Avondale
Timeline --
1900 - 1925
1900
New Lynn residents ask for amalgamation with Avondale Road District.
Turned down by Avondale Roads Board.
1903
Page's Building constructed, Great North Road.
Geddes Terrace formed. R S Kirkpatrick takes over from father-in-law Mr
Grubb, runs bakery.
St Georges Rd no longer called "Brickyard's Road".
30 September:
First meeting of Oddfellows Lodge, in Avondale
Public Hall.
1904
May 22:
Opening of Methodist Church, Brown Street,
Avondale.
August:
Three gas lamps purchased for district streets,
including junction of "Old North and New North Roads".
1904
- 1909
Construction and erection of ornamental gas lamp and
horse trough at Five-Roads junction, Avondale.
1906
Bollard & Wood take over lease of Page's Building. First purpose-built
Police Station.
1908
Conversion of site of Morris' store and bakery, corner Cracroft Street,
converted to first billiard saloon and barber shop by H. Kneebone.
November 17:
Avondale votes "dry" along with rest of Eden electorate.
1909
June 30, 10 pm:
Closing time of last day Avondale Hotel open for business.
1910
D. Robertson opens general store and bakery on corner Rosebank Road and
Great North Rd.
November 10:
Earliest known motion picture show in Avondale.
1911
Robert J. Allely builds Allely Building --
Avondale's first chemist cum doctor and dentist.
1912
Post Office opens in Avondale Hotel building. There until 1938. Gas mains
laId along Great North Road and Brown Street. Station Store built end of 1912, first owned by
Kirkpatrick family.
Frederick Sandford and William Miller test their biplane at Avondale Racecourse. They crash on 4 December.
1914
New Infant Block opened at Avondale Primary School.
1915
Fred Bluck builds block
opposite railway station between Roberton and Station Roads.
Public Hall vested in Roads Board by last trustee, John Bollard. Trigg
& Dames set up business.
26 May:
Opening of first bank agency in Avondale -- the Bank of New Zealand, in
Bluck's Buildings.
3 November:
First meeting of Board in new offices fronting Public Hall (now the Town
Hall).
Christmas Day:
H Empson motion picture show in Town Hall.
1918
Titirangi Lodge of Freemasons buys old stables on Rosebank Road. Builds
the Masonic Hall. Influenza epidemic.
1919
Harry Waygood opens service station on Wingate Street. Around this time,
Percy Keen opens up his service station in Pooley's stables, Great North
road. Larry Tierney runs billard saloon and barber shop, corner Cracroft
Street.
1920s
Arrival of the "Avondale Spider"
1920
James Binsted dies. Business sold to R & W
Hellabys.
December 20: "Official
Turning Of The Valve" ceremony, at Nihotapu. Water now piped to
Avondale.
1921
St Georges Rd
formed and metalled.
1922
Edward
Wood sells Bollard & wood business to Arthur Amos -- store known as
"Spot Cash". First Plunket Office set up in Avondale shopping
centre, in Town Hall ante rooms.
April 27:
Avondale Manual Training School opens
at Avondale Primary (Standards 5 and 6).
April 29:
First Avondale Borough Council
election. J. W. Kinniburgh first Mayor.
1923
Phillip Woods opens second billard saloon and barbers.
1924
Charles Collier opens first store, initially an ironmonger, later
hardware. Telephone cables laid along Great North Road and St Georges
Road. Electricity power lines to Avondale. McKenzies Store fire - Fearon
Block built in place.
October 31:
Opening of new Town Hall.
November 14:
Pooley Stables burns down.
1925
February 9:
Manual telephone exchange opens.
March 2:
Work begins on first concrete road in the country, along Avondale's
section of Great North Road.
