Durie Hill Elevator
The Durie Hill Elevator is a public elevator in Wanganui on the North Island of New Zealand . It connects Anzac Parade with Blyth Street on Durie Hill.
The building including the access tunnel was registered by the NZHPT on June 28, 1984 under number 164 as a Category 1 Historic Place .
When Durie Hill became part of Borough Wanganui in 1910, it became necessary to build a transport link from the town to the settlement on the hill. After proposals to build a cable car had been rejected for reasons of cost, it was decided to build an elevator including an access tunnel. The design of the building comes from J. Ball and E. Crow. Since the community was unwilling to bear the financial risk itself, a private company, the Durie Town Elevator Co. under the direction of AE Wilson and WJ Polson, was founded to build it.
Contractors Maxwell and Mann began construction in 1916. A 205 meter long, 3 meter high and 2.7 meter wide access tunnel and a 66 m deep elevator shaft were dug and both lined with reinforced concrete. A 9.7 meter high elevator tower with a flat roof was erected above the shaft. The elevator was opened on August 2, 1919 by Polson's wife.
The power supply was initially provided by the tram's power grid with 500 volts direct current; after the railway operations had ceased, a rectifier was procured for operation on the alternating current network.
The fare was set by the municipality at a maximum of 4 days for the trip up the hill and 2 days for the return journey, for children each 1 day less. Initially, the fare for six round trips was one shilling . Since June 1, 1942, the elevator has been operated by the Wanganui City Council .
The elevator allowed the construction of the architect Samuel Hurst Seager planned suburban Durie Hill Garden Suburb in 1920, the first modern suburb of New Zealand. It is still used today by the residents of Durie Hill, but also by visitors who have a good view of Wanganui and the surrounding area from the hill.
Web links
Durie Hill Elevator (English). Register of Historic Places. New Zealand Historic Places Trust.
literature
- New Zealand Historic Places , Ben Schrader: Garden Cities and Planning , No. 43, September 1993, pp. 30-33
- Wanganui Chronicle, August 4, 1919
Coordinates: 39 ° 56 ′ 12.1 ″ S , 175 ° 3 ′ 38.9 ″ E