Traction Engine Moving the Morgue

Description

The brick morgue was built by the Palmerston North Borough Council in 1904 and was transported from its original site in Church Street (at the rear of the old Opera House) to a new site at Terrace End Cemetery in Napier Road in 1908. The council erected a public morgue to accommodate the bodies of people who died of infectious diseases or who had no relations or friends in the town. It was relocated after the Opera House was built as it was thought it lowered the tone of the locality. Relocating the morgue cost £145, the same as the cost to build it. It was used until 1938 when the Hospital Board erected a larger structure in the grounds of the Public Hospital.

This photograph was reproduced in the New Zealand Graphic, 25 November 1908, with the caption: "MOVING A MORGUE. The morgue in Palmerston North stood in the centre of the town, a position which naturally caused trouble. It was therefore shifted bodily to the cemetery. It is here shown in transit."

Identification

Relation

Public Photograph Collection Tr 6

Date

1908

Digitisation id

2014N_Tr6_009148

Held in

Coolstore