Introduction

Imagine a time when life was so certain that when you built a building for your business you were confident enough in the future that you put the name of the business into the very fabric of the building.

This is not a time of mergers and takeovers of globalisation and restructure, this is when life was more local and certain.

There are a number of such buildings around and so this blog is an attempt to record some of them and more importantly a bit of the history of the business which by and large are no longer with us.

If you know something about any of these business please add a comment. You can do this without having to sign up for anything and can be anonomous if you prefer.



Unknown Stories

This page contains some buildings I have spotted but as yet have not been able to find any information on. I suspect most of them were small family concerns and so no significant written history.

If you know the story of any of these please post the information in a commnet. You do not need to sign up to leave a comment.


So this building is now part of the Cadbury social club and has been for some years but who were J McFarland & Co before that?

Despite the rather grand title and large building in the harbour area I can't find anything on this company, well nothing that makes sense, there was a company by this name but it never amounted to anything and I doubt the two things are connected.

This building is on George Street, Port Chalmers but I have been unable to find any information about the Milne business.

This is on Broadway, Dunedin and although very difficult to see in this picture this building used to have the name "Irelands" on it and at some time was removed. All I can tell you is that Irelands were auction rooms at one time. Any other information would as always be helpful.