Heritage NZ Listed Category 1

The New Zealand Heritage List/Rarangi Korero ('the List') identifies New Zealand's significant and valued historical and cultural heritage places, of which many can be viewed in Timaru. Category 1 historic places are places of special or outstanding historical heritage significance or value.

Customs House

St Mary's Church

Gladstone Board of Works Building

Sacred Heart Basillica

The Timaru Milling Company

Landing Service Building

Timaru Boys' High Memorial Library

Headmasters House

Historic Building Locations

The Custom House

The Timaru Custom House was built on a rounded corner site at the intersection of Strathallan and Station Streets and Cains Terrace. It was perfectly located, being handy to both the port and the railway station, and was seen as an important step in the development of Timaru’s town centre. It remains of importance as part of the historic waterfront area in the story of our town.

After being housed in several temporary premises about the town including the Post Office, a hut near the breakwater and an office in Beswick Street, the collector at the time must have been delighted to move into a new and permanent Custom House purpose built for the job in 1901-2.

Local carpenter turned architect Daniel West designed the building which opened in August 1902. It is Neoclassical in style. The construction material is brick covered in cement plaster and features much classic detailing. It has a square footprint and gabled roof concealed by a parapet. The entrance to the building is through the arched entrance portico which is framed by pairs of fluted Doric columns. Only the south side elevation is plain. At some stage (unknown) the chimneys were removed and a flagpole added.

The Custom house and its staff were a vital part of the community through the first three-quarters of the 20th century. Eventually the building was relinquished by the government in 1976 and was converted to commercial use.
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In mid-2018 The Timaru Civic Trust purchased this property and it continues to function as a restaurant.

St Mary's Anglican Church

St Mary’s in Timaru stands on an elevated site, gifted by the Rhodes family, early Timaru settlers, for the purpose of building a church. It presents an impressive appearance and its splendid tower is one of Timaru’s best known landmarks.
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Built in the Gothic Revival style, this fine work was designed by W B Armson, one of the leading colonial architects. It was his last and most important ecclesiastical commission.

It is constructed of Timaru bluestone, with dressings of limestone, the masonry is laid in high quality ashlar work. The interior is lined with Oamaru Stone and possesses many noteworthy features including Scottish granite pillars, highly artistic carved work, memorial brasses and stained glass windows all topped with a roof of Welsh slate. It is a beautiful building to be inside, full of repose, dignity and solemnity.

The nave was completed to Armson’s design in 1880 but the chancel and vestry were not finished till 1909. This was completed by his successors Collins and Harman. The design for the crenelated square stone bell tower and rectangular chancel differed from Armson’s original plans. It took a total of 28 years to complete with some time taken for sufficient funds to be accumulated.

Many impressive stained glass windows grace the walls and the organ is one of Lewis and Co’s English instruments. To mark the parish centenary in 1961 the porch at the western entrance was added with much care taken to match the existing masonry.
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There are 114 stone steps to the viewing balconies near the top of the tower and the reward for the climb are the magnificent views from Caroline Bay to the Two Thumb Range.

One of the few Gothic Revival buildings
in the Southern Hemisphere...

The Gladstone Board of Works Building

This handsome solid looking bluestone building located on Timaru’s Stafford Street is one the most historically significant structures in the city. Originally built in 1874 as offices for the Gladstone Board of Works it achieved its Historic Places listing as a Category 1 building in 1980.

The Timaru and Gladstone Board of Works was created to allow South Cantabrians to control their own major public works development. The Board functioned for nine years and controlled the expenditure of local revenues and ended when the provincial system of government ended in 1876 and the central Government took over all public works.

Over the years it has been used by the Lands and Survey Department and later the Ministry of Works. Mr Roberts was the architect responsible for designing the proposed new offices for the Board of Works and he oversaw the tender and building process. Local Timaru builder Thomas Machin won the tender.
During construction it was reported that ‘The Board of Works office is getting on famously, and is developing itself into a much handsomer and more commodious building than might have been expected for the money.’

From reading Timaru Herald reports from 1874 one understands that Thomas Machin had to apply for a 6 week extension for the completion of the work, his reason being his ‘inability to get a sufficient number of carters and skilled labour.’ This did not go down particularly well with the Board but the architect, Mr Roberts, petitioned them on behalf of Mr Machin and he was granted his extension and not financially penalised for the delays.
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One of the best remaining bluestone buildings in Timaru, it is two storeyed and rectangular in plan with a shallow hipped roof. In the 1970’s unobtrusive additions were made to the rear of the building. The original portion of the building is presently used for storage by government departments.

Sacred Heart Basilica

It would be hard to miss our Sacred Heart Basilica as you drive along Craigie Avenue heading through Timaru. The copper cupola roofs are a feature of our skyline and lend a European air to the city.

In 1869 the pioneer Roman Catholic priest in Timaru, Father Chataigner, took up residence in the town and soon afterwards the church bought an extensive area of land on what is now Craigie Avenue. A small wooden church designed by B W Mountfort was built and stood on the site for many years.

Despite receiving additions it eventually became surrounded and dwarfed by other church buildings including a concrete priory, brick convent, brick house for the Marist brothers and boys’ and girls’ schools. The little wooden church burned down in April 1910 and the decision was made to rebuild.
The impressive new basilica-style church was opened on 1st October 1911.

Sacred Heart Basilica is known as the last major ecclesiastical work of leading New Zealand architect F W Petre. It is constructed of brick, Oamaru stone and ferro-concrete, with concrete filling the void between the outer and inner layers of masonry. Marseilles tile and copper were used on the roof.
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The building style is French Renaissance. It is a Basilica type church with cruciform footprint and gabled roof forms. It presents a symmetrical facade and the concrete main steps lead to the pedimented entrance porch which is flanked by 2 four-storey towers each topped with cupola roofs. Oamaru stone with brick infill walls and Ionic columns support the entrance porch and as well as the 2 cupola roofs it has a central dome.

It is a solid construction and did not sustain any damage in the 2010/2011 Canterbury earthquakes. However the Church of the Sacred Heart launched a fundraising campaign to strengthen the building in June 2018 and this work is being undertaken at the moment.

Sacred Heart Basilica is known as the last major ecclesiastical work of leading New Zealand architect F W Petre.

The Timaru Milling Company Building

This iconic building is said to have been the largest mill in New Zealand at the turn of the century. It was built in 1882 by James Bruce to replace a wooden mill that had burned down on the same site in 1881.

The integrity of this structure and its significance as the mill that revolutionised the flour milling industry in New Zealand make it an outstanding industrial structure in our town.

It was the first mill in New Zealand to be fitted with rollers rather than grindstones, an outcome of James Bruce visiting the US with samples of NZ wheat and realising a better grind could be achieved with a roller system. This explains its substantial height of six storeys. The Grain was hoisted to the upper level then fed into a series of roller mills until it reached the lower floor where the ground flour was sifted, bagged and shipped.

This building was built to last. It is a substantial rectangular building of brick on a concrete foundation. Internally Ironbark was used as storey posts and corbels; the whole building was completely laced with iron which was a new feature in building at that time, making it very strong. It has many arched windows at each level and is very symmetrical in appearance.

Other internal features include a considerable amount of early machinery still in place, the polished wooden floors, and the spiral sack slide which connects all the floors.

It remained in continuous use for over a century with very few modifications. The slight alterations that have been made have been in keeping with the original style, and are in brick.
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The Timaru Milling Company was closed in 2005 when owners Goodman Fielder sold the site.

The Landing Service Building

The first stage of The Landing Service Building, originally known as McRae’s Stone Store, was built in 1870 by Peter McRae, a well -known local contractor, entrepreneur and hotelier. He built it as a grain store and it stood on the original shoreline of Timaru Harbour.

A large fire swept through central Timaru in 1868 destroying some 30 wooden buildings in the town centre. The then Council wrote new bylaws which stipulated masonry construction was to be used in the central business district. As a result the locally quarried bluestone (basalt) became the material that is closely identified with our local building tradition. McRae’s classically detailed stone store was constructed using dressed and random rubble bluestone, brick, timber and corrugated metal.

The style of this first building is listed on the Historic Heritage Item Record as being Industrial Vernacular, characterised by the use of local materials and knowledge, simple and practical, usually without the supervision of professional architects.

The store was built so that drays delivering grain could offload straight onto the first floor from the bank behind the building. Grain could then be delivered to boats brought up to the landing service in front of the building.

A change of ownership in 1875 saw The NZ Loan and Mercantile Agency Company take over. Additions were made that tripled the size of the original building and it
essentially became part of a large complex of stores, shared by Dalgety & Co, that housed wool and grain. Early Timaru architect, South African born, FJ Wilson was involved in designing some of the new buildings, indeed he was said to have ‘practically rebuilt Timaru after the big fire in 1868’. A line of rails through the centre of the building were added in 1876 and the stores were served by sidings from the main railway line.
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The buildings were used as warehousing until they were sold to Timaru City Council in 1984. Under threat of demolition for a number of years, the building was saved and conserved in the 1990’s by the newly formed Timaru Civic Trust. They were well supported by the local community and it is most gratifying to see it being well used for hospitality, retail and tourism purposes.

The Timaru Boys' High School Memorial Library

53 names are listed on a plaque in remembrance of the Timaru Old Boys who sacrificed their lives in the First World War. It is housed in the Timaru Boys’ High Memorial Library which was opened in March 1924.

In 1917, at a meeting of Old Boys and parents of present pupils, it was decided that funds would be raised in order to build a suitable memorial to the fallen. The brief to the architect was that an ‘artistic building that they could be proud of’ should be the aim.

Percy Watts Rule of Turnbull and Rule Architects of Timaru was assigned the job of designing the Library and his work here displays an appreciation for local styles and materials. Timaru red brick and Oamaru stone were used, combining two distinct architectural styles, the Free Classical style and the Arts and Crafts style which was popular at the time.

The library is an inverted T in shape built in 1924 with further extensions made by the original architect in 1955 including another memorial in the form of a stained glass window featuring Sir Gawain of the King Arthur’s Round Table. The School arms & the armed forces together with symbols of self sacrifice, goodness of spirit, conflict, justice, peace & hope commemorate the lives of those Old Boys who died in the Second World War. Other careful additions have been made
over the years using the same materials and in a similar style as the original. The interior houses classical motifs in two major lintels and furniture designed by the architects.
The state of this building is a credit to the School and those charged with its maintenance. It sits in a prominent position to the side of the front gates with a fabulous sculpture of famous Old Boy Jack Lovelock ,1936 1500m, Olympian close by.
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This Memorial Library remains the focal point for Anzac Day services and special functions being held in high esteeem by the School and the wider community.

Headmasters House (former)

On the corner of Grey and Arthur Streets there is a granite and bluestone memorial that commemorates the 70 teachers and ex-pupils from Timaru Main School who died in the First World War. Behind it, on the corner section, sits Bluestone House, built 140 years ago and the last remaining building of the original structures erected as part of the School behind it.

Once the need for a Headmaster’s House was agreed upon tenders were put forward and Thomas Cane (1830- 1905) was named the architect in charge of the design and this Gothic Revival building is the result.

The dwelling is Gothic in detail but adapted for nineteenth century domestic needs and made from local materials. It consists of 2 double storeyed gables and a third which runs perpendicular to them; this forms the rear of the house. The front and side facing walls are built of Bluestone with Oamaru stone facings and quoins. The south side at the rear is brick - it is thought this was to allow for future rooms to be built on should the need arise.

The front porch entrance is situated between the two main wings and is built in timber, once again Gothic in design. It creates a highly distinctive entranceway. At the time it was regarded as being totally different in style to the other buildings and reflected the contemporary status of the headmaster within the community. It housed a continuing succession of headmasters until the end of 1975.

Over the years since, it has been used intermittently by various groups and has at times been threatened by demolition. It is one of the finest headmaster’s houses in New Zealand and the only one to be registered as such by Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga.

It is an important example of Thomas Cane’s work, being his most successful existing building. It is also a fine example of bluestone construction. It is sadly empty these days. Although it suffered no damage in the Canterbury earthquakes its age means it needs strengthening work to be carried out before it can be used again.