tauranga cbd heritage study draft record form - Tauranga City Council

ARCHAEOLOGICAL QUALITIES
Information/Reseach/Recognition or Protection
ARCHITECTURAL QUALITIES
Style or type/Design
Davies Building is a substantial two level building combining elements of the stripped­Classical and Art
Deco styles which were typically used at this time for retail buildings which often had residential
accomodation at the upper level. The façade is divided into three bays, with a shingled hood supported on
decorative timber brackets above the central windows.Such expressed roof elements were features that
were utilised for numerous mainstreet buildings at the time. To each side the original steel framed windows
are set in within a shallow recess with a plain projecting horizontal hood above.Beneath the plain parapet is
a band of fret patterned plaster work, with the building name in raised plaster lettering and a central
flagpole.
Designer or builder
Construction
HISTORIC QUALITIES
Historic Pattern
The site was owned by Charles Christopher Thomas Davies from 1909, originally a settler from Taranaki.
Part of the full site was leased to Frederick Christian in 1913. This may well have been the original site of
Frederick Christian's business which later moved closer to Elizabeth Street by 1934. Charles Davies was
operating as a motor engineer from this site in 1921, but James Albert O'Neill appears on the early
valuation records from c.1923. O'Neill initially leased part of the site from 1914, and by 1929 operated a
hairdresser/tobacconist business here, alongside two other businesses in the same building. The Davies
Building may date, therefore, from the early 1920s. The building was known as Davies Building from at
least 1936.
The first businesses in Tauranga were established along The Strand and Wharf Street. Devonport Road
initially contained a mix of residential and small scaled business premises, with the businesses mostly
clustered at the junction with Spring Street and The Strand. This gradually changed, with residential
dwellings disappearing from the town centre.The population of Tauranga was relatively small, reaching
3000 by around 1930 and growng to approximately 4000 by 1940. Up until the early 1930s Devonport Road
contained a mix of functions including blacksmiths, grocers stores, confectioners, tearooms, private hotels,
houses, bakers, iron mongers and even the gas works which was located on a site between Devonport
Road and Grey Street.
The construction of a substantial building on the corner of Devonport Road and Spring Street in 1911 was
the start of of the twentieth century development of Devonport Road as a major retail area for Tauranga. A
significant period of development occurred in the 1930s when a number of new commercial buildings were
built at the lower part of Devonport Road, and a number of early timber buildings on The Strand were
replaced by masonry buildings. The construction of the new Post Office building on the corner of Grey
Street and Spring Street in 1938 is further evidence of the consolidation of the centre at this time.Davies
Building dates from C 1920s/30s and forms part of this period of development in central Tauranga, which
makes an important contribution to the established built streetscape character of the CBD.
Associative Value
SCIENTIFIC QUALITIES
Information/Potential Research
TECHNOLOGICAL QUALITIES
Technical Achievement
CULTURAL HERITAGE VALUE
Sentiment