Coromandel Heritage Area
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Coromandel Heritage Area Location: The Coromandel Heritage Area extends along the town’s principal thoroughfare, from the Wharf Road bridge over the Whangarahi Stream in the southwest, to Albert Street in the northeast. Although it is an irregular shape the area is centred on the linear form of Wharf, Kapanga and Rings Roads. It is bisected by the Karaka Stream and includes the most built- up, southern section of the village of Kapanga, taking in parts of Te Tiki, Victoria, Albert, Watt and Pagitt Streets, which was laid out in 1862. Introduction: Coromandel was established in the mid-19th century as a colonial service centre for the district’s milling and goldmining operations. European settlement of the Coromandel Harbour and its hinterland commenced in the late 1830s but it was not until the early 1860s, a decade after Charles Ring had registered the first gold discovery in the area (1852), that increasing numbers of prospectors and settlers made their way to Coromandel. At this time a number of speculative land developments were proposed in the area, but of them only the village of Kapanga was realised to any large extent. As the fortunes of the gold extraction industry waxed and waned so too did those of Coromandel. A boom in the late 19th century saw the town expand. Several major fires at this time also had an impact on the building stock of the central business area. Coromandel’s street pattern takes the form of an elongated, somewhat attenuated colonial grid. The main thoroughfare, variously called Wharf, Kapanga and Rings Road, runs on a southwest to northeast axis. The Coromandel Heritage Area features a diverse range of building types, including a number of late 19th and early 20th century structures that retain a good level of authenticity. Commercial, residential civic, governmental, and religious buildings are to be found in close proximity to one another. The former National Bank, Star & Garter Hotel, former Government Buildings, Hauraki House, the Coromandel Historical Museum and the Citizens’ Hall are significant heritage resources within the area, which is also notable for its Victorian residential heritage. Fig. 1. Detail from an 1896 map of Coromandel drawn by E Bellairs. Source: Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, NZ Map 3576. 1 Distinctive Physical Characteristics: a) Together Wharf, Kapanga and Rings Roads run the length of the heritage area, on a roughly southwest to northeast axis. b) The Whangarahi Stream borders the heritage area to the south, whilst the Karaka Stream bisects it midway along Kapanga Road. c) Te Tiki, Albert and Victoria Streets run perpendicular to Rings Road. Watt and Pagitt Streets run parallel to it. d) The size and shape of both residential and non-residential properties varies throughout the area, arising from historic survey patterns and land ownership. e) Commercial premises are usually built right up to the street boundary, whereas residential buildings are commonly set back from it to accommodate fencing and gardens. Both building types are typically one or two storeys in height. f) Building materials include timber, corrugated iron, and brick, with timber frame and weatherboard construction predominating. g) Residential, civic, religious, financial, light industrial and commercial uses co-exist in close proximity to one another. h) Residential buildings are typically stand-alone, single-family dwellings, ranging in style from Victorian villas and cottages through to post-war bungalows. Notable non-residential buildings embody both Classical and Gothic Revival architectural motifs. i) The Samuel James and Hauraki House Reserves on Kapanga Road provide historic open- space amenities for residents and visitors alike. Fig. 2. Karaka Stream, seen from the carpark on the north side of Carroll’s bridge, Kapanga Road. A McEwan, 19 September 2009. 2 Surroundings & Contribution to Context The curvilinear form of the main thoroughfare through the village (Wharf, Kapanga and Rings Roads) is a response to the natural topography and the need for a connection between the harbour and early gold digging and timber milling sites further inland. The Whangarahi and Karaka Streams are natural features within the area but they appear to have had a relatively little impact on the development of the built environment. The regenerating bush of the Coromandel Ranges is a significant landscape feature within the town centre, especially when seen looking northeast along Kapanga and Rings Roads. Gardens belonging to the area’s residential properties are generally informal, with a high degree of openness to the street. Low-scale fencing, often of the picket variety, is predominant and allows for views from the roadway of the area’s houses and some non- residential buildings. The central business area has asphalt footpaths, but north of the Karaka Stream the combination of asphalt footpaths and grass berms signals the predominant residential character of northern Kapanga and Rings Roads. The absence of both footpaths and kerb and channelling from the side streets neighbouring Rings Road gives these residential streets an informal, semi-rural aspect. Fig. 3. Watt Street looking northeast. A McEwan, 19 September 2009. History of Area: In the 1830s the economic potential of the district’s native timber resource attracted Coromandel’s first European inhabitants. William Webster established a commercial base on Whanganui Island [aka Beeson’s Island] in Coromandel Harbour, whilst John Callaway and the McGregor brothers set up a milling operation at nearby Kikowhakarere. Since the 1820s rumours had been circulating about the existence of gold on the Coromandel Peninsula. In 1852 a group of Aucklanders offered a reward of £100 (later increased to £500) to anyone who found a payable goldfield in the vicinity of Auckland. Charles and Frederick Ring registered the first gold discovery at Driving Creek in October 1852. The next month the government organised a meeting with local iwi in order to secure access to the Coromandel goldfield. Lieutenant-Governor Wynyard, accompanied by Bishop Selwyn and Chief Justice 3 Martin, met an estimated 1000 people, including most, if not all, of the prominent leaders of Hauraki iwi. Over the course of a three-day hui agreement was reached between Wynyard, Ngati Whanaunga, Ngati Paoa and Te Patukirikiri that allowed for mining to take place over a 4,047-hectare block. (Two decades later a number of the hapu of the Coromandel had been alienated from nearly all of their land.) Gold discoveries at Kapanga in 1861 and Tokatea in 1868 further boosted hopes for the potential wealth of the Coromandel field. Fig. 4. After Charles Heaphy ‘Conference of Lieutenant-Governor Wynyard and native chiefs in Coromandel Harbour. The New Zealand Gold Field’ Illustrated London News 1853. Source: Alexander Turnbull Library, PUBL-0033-1853-465. Note: Local publisher and historian TW Rhodes identified the setting of this event as Kikowhakarere Bay. For all the optimism reported in the papers of the day, the rushes to the Coromandel goldfield in the early 1850s and early 1860s were short lived and largely unrewarding. Nevertheless the potential of the field continued to attract both the shareholders willing to invest in local gold mining companies and the land speculators who hoped to capitalise on the growth of Coromandel as a service centre. After the goldfield was proclaimed in 1862 not only did scores of hopeful miners arrive, so too did the government officials, tradesmen, businessmen, and clergy who were needed to manage and support the burgeoning settlement of Coromandel, or Kapanga as it was also known. In response to the goldfield proclamation, the Auckland Provincial Council, which had oversight of Coromandel from 1853 until 1876, erected a building in the upper township (aka Buffalo) in 1862. The council offices were re-established in 1869, after a period of withdrawal prompted by a decline in mining activity in the mid-1860s. New and enlarged Government Buildings were erected in the lower township in 1873, signalling both the increasing dominance of Kapanga over Driving Creek and Buffalo, as well as the growth of the settlement in general. This pattern, of confidence, decline and renewal, was to be the norm for Coromandel throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries. 4 Fig. 5. A Harris The Kapangee (sic) Flat, Coromandel Harbour 1864. Source: Alexander Turnbull Library, B-035-009 At the same time as the new Government Buildings were being erected, Coromandel residents witnessed the construction of a number of other notable buildings in the lower township. The first Methodist (1870-71) and Catholic (1871) churches were built in upper Kapanga Road and the Bank of New Zealand (1872) and the National Bank (1873-74) opened new premises facing one another at the junction of Tiki, Wharf and Kapanga Roads. ‘Fir Lawn’, the grand home of local businessman Fred Woollams, was built at this time (1871/72?), as was its neighbour, the Coromandel Hotel (1872). The Kapanga or Lower Township School was established in 1873 and moved into its own purpose-built schoolhouse four years later (1877, now Hauraki House). Fig. 6. ‘Fir Lawn’, home of Frederick Woollams (1825-97), date unknown. Source: Coromandel Museum. 5 The next significant building boom took place in the 1890s, by which time the township had become centralised upon Kapanga Road and handsome returns from the Hauraki mines were, once again, a cause of great optimism for the future of Coromandel. The Coromandel School of Mines was established in 1887 but its building, now a historical museum, dates from 1897. Also built around the turn of the 20th century were the Coromandel County News building (c.1895, 24 Kapanga Road) and the Masonic Hall in Rings Road (1899). Fig. 7. A January 1897 photograph of the Hauraki Gold Mining Company Office (692 Rings Road), showing a display of replica gold ingots representing total production for the company in the previous two years.