Old Invercargill
Invercargill’s first Museum opened its doors on Dee street in 1872 as part of a Scotch Pie shop. It’s rumoured to have had a live monkey, tortoise, kiwi and kakapo through the early years along with preserved insects, stuffed birds, seals and many artifacts which kept enthusiastic foot traffic consistent.
After quickly outgrowing its wooden building, the museum was in need of expansion. In 1876 the collection shifted to an Edwardian Baroque styled premises next to post office square. The magnificently detailed Athenaeum doubled as a library, becoming Invercargill’s centre of knowledge and literary uplift. It is also possible that Southland’s fascination with Tuatara started in the Athenaeum as records suggest a celebrity resident Tuatara roamed the shelves and was fed by a cleaner. Although impressive and functional, it became too cramped for artifacts and the public so in 1912 the collection was re homed to the mezzanine floor of Southland Technical College.
Come the 1930’s proposals were underway for a new Provincial Museum located on a Queens Park site to be complete by New Zealand’s 1940 centennial. Due to financial hardships along with timber and building supply shortages of this war torn era the project was completed in 1942 at smaller scale than initially hoped. Having constructed the museum at such a challenging time was a victory for Invercargill. Minerva, a statue which had once crowned the Athenaeum, was moved to ground level outside this brand new museum.
Come 1959 the museum was unfortunately closed due to basically being taken for granted while operating on a shoestring budget it simply could not survive on, let alone carry out any dire repair work. Luckily public outcry triggered change in attitudes from the City Council towards the significance this museum held for Invercargill. Funding was approved for work to be carried out on an art gallery and shop extension for 1962 and in 1972 the observatory was completed. A tuatara named George was brought in around this time and caught the public’s affection immediately, likely leading to the 1974 tuatarerium extension.
In 1990 a pyramid roof was fitted to the museum like an outer shell, keeping the old building within the newer structure and allowing for more internal space to be utilized. Gaining the highest per capita attendances for any New Zealand provincial museum in the year 1992 things were looking good. In early 2008 there were ideas of redeveloping the museum once again but due to corners being cut in Stadium Southland’s construction it collapsed after heavy snowfall in 2010 meaning funds needed re prioritizing.
In 2018 Invercargill’s museum closed indefinitely due to earthquake risk.