tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-44664038785768375792024-03-19T00:17:41.076+13:00TimespannerTimespannerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11990716041045862669noreply@blogger.comBlogger1754125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4466403878576837579.post-47124058338162864392023-09-01T22:01:00.002+12:002023-09-01T22:18:41.800+12:00"With intent to injure or annoy ..." The 1949 Blockhouse Bay milk poisoning case Highlighted in this snip from a 1947 White's Aviation aerial photo is the house where Gilbert and Adrienne Honey lived with their children. Donovan Street at the bottom, right is Blockhouse Bay Road. WA-10778-G, National Library of NZIt was around 5.30 in the quiet of a still-semi rural Donovan Street, Blockhouse Bay, on the morning of Labour Day, 24 October 1949. At a gate at the end Timespannerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11990716041045862669noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4466403878576837579.post-86435968290850771872023-08-23T18:23:00.000+12:002023-08-23T18:23:18.546+12:00The disappearance of Walter Ashton, 1948 Portrait of Walter Ashton by Clifton Firth, 21 April 1941. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections 34-A32.Walter Ashton disappeared from Piha one night in 1948. He was described, according to Graeme Hunt in his book Spies and Revolutionaries (2007) as "a happily married man in his forties" and by the Communist Party of NZ as "an outstanding trade unionist with a remarkable record of Timespannerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11990716041045862669noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4466403878576837579.post-22096557729594912092023-07-05T10:24:00.000+12:002023-07-05T10:24:09.668+12:00The battle for "Wolverton Park" The Avondale side of Te Kōtuitanga Olympic Park, briefly known as “Wolverton Park” during the 1970s bureaucratic stoush.
Google street view from Wolverton street, 2023BackgroundThe Whau River begins with two streams flowing together: Te Waitahurangi Avondale Stream from the Waitakere Ranges foothills to the west, and the Whau Stream from the deeply water-carved country of New Windsor, and Timespannerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11990716041045862669noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4466403878576837579.post-6882611471810218922023-05-31T15:56:00.000+12:002023-05-31T15:56:57.700+12:00Albert Graven and his Avondale Central Service StationDetail from JTD-24A-03278-2, December 1967, J T Diamond, Auckland Libraries Heritage CollectionsPublished in the June 2023 issue of The Avondale Historical Journal as "The Golden Investor: Albert Graven."Avondale is a place where people tell stories, stories which I’ve always called the Avondale Lore. Some of them true, some of them probably fanciful (the one where dentist Cecil Herdson fromTimespannerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11990716041045862669noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4466403878576837579.post-4063323193240615172023-04-12T23:48:00.001+12:002023-04-13T09:15:32.194+12:00Alfred Ramsden and his hotel The New Lynn Hotel, 1890s. JTD-11A-04959, Auckland Libraries Heritage CollectionsThe old New Lynn Hotel at 3178 Great North Road exists only in memory. Normally, things start at beginnings. Here, I’ll start at the end.It was demolished in January 2009. It had been owned by the Waitakere City Council from 2005, after the last private owners, the Bartulovich family, had applied forTimespannerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11990716041045862669noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4466403878576837579.post-20951942125718419562023-03-29T18:58:00.001+13:002023-03-29T19:04:15.529+13:00Howard Nattrass and the "typiste-flapper" Image: Free Lance, 3 November 1920This is a story that someone, seriously, should take up and make a doco about. The NZ Truth described it at the time as an "affair-de-lust" with a "typiste-flapper".Howard Nattrass was born in Blenheim in 1888. By 1915, with a partner named Harris, he had developed a profitable motor importing business in Napier, Natttass & Harris Motor Co. The partnersTimespannerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11990716041045862669noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4466403878576837579.post-82000513339567551072022-10-24T19:54:00.001+13:002022-10-24T19:54:49.985+13:00The Riversdale Road gas emergency, 1975 Detail from 1957 Whites Aviation image, showing the large glasshouses complex at 5-7 Riversdale Road. Today, this site is now housing. National Library of New Zealand, WA-43771Just before 11 pm on 19 January 1975, residents living near to a set of three large glasshouses on 5-7 Riversdale Road in Avondale began to smell the acrid stench of a gas that had wafted up unto the night air, Timespannerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11990716041045862669noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4466403878576837579.post-27284368307191097052022-10-24T18:07:00.003+13:002022-10-26T06:38:51.358+13:00Green Light Mystery: the 1952 Kaukapakapa Rail Accident A 1966 view of Kaukapkapa Railway Station and surrounds, showing 1. the West Coast Road (SH 16) level crossing; 2. the site of the impact of No. 76 and No. 77 trains; 3. the main Kaukapakapa station building. This site all now cleared. Via Retrolens.
Train No. 76 from Maungaturoto reached Kaipara Flats around 10 pm on the evening of 5 December 1952. It was a goods train, hauling cattle Timespannerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11990716041045862669noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4466403878576837579.post-88688033364810697882022-08-29T05:43:00.002+12:002022-08-29T05:43:54.420+12:00Toroa, the last steam ferry The steam ferry Toroa on the Waitematā harbour, 1950s. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections T0470(Guest post from the Toroa Preservation Society)A brief outline of the history of Auckland’s last surviving steam ferry, and a resume of the restoration work to date. For more detailed information visit www.steamferrytoroa.comBuilt and launched in Auckland in 1925, the Toroa was theTimespannerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11990716041045862669noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4466403878576837579.post-30449050160502392592022-08-05T22:49:00.000+12:002022-08-05T22:49:59.638+12:00An ordinary family: the Crees in Avondale and Waterview One of the overdue projects I’m working on during this continuing pandemic is an index of all the issues of the Avondale Historical Journal, with the aim to put it online at the Society’s website. Going through Issue 60 from 2011, I came across a photo sent in by the late Rich Afford of children that performed in a pantomime at St Judes of “Princess Chrysanthemum” in December 1932. Above Timespannerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11990716041045862669noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4466403878576837579.post-10002020045820191562022-08-05T15:21:00.001+12:002022-08-05T15:21:27.101+12:00John Watson’s trees: the Boy Who RanAt 63 Riversdale Road in Avondale, there stands a protected, heritage scheduled Norfolk Pine. About 80 metres away in Riversdale Reserve stands another Norfolk Pine that isn’t heritage scheduled. Both, though, appear to be linked to a single story.
One man owned the land on which both trees now stand, from 1907 through to 1919, when the part now included in Riversdale Reserve was sold to Timespannerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11990716041045862669noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4466403878576837579.post-87231095027121545442022-08-05T15:00:00.000+12:002022-08-05T15:00:31.217+12:00Cecil Herdson, and his gold-toothed dogFrom around 1926 to late 1935, Cecil Hastings Herdson and his dental practice was part of the developing suburb of Avondale. He used the rooms above Arthur Maxwell’s pharmacy next to the police station on Great North Road, taking over from Robert Allely, Avondale chemist-dentist from the 1910s. A breeder of hunting dogs, his name lived on in many of the minds of those who had been in Timespannerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11990716041045862669noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4466403878576837579.post-73267118293751655082022-08-05T10:20:00.001+12:002022-08-05T10:20:45.055+12:00That certain Ligar Canal image ...One thing with going back to a research project that's been simmering away for a few years on the ol' back burner, is that things can be looked at again and reassessed in wider context. That probably won't do a lot to get the description changed/altered on the three main sites that use this image, but -- here's a bit of a go.According to the Auckland War Memorial Museum, who have a copy of the Timespannerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11990716041045862669noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4466403878576837579.post-85214856403587691062022-08-05T09:43:00.000+12:002022-08-05T09:43:23.858+12:00Mrs Alice O’Shea: the Blind DressmakerOnce again, a dip into the Christchurch Press snippets online from the 1950s has brought up a snapshot of life in Point Chevalier.“Mrs Alice O’Shea, of Point Chevalier, Auckland, still cuts out her own dresses though her eyesight was destroyed in a motor accident more than 20 years ago. Before the accident she had earned her living as a dressmaker. She cuts out her dresses to a Timespannerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11990716041045862669noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4466403878576837579.post-14364004339622078262022-08-05T09:38:00.000+12:002022-08-05T09:38:08.293+12:00The quite ordinary Mr Kontze of Tui Street (Left) The Press (Christchurch) 2 May 1951The news snippet at right caught my attention one day. Hard to miss a report of someone painting “SCAB” on what was otherwise quite likely a quiet, unassuming house in an Auckland suburb full of the working class.George Frederick William Kontze had really only two brief periods in his otherwise ordinary life where the media focussed on him — this Timespannerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11990716041045862669noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4466403878576837579.post-21752266377905253842022-08-05T09:26:00.001+12:002022-08-05T09:26:54.972+12:00Fatal short-cut: the death of Frank Lane, 1954The Elephant House at Auckland Zoo. Detail from Henry Winkelmann image, 1-W0652, Auckland Libraries Heritage CollectionsThis year, Auckland Zoo looks set to celebrate its centenary in December, depending on how the pandemic goes. This year also, the zoo has said goodbye to one of their two remaining elephants, and is set (at the time of writing) to say goodbye as well also to Burma, the last zoo Timespannerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11990716041045862669noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4466403878576837579.post-13844125394224274772022-07-31T15:17:00.000+12:002022-07-31T15:17:14.795+12:00The lonely death of David SnodgrassPart of the block of West Queen Street between Wyndham (left) and Swanson Streets, from 1865. David Snodgrass' bakery would have been around the fourth building from the corner. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections, 4-415Early Auckland baker David Snodgrass died, alone and far from his home, in the early hours of April 20 1895.He was born in Leith, Scotland, on 16 March 1820, and arrived here Timespannerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11990716041045862669noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4466403878576837579.post-68895119691579856052022-07-31T14:00:00.000+12:002022-07-31T14:00:19.593+12:00Three faces of the United Service HotelThe three faces of the United Service Hotel, corner Queen and Wellesley Street West, Auckland.Originally called the Rifle Volunteers Hotel from 1860 by first publican William Baker, John and George Rayner changed the name to United Service Hotel in late June 1861.The wooden first hotel (left) was destroyed completely in the September 1873 fire, but rebuilt in brick in 1874 by John Hancock (centreTimespannerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11990716041045862669noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4466403878576837579.post-85524892298276436562022-07-31T13:55:00.000+12:002022-07-31T13:55:09.523+12:00Anton Seuffert's first Wellesley Street workshop 4-86, Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections [detail]The highlighted building in this c.1866 image of Wellesley Street West was Samuel Henry Webb's "Royal Harmonium and Pianoforte Saloon", with the United Service Hotel (the original wooden version, to the right, at the Queen Street corner.)
But from 1860 to 1864, this was the site of the first workshop run by Bohemian craftsman Anton Timespannerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11990716041045862669noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4466403878576837579.post-58699337251194142872022-07-31T13:43:00.002+12:002022-07-31T13:43:30.545+12:00Collapse of the Beehive Toy and Fancy Repository, 1865 536-Album-285-10-1, c.1864, Auckland Libraries Heritage CollectionsThe old Market Reserve block on Queen Street (at right, Aotea Square to Civic Theatre). Not just street numbering shifted there, but legal descriptions as well.Anyway, while researching the Wai Horotiu stream, I spotted The Beehive store in a couple of images from the mid 1860s (centre, highlighted), and wondered what Timespannerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11990716041045862669noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4466403878576837579.post-3551490088347370602022-07-31T13:35:00.001+12:002022-07-31T13:35:35.040+12:00The assault on Daniel Caley, 1868View looking along Queen Street from near Karangahape Road, c.1860s. 4-399, Auckland Libraries Heritage CollectionsOne Saturday night in March 1868, at 10 pm, bakery owner Daniel Caley finished up for the night, left his shop beside the Thistle Hotel on Queen Street, locked the door, and started his walk home, up the hill toward Karangahape Road and his home and family.Caley was born on the Isle Timespannerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11990716041045862669noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4466403878576837579.post-88212085906711145042022-07-31T13:28:00.000+12:002022-07-31T13:28:17.495+12:00Harriet Powley, and the Queen Street Fire of 1873 4-418, Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections [detail]The highlighted building, I believe, was the one used by Harriet Powley for her millinery and drapery business. It had three storeys, the two you see here, and a lower cellar, and in a sitting room on the ground floor, behind the main shop (each storey had two rooms), the great 1873 Queen Street west fire started in unexplained Timespannerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11990716041045862669noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4466403878576837579.post-72947218916060248472022-07-31T13:21:00.003+12:002022-07-31T13:21:51.345+12:00William Smithson, and his Ship Inn Image: 4-415, Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections [detail]The Trafalgar Inn on Queen Street, 1860s, between Wyndham (left) and Swanson Streets. From 1908, this was part of the Milne & Choyce building.
Before it was the Trafalgar, it was the Ship Inn, built by William Smithson in 1842 after the local pub keepers refused to buy Smithson's products from his first brewery set up in Timespannerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11990716041045862669noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4466403878576837579.post-91296709707451662362022-07-31T13:15:00.000+12:002022-07-31T13:15:10.723+12:00Ephraim Mills, and his Market Hotel Detail from 4-53, Auckland Libraries Heritage CollectionsThe Market Hotel mid 1860s, at the corner of Cook Street and Grey Street (later Greys Ave), Auckland. The original version dated from 1865, and the last version closed in 1969, demolished early 1970.The originator was one Ephraim Mills, born in Gloucestershire in 1836. He arrived in Auckland in 1855, and took up work as a builder and Timespannerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11990716041045862669noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4466403878576837579.post-67891036032713795462022-07-31T12:42:00.000+12:002022-07-31T12:42:40.107+12:00King David Sykes and his Turkish Baths"Looking south along Queen Street from the Wellesley St intersection, showing the premises of R H Bartlett, R Hobbs, F Hewin and Brother, the Army and Navy Hotel and the firebell tower on the corner of Greys Ave (centre)." [Detail, c.1875] Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections 4-67 Somewhere on the left side of this image, a man named King David Sykes started Auckland’s first Turkish Timespannerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11990716041045862669noreply@blogger.com1