Ellen Melville Centre, Freyberg Square, Auckland, New Zealand

The Ellen Melville Centre is a community centre located in Freyberg Square in central

Auckland, New Zealand Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

. It is named after

Ellen Melville Eliza Ellen Melville (13 May 1882 – 27 July 1946) was a New Zealand lawyer and politician. She was New Zealand's second female lawyer, and the first woman elected to a city council in New Zealand. She sat on the Auckland City Council for 33 ye ...

, the first woman to be elected to the

Auckland City Council Auckland City Council was the local government authority for Auckland City, New Zealand, from 1871 to 1 November 2010, when it and Auckland's six other city and district councils were amalgamated to form the Auckland Council. It was an elected b ...

and the second New Zealand woman to become a lawyer.

History

Melville proposed a community hall in the central city as a centenary project to mark 100 years since the signing of the

Treaty of Waitangi The Treaty of Waitangi ( mi, Te Tiriti o Waitangi) is a document of central importance to the history, to the political constitution of the state, and to the national mythos of New Zealand. It has played a major role in the treatment of the M ...

and to commemorate the work of pioneer women in the establishment and development of Auckland. However work only got underway in the late 1950s and the hall was opened in 1962 as a base for women's societies. The original building, named the Pioneer Women’s & Ellen Melville Memorial Hall, was designed by Auckland City Chief Architect

Tibor Donner Tibor Donner (19 September 1907 – 11 March 1993) was Chief Architect for the Auckland City Council from 1947-1967. Personal life Tibor Karoly Donner was born in Szabadka, Austria-Hungary (now known as Subotica and part of Serbia), on 19 Septe ...

. It cost £56,200, including a £30,000 donation from the Queen Street Business Association, £19,000 from the Auckland City Council and £8,000 raised by 64 women’s organisations. The centre was extensively refurbished and reopened in September 2017. As part of the refurbishment a large scale bronze sculpture by

Lisa Reihana Lisa Marie Reihana (born 1964) is a New Zealand artist. Her video work, ''In Pursuit of Venus nfected' (2015), which examines early encounters between Polynesians and European explorers, was featured at the 2017 Venice Biennale. Early life ...

was commissioned. The work, ''Justice'' depicts the scales of justice but tipped in favour of women. The centre has five bookable spaces available for community use, with classes and programmes run by organisations including the

Plunket Society The Royal New Zealand Plunket Trust provides a range of free services aimed at improving the development, health and wellbeing of children under the age of five within New Zealand, where it is commonly known simply as Plunket. Its mission is "t ...

. The five rooms are each named after a prominent woman from the region:

Helen Clark Helen Elizabeth Clark (born 26 February 1950) is a New Zealand politician who served as the 37th prime minister of New Zealand from 1999 to 2008, and was the administrator of the United Nations Development Programme from 2009 to 2017. She was ...

Betty Wark Elizabeth Cecilia Wark (née Te Wheao, 6 June 1924–16 May 2001) was a New Zealand social worker and politician. Biography Early life and family Wark was born at Omanaia in 1924 to unmarried parents; Cyril Chapman and Nau (Mabel) Rini Te Wheao w ...

, Elizabeth Yates,

Marilyn Waring Dame Marilyn Joy Waring (born 7 October 1952) is a New Zealand public policy scholar, international development consultant, former politician, environmentalist, feminist and a principal founder of feminist economics. In 1975, aged 23, she beca ...

and Eleitino (Paddy) Walker.

References

{{coord, -36.8476, 174.7668, display=title 1962 establishments in New Zealand Community centres in New Zealand Buildings and structures in Auckland Auckland CBD