Petrol Station — 71 North Avon Road

This photograph was reproduced in Richmond Community News #56, March 2008. Alan Williamson wrote an accompanying article about the property. The original article is available here: www.aveburyhouse.co.nz/uploads/4/7/2/0/47203855/rcn-056-march-2008.pdf

The house at 71 North Avon Road, at the NW corner of the intersection with Stapletons Rd, was converted to include a petrol station in 1927. The property was owned at that time by Norman Baggs, a builder, who kept the property until 1941. The petrol station changed hands several times over the following ten years. In 1952 the property was bought by Alex Levy who operated the station with his son Ross. For some time, Barry Halliday ran an auto repair business alongside the garage in Stapletons Rd.

Later the property was owned by Sonyac Services; there is an advertisement for Sonyac Services in the Pegasus Post, 12 November 1980 special feature on the newly opened North Avon Village shopping centre. Sometime after that the building was decommissioned as a petrol station and was converted to a dry-cleaners. Richmond Drycleaners still operate on the site today (2018). The site still includes a drive-thru feature which is a carry-over from the time when the property was a petrol station.

The photograph includes several signs: one advertising Big Tree petrol; there is at least one Big Tree pump visible under the covered area. There is also a sign offering “Car Service While You Wait”, with “Full Chassis Lubrication” and “Crankcase and Battery Service”, and a sign “Free Air”. The photograph has a label affixed which dates it to ‘circa 1930’, presumably based on the age of the cars and other paraphernalia. In his article, Alan Williamson identifies the vehicles in the photo as a Ford Model T truck with a Dodge Roadster behind and another American sedan on the ramp.

The photograph is a modern inkjet print copy of an original photograph. The print has the date 18/07/2005 printed in the bottom right-hand corner, presumably the date the copy print was made.