Once a gigantic and imposing structure, the New Zealand Elevator Company’s Building was designed by Ōamaru architectural partnership Forrester and Lemon in 1881 to house a gargantuan machine used to move, sort and dry grain. It sits at the intersection of Itchen, Tyne and Humber Streets on Harbour Board land. This building stands as a monument to a marvel of engineering and the culmination of the booming grain-based economy that saw Ōamaru flourish in the 1870s and 1880s. This building has outstanding technological value and special archaeological, architectural, and historical significance.
The lagoon and creek were important sources of kāinga nohoanga and kāinga mahinga to local Māori who resided at Makotukutuku / Cape Wanbrow. The development of the harbour, the introduction of rail, the establishment of a high-pressure Borough water supply as a source of hydraulic power and a booming grain industry created the right conditions for this ambitious enterprise. James Aitken, a Scottish grain merchant went into business with John and Thomas Meek (J & T Meek) to erect an American style grain elevator, a complement to the Meek’s flour milling and grain operations with a desire to fill a gap in the market to capitalise on previously unfinished grain.
The building replaced an earlier single storey store building owned by the Meek brothers. Essentially a massive machine sheathed in a skin of Ōamaru stone, the Elevator was a monumental five-storey building of trapezoidal shape surmounted by a mansard roof with dormers and neo-classical treatment on its public-facing west and south-west facades. The remaining walls were plain and interspersed with rectangular double-hung sash windows to the fourth floor and egress and exit for a railway siding to pass laterally though the building from west to east. It was twenty metres wide and sixty metres long, using phenomenal quantities of materials in its construction; 150,000 cubic feet (4,248 m) of stone and 500,000 feet (1500 m3) of timber. The main body of the store was divided into 68 large bins (of two sizes – holding 1200 and 600 bushels respectively) – providing storage for 280,000 bushels (8400 tons) of grain. Five men could work 1666 bushels (50 tons) of grain per hour. The hydro powered elevator ran on water piped from the Borough supply. It was the first elevator in the southern hemisphere and likely the grandest in the world having been built of stone and in a neo-classical style which integrated it into the streetscape. The Elevator Building opened in May 1883 but never realised its full potential as by then the local grain boom was over; frozen meat was the new primary export having been established the previous year.
In January 1920, the store was gutted by a devastating fire. The design of the building encouraged air flow and, the grain and huge wooden bins fuelled the fire. The roof collapsed, the rear portion was gutted, and walls collapsed as a result of the damage caused by the fire. The top two floors were removed. The building was remodelled, and J. and T. Meek continued to use it as a grain store until the 1950s. The Elevator Building was sold to foundry owners G. T. Gillies Limited who had a lease on the land from 1994 for 21 years. Since 2015, the New Zealand Elevator Company’s Building has become home to Steampunk HQ, an iconic movement associated with Ōamaru, identified as the Steampunk capital of the world.
The lagoon and creek were important sources of kāinga nohoanga and kāinga mahinga to local Māori who resided at Makotukutuku / Cape Wanbrow. The development of the harbour, the introduction of rail, the establishment of a high-pressure Borough water supply as a source of hydraulic power and a booming grain industry created the right conditions for this ambitious enterprise. James Aitken, a Scottish grain merchant went into business with John and Thomas Meek (J & T Meek) to erect an American style grain elevator, a complement to the Meek’s flour milling and grain operations with a desire to fill a gap in the market to capitalise on previously unfinished grain.
The building replaced an earlier single storey store building owned by the Meek brothers. Essentially a massive machine sheathed in a skin of Ōamaru stone, the Elevator was a monumental five-storey building of trapezoidal shape surmounted by a mansard roof with dormers and neo-classical treatment on its public-facing west and south-west facades. The remaining walls were plain and interspersed with rectangular double-hung sash windows to the fourth floor and egress and exit for a railway siding to pass laterally though the building from west to east. It was twenty metres wide and sixty metres long, using phenomenal quantities of materials in its construction; 150,000 cubic feet (4,248 m) of stone and 500,000 feet (1500 m3) of timber. The main body of the store was divided into 68 large bins (of two sizes – holding 1200 and 600 bushels respectively) – providing storage for 280,000 bushels (8400 tons) of grain. Five men could work 1666 bushels (50 tons) of grain per hour. The hydro powered elevator ran on water piped from the Borough supply. It was the first elevator in the southern hemisphere and likely the grandest in the world having been built of stone and in a neo-classical style which integrated it into the streetscape. The Elevator Building opened in May 1883 but never realised its full potential as by then the local grain boom was over; frozen meat was the new primary export having been established the previous year.
In January 1920, the store was gutted by a devastating fire. The design of the building encouraged air flow and, the grain and huge wooden bins fuelled the fire. The roof collapsed, the rear portion was gutted, and walls collapsed as a result of the damage caused by the fire. The top two floors were removed. The building was remodelled, and J. and T. Meek continued to use it as a grain store until the 1950s. The Elevator Building was sold to foundry owners G. T. Gillies Limited who had a lease on the land from 1994 for 21 years. Since 2015, the New Zealand Elevator Company’s Building has become home to Steampunk HQ, an iconic movement associated with Ōamaru, identified as the Steampunk capital of the world.
