Description Comments

National Mutual construction

Object type

Image

Description: The National Mutual Life building was officially opened by the Prime Minister Robert Muldoon in 1978. At the time, it was the tallest office building in Palmerston North at 122 ft, comprising of 10 stories. The ground floor was occupied by shops and the Fitzherbert Avenue branch of the Bank of New Zealand. Car parking was provided in the basement. Rex Roberts Partnership designed the building and McMillan and Lockwood were responsible for the construction.

Argosy Studio (Argosy 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.