A view from the mill

As mentioned in my posts on Partington's Mill, while the Auckland landmark stood, it proved a magnet for photographers keen to capture scenic vistas of the surrounding area on film. This shot is one of them, taken looking generally eastward towards the Domain and the hospital.

According to the Auckland Library photographers database, William Thompson Wilson died in 1917 (aged only 34), and did quite a bit of photography around the time of the 1913-1914 Auckland Exhibition, so this gives me a rough period for the postcard.

I wondered what view shaft was used for the image. My rough estimate is in these overlays (using aerial images from 1940 and 2008, from the Auckland Council website. With Partington's Mill as the yellow spot (the more recent photo is, of course, an approximation of the now vanished structure's site), the dotted lines are an indication of total view, and the solid lines appear to be the view Wilson actually used for the postcard.

The houses in the foreground are either under the motorway these days, or replaced by modern buildings, as for Grafton Road leading up to the hospital site.

The hospital buildings in Wilson's image are quite clear, for being just a detail part of the whole ...

... while the Domain itself looks quite empty. Not for long, though. The hospital expanded from this point on, and the trees grew. By 1940, this view had gone. Today, it's unrecognisable.