Façadism along the Forgotten World Highway

As it was my birthday last week, I took a week of leave to console myself.  As a surprise, my partner (a bush-faring sort) decided to take me on a little road trip down State Highway 43, the Forgotten World Highway, that runs between Te Awamutu and Stratford.  For those of you who have not had the joy, you can be assured that the word “forgotten” does accurately sum up this stretch of road.  We were lucky to escape with only one flat tyre! 

On this adventure, we stayed overnight in the little town, or Republic (feel free to Google), of Whangamomona – a cluster of about 10 heritage buildings in the middle of, well, nowhere. Whangamomona’s buildings are beautiful, and I was in seventh heaven.  But, what caught my eye was an example of an interesting but not unknown phenomenon - a facade-only reconstruction, rather like the set of an old Western movie.  

Whangamomona’s McCluggage Bros General Store was originally constructed in 1900, and survived (amongst other things) the “great flood” of 1924 and the “great fire” of 1943.  Due to declining business, it was closed in 1967, since which time it has sat empty.  In 1983 it was given a Category II registration with the Historic Places Trust, but continued to fall into disrepair.  In 2009, grants to the value of $127,000 were given to the town to begin the upgrade of its main street, and it was decided that the first priority would be to address the problem of the now crumbling general store building.  Locals felt that the condition of the building left no choice but to demolish, and the building owners agreed.  

Despite the HPT listing, demolition ensued, and work began on the agreed replacement - a new façade in the original style, complete with verandah and signage, but no actual building.  From a heritage perspective this is fairly horrifying, and raises a number of concerns about how we treat our heritage buildings in this country, especially in small towns that have been largely untouched by modern development.  

I sympathise with a community struggling to do as much as it can with limited funds, and I appreciate the efforts they have gone to to ensure that the original streetscape is preserved - but façadism, especially when it does not even involve the preservation of the actual original facade, should not be the answer.  Not only does it not represent good conservation practice - it looks flimsy and ridiculous.

What should we all take from this?  A commitment to never let this happen to more of our historic buildings - and to push for proper practices to be observed in the treatment of our built heritage.

- Posted Sept. 30, 2011