More Info →Argosy Aerial - Glaxo Laboratories and Star Flats

Description: The Glaxo company was established in 1873 when J C Nathan started a small milk powder plant at Bunnythorpe, trading under the name Defiance. In 1908 the firm, using the trade name of Glaxo, introduced new baby food into the NZ and British markets. Glaxo went on to become an internationally recognised food and pharmaceutical producer. In 1950 the new offices, laboratories and pharmaceutical production factory were built in Botannical Road. Glaxo closed its operations in Palmerston North in 1995, and the building sold. In 2025, it was operated by the Goodman Feilder company.

Star Flats (at right on corner of Botanical road and Brentwood Avenue) were built all around New Zealand in the 1950s and '60s as medium density social housing. Many have been demolished in the early 2020s but the Palmerston North examples were renovated and reopened instead. They are located on the corner of Botanical Road and Brentwood Avenue.

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.