This building was built in 1889 as the Newton Borough Council Chambers and Volunteer Fire Brigade Station. It was Auckland based architect John Mitchell’s first commission in the colony. He and fellow immigrant Robert Watt went on to form a partnership and are best remembered for the design of educational institutions and in partcular the Ley’s Institute in Ponsonby.
The Newton Borough Council was formed in 1889 to take over parts of local administration from the Newton Highway Board. In short order, there were complaints about the budget and compromises were made that still resulted in a beautiful building. Originally the ground floor was mostly taken up by the fire brigade with the top floor likely occupied by a town’s clerk office and council chambers. The chambers were accessed via an external staircase and the bell tower was used to let locals know there was a fire.
Newton Borough was renamed Grey Lynn Borough in honour of Sir George Grey, marking this as the Grey Lynn Fire Station - it was never the Ponsonby Fire Station which was located near Three Lamps. When the Western Districts Fire Station was completed in Ponsonby in 1923 the Grey Lynn Fire Station was closed and sold to John Fenton.
In 1973, a community-minded organisation Landmark Incorporated purchased the building from private hands with the express purpose of saving this important part of Auckland history. It has seen a few incarnations as restaurants including its current one and is now a listed heritage building.
Source: Deirdre Tohill’s article in the Ponsonby News about this building in July 2013.
You are looking for a mint tin "camoed" so that it references its surroundings (sort of) across the street from the old fire station. There is no need to go in any building or wander into the street. Please replace the geocache when you are finished so that it is not visible so that hopefully it lasts a while. You will need to bring your own pen to sign the log please and no travel bugs or trinkets that might cause the cache to fall off please. This area is very busy as there is a lot of workers in the area and it is very close to a supermarket - you'll need to use stealth to find and replace the geocache. Thanks for visiting.
