AH Maude's Stores (Former)
4A And 4B Harbour Street, Oamaru
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AH Maude's Stores (Former). Lanes Emulsion Building.
Copyright: North Otago Museum.
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AH Maude's Stores (Former). Image courtesy of www.flickr.com.
Copyright: PhilBee NZ (Phil Braithwaite). Taken By: PhilBee NZ (Phil Braithwaite). Date: 9/04/2012.
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AH Maude's Stores (Former). Rear.
Copyright: NZ Historic Places Trust. Taken By: Heather Bauchop. Date: 3/04/2008.
List Entry Information
List Entry Status
Listed
List Entry Type
Historic Place Category 2
Public Access
Private/No Public Access
List Number
4691
Date Entered
2nd July 1982
Date of Effect
2nd July 1982
Locationopen/close
Extent of List Entry
The extent includes the land described as Lot 2 DP 88 (RTs 134676, 14605), Otago Land District, and the building known as AH Maude's Stores (Former) thereon.
City/District Council
Waitaki District
Region
Otago Region
Legal description
Lot 2 DP 88 (RTs 134676, 14605), Otago Land District
Summaryopen/close
AH Maude's grain store was among the early buildings built on Oamaru's newly formed Harbour Street in 1875.
Arthur Hay Maude (1837-1919) was a prominent Oamaru businessman. He was born in London and brought up in Yorkshire. He came to New Zealand in 1866 and settled in Oamaru. He established himself first as a stock and station agent, conducting a large business over twenty years. After becoming bankrupt in December 1888, he became assistant manager for the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company, before becoming a land and estate agent.
The store is built of local greystone from the 'Corporation quarry', a unique material in this otherwise limestone precinct. The stone is roughly worked and by far the most simple of the practice’s grain stores. The only decoration is the contrasting quoins around the windows and the central doorway. The gable ends are visible to Harbour Street, not concealed by a parapet as with the adjoining buildings. It is rectangular in plan. The interior was an open storage area with the gabled roof supported by wooden pillars. The wide main door provided access for a dray to unload grain, while the rear entrance provided access to the railway line and nearby port. The building covered an area of 116 by 30 ft (35 by 9m), with 12 ft (4m) walls, each with a window and folding doors. The floor was timber. There were two offices at the west end, fronting Harbour Street, each with a fire place, and there was storage for 48,000 bushels of grain. The construction cost was between £800-900. The stone mason was H. Munro and the carpenter a Mr Bain. The North Otago Times identifies John Lemon as the architect, while architectural historian Conal McCarthy attributes it to Forrester and Lemon’s practice. McCarthy compares this building to the single-storied warehouses of Flinders Lane in Melbourne.
In 1876 Maude made additions – a ‘new store and auction room, adjoining the large grain store erected about a year ago.’ The new building occupied an area of 33ft by 90ft (10 by 27m), the entire building covering an area of 66ft to a depth of 100ft from Harbour Street to the railway siding (20 by 30m). ‘The walls are of rubble, faced with Oamaru stone and have a very substantial as well as a pleasing appearance.’ The buildings were roofed with iron and lit by windows and fanlights at the ends and skylights. The architect was John Lemon, and the contractors John Thomson (carpenter), and Wilson and Roxburgh (stonemasons). The addition includes a sample room at the east end, and an auction room and two offices at the Harbour street end. The rooms were 16 by 12ft (5 by 4m) and 16 by 10ft (5 by 3m), one a clerk’s office and the other a private office.
Subsequent tenants have included (from 1907) pharmacist Edward Lane of Lane’s Emulsion fame – with the slogan painted across the door ‘It’s famous because it’s good’, an Oamaru and New Zealand icon. The business was later taken over by health and natural products importers and distributors Crombie and Price Limited. In later years the building has been home to a bakery and other small businesses.
In 2013 AH Maude’s Stores (Former) remains a significant building in Oamaru’s Harbour/Tyne Historic Area (Register No. 7064).
Linksopen/close
Construction Professionalsopen/close
Forrester & Lemon
The architectural partnership of Forrester and Lemon was established in Oamaru in 1872.
Thomas Forrester (1838-1907) was born in Glasgow and educated at the Glasgow School of Art. Emigrating to New Zealand in 1861 he settled in Dunedin and worked under William Mason (1810-97) and William Henry Clayton (1823-77) and later Robert Arthur Lawson (1833-1902). In 1865 he superintended the Dunedin Exhibition and from 1870 he became involved with the supervision of harbour works. Some time after 1885 he became Engineer to the Oamaru Harbour Board and in this capacity designed the repairs to the breakwater following storm damage in 1886 and later the Holmes Wharf. On his death in 1907 he was still in the employ of the Harbour Board.
John Lemon (1828-1890) was born in Jamaica and travelled to England before emigrating to New Zealand in 1849. He settled in Oamaru in 1860 and with his brother Charles established a timber merchant's business. By 1869 he was in partnership with his father-in-law, George Sumpter calling themselves "Timber and General Merchants, Land and Commission Agents". This partnership was dissolved in 1872 and Lemon entered into partnership with Forrester. Lemon had no architectural experience at all, but had a wide circle of business contacts and was an efficient administrator.
Buildings designed by the partnership of Forrester and Lemon include St Paul's Church (1875-76), the Harbour Board Offices (1876), Queen's (later Brydone) Hotel (1881), Waitaki Boys' High School (1883), The Courthouse (1883) and the Post Office (1883-84), all in Oamaru. Forrester and Lemon contributed greatly to Oamaru's nineteenth century character. On Lemon's death in 1890 the practice was taken over by Forrester's son, John Megget Forrester (1865-1965).
Munro, H.
Stonemason for AH Maude's 1875 grain store.
Bain, Mr
Carpenter for AH Maude's 1875 grain store.
Thomson, John
Builder for 1876 addition to AH Maude's Stores in Harbour Street Oamaru.
Wilson and Roxburgh
Stonemasons for AH Maude's 1876 addition to the 1875 grain stores on Harbour Street in Oamaru.
Lemon, John
No biography is currently available for this construction professional
Additional informationopen/close
Construction Dates
Original Construction
1875 -
Grain Store constructed
Addition
1876 -
Addition of second gabled portion
Completion Date
30th April 2013
Report Written By
Heather Bauchop
Information Sources
Cyclopedia of New Zealand, 1905
Cyclopedia Company, Industrial, descriptive, historical, biographical facts, figures, illustrations, Wellington, N.Z, 1897-1908, Vol. 4 Otago and Southland, Cyclopedia Company, Christchurch, 1905
http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-Cyc04Cycl-t1-body1-d4-d25-d1.html accessed 17 Apr 2013
McCarthy, 2002
Conal McCarthy, Forrester and Lemon of Oamaru, architects, Oamaru, 2002
North Otago Times
North Otago Times
15 August 1876, p.2.
11 February 1876, p.2.
Oamaru Mail
Oamaru Mail
9 Nov 2004, p.3
Otago Witness
Otago Witness
28 Dec 1888, p.19.
Roberts, 1934
Beginnings: Early History of North Otago [a reprint of 'History of North Otago' published in 1934], The Oamaru Mail Co. Ltd, Oamaru, 1978
pp.50-51.
Brocklebank and Greenaway, 1979
Norris Brocklebank and Richard Greenaway, Oamaru, John McIndoe, Dunedin, 1979, np.
Other Information
A fully referenced Upgrade Report is available from the Otago/Southland Area office of NZHPT.
This registration is also included in the Harbour/Tyne Street Historic Area (Record no. 7064).
Please note that entry on the New Zealand Heritage List/Rarangi Korero identifies only the heritage values of the property concerned, and should not be construed as advice on the state of the property, or as a comment of its soundness or safety, including in regard to earthquake risk, safety in the event of fire, or insanitary conditions.