The empty spaces created by the earthquake demolitions have often opened up surprising vistas and revealed previously hidden treasures. Along Cresswell Avenue, visible now that the Community Centre is no longer, is the old Pairman Library.
The Port Victoria Public Library opened in April 1874 in the classroom of the old Governors Bay School with an annual subscription of five shillings. In 1928 Dr Pairman (more about him in another post...) loaned the community a sum of money and donated 2.2 perches of his land above Merlincote Crescent, to house a community library. The Governor’s Bay Public Library Association was formed on the 25 May that year and the little building we can see now was purpose built to house the collection which was supplemented with books from the Canterbury Public Library and later from the Country Library Service.
Dr Pairman’s library building was physically relocated to the new Community Centre on Cresswell Avenue in July 1962 and the library was still going strong in the late 1980s. There was a Library Committee, a roster of volunteers and a particularly excellent collection of children’s books. However the advent of a library at the school, the decision of the National Library to cease its rotating contribution to the collection, plus competition from other forms of ‘recreation’, eventually spelt its demise. The building was then used for a playgroup.
As the sign says - the community wants to keep the Pairman Library, perhaps as a new home for the pottery group. Now's your chance to get a good view of the old building before it disappears behind a (hopefully) newly constructed community centre!
