Harbor / Tyne Street Historic Area
The Harbor / Tyne Street Historic Area is a cultural and historical area monument in Oamaru in the north of the Otago region on the South Island of New Zealand . It includes Harbor Street, the parallel Tyne Street and parts of the cross streets Itchen and Wansbeck Street.
Most of the buildings were constructed in the Victorian style of Oamaru Stone , a white limestone , in the second half of the 19th century .
The area connects to the formerly important seaport of Oamaru and was the economic center of the city at that time. This moved north to Thames Street in the 1880s, a factor that contributed to the preservation of the old building fabric.
Despite the lavishly designed facades, they were functional buildings such as warehouses, banks, hotels and office buildings. Even today, a considerable part of the building is used economically, for example as a warehouse or workshop. Under the aegis of the Oamaru Whitestone Trust , another focus is placed on the development of the area as a tourist attraction.
The economic development of the area began shortly after 1858 when the area was surveyed for the establishment of a village. The following year, the first lots were sold between Tyne Street and Tees Street. HC Hertslet's Guest House, a Trail, Roxby and Co. warehouse, and the Northern Hotel were among the earliest buildings in the late 1850s. The first development was on the west side of Tyne Street, the then "lake promenade". None of these wooden structures have survived.
The land between the sea and Tyne Street remained wasteland until 1874 . The Oamaru Harbor Board , established that year, received the area as part of 171 acres that were made available to it for the development of the seaport. It was divided into plots and leased. The Harbor Board itself also established its office in 1876 on the north of Harbor Street.
For a few years between the mid-1860s and the early 1880s, the area was the city's economic center. The prosperity was based on grain and wool, and from 1882 on meat, which was shipped from this seaport to other parts of New Zealand and overseas.
The construction of more new buildings was halted by an economic crisis in the first half of the 1880s, which resulted in a drastic drop in wool prices and, at the same time, the disappearance of public spending.
When New Zealand's economy recovered over the next decade, Oamaru's days as a local business hub were over. Since February 1877 there was a rail connection to Christchurch , from September 1878 to Dunedin . There was also competition from better developed port facilities in Dunedin and Timaru . Both of these diminished the importance of Oamarus as a trading location. However, the city's weak economic growth over the past century contributed to the preservation of the buildings.
Monument protection
The area was registered by the New Zealand Historic Places Trust on December 16, 1994 under number 7064 as a "Historic Area". There are several individual monuments in the protected area:
- AH Maude's stores
- AMP Society Building
- Anderson and Co. Flour and Grain Merchants Store
- Bank of New Zealand Building
- Bee and Brother's Store
- Connell and Clowe's Store
- Criterion Hotel
- Custom House
- Exchange Chambers
- Finch & Co Wine Merchants Building
- JG Fletts Bookstore / Royal Alfred Lodge
- Meeks Grain Elevator Building
- Meek's Grain Store
- Neill Brothers' Store
- New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Company Warehouse
- Oamaru Harbor Board Office
- Oamaru Mail Office
- Old Northern Hotel
- Scottish Hall
- Shrimski's Sale Rooms
- Smith's Grain Store
- Star and Garter Hotel
- Sumpter's Grain Store
- Terrace of Shops
- TH Brown's Auction Market
- TH Brown's Store
- Townsend's Store
- Union Bank of Australia Building
- Union Offices
Web links
- Oamaru Historic Area. Historic Area. In: New Zealand Heritage List / Rārangi Kōrero . Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga , September 25, 1986, accessed September 24, 2019 .
Coordinates: 45 ° 6 ′ 11 ″ S , 170 ° 58 ′ 12 ″ O