Trust interested in old library

Press, 17 July 1980, Page 4

Trust interested in old library

Christchurch members of the Historic Places Trust will make “every effort” to save the old Canterbury Public Library from demolition, according to the chairman of the trust’s regional committee (Mr J. L. H. Hewland). Mr Hewland said he would be “very disappointed” to see the building demolished as intended if the Christchurch City Council sold the site to the Post Office. He said the trust had a very strong interest in the original j segment of the building — now the ground floor circulation department of the library — which features large gothic windows. This was built in 1873 and was used for the first lectures of Canterbury College in 1875, Mr Hewland said. The trust had considered various possible uses for the building if it was preserved, he said. A meeting was being sought with the council

to discuss the library’s future. t The council’s' policy and finance committee has decided negotiations should continue for selling a cleared site.

Mr Hewland said the trust’s attempts to save the building would depend on what the council had to say. However, it would take whatever steps it could to have it preserved. The building had architectural and historic significance, he said.