EXCHANGE BUILDINGS

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 111, 3 February 1934, Page 16

EXCHANGE BUILDINGS

Originally the Athenaeum ONCE A POPULAR THEATRE An early start was made yesterday on the demolition of the Exchange Buildings on Lambton Quay, which is the site of the new Prudential Life Assurance Company's ten-story edifice. The old building, which was designed by the late Mr. Thomas Turnbull, was erected in 1877 by the Athenaeum and Mechanics’ Institute, on the site of its former premises, a one-story building erected in 1844. Not very long after this fine old building was erected the institute fell upon evil days, and owing to a lack of finance it passed into private hands, the institute remaining as a tenant of some of the rooms on the first floor. It was also the first home of the Y.M.C.A. in this city. The frontage was occupied by various tenants, the late Hon. T. K. Macdonald occupying a major part of the frontage for many years for tlie purpose of his land and estate agency business. Some forty years ago the main entrance to the hall (at the rear) and the upper floors was in the centre of the Lambton Quay frontage. The hall became a place of entertainment for local concerts and travelling companies. Many fine artists appeared there from time to time, including the Rev. Charles Clark (best of elocutionists), G. H. Snazelle, Lincoln (an American entertainer), Melb. B. Spurr, Davy’s Brightlights (which ran for six months), several minstrebcompanies. and concert artists. It was at one time, too, the popular place for the annual school concerts. Later the Lambton Quay entrance was closed, and the space it occupied was converted into a shop, and a new 7 entrance and stairway "famn Plimmer’s Steps was provided. For years the hall degenerated into an auction mart, and later still, it became a furniture emporium. . • Although times and advances in building have made the premises out of date, the building is still pretty sound, and its timbers are said to be in a very good state of preservation, although in use for nearly half a century. The Exchange Buildings, being wholly a wooden structure and erected on the narrowest part of the Quay, was considered a very hot fire risk by insurance men; so much so that at one stage a large water main was laid down Plimmer’s Steps, and through the old “Dominion” building as a fire protective measure. Early pictures of "Wellington, taken prior to 1877, show the residence of the late Mr. John Plimmer, on the hill immediately behind the old Athenaem. In those days the balconies of this house commanded an uninterrupted view of Lambton harbour.