2 Harbour Street

The Oamaru Harbour Board building is historically the most important building in the Civic Trust portfolio, built in 1876 to a Forrester and Lemon design, completed in September of that year for £688. Aside from being one of the most decorative buildings the Trust owns, it also played an important role in the foundation of Oamaru, the Harbour was the gate way for the wealth that rolled through North Otago. Over the next century the Harbour slowly faded away, until it quietly went to sleep, in 1974 the Harbour board moved out of the building and in 1979 it became the office building for Crombie and Price. The building itself suffered the effects of time and the first major alteration was in 1933 when the parapet was removed, by the time the building came into the ownership of the Trust in May 2000, the building was in desperate need of major restoration, in 2006 the Trust undertook a major program of restoration on the building that returned the facade to its original design. The building is described as being all front and no bottom....due to the size of the building and its richly carved facade, the front elevation is one of the most elaborate in the Heritage Precinct, with details reminiscent of Venetian Renaissance design, perhaps to echo the strong maritime history of Venice they wanted to recreate in Oamaru. The buildings top floor still has the original board room and is now the proud home of the Civic Trust office,

Trust History

This building was purchased by the Trust in 2000 and underwent a complete exterior restoration in 2005-07.  The North Otago Branch of Historic Places Trust presented the Trust with the conservation plan for the building as a project to mark the 130th anniversary of the Forrester and Lemon architectural practice.

Recent Projects

2025 Restoration work was completed on the ground floor, this included adding lost features back and rewiring the ground floor.                                                      The board room and stairwell were renovated and returned back to an original colour scheme.

Tenants:

First Floor: The Oamaru Whitestone Civic Trust offices and Board Room                  Ground Floor: Gabrielle Roney, Hair salon