Duigan’s Buildings in Whanganui’s historic city centre is a 1902 Edwardian commercial building with a history little hinted at by its modest exterior. It has outstanding historical significance for its strong association with the history of homosexual lives in Aotearoa New Zealand. As the office of Whanganui Mayor Charles Mackay, and the place where he shot D’Arcy Cresswell when he threatened to reveal Mackay’s homosexuality, it represents the historical criminalisation of male homosexuality and how lives were shaped by the threat of incarceration and social shame attendant on being homosexual. The active public rehabilitation of Charles Mackay during the gay liberation and homosexual law reform period of the late twentieth century associates the building with a historically significant civil rights movement. As a place strongly connected with historical themes that were traditionally silenced and made invisible by prejudice and shame, Duigan’s Buildings possess rarity value. The Whanganui region, dominated by the river of the same name, has a long history of ahikāroa and kaitiakitanga by tangata whenua. For iwi and hapū, Te Awa o Whanganui, the Whanganui River, is a living being that physically and spiritually nurtures the land and people between Tongariro Maunga and the sea. For centuries it was a major food resource and transport route. In 2017 the fundamental importance of the river was recognised in law when it was declared a legal person, Te Awa Tupua. Duigan’s Buildings was constructed in 1902 for local estate agent and auctioneer Charles Duigan. It was a commercial building, housing Duigan’s business and a number of other different tenants, including the Waitotara County Council, the Wanganui Hospital Board, the New Zealand State Coal Department, and the likes of solicitors, accountants, and valuers. One tenant was lawyer and mayor of Whanganui Charles Ewing Mackay (1875-1929). Mackay became publicly notorious when he shot D’Arcy Cresswell in his office one Saturday in 1920. Cresswell had discovered Mackay was homosexual and said he would publicly reveal this if Mackay did not resign as mayor. Mackay subsequently pleaded guilty to attempted murder and was sentenced to 15 years in jail with hard labour. Historians believe this harsh sentence was influenced by his homosexuality, at the time both legally and socially prohibited. Duigan’s Buildings has been occupied by Meteor Printers since 1949. Mackay’s office, where the shooting took place, was used as staff tearoom. The building is highly authentic and intact, looking much as it did in Mackay’s day. It retains almost all the original external ornamentation and the timber floors, doors, match-lined walls, board and batten ceilings, fireplace surrounds and the wide timber staircase.
Location
List Entry Information
Overview
Detailed List Entry
Status
Listed
List Entry Status
Historic Place Category 1
Access
Private/No Public Access
List Number
1996
Date Entered
4th April 2023
Date of Effect
5th May 2023
City/District Council
Whanganui District
Region
Horizons (Manawatū-Whanganui) Region
Extent of List Entry
Extent includes part of the land described as Lot 1 DP 34119 (RT WN12C/33), Wellington Land District and the building known as Duigan’s Buildings thereon (Refer to map in Appendix 1 of the List entry report for further information).
Legal description
Lot 1 DP 34119 (RT WN12C/33), Wellington Land District
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