Akaroa Historical Overview - Christchurch City Council

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The Monarch settlers included Samuel Farr, who lived in Akaroa for 12 years before moving to Christchurch to become one of that city’s important early architects, and the Pavitt and Haylock families. Descendants of both families still live in Akaroa. 10 The Monarch settlers were a portent of things to come. As settlers, overwhelmingly from Britain, flooded into Canterbury some found their way to Akaroa. The purchasers of the rural sections that adjoined the village of Akaroa – William Aylmer, Daniel Watkins, John Watson and Robert d’Oyly – were the conspicuous examples of these new, non-French settlers. 11 Another sign of British settlers taking over in Akaroa from the original French families, was that in 1851 the Hotel de Normandie, on the waterfront, which had been managed by Jules Veron and his wife Marie (née Eteveneaux) was bought by George Armstrong. The hotel later became his family home. (The family is still represented on Banks Peninsula.) 12 The proportion of people born in France of Akaroa’s total population fell dramatically after 1850. By 1878, the 10 people who had been born in France living in Akaroa were only 1.5% of the total population of 642. (There were a further 27 French-born people living in Akaroa County in 1878.) By 1878 the New Zealand-born population of Akaroa, at 307, had already outstripped the British-born population, 273. The New Zealand-born population included the children of French settlers. By 1891, the proportion of Frenchborn people in Akaroa had shrunk to 1.2% of the total and by 1901 to 0.5%. 13 Figure 5.3. In 1881, the buildings of Akaroa were still largely confined to the foreshore or valley floors. A few houses, however, had already been built on the upper hill slopes, which are no longer forested, but cleared, in grass and farmed. Ref: Muir & Moody 1881 10 Lowndes, Short History, no pagination; Ogilvie, Cradle. P. 33; Farr in Canterbury Old and New, pp. 38, 43; Mould, More Tales, pp. 6-7; Andersen, Place Names, p. 23 11 Mould, More Tales, pp. 47-48 12 The Press, 16 February 2006; Fearnley, Unpublished manuscript, ch. 11. The building later became the Hughes Family Hotel and was pulled down in the 1920s. 13 These figures are all taken from successive Census reports. AKAROA HERITAGE OVERVIEW : SECTION 5 THE COLONIAL TOWN 1850 TO 1900 PAGE 36
Although the proportion of Akaroa’s population which had been born in France fell steeply from the 1850s, the French population of the town was augmented by new arrivals from France, notably François Narbey (who arrived in 1850), Lucien Brocherie (who settled on Banks Peninsula in 1866) and Henri Citron (who arrived in 1877). Established French families, notably the Le Lievres and the de Malmanches, brought relatives out from France to join them in Akaroa. 14 Some of the immigrants who settled in Akaroa in the second half of the 19 th century were neither French nor British. They included a Pole (Augustus Kotlowski), a Portuguese (Antonio Rodrigues), a Greek (Demetrius Koinomopolos) whose wife, Bodiline, was Danish and an Italian (Joseph Vangioni). Some of these, and other non-British, settlers became prominent citizens of Akaroa. 15 The total number of people living in Akaroa increased significantly, but reached a plateau where it has, more or less, remained ever since. In 1878, the population of the Borough was 642. It subsequently dropped back to 571 in 1891 and to 559 in 1901. The peak reached in the late 1870s reflected development in the Vogel years of heavy borrowing and rapid immigration. In the middle of the 1870s, immigration barracks were built in Akaroa, but they were in use for only a short time and were moved to Takapuneke at the very end of the century and put to other uses. 16 Houses large and small As the population of the town grew, the number of residences in the town also increased. The survival of relatively large number of these 19 th century dwellings in Akaroa is one of the most important elements of the town’s present character. Although Akaroa’s population had a sprinkling of people of other nationalities, the houses of the non-British residents of the town did not differ from those of British, or French, ancestry. The style of the houses of all the residents of the town, regardless of their origins, was derived almost exclusively from Britain. (The possibility that there was a slight French inflection to Akaroa’s colonial architecture was raised in the previous section.) Because most residents of Akaroa through the second half of the 19 th century continued to be people of modest means, cottages and smaller houses predominate over larger houses. At most only a handful of 19 th century dwellings in the town can be described as large. Charles Fearnley believed that the distinguishing characteristics of Akaroa’s architecture were “the delightfully intimate scale and the detailing of the buildings”; “the houses on the whole [have] the attractiveness of the miniature” he wrote. He acknowledged that not all of Akaroa’s houses “are of this minimal dimension, but by any standards none are large”. Even bearing in mind that New Zealand is “built generally on a small scale”, Akaroa and its houses, Fearnley concluded, “are tiny”. 17 The same point was made more recently in the Streetscapes Report, which noted that “residential buildings are generally relatively small scale”. 18 14 Mould, More Tales, pp. 39-45; John Wilson talk to Akaroa Civic Trust, 30 June 2007 15 Mould, More Tales, pp. 39-45, 66 16 Appendices to the Journal of the House of Representatives, 1874, D5, p. 40 17 Fearnley, Unpublished manuscript, chs 3 & 8 18 Streetscapes Report, p. 48 AKAROA HERITAGE OVERVIEW : SECTION 5 THE COLONIAL TOWN 1850 TO 1900 PAGE 37
Page 1 and 2: A REPORT PREPARED FOR: KERI DAVIS-M
Page 3 and 4: LIST OF FIGURES: Section 2: Introdu
Page 5 and 6: Figure 6.7. Akaroa beach before WW
Page 7 and 8: Figure 7.41. View of hillside veget
Page 9 and 10: SECTION ONE: OVERVIEW Report Contex
Page 11 and 12: It draws particular attention to wh
Page 13 and 14: AKAROA: AN HISTORICAL OVERVIEW Sect
Page 15 and 16: It had the appearance of remoteness
Page 17 and 18: SECTION THREE: LANDSCAPE & HUMAN HI
Page 19 and 20: Paka Ariki seems to have had a less
Page 21 and 22: They appear also on occasion to hav
Page 25 and 26: The settlers were given clear title
Page 27 and 28: Commercial Hotel. (Green sold this
Page 29 and 30: Figure 4.2. The cottage built in 18
Page 31 and 32: Charlotte Godley, however, observed
Page 33 and 34: THE NATURAL AND PLANTED LANDSCAPE P
Page 35 and 36: own property in Takamatua and the n
Page 37 and 38: By 1847 cropping and stock breeding
Page 39 and 40: Figure 4.10. Father Sione's plan sh
Page 41 and 42: Figure 4.12. Plan of the Akaroa sho
Page 43 and 44: EXTANT TOWN FABRIC & FEATURES DATIN
Page 45 and 46: SECTION FIVE: THE COLONIAL TOWN 185
Page 47: Akaroa’s transformation from vill
Page 51 and 52: The most important concentration of
Page 53 and 54: The largest private home built in 1
Page 55 and 56: He soon built his own store and coa
Page 57 and 58: time after 1884 (probably in 1888)
Page 59 and 60: Figure 5.17. In this view looking s
Page 61 and 62: Industry Industry had less of an im
Page 63 and 64: Public institutions As Akaroa grew
Page 65 and 66: One of the organisations which met
Page 67 and 68: The first Anglican church was built
Page 69 and 70: distinctively Akaroa style of archi
Page 71 and 72: The Akaroa Mail greeted the formati
Page 73 and 74: Figure 5.28. For a time in the late
Page 75 and 76: THE COLONIAL LANDSCAPE The disappea
Page 77 and 78: By 1900 the forest was virtually go
Page 79 and 80: Figure 5.32. Walnut Avenue was the
Page 81 and 82: Figure 5.34. Charles Haylock's prop
Page 83 and 84: The resort garden and the seaside h
Page 85 and 86: The re-invigoration of the town's e
Page 87 and 88: public gardens in the colony” 122
Page 89 and 90: Britomart or Green's Point Monument
Page 91 and 92: Names on the landscape in 1900 The
Page 93 and 94: c SNAPSHOT OF AKAROA IN 1900 The 19
Page 95 and 96: Public buildings and structures •
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During and just after World War II,
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with the previous half century. Two
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The unveiling of the monument on Gr
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Figure 6.5. James Bruce established
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grounds, was dedicated to the wives
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Building a dairy factory in Akaroa
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Community Life Between 1900 and 195
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The building of the Post Office was
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through Little River and over Hillt
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Power from the Lake Coleridge power
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area without the fear of currents a
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Land reclaimed on the northern beac
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Akaroa cemetery: “the most inviti
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Figure 6.23 The central memorial fe
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Centennial celebrations In preparat
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In addition to built landscape elem
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Coronation Oaks were planted on L'A
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Figure 6.34. Aylmers Valley Road in
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Figure 6.36. The Narbey family home
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c SNAPSHOT OF AKAROA IN 1950 Descri
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Public buildings and structures •
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SECTION SEVEN: CHANGE AND GROWTH 19
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When the Akaroa County first drew u
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The Metropole and Bruce fires left
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offered from the 1970s and more rec
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By the late 20 th century, a town w
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ensure as far as possible that the
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Figure 7.7. In this aerial view tak
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This expectation was fulfilled. In
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On Rue Balguerie, subdivision in 19
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But the spread of houses onto those
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Figure 7.16. Some architects who de
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Farrell stated her case against the
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Figure 7.19. Behind the recent and
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Figure 7.22. The Haylock House on A
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In 1970 a local complained to the w
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Figure 7.25. The new gymnasium on t
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Figure 7.26. General view of Akaroa
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palms, sumach, chestnuts and walnut
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Commemorative fabric and historic t
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The changing face of the Domain Dur
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Cemetery reserves: “nothing but c
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widened in part to better accommoda
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Figure 7.38. 1972 map of Akaroa . P
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c SNAPSHOT OF AKAROA TODAY The seco
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EXTANT TOWN FABRIC DATING FROM 1950
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AKAROA: AN HISTORICAL OVERVIEW Sect
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Come to Akaroa Canterbury’s Premi
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Vangioni. L. J. (1967) Old Maori pl
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Akaroa Mail, 7 September 2001 Akaro
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AKAROA: AN HISTORICAL OVERVIEW Sect
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Appendix 2. Although Akaroa's popul
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Appendix 4. Typically, subdivisions
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Appendix 6. In 1946, the block of l
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Appendix 8. In 1953, the extensive
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Appendix 10. In 1962, one of the fi
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Appendix 12. After the major subdiv
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Appendix 14. On the south side of A
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Appendix 16. The most recent large
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Appendix 18. Nearly 20 years passed
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Appendix 20. In 1971, the block of
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Appendix 22. A 1981 subdivision saw
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Appendix 24. The Settlers Hill subd
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Appendix 26. The houses on Percy St
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Appendix 28. As development extende
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Appendix 30. As development crept u
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Akaroa Historical Overview - Christchurch City Council

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