353 Devonport Road · Tauranga South · Est. 1883

140 years
on one corner

From the Tauranga Dairy Company, to Moreland House, to PARKSIDE on Devonport.

The short version

What was on this corner?

On the corner of Eleventh Avenue and Devonport Road, opposite Memorial Park in Tauranga South, stands a site that has served the city for more than 140 years. This corner was the commercial heart of the Tauranga Dairy Company, its offices and its store, where head office staff worked and where the town came to shop. The butter factory itself stood just across Devonport Road. Later the corner became Moreland House, home of Moreland Fabrics, and today it begins its next chapter as PARKSIDE on Devonport, eighteen homes that carry the corner's story forward.

The reason

Why was this corner chosen?

Water. Eleventh Avenue was picked for the dairy industry because of its reliable supply of fresh water, an essential ingredient in butter making. The factory rose on one side of the road, the company's offices and store on this one. That same connection to the landscape, the water, Memorial Park and the harbour beyond, still defines the corner today.

1883 to today

The story of the corner

The dairy years

1883

The Tauranga Dairy Company is born

Local farmers and investors meet and raise half the capital needed on the very first night. From the outset they favour keeping the investment local. The Blomquist family are remembered as instrumental in founding the district's dairy industry.

1 November 1885

The butter factory opens across the road

The Tauranga Dairy Company's factory opens just across Devonport Road. Locals are encouraged to buy the home made butter over cheaper imported product, and the business grows alongside the town. This corner becomes the company's commercial side: its offices, and in time the store the town would come to love.

1900

Reopened, and growing

After a closure during the 1890s depression, the factory reopens under Mr McPartland, formerly of the Te Puke Dairy Company. Suppliers are paid three pence per gallon of milk.

2 October 1905

A new factory, and a man on horseback

The expanded Tauranga Dairy Factory opens across the road. Company secretary Charles Macmillan, later a Borough Councillor, Member of Parliament and Minister of Agriculture, is photographed on horseback at the occasion.

The opening of the Tauranga Dairy Factory on the corner of Eleventh Avenue and Devonport Road, Tauranga. A large crowd gathers for the occasion, the factory buildings visible behind.
The opening of the Tauranga Dairy Factory, across Devonport Road from today's PARKSIDE site. Image courtesy of Pae Koroki / Tauranga City Libraries · [CONFIRM use rights]
Handwritten letter on Tauranga Dairy Company letterhead, signed F. Blomquist Proprietor, dated 23 November 1907, discussing a milk cheque payment to a local supplier.
Tauranga Dairy Company letterhead, F. Blomquist Proprietor, November 1907. A reminder that this was a local business run by local people. Ams 54/3 · [CONFIRM source and use]
1918

A prize-winning product

By the First World War, exporting butter has become viable, and Britain's wartime need for food opens a large market. Across the road, the factory runs at full operation and wins many prizes at shows around the country.

A horse-drawn cart loaded with cream cans in front of the Co-operative Dairy Company building, Tauranga, with 1919 visible on the building facade.
Horse-drawn cream delivery at the Co-operative Dairy Company, Tauranga, c. 1919. [CONFIRM image source and use rights]
1920s

The cream carriers

Before refrigerated trucks, cream is collected by hand. Jack Heaton and Alf Baikie begin their carrying careers in the 1920s, picking up cream cans from rural Tauranga farms and delivering them to the factory across Devonport Road.

1932

The corner that paid the town

In one season, ninety thousand pounds is paid out to suppliers, the bulk of it spent in Tauranga. The corner is, quite literally, feeding the local economy.

The Tauranga Dairy Company factory buildings in the 1930s, with vintage motor cars parked outside the entrance.
The dairy factory in the 1930s, at the height of its prosperity. [CONFIRM image source and use rights]

The trading store

1950s – 1969

This is the corner everyone remembers

The Dairy Company's offices and its celebrated store stand right here, where head office staff work and the whole town comes to shop. Norm Fletcher serves as store manager until his retirement in 1969. For a generation of locals, this is simply where you went, for dairy goods, farm supplies, and ice cream.

Dairy Company office and trading store staff photographed on the steps of the building on the day the new store opened. Norm Fletcher, store manager until 1969, is front row, second from left.
Dairy Company office staff. Norm Fletcher, store manager until 1969, is front row, second from left. “This photo was taken on the day the new store opened.” Shirley Fisher, daughter of Norm Fletcher · [CONFIRM permission]
The Tauranga Dairy Factory buildings on the corner of Eleventh Avenue and Devonport Road, photographed c. 1969 from an elevated position, showing the long single-storey factory and the art deco trading store frontage.
The dairy factory across Devonport Road, photographed 1969, the year the trading store closed. Tauranga City Libraries, Pae Koroki · [CONFIRM use]

Across the road

1981

The factory becomes the Army Hall

Across Devonport Road, the former butter factory site takes on a new life. The Hauraki Regiment moves its battalion headquarters there, and the building becomes the Hauraki Army Hall, home to a drill hall and the Hauraki Army Museum. Part of the corner's wider story, still standing in living memory.

The Hauraki Army Hall on Devonport Road, Tauranga South, the former dairy factory site across the road from the corner of Eleventh Avenue, now headquarters of the 6th Battalion Hauraki Regiment.
The Hauraki Army Hall on Devonport Road, the dairy factory site given new purpose, directly across from the corner. [CONFIRM image source]

The fabric years

After 1969

Moreland House

When the Dairy Company moves on, the corner building becomes home to Moreland Fabrics, trading as Moreland House. Cloth, craft and a hairdresser take over from cream and butter. A new kind of gathering place, and the name many in Tauranga still know the corner by.

Moreland House on the corner of Eleventh Avenue and Devonport Road, Tauranga, the building painted purple with the Moreland House sign above the entrance, housing Moreland Fabrics. Moreland House in its final years before the site changed hands, repainted grey with Creative Space tenants, the same building on the same corner.
Moreland House on the corner, as Moreland Fabrics (left) and in its final years before the site changed hands (right). [CONFIRM image rights for both photos]

Now

Today

PARKSIDE on Devonport

The corner begins its next chapter as PARKSIDE on Devonport, eighteen homes opposite Memorial Park with views toward the water and Matapihi beyond. The trades change, the role does not. After 140 years of feeding, supplying and serving Tauranga, the corner carries its story forward, this time as a place to live.

View from above the corner of Eleventh Avenue and Devonport Road looking across to Memorial Park, with the Tauranga harbour and Matapihi visible through the autumn trees.
The view from the corner, looking across to Memorial Park and the harbour. The same water, the same trees, the same light. Image courtesy Taylored Group
Ground-level view of the building at 353 Devonport Road, Tauranga, completely draped in dark fabric before PARKSIDE on Devonport was revealed to the city.

The moment it changed

Something
was coming.

Before PARKSIDE was unveiled to Tauranga, the corner went quiet. The building that had served the city for 140 years was wrapped, a deliberate pause before the next chapter began.

The PARKSIDE on Devonport teaser campaign showing the draped building at 353 Devonport Road, Tauranga. Taylored Group and PARKSIDE wordmarks.
The reveal campaign · Tauranga
See the homes →

In the community's words

The corner people remember

1951, we lived up the hill, and were always told we couldn’t go in there or we would be turned into butter. I was four years old and escaped from home with my brother on our tricycles. I came off and the men at the factory took me into the building, my brother went screaming home: “Marcia is being turned into butter.” Marcia Pate, community memory
My grandmother Doris Holloway worked in the Dairy Company store. I can remember going there to see her at work, in the 1960s. It was on the corner where the fabric shop and hairdresser is now. Judith Priest, community memory
I remember Mrs Holloway in the trading store. She endeared herself to my dad with her lively personality. Often he gave her a quart jar of pure farm cream as a tip for excellent service. A great memory. IanHelen Bateman, community memory
Used to ride the cream truck from Pyes Pa with George Fowler. He delivered the cream cans here. About 1960. Daniel RS, community memory
My father, Norm Fletcher was the store manager, front row second from left, until his retirement in 1969. This photo was taken on the day the new store opened. Shirley Fisher, daughter of Norm Fletcher
Loved going there with my great uncle when they did their grocery shopping. A lady would take me out the back and give me a handful of dried apricots. Still love dried apricots. Evelyn Wills, community memory

Names on the corner

The people of this corner

A site is its people. These are some of the names connected to the corner of Eleventh Avenue and Devonport Road over the past 140 years.

Charles Macmillan
Company secretary, later MP and Minister of Agriculture. Photographed at the 1905 opening.
The Blomquist family
Credited as instrumental in founding Tauranga's dairy industry.
Norm Fletcher
Trading store manager, retired 1969.
Doris Holloway
A much remembered face of the trading store in the 1960s.
Jack Heaton & Alf Baikie
Cream carriers who collected cans from rural Tauranga farms, from the 1920s.
George Fowler
Cream truck driver on the Pyes Pa route, around 1960.

PARKSIDE on Devonport

The moment it changed

The time has come for change. Something is coming. Before PARKSIDE is unveiled to Tauranga, the corner will go quiet. The building that had served the city for 140 years wrapped, a deliberate pause before the next chapter begins.

Register your interest

Good questions

Frequently asked

What was on the corner of Eleventh Avenue and Devonport Road in Tauranga?

This corner held the Tauranga Dairy Company's offices and its much loved store, where head office staff worked and the town came to shop. The company's butter factory stood across Devonport Road, on the site that later became the Hauraki Army Hall. After 1969 the corner building became Moreland House, home of Moreland Fabrics. Today the site is being developed as PARKSIDE on Devonport.

What was Moreland House in Tauranga?

Moreland House was the building on the corner of Eleventh Avenue and Devonport Road that housed Moreland Fabrics, a fabric, craft and hairdressing destination, after the Dairy Company's trading store closed in the late 1960s.

What was the Tauranga Dairy Company?

Established in 1883 by local farmers and investors, its butter factory opened in 1885 on Eleventh Avenue, chosen for the area's reliable fresh water. The company's offices and store stood on the opposite corner of Devonport Road, the site of today's PARKSIDE. It became one of Tauranga's most important early industries and won prizes for its butter.

What is being built on the site now?

Taylored Group is developing the site as PARKSIDE on Devonport: eighteen homes opposite Memorial Park in Tauranga South, carrying the corner's story forward.

Where is PARKSIDE on Devonport?

At 353 Devonport Road, Tauranga South, on the corner of Eleventh Avenue and Devonport Road, directly opposite Memorial Park.

With thanks to Tauranga City Libraries (Pae Koroki), the Tauranga Heritage Collection, and the Tauranga community whose memories keep this corner's story alive.

PARKSIDE.

A development by Taylored Group · parkside.tayloredgroup.co.nz
353 Devonport Road, Tauranga South · Opposite Memorial Park