Meeks Grain Elevator Building

Originally a massive five storey grain store, the New Zealand Elevator Company’s Building, designed by Oamaru architectural partnership Forrester and Lemon in 1883, has historical and architectural significance. The former grain store stands as a testament to the booming grain-based economy that saw Oamaru flourish in the 1870s and 1880s.

The New Zealand Elevator Company’s grain store was built at the northern end of Tyne Street, close to the junction of Itchen and Humber Streets, a location conveniently close to the railway line.

The five storey building was completed in May 1883, and was a massive building twenty metres wide and sixty metres long, with a floor space of 5,100 square metres. It used the latest technologies; two worm gears operated conveyor belts carried grain to the bins seventeen metres deep, allowing only a handful of men to run the operation.

In January 1920, the store was gutted by fire. The design of the building encouraged air flow, the grain fuelled the fire, and soon the roof fell in and the rear portion was gutted. The top floors were removed. The building was remodelled, and J. and T. Meek continued to use it as a grain store until the 1950s. In the 1950s, it was sold to foundry owners G. T. Gillies Limited.

In 2015, the New Zealand Elevator Company’s Building has been reincarnated as home to Steampunk HQ.