More Info →National insurance building Rangitikei street

Description: Thorrold-Jaggard designed this building for Alan Carman Keeble, and the firm F. Jackson & Son erected it at a cost of £3,873. A.C. Keeble was possibly part of the Land and Insurance Agents’ firm Bagnall & Keeble that in 1928 was based in the Carroll Buildings on the opposite side of Rangitikei Street. That firm was still based in Rangitikei Street in 1938. Later Keeble worked for the BNZ.

It is unclear when the National Insurance Company occupied this building. The 1941 phonebook lists M.A. Elliott Ltd., of Broadway, as its agent. Early 1970s phone books list it at 6-10 Rangitikei Street (this building), while the 1977 phonebook gives another Rangitikei Street address. The Wises’ Directories list a variety of tenants, including insurance agents, who perhaps represented the company. Other tenants included a draper, a dress shop, a photographer, sharebrokers and solicitors. In 2014, this building was closed and under threat as earthquake-prone.

Argosy Studio (Argos Industrial Photos) was a photography business owned and operated between 1950 and 1980 by Joe Greening (formerly employed by Elmar Studios). Originally located in Broadway, Argosy later moved to Cuba Street on the corner with Lombard Street.

As well as commissioned work (such as photographing the old railyards or aerial shots for the Council) Greening was known to operate as a street photographer, capturing the likenesses of passersby, offering his card with the negative number so they could buy the image if they wished. Many of these images will be in family photo albums.

A fire in 1965 destroyed many negatives in Argosy's collection but this image was one of the 400 or so survivors. Greening donated many of these surviving images to the Ian Matheson City Archives in 1989 before retiring to Kaitaia. He died in 2001.