Author: Jaime Ridge

This year Palmerston North celebrates 150 years and Local History Week is one of many celebrations and times of reflection taking place across the city in 2021. This year the Local History Week programme has been modified due to COVID-19 Alert level restrictions, and our very popular lunchtime talks will be delivered via Zoom.

MONDAY 1 NOVEMBER, 12.30-1.30pm:

Our Party of the Century Presented by Margaret Tennant, Historian An illustrated talk on the city’s centennial celebrations of 1971.

TUESDAY 2 NOVEMBER, 12.30-1.30pm:

Himatangi Beach – From the Car Shed to the Water’s Edge Presented by Tony Rasmussen, Historian Discover why Himatangi Beach did not develop to the extent expected by its earliest promoters.

WEDNESDAY 3 NOVEMBER, 12.30-1.30pm:

The Hawke’s Bay Earthquake, and the ‘canvas towns’ of Palmerston North Showgrounds and Awapuni Racecourse Presented by Leanne Croon Hickman, Historian

You must register in advance for the talks by contacting the Heritage team heritage@pncc.govt.nz. A link to each Zoom session will be sent to you.

Visit the second floor of the central library to view a selection of images from New Zealand military historian Glyn Harper’s latest book, which features unpublished images of New Zealander’s in World War II.

Spring is here and it’s cherry blossom time at the Esplanade.

If you can’t manage a visit in person check out Manawatū Heritage for photos of the gardens in springtime over the years.

Do you remember the old Fitzherbert Bridge? Completed in 1935, this was actually the second of three vehicle bridges built to cross the Manawatu River. You can learn more about this once iconic Palmerston North structure from the display in Second Floor Heritage Area of the City Library. This features photographs, engineers’ plans, historic documents and even the menu from the civic luncheon to celebrate its opening by the Governor General. The display will be on view until 24 October. More images can be viewed here, on Manawatū Heritage.

You probably know this majestic old Palmerston North Building better as Cafe Cuba, but it was originally built for the Manawatu Patriotic Society as the Soldier’s Club. It was completed in 1917 to a design from the firm of L G West & Son and was used by the RSA until 1966.

This slider compares 1979 and 2021.

The second image was taken in 2021 by Caleb, Sam and Natalie of the Manawatū Home Educator’s network as part of a session with the Heritage team at Palmerston North City Library. They went out to Cuba Street with an iPad specifically to take this photo so we could use it in this image compare slider. Well done team!

As part of celebrating 25 years of the Library being at 4 The Square, we’re looking for images of our library activities and services we might never have seen before.

If you have some polaroids gathering dust under the bed or maybe a quick pic taken at one of our events, you can contribute to the history of our building. Bring your photo to the Heritage team on the second floor and we’ll show you how to create a high-quality digital copy and how to upload to Manawatū Heritage.

Already have a digital copy? Then you can contribute it directly by uploading here: manawatuheritage.pncc.govt.nz/contribute .