Description Comments

Argosy Aerial - Terrace End Palmerston North

Description: This aerial is set in Palmerston North. It is believed to be predominantly of Terrace End, the block south west of Memorial Park (off image). The street on the far left moving south is Fitzroy Street, parallel to Ruahine Street. The street at the bottom of the image left to right is the eastern end of Church Street, parallel to Ferguson Street and East Street further south. Part of the Hokowhitu suburb can be seen on the top right of the image, with Hokowhitu Domain near the top centre.

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.