Vintage Garden Party 2020

Tauranga Historical Society’s 2020 Vintage Garden Party was abuzz with one of the largest crowds seen at the Brain Watkins House in the 40-plus years the Garden Party has been going. A colourful gathering of more than 200 people enjoyed the music, stalls, food and fashion. Many visitors took the opportunity to dress up in period costume, which was much appreciated by the Society.

Society member Bev Hodges, who ran the ‘Gangster Mug Shot’ booth, takes the photograph of two visitors who dressed up for the occasion
Image: Fiona Kean, private collection

The crowd gathers for the fashion show that took place on the back lawn of the Brain Watkins House
Image: Fiona Kean, private collection

The fashion show, coordinated by Amy Turner, was a real highlight of the afternoon and featured vintage wedding dresses from the '40s, '50s, '60s, '70s, '80s and 2000s. Many of the gowns' owners were present to see their dresses modelled and this was a lovely feature of the show.

Emily wearing a 1983 belonging to Carole Signal
Image: Lee Switzer, private collection

Glorious colours in this 2011 wedding gown worn by the bride Pushpinder
Image: Lee Switzer, private collection

Wedding dresses were also sprinkled throughout the Brain Watkins House and included a display celebrating the wedding photography of Alf Rendell. The display was a collaboration between the Tauranga Historical Society and the Tauranga Heritage Collection and featured Barbara Murray’s beautiful gown which she wore in 1955.

Barbara Murray in front of display boards that captured her 1955 Tauranga wedding. Barbara’s wedding dress and items from her going away outfit were also on display in the Brain Watkins House
Image: Lee Switzer, private collection

The Society would like to thank everyone who supported the event, from Society members who gave their time and talents to the public who attended in record numbers. Funds raised will go towards the care of the Brain Watkins House and the continued protection and promotion of heritage in Tauranga. If you would like to join the Society contact us at tauranga.historical@gmail.com.

A beautiful 1940s wedding dress modelled by Arumia
Image: Lee Switzer, private collection

Elva's Garden

Image courtesy of Tauranga Heritage Collection Ref. 2005-0245

A photograph, taken in the 1960’s, shows 233 Cameron Road situated on an already busy intersection. The house is almost a public space, with unobstructed views into the front of the property.

Image courtesy of Tauranga Heritage Collection Ref. 2004-0554

The inquisitive eye would see a front garden of formality and order. An encaustic tile path joining the front gate to front step with geometric precision. The clipped twin camellias, the imposing centrally positioned front door and identical front windows adding to the Victorian symmetry.

Perhaps to regain a sense of privacy and quiet containment, Elva cultivated her back garden to be one of charm, colour and intimacy. The images shown here, taken between January 1965 and May 1966, reveal a rather inward looking and private space.

The informal planting style, with unrestrained free flowing plants, is typical of the cottage garden. A trellis fence defines a long herbaceous border, the geometry softened by cascading pastel coloured roses. Underplantings are old fashioned favourites - white daisies, perennial phlox and pink geraniums. Further along the garden, tall orange dahlias and bronzed leafed begonias add colour and vibrancy.

Garden adornments show an eclectic style. A white painted adirondack chair draws the eye into the adjoining orchard. A red tyre, cut in half and filled with plants, is placed in the herbaceous border. The other half, containing succulents, is part of a pot plant collection that decorates the back porch.

Elva chooses to record her cats, one inanimate but fiercely hunting, the other soft with tail erect and showing a slight interest in the flower bed. Elva watches intently. Gertrude Jekyll’s description of a cat as ‘ the perfect garden companion’ comes to mind.

The white concrete swan, crafted by Tauranga man Peter McTainsh  is favoured by Elva in these images. It appears in six photos and is positioned as the focal point in different parts of the garden. One photo shows the swan with two Crown Lynn ceramic companions settled on a lake of daisies.

But it is the photograph taken in August 1965 that is most revealing. Elva’s deep sense of place, her turangawaewae, shows in her facial expression and bearing as she stands with her husband in the garden her parents began seventy-five years previously.

Grateful thanks to Fiona Kean, Tauranga Heritage Collection and to Shirley Arabin for assistance in the preparation of the images.

Anne Marquand
February 2020

Image courtesy of Brain Watkins House Collection except where stated otherwise

Reo Moana

Mount Maunganui main beach. R.J.Rendell photographer
Image courtesy of Tauranga Heritage Collection

It was not only in Napier that Art Deco and the various styles of Spanish Mission architecture appeared in New Zealand in the 1930s.  Most towns still have some flat roofed, stucco dwellings sometimes with decorative motifs and some quite plain. Originating in the south west states of North America the Spanish Mission style was popular in new world countries especially where the climate is similar to California. It first arrived in New Zealand with the construction of the Auckland Grammar School building in 1913 and the style became popular in the following years in domestic architecture. The characteristic pastel coloured walls, clay tiled parapets, arched windows, balconies, tiles and wrought iron appear in various levels of detail.

Reo Moana. Limmer family collection

There are few of the original bachs and holiday homes left in Mount Maunganui that were built prior to the Second World War. They suddenly disappear and a new building appears on the section. A way of life has gone; the casual holiday life style of recycled furniture and furnishings from home, walked in sand on the floor, beach cricket, board games and no computers.

Reo Moana in 2020. Photos: Lee Switzer

Barbeque on back lawn. Limmer family collection

One such relict is “Reo Moana” which translates as “language of the sea” situated in Marine Parade, once part of a street scape that included the Oceanside Hotel. The dwelling appears to be the last of the old Mount in the block. Taller buildings dominate the east end of Marine Parade and Reo Moana lost its rear view to Pilot Bay.

Family holiday. Limmer family collection

In April 1937 a Tauranga architect, Thomas S Gray, called for tenders for the erection of flats at Mount Maunganui for G H Streiff a dairy farmer of Te Aroha. [1] Streiff had bought 22 perches of land at Mount Maunganui from Tauranga County Council in 1935. [2] Gray designed a Spanish Mission style building of two flats, side by side, standing on the sand dune with the lower floor dug back into the dune and a second storey above. A parapet hides the flat roof and the stucco walls are painted white. There is a narrow balcony in front of each flat with steps at each end of a curved wall. The front door and windows of both flats are symmetrical and three bands of plain plaster on the stucco below the roof line are the only reference to the “speed lines” inspired by aerodynamic design and typical of the period.

Max Sing & Vic Limmer with Vic's kingfish. Limmer family collection

Originally the flats were mirror images of each other but changes to internal walls have left the east flat with four bedrooms while the west has only two but a larger living area. Terracotta coping tiles provide a contrast in material and colour in the centre section of the parapet.  Coping tiles originally protected the top of walls from rain water but in this case the effect is purely decorative. In more recent years a concrete front fence topped with terracotta pipes repeats this effect.

Streiff used the west flat for himself and his family and let the other to holiday makers. He was born in Milan, Italy the son of Abraham Streiff a Swiss who immigrated to New Zealand. [3] The son was appointed Swiss consul in Auckland. [4] His wife Florence was the sister of Lord Ernest Rutherford and she died in 1944. [5] Streiff continued to use his beach house and swam every day. At midday he took the ferry to have his dinner at one of the Tauranga hotels. The Limmer family from Hamilton rented the east flat for their holidays and eventually they purchased it. They changed the front window to ranch sliders then later to French doors. The flats were on a cross-lease title. The Sing and Barnes families were later owners of the west flat after Streiff’s death. The whole building is now owned by the Limmers and has provided many holidays for five generations of the family.

Reo Moana in 2020. Photos: Lee Switzer

References

Informant – Mrs. Beverley Limmer
[1]  Bay of Plenty Times, 3 April 1937
[2]  Bay of Plenty Times, 25 April 1935
[3]  My Heritage family tree.
[4]  Thames Standard, 7 July 1913
[5]  Birth, death & marriage indexes Dept of Internal Affairs.

Methodist Church Picnic

Image: Tauranga Heritage Collection, Ref. 0672/08

Handwritten on the back of this photograph are the words ‘Methodist Church Picnic, Tauranga’. Sadly, it is not recorded when or where the picnic took place or who these cheerful looking people are. However, a quick search of Papers Past shows that the Methodist Church Picnic was an annual event from the early 1900s into the 1930s. Popular locations for the picnic, which took place in January, included Yatton Park, Tauranga Domain and Otumoetai Beach.

The Elms TECT Heritage Garden

The Elms TECT Heritage Garden was opened to the public on Saturday 15 February 2020. At the official opening The Elms Foundation Chairperson, Ian Thomas, spoke of the project’s complexity and its many contributors. He acknowledged Ngai Tamarawaho of Ngati Ranginui and Ngati Tapu of Ngai Te Rangi as holders of the site’s mana whenua. He spoke of the significant financial support given by TECT and highlighted the designers and artists who entwined the strands of many stories to create a beautiful garden and pavilion. For those present it was immediately clear that the many hands, heads and hearts that worked on this project have created something very special.

The pavilion was designed by Justin Matthews and built by Canam Construction
Image: Fiona Kean, private collection.

The following information is taken from Ian Thomas’s speech at the opening.

“The pavilion design is inspired by the original raupō whare built by tangata whenua for Archdeacon Alfred Brown and Charlotte Brown to reside in when they settled in 1838. The proportions of the structure closely approximate those described by missionaries at the time. Also, the laminated timber beams have been stained to reflect the colour of raupo when it is dried … The roof is influenced by the architecture of the earliest CMS stations in the Bay of Islands. The gabled front gradually changes to a skillion at the opposite end. Both roof profiles were prevalent in mission buildings of the far north. They can also be seen across The Elms site today.”

A view of the garden designed by John Adams and implemented by Elms custodians Troy Edgecumbe and Rosie Burr
Image: Fiona Kean, private collection

“In respect to the garden, a Scottish landscape designer by the name of John Claudius Loudon provided the inspiration. In simple terms, Loudon believed a garden should be a work of art to be admired for its distinctive characteristics. Interestingly his style was reflected in the development of Te Papa’s mission garden from its earliest inception. Evidence of that is a well-used copy of his Encyclopaedia of Gardening which is sitting in Alfred Brown’s library today.

“An element of Loudon’s style was geometric shaped garden beds, which we see with the oval bed around the pavilion. Indeed, this new oval garden bed in effect recreates a feature that existed here in the 1840s, and was lovingly tended by Alfred’s daughter Celia, but has been lost from the site with the passage of time. Within the oval bed are plants of functional and ornamental value, all with botanical and historical interest. There is a blend of native and exotic varieties into what is a bicultural design.”

One of several information panels that explain the pavilion, garden and carving design as well as the significance of the site
Image: Fiona Kean, private collection

Master carver Whare Thompson standing beside one of his carvings which adorn the pavilion
Image: Fiona Kean, private collection

A raparapa, the end projection of the maihi bargeboard. The figure of the raparapa is known as a manaia. The wood for the carvings came from the piles of the old Town Wharf. The master carver Whare Thompson has kept evidence of the shipworms which at one time attacked the wood.
Image: Fiona Kean, private collection