 | Marco Fosella had shops as early as 1897 with H. Anstice, wheelwright in a shed on the south side. Today we know it better as the place John Corry operated Levin Drapery for over 30 years. At the time this picture was taken (pre 1912), Thomas James, the bootmaker, occupied the south side of the building and Hock Key, a grocer, the north side, picture pre 1912. |
This account of the occupation of sites in the commercial area starts at the intersection of Oxford Street and Stuckey Street, continuing north. It was compiled by Mr F. C. Swanwick, Levin, over a period of almost a year.
On the corner of Oxford and Stuckey Streets the section occupied by the Post and Telegraph Lines depot since 1905, until it moved to Liverpool Street in 1960.
The government proposed building the Levin Post Office on this corner in 1902. Weraroa residents wanted it here, but Levin folk wanted it in the town. A verbal tug-of-war continued for a year or more, until Messrs Prouse, Davis and Hannan bought the section where the post office is now for two hundred pounds.
The three donors asked for their money back when the Post Office was built, but the Postmaster General said No! Instead the money was refunded for developing the recreation reserve (Levin Park Domain).
The first Presbyterian Church was built in 1902. In 1950 the new church was built in front of the old structure.
The house to the north was the home of Levin School headmasters until 1977, when offices of the Department of Psychological Service, Education Department, were installed there.
Originally, the house was sited in Bath Street, somewhere along the frontage of the Central Car Park. It was then the home of the teacher at Queen Street School. The house was built in 1890 and shifted to its present site in 1903. It is said to be the second oldest house in Levin.
Past the Levin School Mrs Smithson's cottage was on the site of Dalgety Data Processing Department and Dalgety Wine and Spirits.
Granny Smithson was a midwife over a long period, probably 30 years. In the 1890's, before a doctor began practising in Levin, she acted as doctor and nurse. She died at the age of 101.
The Eclipse Garage was built in 1924 on vacant land for Percy von Hartitzsch, Paddy Way was the proprietor from 1935 to 1940. Greenbank Motors (Palmerston North), with Bill Greenbank as manager, had the garage for about a year.
Then Peter Peterson moved into it from Bath Street about 1942, until 1952. Mrs Roche, with Alan Heayns as manager, operated the garage until 1975. The Ministry of Works leased the building for a short while to remove 16 feet of the frontage for the Oxford Street widening.
Since 1975 Alan Heayns and Brian Moore have operated the garage. MacFarlane Transport (now Cappers) has owned the garage, adjoining shops and the transport depot since 1947.
Levin's first thrift-shop, run by the Anglican Church Ladies' Guild, now uses both shops.
GRAND HOTEL
Across Durham, Street the Grand Hotel was built about 1909 -1912, using the liquor licence from the burnt out Weraroa Hotel. It is said that the site was dictated by the legal half - mile restriction on the transfer of a licence at the time.
A house stood on the site before the hotel was built, as well as a plumber's workshop originally used by George Thompson.
Externally the hotel has not changed, except for the 'Jacob's coat' of multi - coloured asbestos cladding of recent years. The stables (later garages) and servants' quarters at the rear have gone. One of these buildings served as a morgue at one time.
The name was changed to the Grand Tavern in 1977 and the accommodation side of the business closed.
The two shops adjoining were built for Angus MacDonald on vacant land about 1955. He ran a fish and chip shop in the south building for some years, followed by Bill Martin as Martino's Catering for a short period and later a delicatessen. Currently, Eddie Yee, runs the Peacock Restaurant there.
Uses of the north shop have included a milk bar and the Levin Book Exchange. Current proprietor Ian Jamieson bought the book exchange from the Social Credit Party in 1965, a year after the party established the business.
What is now the Gas Department showrooms since 1978 was an early building. It was used as a dwelling prior to 1919, when it was already an old building.
Alfred Hosie used it as a plumber's shop from 1919 to 1946. Merv Wilson had an electrician's business from then until 1956. Owen Langtry followed with a pharmacy from 1962 to 1967, and the Johnny Johnson with a photography business until 1978. '
The next two shops were built for Jean Findlay in 1954; set back 16 feet to allow for the eventual road widening. Doug Hislop's drapery operated in the south shop from 1954 to 1958, followed by the Lucille Lending Library until its closure in 1980. Miss Findlay's florist business has been in the other shop since 1954.
The premises now occupied by Wholesale Furniture were built by Frank Parker after the Public Trust bought out Parker's' lease across the road. Mr Parker's tenant, Joe Trout, moved his hardware and grain business to the new site in 1939. In 1958, Brian Trout succeeded his father.
Hodder and Tolley bought the business-in 1966, shifting elsewhere. Wholesale Furniture, managed by Merv Petersen, began selling furniture and carpets from the building the same year.
The two shops next door are on the site of the old Levin Cosmopolitan Club, which shifted there in 1928 as the Levin Workingmen's Club. The original name of the club was the Horowhenua County Club which met from 1900 in the Levin Hotel. '
In 1916 the name changed to the Levin Workingmen's Club; to the Cosmopolitan Club in 1930 and the Levin Cosmopolitan Club in 1950.
The club bought the building in 1928 from Dave Morgan, who had a barber's shop there. His brother Stan had a billiard saloon upstairs. When the club moved to Weraroa In 1971, the building was demolished.
SETBACK
Eddie Yee built two shops on the site, set 16 feet back to allow for the road widening; occupying the north shop as an amusement centre. Now Joyce Caterers has this shop and Wholesale Furniture has expanded into the south shop. '
In the next building Mr Stillwell operated a repair garage in the 1920s and 1930s. It was later used as a depot for taxi companies, including Star Taxis.
There has always been a shop, generally selling women's or childrenswear, in the south corner. Colleen Bridal Boutique occupies the shop now.
K. A. (Ken) Wilson established his South End Cycles in a new shop to the north in 1963, filling in the old garage entrance. He moved from the shop still known then as Henderson's Cycle Store, because William Donnelly intended to build a new .shop there.
The name of South End Cycles remains the same, but the shop has had a number of proprietors since 1963.
Next along is Adkins Central Building, erected by Cliff Adkin on vacant land in 1925.
Cliff Adkin offered a 16 foot strip of land on the Oxford Street frontage to the borough for two hundred pounds, so the road could be widened. Mr Jenkins, town clerk for many years, told me that the council refused the offer saying that money was tight. The council was spending twenty four thousand pounds on the Municipal Building, and could not afford to furnish the theatre. So the bottleneck remains today.
In the first shop from the south, Ben Rolfe and a partner had an army surplus clothing store in the 1950s. It was carried on late by Pat Boggs and Ron Meinung up to 1967.
Young's Gift Store opened in 1952 in the next shop; extending into Boggs and Meinung's shop in 1967. Jarnell Carpets moved in last year, after Youngs moved to Oxford Street North.
The adjacent shop has been occupied by Home Handicrafts since 1980, with Mrs Tucker as proprietor. About the 1950s Alan Croad operated the Milky Way milkbar. Around the same period Cameron Webb also ran a milkbar there.
Prior to 1980 it was occupied by the Plant World garden centre. Before then another plant shop with a different proprietor operated there in 1978 and 1979.
Sid Hall, well-known early dentist, was upstairs for the last few years of his career, around 1925 to 1935.
CAR SALES
The corner which Cornucopia (Horn of Plenty) Crafts occupies was once a car sales business run by Tom Wrigley, about 1930 and 1933. Ken Douglas started his ever-expanding engineering business here, with a cycle and motorcycle repair shop from 1933 until about 1936 or 1937. The rental was three pounds a week, reducing to two pounds as the Depression deepened.
About the corner of Adkin's Central Building was originally three shops. There was a shop between Cornucopia and the Trading Post. Bert Richards was a well - known occupant with his electrician's business in this shop from 1939 to 1958. When he vacated the shop the shops on either side expanded into the space.
Right on the corner was a Sports Centre. Fred Wade was probably the first proprietor from about 1937 until 1947, when Vic Brazendale took over. Don Scott followed from 1960 until 1962 when Rex Cederwall became proprietor. Dave Stodart bought the business in 1969, moving to his present location in 1975.
SINCE about 1968 the Trading Post proprietor Bob Vinsen has occupied the next shop down Bath Street. Before then, Lamble's Furniture was there from 1960 to 1968. J. W. Lynch Ltd (Jim Lynch with partner Percy Walton) ran a furniture business there from 1947until 1960.
Central Buildings has been owned by the World Charitable Trust since 1980.
Continuing west along Bath Street, the building occupied now by Broad's Cake Kitchen and the Sharon Beauty Salon is where Farm Services began. Jack Lines and Dick Collins opened their tractor sales and service business here in 1945, moving to their present location opposite Levin School in 1948.
About 1930 to 1938, Peter Peterson operated a garage on the Horowhenua Council site [Bath Street]. The county's first office block was built in 1958. The large extensions at the rear were built in 1977.
The Salvation Army headquarters were built in 1907 and used for church and associated activities until 1977, when a new church was built in Cambridge Street. Since then the Salvation Army has used the building as a thrift shop.
State Fire Insurance altered the house on the next section in 1973 to establish a Levin office. Agencies were used before.
The Consumers' Co-op supermarket premises were built in 1968 by Sava Dollar Discounts (Levin) Ltd. Sava Dollar previously operated in the vacated Harvey's Joinery building in Regent Lane for five months. The Regent Lane site is now part of Smith and Brown.
A house was removed to make way for the Bath Street supermarket, which cost $34,000 to build. The manager then was Mr P. J. Douglas.
Extensions in 1974 provided space for a butchery, other goods and the Wine Cellar to the east. A store room was added to the west, which also enabled expansion of the carpark. A house which had belonged to well-known chemist and borough councillor, Mr Keedwell, for many years was removed to make way for the western extensions.
The first Co-op manager was Alan Bond, followed by Les Peters (1971-1979) and from 1979 Arthur Petre.
Another house, probably built about 1900-1910 was on the site of Carpet Court. About the 1950s this house was converted to a two storey dwelling. The present building was erected at the front in 1974. Because the council would not permit the house to be retained for storage, it was demolished.
The first proprietors were Bob Thomas and Ian Latham. The latter left the firm in 1975. Now Ngaire Thomas is the co-proprietor.
On the northern side of Bath Street, next to the borough council offices, were men's toilets, probably built in the 1930s. Modern public toilets were built on the site in 1965.
The present public library was also built in 1965, partly on the filled in pit. Miss Dorothy Pickin was the first librarian in the new building. Her successors; after her departure in 1977, were Catherine O'Brien, Ann Donaghue and, from 1979, Mrs Judith Hocquard.
The bandroom of the early Levin Municipal Brass Brand stood on the - southeast corner o the Bath Street Chamberlain Street intersection. (Most of Chamberlain Street disappeared under The Mall and Central Carpark development). The corner of the hall would have been about where the phone booth is now on the west side of the library. The hall was probably erected before 1910.1t was removed to Weraroa Road, along from the squash courts, during The Mall clearance about 1968-1969.
Woolworths (trading as McKenzies until 1980) was built in 1970. L. D. Nathan took over Woolworths, then McKenzies, nationwide during 1980.
Since the last of the old-time bakeries closed in 1968, this supermarket has had the only bread bakery in the town. Fancy breads and cakes were baked here to supply Woolworths' shops from Paraparaumu to Palmerston North.
