Know your town

The great fire
On the evening of Monday 24th May 1926 Town Board staff turned off the town’s water supply at the head works at Dry River, some 15km from town. This was done to facilitate an early start on maintenance work the following morning. The timing could not have been worse.

Late in the evening fire broke out in the two storey Palace Boarding House on Jellicoe Street. The fire brigade attended but without water could not stop the inferno which consumed , along with the boarding house, the neighbouring Lewin’s hair dressers and billiard saloon, and Cave and Robert’s store on the corner of Jellicoe and Naples streets. Continuing around into Naples Street where Jack Hunter’s garage was destroyed, along with several cars.

Hunter’s Garage was rebuilt (now Tom Wilson’s) and Lewin’s was rebuilt in concrete (now Providore). The Boarding house and general store were not rebuilt.

The charred building on the right was Bert Griffith’s accountants. This was repaired with Syd Ussher being the next occupier. This building was eventually moved to Cambridge Road where it is part of the Pinot Villas complex.

The windows of Mr Poulters pharmacy on the other side of Jellicoe Street burst with the heat. The building under construction next door was completed the following year. It is now Scotty’s Butcher Shop and the Library.

Note P and K’s sign and the fancy concrete decorations topping the building – this came down in the 1942 Wairarapa earthquake. The chemist building decorative top was removed.

Who is the man with the pipe or the small bare footed boys?
Mate Higginson