The Stone Store and the Lichfield Hotel

The former Stone Store, believed to have been constructed in the early to mid 1880s, is a remnant ancillary building of the former Lichfield Hotel and is one of three surviving masonry buildings erected during the first years of Lichfield's development. The settlement planned for the centre of what became known as the Selwyn Estate, was part of 80,000 ha (200,000 acres) purchased from Ngati Raukawa by speculators known collectively as the Patetere Land Association (later the New Zealand and Thames Valley Land Company). The township was initially planned as a city of 8,000 people, aiming to take advantage of the opening up of the Waikato through the construction of a railway, including a 68km (42 mile) line between Morrinsville and Lichfield, which was begun by the Thames Valley and Rotorua Railway Company in 1884. The route was intended to eventually extend to Rotorua, following the government's decision to promote the resort as an international tourist destination.

A survey plan of Lichfield incorporating over 700 lots was completed by 1 September 1884. Lot 474 - on which the Stone Store is located - was purchased by hotel proprietor Alexander Heany in April 1885. Heany came from nearby Cambridge, like many of the entrepreneurs behind the Patetere Land Association. The lot provided a prime site for a hotel, being located on the corner of Penkridge Street (now Pepperill Road) and the main street - Selwyn Street - opposite the proposed railway station in Lichfield. The railway line was in advanced state of preparation by the time of Heany's purchase and was eventually opened on 21 June 1886. Heany's two-storey hotel was evidently the only such premises in the nascent settlement and was well established by 9 April 1886, when 30 members of a group of 50 prospective land purchasers visited Lichfield and were accommodated in the building overnight. The hotel may have been built as early as 1882, prior to Heany's formal purchase of the land.

The Stone Store is believed to have been erected after the main premises as a detached structure to the rear of the hotel. The most commonly given date for its construction is prior to 1886. The structure is said to have been built by two stonemasons as a way of paying Heany for their board and lodging. The stone was quarried from a local outcrop, pre-dating the more commercial exploitation of Putaruru stone that occurred from the 1930s onwards, when it was used to clad numerous government buildings. The employment of stone differs from the timber construction of the main hotel, and could have been partly due to the vulnerability of outbuildings to fire as a result of the consumption of alcohol on the hotel premises. Another stone structure erected at a similar time in Lichfield was used as a bakehouse, where fire was also a significant risk. The main façade of the Stone Store looked out towards the railway station and was designed to be accessed directly from the street.

The original function of the building is believed to have been that of a shop or store, presumably selling general provisions and equipment to settlers in the surrounding area. Its comparatively ornate Italianate façade and heated interior is consistent with a retail or similar commercial use. Other forms of public activity could have been accommodated, and at one stage, Heany is said to have operated a billiard saloon from the building. Billiards was a popular game associated with public houses in the early colonial period, although the introduction of the Licensing Act of 1881 curtailed some publicans from entertaining their customers with such amusements, particularly in areas where the prohibition movement was influential.

Unfortunately for Heany, Lichfield failed to develop as a large township as planned. Rather than passing through the settlement, the rail extension from Morrinsville to Rotorua was commenced from Putaruru, leaving the Lichfield station as a terminus at the end of a minor branch. The economic depression of the late 1880s also created difficulties, as did the effects of cobalt deficiency on farming in the surrounding region. By December 1890, Heany was bankrupt, and in 1891 or shortly thereafter, his hotel was destroyed by fire.

A smaller hotel was subsequently erected on the site, with beer being served in the Stone Store in the meantime to maintain the licence. A photograph of the newer hotel shows it as a hip-roofed single-storey building, with a verandah on two sides and possibly a kitchen to the rear. The same image shows the Stone Store in the background, with a chimney and a roof that is hipped at both ends.

In December 1894, Auckland brothers, Lawrence D. Nathan (1847?-1905) and Nathan Alfred Nathan (1849?-1931), wine and spirit and general merchants, purchased Heany's property. L.D. Nathan and Company had been established by the Nathans' father, David Nathan, one of New Zealand's most influential citizens of the Jewish faith. In December 1895, the Nathan brothers transferred the licence, the hotelier - James Sherley - and probably the store business to Putaruru's first hotel. Sherley had been manager at Lichfield for two years and went on to operate a store adjoining his new premises, following the same pattern as at the Lichfield Hotel. It is possible that the timber hotel was moved to Putaruru as the nucleus of the new premises, a fate not technologically possible for the stone outbuilding. Following Sherley's departure, it is said that the Stone Store was vacant for some time.

Use as a Bank

During the later 1890s, ongoing economic depression continued to thwart any prospect of Lichfield developing into the city envisaged by its early promoters. Prior to 1902, the railway track between Lichfield and Putaruru was removed. The assets of the Thames Valley Land Company were forfeited to the Bank of New Zealand (BNZ), itself in great financial difficulty. The BNZ's interests in the land passed to the Assets Realisation Board. Ultimately, much of the Selwyn Estate was subdivided by the government in 1906 for close farming.

It may have been during this difficult period that the Stone Stone was initially used as a bank. The Bank of New Zealand, which was advancing money to the Thames Valley Land Company, is believed to have used the building - still owned by the Nathans - as a base from which to pay Company employees as well as hands from the Waotu sawmill, established in 1900. A photograph taken in 1926 shows the words 'BANK' on its main façade. The building's use by the BNZ may have straddled changes in its ownership: in April 1916, the building was purchased by Thomas Parker of Lichfield, a stock inspector, and six months later it was onsold to William Yendle, a Putaruru butcher. Yendle seems not to have used the premises as a retail outlet.

The second of two name panels on the building visible in 1926 bears the lettering 'AARD', a long distance tourist motor coach and service car enterprise that operated mainly in the North Island. Formed in 1918, the AARD Motor Services Association declined in 1928 when many services were purchased by New Zealand Railways Road Services. The Stone Store may have been an AARD depot at Lichfield during the 1920s. Emptied again during the Great Depression of the late 1920s and 1930s, the building became a rendezvous for unemployed men looking for work. A photograph published in the same year shows it in a substantially run-down state.

The Stone Store and New Zealand literary figures

In the summer of 1927-1928, New Zealand literary figures A.R.D. Fairburn (1904-1957) and R.A.K. Mason (1905-1971) are said to have carved their names into the building's stone front. Both Fairburn and Mason were major poets with active political interests. Rex Fairburn is considered to have been one of the most important writers of his generation, whose output was extremely diverse, embracing literature, the visual arts and politics. Ron Mason has been described as New Zealand's 'first wholly original, unmistakably gifted poet', who later became a playwright and prominent trade unionist.

In 1912, Mason went to live with his aunt, Isabella Foster Kells, attending school at Lichfield for four years. As a young man he returned to stay with his aunt at the end of 1922, and worked harvesting on the nearby farms haymaking for the next seven summers. Rex Fairburn joined Mason for the harvesting season at the end of 1927, staying at the 'abandoned and semi-derelict stone store, popularly known as the Bank ... which now provided shelter for passing swaggers'. The Bank's inhabitant at this time was George Parks, sometime 'rabbiter, "hobo", railway porter, bushman, hawker, harvester, road-mender, carter and slaughterman' - Mason's first acquaintance with a casual rural worker, a type that would later recur in his writing.

At the time of Fairburn's stay the stone walls of the store were intact, the roof was serviceable, but the floor had huge holes. Parks, who occupied one corner of the building, found Fairburn his own piece of floor and gave him a bed of sacks filled with straw. Meals were cooked over an open fire. Rabbit traps and old car parts hung on the building's interior.

Fairburn returned to Auckland after a short stay, incapacitated by hay fever and long working days. Although harvest work was not conducive for him, Fairburn's experience in this countryside emerged eight years later as part of a major poetic statement. 'Dominion', a poem consisting of five loosely related sections, was a critical analysis of New Zealand society and history, and is considered to be the most significant New Zealand poetic work to emerge in the 1930s. Both Fairburn and Mason made a substantial contribution to the development of New Zealand literature. Mason's best poems, in particular, are still numbered as among the finest in New Zealand literature, and marked the beginnings of serious modern poetry in this country.

Conversion to a church and subsequent use

The building's fortune's improved in 1946 when it was renovated for use by the Lichfield Interdenominational Church, the Trustees of the Yendle Estate having gifted the property. Divine service had previously been held at the local school. The stone building was given a new floor, and the interior walls were lined with timber. The kitchen lean-to probably also dates from this time or shortly after. The roof, similarly, is likely to have been repaired and modified. An official opening and a combined denominations' dedication service was held in June 1946.

The building was initially for the use of Anglican, Baptist, Methodist and Presbyterian members of the community, although the Lutheran Church was later accommodated. As well as being employed for church services by different faiths, it was also intended to be used for Bible Classes and Sunday Schools. The first burial service held there was that for Mr J.H. Burgess who had had considerable involvement in the renovations. The interment took place elsewhere. Baptisms and marriages were also carried out. The new use of the building occurred after improvements in farming techniques and the reinstatement of the railway to Lichfield as part of a line to Tokoroa had helped to revive the settlement's fortunes.

By the early 1970s, however, the building again faced an uncertain future as people began to leave Lichfield, and churches were built in other areas. Services other than those held on special occasions ceased in 1973, with the Anglicans being the last to remain. Suggestions in July 1974 for the building's future included possible use as a local museum. A timber toilet block was moved onto the site in 1976 when the Stone Store became clubrooms for the Tokoroa Vintage Car Club. The site was purchased by the Matamata County Council in 1989. The structure continues to serve as a venue for meetings of the South Waikato Veteran and Vintage Car Club, remaining in the ownership of the South Waikato District Council. Comparatively recent modifications have included the removal of timber lining on the western internal wall of the building and cement repairs on the exterior of the same wall.