The Dilworth Building is a heritage mixed-use (residential apartments and shops on the ground floor) building at the corner of Customs Street and Queen Street in the

Auckland CBD The Auckland Central Business District (CBD), or Auckland city centre, is the geographical and economic heart of the Auckland metropolitan area. It is the area in which Auckland was established in 1840, by William Hobson. It is New Zealand's l ...

, New Zealand. The building by William Gummer & Reginald Ford was constructed between 1925 and 1927, and is listed as a "Historic Place - Category I" by

Heritage New Zealand Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga (initially the National Historic Places Trust and then, from 1963 to 2014, the New Zealand Historic Places Trust) ( mi, Pouhere Taonga) is a Crown entity with a membership of around 20,000 people that advocate ...

. At the lower entry to Queen Street, the building was once envisaged as one half of a 'gateway' to the city, and hailed as a visionary concept. However, the mirroring building on the opposite side of Queen Street was never constructed.
Past Present: the Visionary Architecture of Gummer and Ford
' - Stacpoole, John; Friday 14 July 2006. Accessed 2008-02-08

History

The building was constructed at the behest of

James Dilworth James Dilworth (15 August 1815 – 23 December 1894) was a New Zealand farmer, investor, speculator and philanthropist. He was born in Donaghmore, County Tyrone, Ireland, on 15 August 1815 and attended the nearby Royal School, Dungannon, where ...

as a rental property to help fund students at the Dilworth Ulster Institute (which later became Dilworth School). Originally the Dilworth Trust Board office was on the 9th floor (with a mezzanine floor) while the rest of the building was let out to tenants. The building was sold by the Dilworth Trust in the 1980s, but it still retains some of the original interiors. It has housed the American consulate, and during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

served as headquarters for the U.S. Army.

References

External links

*
Photographs of the Dilworth building
held in Auckland Libraries' heritage collections. {{coord, -36.844946, 174.766785, type:landmark_region:NZ, display=title Apartment buildings in New Zealand Buildings and structures in Auckland NZHPT Category I listings in the Auckland Region Gummer and Ford buildings and structures 1920s architecture in New Zealand Auckland CBD