172 - 176 Devon Street East Shops (1963)

This block of shops was built in 1963 by Snowden Construction.

A permit was issued to Lynton Haylock for the shop at 172 Devon Street East on 5 February 1963 at an estimated cost of £2,700. Three months later another permit was issued to Haylock (later crossed out and changed to E.R. Harvey) for another two shops on the site, this time the estimated cost was £4,500. 

It is also likely that the shop at 170 Devon Street East (State Hotel end) was built about the same time, although a building permit to confirm this has not been located.

Early businesses to occupy the shops include the Easy Built Centre, Denver Beauty Salon and the Fontane Cafeteria. On 12 January 1972 an advertisement appeared in the Taranaki Herald advising that the Taranaki Bible House had opened in new premises, "Opposite State Theatre", likely to be the shop at 174 Devon Street East.

The block of shops replaced an old house and a two-storey wooden building, which, before demolition, had been the "Sunbeam Milk Bar".          

Related items:

Town Section 1439, Taranaki Land Deed Index I3 page 323. (Archives New Zealand)

Taranaki DP520 Sheet 1 (1892), ICS Pre 300,000 Cadastral Plan Index (Imaged by LINZ)

Taranaki DP4381 Sheet 1 (1922), ICS Pre 300,000 Cadastral Plan Index (Imaged by LINZ)

Taranaki DP8862 Sheet 1 (1960), ICS Pre 300,000 Cadastral Plan Index (Imaged by LINZ) 

Taranaki DP9057 Sheet 1 (1962), ICS Pre 300,000 Cadastral Plan Index (Imaged by LINZ)