Breweries and the Licensing Committee, the Prince Albert Hotel was closed 1 October 1959, demolished, and replaced by the £200,000 Onehunga Hotel by mid 1960, just alongside the old site to the south. This in turn lasted through to around 2001 before it, too, was either demolished or became just part of the fabric of the building complex there today.

Friday, August 2, 2013

I started wondering about the Ponsonby Hall, which once fronted Jervois Road near the hotel which later became the site of the Gluepot at Three Lamps, when I read this:

Ponsonby Hall, which stood on a site next to the police station in Jervois Road for many years served all the needs of the district. It was originally a store, erected by the Government near the maingate of Government House on Barrack Hill, for storing war material. When the war was over there was no use for the building and Messrs T T Masefield and Field succeeded in getting the Government to allow it to be removed to Ponsonby, those two gentlemen acting as trustees for many years.

James Stitchbury, “Old Ponsonby”, Auckland Star 20 November 1926

In August 1873, “several inhabitants of the district” held a meeting in the rooms of the Auckland City Council where it was resolved “to form a Ponsonby Hall Company of 600 shares of £1 each.” The provisional directors appointed were Stannus Jones (chairman), James Stodart (secretary), James Morton (treasurer), G W Owen, D A Tole, Andrew Stewart and James Dacre. (Special meeting report, NZ Herald, 31 March 1875). Masefield’s