Early history of the site Prior to the arrival of European settlement, there was Maori occupation on today's Symonds Street ridge and Queen Street gully, known as Horotiu. The ridge may have been particularly well-regarded for its fertile soils and was cultivated by Ngati Whatua in the 1830s, when food was grown to supply the increasing number of Pakeha visiting the Waitemata harbour. After Auckland was chosen as the site of the colonial capital in 1840, the ridge was laid out as the epicentre of administrative power in the new colony, incorporating the British governor's house, the Albert Barracks - the largest military installation in the country - and the general assembly, where delegates from throughout the country gathered to discuss political matters. Following the departure of the colonial administration to the newly designated capital at Wellington in 1865 and the withdrawal of British troops shortly afterwards, the ridge consolidated its reputation as a high-status neighbourhood in the 1870s with the construction of desirable housing for the wealthy and places of genteel recreation such as Choral Hall and Albert Park. The site occupied by the former shop at 9 Grafton Road was part of a larger area of land on the southeastern side of Symonds Street that was initially set aside for military purposes. By 1860, potential military use appears to have been discounted as it was part of 79 ha (196 acres) designated under the Public Domain Act passed in that year. A number of timber houses were constructed on Grafton Road in the 1860s, particularly on the northeast side between Symonds and Stanley Streets, and both sides of the road on the opposite side of the gully. Perpetually short of funds, the Domain Board subdivided the land in 1870 putting 29 allotments up for lease. The site on the corner of Grafton Road and what was formerly the southern section of Wynyard Street, was leased to auctioneer Henry Keesing (the younger) for a term of 21 years. Arriving in Auckland in 1843 with other members of the family, Keesing (1825-1896) worked as a storekeeper, general dealer and commission agent and became a prominent member of the Auckland Hebrew congregation of which his father was the first president. Construction of the building The earliest part of the building appears to have been constructed as a timber dwelling at an unknown date between Keesing's purchase in 1870 and 1877, when a 'wood building' was recorded on the site. It may have been erected shortly after 1873 when a builder, James Paul, took over Keesing's lease. Paul, who may or may not have lived in the house, is listed in Council valuation records as late as 1891 as the lessee of the allotment. Constructed fronting Grafton Road, the building appears in early photographs as a small two-storey dwelling of Georgian design. Rectangular in plan at this time, it has a centrally located doorway flanked on each side by a window on the ground floor. The upper façade to Grafton Road has three windows with another window overlooking Wynyard Street. The steeply hipped roof with virtually no eaves has two tall chimneys - the front one suggesting a parlour in the northwest corner on the ground floor. The windows, tucked high under the eaves, are 12-light double-hung sashes. By 1877 there was at least one outbuilding on the site. In 1880 surveyor Francis Henry Burslem (1800-1888), at that time employed on the office staff of the Lands and Survey Department in Auckland, became the occupant of the residence. Born in the United Kingdom, Burslem had spent time in New South Wales and Tasmania. He came to New Zealand in 1862 offering his services as a military engineer where he was engaged in surveying confiscated land at the close of the Waikato campaign of the New Zealand Wars. Appointed a Goldfields Surveyor in 1868, he was also engaged by the Auckland Provincial Council as Provincial Architect. The footprint of the house as it appears in 1882 is L-shaped, suggesting that a small addition had been made to the building's north side. In 1883 Burslem returned to Sydney where he died five years later. Between 1883/4 and 1886/7 the house was successively occupied by a William Robinson and Duncan McNab. Subsequent use and development Retail activity was introduced to the site by 1887 when grocer John Brennan became tenant. Brennan moved on during the following year, the first of a succession of grocer tenants to occupy the building over the next three-quarters of a century. Conversion of part of the building to a shop may reflect the changing character of the neighbourhood as an economic depression took hold and large dwellings in the area became increasingly used as boarding houses and lodgings. In 1886, a large area in nearby Grafton Gully was also leased by Chinese market gardeners for conversion to horticulture. In 1896 dairyman Cornelius Taylor, was granted a 33-year lease of the property and undertook major alterations to provide purpose-built retail space. Two bays were added to the northern end of the building and its overall height was increased by the addition of a cornice and parapet, providing it with a more commercial appearance. The 12-light window sashes in the Grafton Road facade of the earlier building were replaced as part of its modernisation. Large windows for the display of goods were probably created in the new addition, contrasting with the more domestic arrangement of the shop prior to this period. The extended building with its modified roof form appears in a 1901 photo. A verandah was probably part of this work as four small circles indicated inside the kerb on a circa 1908 plan of Auckland suggest verandah posts. Its canopy would have sheltered produce displayed on the public footpath and in the shop windows, as well as encouraging public congregation beside the display area. Beautification of the street also occurred with the planting of London Plane trees on either side of Grafton Road in the 1890s, including immediately outside the shop. Grocer-occupants of 10 years standing or more were P.H. Swain (1903-1913), Henry Arthur Edward Dunsford (20 years until 1939) and John Gilmour who occupied the premises for 16 years until 1955. The last retailer was John Rayner who established his I.G.A. Foodmarket in the building in circa 1960 and vacated the premises in April 1966. Over the store's eight-decade existence, the catchment it served changed markedly. Until 1916, when the Auckland Grammar School relocated from Symonds Street to Epsom, the store is said to have been used as the pupils' tuck-shop. Initially the shop served the needs of the well-to-do citizens of the large houses along lower Symonds Street, Wynyard Street and Grafton Road. The shop's clientele is likely to have increasingly given way to the more transient residents of the boarding houses and flats that dominated the area in the early to mid-twentieth century. The building was later the local dairy for those who worked in the office accommodation and doctors' rooms that occupied many of the old houses in the area, and it met the day-to-day needs of students and staff on the University of Auckland campus. During much of this period, local corner shops were a hub of neighbourhood activity, where conversation was exchanged and news distributed. The property was acquired by the Crown in 1961. The University of Auckland had been asked in 1956 to accept Princes Street as a 'permanent home'. Formally opened in May 1883 the Auckland University College initially occupied the disused District Court House in Eden Street. By 1965 the University was operating from over 80 buildings, 45 of which were old residences or private hotels. The surrounding urban landscape was transformed during the 1960s and 1970s by the construction of a series of substantial tower blocks to serve the campus. These included the School of Engineering completed in 1969, and the Human Sciences Building and the School of Architecture Building constructed in the 1970s on the southeast side of Symonds Street. Improvements in services and amenities for students during the 1960s saw the building at 9 Grafton Road become the home of the University's Student Counselling Service upon the appointment of the first student counsellor in 1966. The former shop was converted to provide a waiting room, counselling rooms and other facilities. For at least two decades from the early 1970s the building served as the offices of the Auckland University Press (AUP), the second of three independent University Presses established in New Zealand in the 1960s. Formally established in 1972, the Press had two staff members, including Dennis McEldowney who was awarded an honorary doctorate upon his retirement as Managing Editor in 1986. The AUP's publishing spans many fields, but its focus was - and remains - on New Zealand and Pacific history and literature. In the 1970s it pioneered a series that brought back near-forgotten New Zealand novelists including Robin Hyde and Jane Mander to a reading public. It also published works by noted contemporary New Zealand authors and academics, who regularly visited the premises. Writers published included Kendrick Smithyman (1922-95), Elizabeth Smither (1941 -), Allen Curnow (1911-2001), C.K. Stead, Bill Manhire (1946-), Albert Wendt; and historians and biographers such as E.H. McCormack (1906-1995), Keith Sinclair (1922-1993) and Judith Binney. The AUP's books were also sold by the Oxford University Press (OUP) which for a time rented an office in the building. The building's narrow passages and steep stairs, however, ruled it out for the celebration of book launches, university open days and similar events. Minor alterations were carried out in the 1980s and 1990s. The building was subsequently used until 2004 to accommodate the Anthropology Department's Centre for Archaeological Research. It is still occupied by the Department as offices. Currently, increasingly few houses of colonial origin survive on the Symonds Street ridge to indicate early residential activity in the area, and the building is also the only timber shop of colonial origin currently known to survive in this part of the colonial city. Very few timber corner shops of nineteenth-century date are known to survive elsewhere within the formal boundaries of the colonial city.