Taranaki Producers' Parsons Store (1957-59)

In the mid-1950s a decision was made to combine at Moturoa the cool store operations of the Taranaki Producers' Freezing Works (New Plymouth), and the West Coast Refrigerating Company (Pātea). The merger was required to ensure the Pātea Works remained competitive, with the town's small river port necessitating the use of smaller coastal ships to take produce first to Wellington, where it would then be transferred to larger ships for international transit. This situation resulted in increased transport costs which threatened the firm's viability, and the decision to take advantage of the international shipping facilities that had been available at New Plymouth since 1917 was a wise one.

The merging of operations would require considerable additional cold storage space at New Plymouth, and noted Wellington architects King and Dawson were soon engaged to design a new store. King and Dawson (and the earlier King, Cook and Dawson) are still in existence, and were involved in a number of projects in the Modernist idiom during the 1950s and 1960s. These were largely centred in the Wellington region and included the Lower Hutt Council Administration Building and Town Hall completed in 1957; the Wellington Cathedral of St Paul from 1959; and Oriental Bay’s Freyberg Pool completed in 1963.

Foundation work for the new cool stores was commenced in April 1957, with the contractors being local firm Roebuck Construction, who completed the almost £300,000 project within the contract period of just over two years. The new building was officially opened by the chairman of the Dairy Board, Mr A. Linton, on 14 July 1959, and named after Frank Parsons, chairman of the West Coast Refrigerating Company.

The Parsons Store is an excellent, and somewhat uncommon example of Mid-Century Modernist industrial architecture, and is an important component of the historic Moturoa Cool Stores Precinct.

Related items:

Draft Heritage Assessment  Parsons Cool Store, Hakirau Street New Plymouth (Hamish Crimp, 2019).

New Parsons Store Opens page 1, page 2 and page 3 (Taranaki Daily News 14 July 1959)

Parsons Cool Store Symbolic of Unity (Taranaki Daily News 15 July 1959)

Parsons Cool Store Opened - Photos (Taranaki Daily News 15 July 1959)

North And South Taranaki Unite in Parsons Cool Store (New Zealand Dairy Exporter 10 Aug 1959)