NZ Visual Diary - entry 332
past glory - 113 Symonds Street
Among the many joys of intentional meandering on foot is the prospect of amorphous certainty - discovery that anticipates both surety and surprise.
I have driven the length of Symonds Street on numerous occasions but failed to notice the building featured as today’s image. Travelling on foot from Mt Eden Village to my apartment — a delightful 8km hike on a gorgeous early summer day — I was confident that I would find a curious, if heretofore overlooked, object. Intent clothed as purposeful ambling.
I know nothing of the building’s provenance or commercial history, although the primary puzzlement relates to the impulse to apply a paint coat of blue trim.
It is a mystery.
https://kura.aucklandlibraries.govt.nz/digital/collection/photos/id/161903/rec/2 In this picture from 1967, a giant sign for Dulux Paint was atop that building. Next door at 109 was McNab and Mason, monumental masons (nominative determinism) and as far as I can tell there looks to be a restaurant at 111. Later there was a business called Excellent Screenprinters. It was also rented for student accommodation - it may still be. You can also see it (with it's Dulux sign) in this 1964 arial photo: https://kura.aucklandlibraries.govt.nz/digital/collection/photos/id/162302/rec/175