Taonui Street frontage would eventually be double the length that it has ended up. ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION The building is designed in the Edwardian Neo-Georgian style with characteristic symmetrical façade, Classical details such as double pedimented parapets, cornice and entablature supported by pilasters dividing the façade into seven bays and typical small paned double hung sash windows all on the above verandah section of the street façade. The below section of the façade has timber framed shop fronts, a number of which appear to be original. There are several pilasters to this section of the façade which align with those above the verandah. A rather faint ground floor plan available from the PNCC archives shows the ground floor only which has stores, strong rooms and library and offices facing Cuba Street either side of the central entry, with a lounge bar and a number of other spaces whose function cannot be read on Taonui Street. These spaces form an ‘L’ shape with the remainder of the floor being taken up with a bar . The contemporary description of the building is included above. The exterior has cement rendered details with the main construction appearing to be brickwork. North West Square Heritage Area 2010 North sixteen Palmerston North Borough or City Councillors as well as bushmen, labourers, fellmongers, storemen, railway workers and a wide cross-section of other occupations. The building also has high historic values in its association with the architect of the building, Ernest West, who practised with his father and whose firm was responsible for a large number of Palmerston North's buildings. Among those still standing designed by the practice are the Former Club Hotel (1905), the Manawatu–Kilwinning Masonic Lodge (1908), the Old Soldiers Club (1917), the Church of Christ. Scientist (1931) and Ward Brothers Building (1935). Ernst was a borough Councillor 1921– 25. The tenants of the building reflect a moderate level of continuity in being a typical pattern of commercial buildings throughout the city. The building has moderate design values as a representative example of the Edwardian neo-Georgian style, a popular style for gentlemen’s clubs with the Wellesley Club in Wellington being a typical example. 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 external authenticity. 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 and emotional associations with the Cosmopolitan Club and its members who included business and professional men, six Members of Parliament, three Mayors of Palmerston Page 107 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 M H H H M H Page 108 Palmerston North City Council Cuba Street, 245-251 Oroua Buildings 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: 268 square metres more or less Part Lot 7-8 DP 36 WNB1/1063 (1963), prior CT WN407/171 (1929), WN 130/114 (1903) Nil Nil Nil Nil 1929 R. Thorrold-Jaggard The Arthur Hopwood Hardware Company Ltd. Trevor Bros. PHYSICAL AND SOCIAL HISTORY History This building was originally designed as six offices and four shops, but within months, the offices had become five one-bedroom flats and a bedsit. The building was incorporated into the main Cosmopolitan Club facility next door from 1975, and the Oroua Building’s story throughout its existence has been significantly entangled with that of its neighbour. Prior History This property was purchased in 1903 from Maria Josephine Jones, the widow of a coach driver. At the time, the property included a cottage. In 1912, she sold the rest of her Cuba Street land between this site and Taonui Street, to the Working Men’s Club – that being the future site of the Cosmopolitan Club building. Page 109 Palmerston North City Council The Palmerston North Working Men’s Club & Literary Institute had been formed as a Chartered Club in 1889. It was to be renamed the Palmerston North Cosmopolitan Club in 1927. The club had rented two nearby buildings (in succession) since 1889, and by 1902 it was seeking somewhere more permanent. It purchased land in Church Street between the (former) police station and the Baptist Church (now the site of the Abbey Musical Theatre). However, a petition from the church, followed by a letter from the Colonial Secretary, resulted in the decision to sell the section to the Masonic Lodge for £400 and to look elsewhere. The decision was duly made to buy this Cuba Street property - for £900, with a deposit of £50. Accordingly, the names of two of the club’s trustees, William Beck and George McCarty, appear on CT WN130/114, which was issued on 3 December 1903. The CT records that the property was then transferred to the Trustees of the Palmerston North Working Men’s Club & Literary Institute in September 1904.213 The club’s new building was wooden and cost £1,500 to build. It was designed by architect E. Larcomb and built by the Union Timber Co. Descriptions of it from its official opening on 30 November 1904, and reports on the fire there on 31 October 1925, indicate that its “spacious” billiard room was “lofty”, was well lighted, and had “huge” ventilators in the ceiling (which were needed to expel the large quantities of tobacco smoke that was to be anticipated in that era and that environment). At the time the club had two billiard tables, with a third one arriving in 1906, and from 1919, it had its own electricity generator.214 213 PN Cosmopolitan Club Jubilee Souvenir booklet (published 1939 - This copy in ‘PN Cosmopolitan Club’ research file A175/436, Ian Matheson City Archives, PN Public Library. Note that the booklet does not have page numbers); Centennial Committee, Palmerston North Cosmopolitan Club – Centennial: A recorded history of the club 1889-1989 (Palmerston North, 1989), p. 19-21 214 Manawatu Evening Standard 1 December 1904, 7(4-5) & 2 November 1925 2(5); PN Cosmopolitan Club Jubilee Souvenir (1939); PN Cosmopolitan Club Centennial, p.42 North West Square Heritage Area 2010 The cottage burnt down on 30 November 1905, and was not replaced. However, the insurance money contributed toward an additional billiard table, a committee room, bathroom, kitchen and a steward’s bedroom at a cost of £850.215 The impressive front entrance to the building is shown on page 28 of the club’s centennial publication, alongside the partially constructed Cosmopolitan Club building. The appearance is of a tall double square bay building, with centrally-located front steps leading straight up from the main Cuba Street footpath. Although the club had outgrown the building by the mid-1920s, a key step on the road to the Oroua Building came at about 3:30pm on Saturday, 31 October 1925, when a club member evidently threw a match at a spittoon in the billiard room – and missed! The club was full, as members were awaiting the arrival, for a social afternoon and evening, of 26 members of the Wanganui Cosmopolitan Club. As the flames raced up the wall cavity, drawn by the ventilators in the roof, those in the billiard room played on oblivious to what was happening alongside and above them. Even the man who threw water over the spittoon, had no idea what was happening behind the wall lining. At about the same time, the club manager entered the building and smelt smoke (other than the usual tobacco smoke). By the time he obtained a ladder and opened the manhole, the flames were crossing the ceiling toward the ventilators. Even as the manager ran for the nearby fire brigade in Coleman Place (because the club’s phone was engaged), those in the club were unaware of how serious the fire was until the billiard room filled with smoke. When the fire was extinguished, only the “desolate” billiard room appeared very different to normal. The exterior wall on the Taonui Street side had only three or four feet of charring, while the billiard room wall had a strip of burnt out wall about a foot wide, going from floor to ceiling. However, the ceiling structure was badly charred and part collapsed under the weight of a fireman, who was able to grab a stud in time to avoid a significant drop 215 PN Cosmopolitan Club Centennial, p. 22 Page 110 Palmerston North City Council to the floor below. Meanwhile, the Commercial Travellers’ Club in George Street took in the displaced local and Wanganui club members (the latter having arrived just as the fire was found) and a euchre tournament was held.216 The repairs, costing £1,100, were soon completed. However, the club increasingly recognised that the building was entirely inadequate for its needs. On 29 January 1927, members at a special meeting unanimously approved a proposal to build a new club building on the neighbouring section. The new (brick) Cosmopolitan Club building was officially opened on 15 August 1928, and the old (wooden) building was then disposed of to Arthur Hopwood Hardware Co. Ltd. for £4,000 in November 1928.217 The Oroua Building The fate of the front portion of the then 25-year-old former Working Men’s Clubrooms has not been researched, although clearly it was gone by 1929. However, aerial photos indicate that a substantial portion of the former clubrooms survived for many years. Well-known architect Reginald Thorrold-Jaggard designed the Oroua Building, and tenders were called to build it in the Manawatu Evening Standard of 12 December 1928. The tender was to build four shops and offices in brick and concrete for A. Hopwood Esq. on the site of the old Workingmen’s Club.218 The original plans for this building – which show the name ‘Oroua Buildings’ on the façade - indicate that at first it was intended to have six offices upstairs. The permit to build it was issued on 11 January 1929, and the successful tenderer was well-known local building firm, Trevor Bros. North West Square Heritage Area 2010 Three of the shops were the same width, with the two on the Taonui Street side being identical. The third shop was shortened due to the stairs to the first floor being behind it, while the fourth – on the Rangitikei Street side of the building – was significantly narrower. This reduced width made allowance for the width of the passageway near the centre of the building that allowed access to the first floor. All four shops, along with the six offices, had small sinks or hand basins. However, the only toilets in the building were three cubicles on the first floor. Four of the offices also had skylights. The six offices presumably proved less practical than Hopwood originally hoped. A permit issued on 8 July 1929, some seven months after the original tenders were advertised, was to alter the offices to five onebedroom flats, and a bed-sit – with the builder being “self.” All the flats had their own baths and sink units (both in the same small cubicle), along with gas stoves and ventilators in the adjoining living rooms, although, they still shared the three toilets. Windows measuring 3 ft. x 3 ft. were also to be installed in the walls between the kitchen/bath cubicles and the living room of each flat, below the skylights. Toilets were also to be installed in each of the four shops.219 Arthur Hopwood, Arthur Hopwood Hardware Co. Ltd., & their many flats The story of the firm Arthur Hopwood Hardware Co. Ltd. and the people associated with it is the subject of Keith Goldsack’s book, More Than Hardware: Arthur Hopwood and the business he founded, published in 2000. The firm was founded in 1900, incorporated in 1912, and its present incarnation is the Palmerston North Mitre 10 Mega Store. The firm features in the backgrounds of two other buildings covered in this study – the UFSD and Mowlem buildings, both in The Square. 216 Manawatu Evening Standard 2 November 1925 2(5) & 8(5) PN Cosmopolitan Club Jubilee Souvenir; CT WN130/114 218 PN Architects, Vol. 5, p. 35, Pam Phillips Papers, Ian Matheson City Archives, PN City Library. 217 219 Plan 141/255 ‘Oroua Buildings’, PNCC 4/13/6, Drawer 19, also Permit 702 11/1/1929 & Permit 956 8/7/1929, Ian Matheson City Archives, PN City Library Page 111 Palmerston North City Council Wellington-born Arthur Hopwood arrived in Palmerston North in 1898 aged 23. His Lancashire-born father, James, was a builder in Wellington, and contracts he undertook included Wellington’s first brick building. He specialised in brick buildings, and, after moving to Palmerston North, also opened a sash & door sawmill in Princess Street. Arthur’s first business role in Palmerston North was as a partner in a hardware store, while also working for a builder. From this he graduated to purchasing Beale Bros. Ironmongery business in 1900. The business prospered and he was to own Palmerston North’s third motorcar (the town’s first car having arrived in 1902). Then in 1916, the firm moved to Main Street (the Downtown parking building site) and eventually expanded through to Broadway (now the Downtown theatre site), where the shop remained until 1989. The latter 1920s were significant to both the firm and Arthur Hopwood himself. In mid-November 1928 – at the same time as Hopwood was buying the former Working Men’s Club land – he also bought (after some haggling) the nearby Rangitikei Street hardware business, Manson & Barr Ltd., by a transfer of fully-paid shares to the value of £35,000. In 1928 also, Hopwood was chairman of a small committee that assisted the City Council with the purchase of the McHardy Estate at Fitzherbert. The committee’s role was to persuade the local citizens to support raising a loan to buy the land - and to then give it to the Government as a site for an agricultural college. The eventual result of this was Massey University. In 1919, Hopwood had become a foundation member of the local YMCA, and he was an active supporter of many of its goals for young people throughout his life. This included organising the building party that built the YMCA Boys Camp at Totara Reserve in the 1920s, now known as Camp Rangi Woods.220 He remained active with the organisation until retiring as a director in 1954. 220 Note that the More Than Hardware book (p. 70) gives the Camp Rangi Woods establishment date as 1924, while Arthur Hopwood’s MES 21/9/1957 obituary gives 1929 – the year the Oroua Building was completed. The matter was not further researched. North West Square Heritage Area 2010 The Hopwood Hardware publication (p. 34) states that by the 1950s, Arthur Hopwood, had become: A relatively heavy investor in rental property, and (that he) took a personal interest in the properties he bought. He was a keen draughtsman, and actually did the drawings himself for alterations to various buildings. His properties were rented to both business and private tenants. There was considerable demand for housing in the city, and Arthur helped fill the need with housing that was basic and affordable, rather than luxurious. The book goes on to list a number of buildings owned by the family in the 1950s and 1960s, including the Mayfair Flats (formerly the YWCA hostel) in Queen Street, Trenton House (formerly the PNBHS hostel) in North Street, and Cranleigh Apartment House in Fitzherbert Avenue. Other large old houses about the city were also converted to flats. Even the hardware shop in Main Street had about “15 single room flats of varying standards” upstairs, which were typical of the accommodation also provided as Cranleigh (a “genteel home” with 25 rooms and a lady supervisor), Mayfair and Trenton House. The Oroua Building is not mentioned in the book. However, it too must rank along side these as an early flat conversion almost certainly designed by Arthur Hopwood himself. The permit details stamped on the back of the alteration plans indicates that Arthur Hopwood was also to be the builder. The Hopwood flats were intended to house the many young people then coming “to Palmerston North to work in banks, insurance companies, government departments and retail shops” – at a time when flatting was not common. Each room would be partially furnished, including linoleum throughout, bedstead, kapok mattress, settee with squab, duchess, tallboy, wardrobe with rods, clothes rack, table, chairs, urn (copper) and stand, electric or gas stove, electric breakfast cooker, mirror and cupboard. Usually (but not in the Oroua Building) residents in the sets of flats also shared communal bathrooms and kitchens. Those in the Oroua Building only shared their toilet block – which contained two women’s toilets and one for men. Page 112 Palmerston North City Council There has been no indication as to why Hopwood chose the well-known locality name “Oroua” for this building in 1929. There has also been no indication of a connection to the Cosmopolitan Club in terms of Hopwood’s purchase of the property. He was, however, a keen freemason and at one time a master of the Manawatu Kilwinning Lodge, No. 47. Arthur Hopwood died aged 82 on 20 September 1957 after a long history of contributing to his community. He is particularly remembered through his donation of the Hopwood Clocktower in The Square in 1954. The somewhat quirky history of this building and its ‘tiny flat’ conversions probably to Hopwood’s own draughtsmanship – can also claim social as well as historic significance in relation to Hopwood.221 The Oroua Hall Over some thirty years, the various Wises’ and Stones’ Directories consulted for this study, list a hall in conjunction with this building and place its access point at the same street address as the first floor flats in this building – the street number having those of two of the building’s shops on either side of it. The hall is most often identified throughout this period as the Oroua Hall, but is also identified in the 1933 Stones’ Directory as the Palmerston North Mission. A regular newspaper notice in January 1934 advertises a Sunday School, Bible Classes, and a Sunday evening meeting to held at the Oroua Hall.222 Throughout the 1950s, it was listed as the Red Cross Hall. Almost certainly the Oroua Hall was once a substantial part of the former Working Men’s Club building, as it seems unlikely that Hopwood would have built a new hall there. Although that building has been only minimally researched for this study, some aspects are relevant and/or worth noting. 221 Keith Goldsack, More Than Hardware: Arthur Hopwood and the business he founded (Palmerston North, 2000), pp. 9, 11, 25, 34-36, 53, 57, 69-70, 75; Manawatu Evening Standard obituary 21 September 1957, p.8; 10 October 1962, pp.18-19; 18 November 1993, p. 23 222 Manawatu Evening Standard 13 January 1934 1(1) North West Square Heritage Area 2010 The Cosmopolitan Club Centennial history (p. 27) records that at first the sale of the old clubrooms to Arthur Hopwood seemed like a good idea. However, one aspect was overlooked, and this was access to Hopwood’s property from Taonui Street. When Hopwood requested permission to use this access, the Cosmopolitan Club declined. The club then erected a brick wall “in unseemly haste” to enforce this. However, “after legal opinions were taken, the wall was removed and a gate installed, which led to further recriminations when it was left open.” The problem remained unresolved until 1963 when the Cosmopolitan Club re-purchased the land (and old building) behind the Oroua Building. In 1999, late City Archivist Ian Matheson, interviewed solicitor Jack Bennett, whose father built the Carlton Hotel and owned it for many years. Ian noted that “Jack confirmed that Arthur Hopwood had a lot of substandard accommodation around Palmerston North” and wondered how he was allowed to achieve this.223 In relation to this large old wooden hall, Hopwood appears to have built the Oroua Building across the front of the section and left a narrow passage only five feet wide through the new building - that was also intended to be shared by the tenants of the six offices, that soon became six tiny flats. Meanwhile, the Cosmopolitan Club did not welcome access to Taonui Street from hall users – in the form firstly of a brick wall and then by the installation of a gate. Warehouses and old shops blocked the remaining boundaries to the property. One wonders what potential disaster might have happened had another fire broken out in the old building, given the large number of people a hall of that size was capable of holding. The problem was resolved in 1963, when the Cosmopolitan Club bought back its former property - excluding the Oroua Building - for £4,750 “after some Arabian-type bargaining by both parties.” The club then demolished the old building and a new billiard room (built by J.L. McMillan & Co. Ltd.) that accommodated five billiard tables, was built in its place. This room 223 Research file A175/286 Arthur Hopwood & Hopwood Hardware Co. Ltd., Ian Matheson City Archives, PN City Library Page 113 Palmerston North City Council North West Square Heritage Area 2010 was accessed from the main club building. It was officially opened on 9 December 1963 in time for the club’s 75th Jubilee.224 Finally in 1975, the Cosmopolitan Club added the Oroua Building itself to its property listing at a cost of $86,000. This increased the club’s Cuba Street frontage to 42.6 metres. By that time, the Oroua Building’s complement had been reduced to three shops and five flats.225 A 1987 proposal to demolish the building and to incorporate its site into a redeveloped Cosmopolitan Club came to nothing when the club chose to relocate its clubrooms to Pitt Street.226 Photos: (Above) The substantial Oroua Hall (formerly the 1904 Working Men’s Club building), near the bottom left hand corner, in about 1950, crowded in by the Cosmopolitan Club (in the foreground) the Oroua Building (which is between the hall and Cuba Street), and numerous other commercial buildings. Note the large skylights on the roof.227 (Below) The front of the Working Men’s Club in 1928, pictured alongside the Cosmopolitan Club building, which is under construction. 224 PN Cosmopolitan Club Centennial, p. 32. Also PNCC Building Permit file C100/233-239 1963 plan of this room 225 PN Cosmopolitan Club Centennial, p. 34 226 PN Cosmopolitan Club Centennial, p. 37 227 1928 photo from the PN Cosmopolitan Club Centennial book, p. 28. c1950 photo from Whites Aviation Ltd., Palmerston North & District, New Zealand (Auckland, 1950), p. 2 Additions & Alterations PNCC Building Permit files for the Cosmopolitan Club building next door (C100/233-239) include plans for the September 1965 amalgamation of Shops 3 and 4, the two shops at the Rangitikei Street end of the building. The eastern-most shop had been a café since the 1940s, and now this was expanded to include the larger former jeweller’s shop. These two shops had been smaller than the other two. This work was done for Mrs and Mrs Bereczki by the architect George N. Callander. The plans indicate that Shop 4’s front door had been changed from the original prior to that time. However, Shop 3 still had its original set-in front door until then. In 1978, Walker Love & Associates designed extensive additions and alterations to the whole Cosmopolitan Club and Oroua building complex. This included turning what was previously Shop 2, into a direct street entrance/exit to the 1963 billiard room – which was also extended at the back to the Better Bargins shop’s present length. The plans show that the original set-in front door was still in place in Shop 2 until then. This was the last set-in door to go. Page 114 Palmerston North City Council Also noticeable on the 1978 plan is a small extension containing two toilets at the back of the narrow passage through the building that possibly once led to the Oroua Hall - in addition to providing access to the first floor. This block separates the back wall of the Oroua Building and the wall of the 1963 billiard room that was closest to Cuba Street. There is no indication when or by whom the toilet block might have been installed. PNCC Building Permit file C100/245-279 ‘Oroua Building’ contains a 1987 application for internal alterations to a shop for James Hardie Impey, valued at $77,000. This might be Impey’s Paint Wallpaper and Drapers, which only appears in the 1988 phonebook, listed as “Cuba St.”, but with no street number to confirm its location in the building. North West Square Heritage Area 2010 Phonebook 1977 255 Cuba St. – Cosmopolitan Butchery (final entry in phonebook) 1994 Tattoo shop (ref: 1994 CBD Heritage Inventory photo) 2006 RSPCA Shop (ref: cover photo, PN Historical Soc. Inc., Mather Papers, Cuba Street) 2010 245 Cuba St. - Carolann Collections, bridal wear www.carolanncollections.co.nz Building Permit File C100/251 covering Katie Tan’s restaurant (a former occupant of Grandma’s Roast House), has a 1995 application for a verandah sign for Kah Hong Tan. In 1999 a building consent for a large sign on the exterior of the building for Tan’s business, The Coffee Shop of 251 Cuba St., was cancelled on Tan’s instruction. The shop last appears in the 2001 phonebook. Shop 2 (now entrance to Better Bargins Stones 1933 209 Cuba St.- Mrs Lily A. Northey, grocer Wises 1936 nil Wises 1939 209 Cuba St. – Mrs Vera B. Gray, wardrobe dealer Wises 1950-51 257 Cuba St. – Joseph Boucher, cycle dealer Wises 1953-7 257 Cuba St. – J. Boucher & Son, cycle dealers Wises 1959-60 257 Cuba St. – Boucher Cycles, cycle dealers Phonebook 1978 257 Cuba St. - Joe Boucher Cycles – then converted to entrance to billiard room 2010 247 Cuba St. – entrance to Better Bargains secondhand shop Ownership since 1963 CT WNB1/1063 (issued 1963) states that The Arthur Hopwood Hardware Company Ltd., sold the building to Johannes Theodorus Schrama, a builder of PN, in 1968. He sold it to The PN Cosmopolitan Club in 1975. The next owner, in 1990, was Kah Hong Tan, a PN businesswoman, who also bought the Cosmopolitan building next door. She sold both buildings to Mountain Productions Ltd. in 2006. Oroua Buildings Ground floor (former 1904 Working Men’s Clubrooms) Stones 1933 211 Cuba St. – Palm. Nth. Mission: Oroua Hall Wises 1936-9 211 Cuba St. - Oroua Hall Wises 1944 259 Cuba St. – nil Wises 1950-60 259 Cuba St. – Red Cross Hall 1963 Demolished and replaced by billiard room, now Better Bargins secondhand shop Shop 1 (Taonui St. end) Stones 1933 Electrolux Ltd. branch, D. Bell representative. Wises 1936 nil Wises 1939 207 Cuba St. – Marshall Jones, butcher Wises 1944 255 Cuba St. - Reginald T. McGrane, butcher Wises 1953-60 255 Cuba St – J. Clark, butcher Oroua Buildings First Floor access (6 flats, later reduced to 5) Stones 1933 211a Cuba St. – Thomas Joseph Jacques, fishmonger; Solomon Abrahams, bowser assistant; James Adamson, insurance agent; Frank Gillham, traveller; Mrs May Tuckwell Wises 1936-9 211a Cuba St. – Mrs Adela Thomson Page 115 Palmerston North City Council Wises 1944 259 Cuba St. - John H. Reidy, traveller; Mrs A. Apes; Mrs Adela Thomson; Walter W. Briden-Jones Wises 1950-51 259 Cuba St. – H. Ballard, salesman; Mrs M.A. Gordon; Walter W. Briden-Jones; Mrs J. Ironsides; D. Wilton Wises 1953-4 259 Cuba St. – C.G. Retemyer, Mrs G. Lyne, Mrs F. Cunningham, Mrs H. Tinsley, Val Lloyd, Walter W. BridenJones Wises 1957 259 Cuba St. – C.G. Retemyer, Mrs G. Lyne, Mrs P.L. Pearson, Mrs Ellen Briden-Jones Wises 1959-60 259 Cuba St – NZ Red Cross Soc. Inc, Mrs Daisy Lyne, Mrs Ellen Briden-Jones, Mrs Phyllis L. Pearson Shop 3 Stones 1933 213 Cuba St. – A. Mortland & Co., land & commission agents Wises 1936 213 Cuba St. – The London Assurance Wises 1939 213 Cuba St. – H.C. Watson, library Wises 1944 261 Cuba St. – John Emmett, music dealer Wises 1950-51 261 Cuba St. – A Reid, Jeweller Wises 1953-60 261 Cuba St. – C.G. Hyde & Co. Ltd., watchmakers & jeweller Plan 1965: alterations to shops 263 Cuba St. for Mr & Mrs Bereczki combining Shops 3 & 4 Shop 4 (nearest Rangitikei St.) 1933-36 215 Cuba St. – Fred Ansell Wort – tailor (Stones & Wises) Wises 1939 215 Cuba St. – Thomas Jenman, tobacconist Wises 1944 263 Cuba St. – Thomas J. Jacques, café (who lived upstairs in 1933) Wises 1950-4 263 Cuba St. – M.A. Schiabi, cafe Wises 1957-60 263 Cuba St. – Club Café Plan 1965: alterations to shops 263 Cuba St. for Mr & Mrs Bereczki (combine shops 3 & 4) Phonebook 1977 263 Cuba St. – Dong Fong Restaurant North West Square Heritage Area 2010 Bdg Permit files c1995-c1999 – Katie Tan Restaurant ‘The Coffee Shop’ (last phonebook entry 2001) 2008-now 249 Cuba St. Grandma’s Roast House, http://www.stuff.co.nz/manawatu-standard/news/495470 Comments: The Oroua Building is connected to a very significant city businessman and community benefactor, and also reflects the accommodation needs of the c1930 workforce. It is also directly tied to the history of the PN Working Men’s Club, later renamed the PN Cosmopolitan Club, over almost nine decades. ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION The building is designed in the Inter-War Stripped Classical style, which was a common commercial style in the period between the wars. The façade has the characteristic simplified Classical elements, such as the vertically and horizontally stepped parapet, simple cornice, simple pilasters with capitals at each corner, and multi-paned steel windows. The belowverandah design seen in the original drawings shows recessed ingos with a central entry to the first floor. It is apparent that the shopfronts have been modified. The original plan shows the three equal sized and on small shop extending between the is on the north side of the building. The central entry leads to w building wide corridor which gives access to stairs at the rear. The first floor plan has four offices to the street elevation and two offices on the opposite side of the building all accessed from a central corridor. Toilets are located on the north west corner above the smallest shop. A later drawing shows the first floor offices converted into five one bedroom flats and one bed sitting room. Construction is concrete floors and frame with brick exterior walls. Page 116 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 moderate historic values in its connection to a very significant city businessman and community benefactor, while also reflecting the accommodation needs of the c1930 workforce. It is also directly tied to the history of the PN Working Men’s Club, later renamed the PN Cosmopolitan Club, over almost nine decades. The building also has moderate historic values in its association with local architect, R Thorrald-Jaggard was the most prolific and well-known of the architects practising in Palmerston North on the latter half of the twentieth century. The original and later ownership and tenants reflects a moderate level of continuity as a typical pattern of similar commercial buildings throughout the city. The building has moderate design values as a good representative example of the Inter- War Free Classical style. 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 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 117 M M H
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