Devonport Museum

 On our trip to Devonport a couple weeks ago we met a very nice couple while walking through Mt. Cambia Reserve.  Keith and Libby were just coming back from working on a project at the local museum where they both volunteer.  When we explained we were Family History missionaries, they told us we really must come to the museum on a Wednesday to meet with Boyd Miller.  Boyd is one of the museum volunteers who is heading up a special genealogy project to record and organize family information about early Devonport pioneers. Today we finally had an opportunity to do just that.

According to the Museum website, The Devonport Historical and Museum Society Inc. was formed in 1977. The building is part of an old Presbyterian Church which was moved to its current location in two parts in 1978.  At that time the site was the location of an old quarry, but in the years since it has been nicely landscaped, so you would never know that by looking at it today.

The collections at the museum are an ecclectic mix of things that have been donated by locals over the years.  Spread out over two stories and filling up several rooms, it was quite interesting to go through the various exhibits.

We particularly enjoyed meeting Boyd and hearing about the genealogy project he is heading up.

For about the past five years, the museum has been collecting various documents and letters from and about Devonport pioneer families.  Currently they have artifacts referring to about 70 different families.  This information has been reviewed and "extracted", entering relevant data of names, dates of birth, marriage and death  into the museum's Legacy family tree program. They now have information on about 19,500 individuals and are able to see how various families were related to one another.

Boyd Miller - volunteer who has organized the genealogy archives at Devonport Museum

Mr. Miller, a retired civil engineer, has put in many painstaking hours to carefully create a series of carefully indexed binders listing the information the museum has in their collection. As time and resources permit, the museum committee will create a series of displays depicting information about these early pioneer families and their relations.

On of my favorite displays in the museum was the collection of wedding photos:

As I looked into the faces of these people in wedding parties from the 1920's, I couldn't help but wonder what they lives were like - in what ways were their joys and challenges similar to my own and in what ways were they completely different?

I look forward to going back again to this museum to get a better look at some of the other collections.  They've done a nice job of helping history to come alive.

This ship model is sitting on a large butcher block made of a slice of a 600 yr old kauri tree.

This is an "arithmometer" produced in 1911.  It is an example of one of the first calculating machines that were commercialized and manufactured in large quantities for use in offices.  It could add and subtract two numbers, as well as perform long multiplications and divisions,  For forty years from 1851 - 1890 it was the only type  of mechanical calculator in commercial production and was sold worldwide.   

This panorama shows Devonport and all the surrounding area with markings on the glass cover indicating where each section of the town is and even showing the original sale price for various parcels of land.

This is just a small sample of the extensive shell collection that was was donated to 
the museum.  There is another, much larger cabinet with rows and rows of drawers filled
 with various types of shells that had been collected by a particular local woman 
who had a life long love of the sea.

Our Day in Devonport

Now that the extended holidays of  Christmas, Boxing Day and New Years are all over, we are back to work in the office.  We have had lots to do and had a very full week filled with many responsibilities of our calling.  So when Saturday rolled around, we were eager to kick up our heels and do a bit of exploring.

We got together with another Senior Mission couple, the Whiddens from Vancouver, BC. 

They were very good company.  Together we had a great time exploring Devonport.

According to Wikipedia:
Devonport is a harbourside suburb of Auckland, New Zealand. It is located on the North Shore, at the southern end of a peninsula that runs southeast from near Lake Pupuke in Takapuna, forming the northern side of the Waitemata Harbour. East of Devonport lies North Head, the northern promontory guarding the mouth of the harbour.

The village of Devonport is built around a prominent hill, Mt. Victoria, which is the remains of one on the eight volcanos in the area.  You can see more about our volcanoes HERE. 

We didn't take time to go up to the top of Mt. Victoria today, but enjoyed seeing it as a backdrop to the town and will probably take a drive up there the next time we visit.  The views from up top are supposed to be pretty spectacular.

We found Davonport to be a charming area filled with historic buildings, colorful shops, abundant cafes, gardens, and amazing trees.   My favorite tree was a giant Morton Bay Fig  (Ficus macrophylla) that was planted in 1883.

Apparently these mighty trees must be pollinated by one specific kind of wasp  (Pleistodontes froggatti).  There are several different species of fig trees and each one must have it's own special brand of wasp to make it possible for the tree to propagate.  It's a pretty amazing and complex symbiotic relationship which I learned more about over at Figweb

 When I consider how that tiny little wasp about the size of an ant is absolutely necessary for this great and mighty tree to grow I think of the story of Alma, teaching his son Helaman about the importance of the record written on the plates of brass, said:

“By small and simple things are great things brought to pass..."  (Alma 37:6)

We had a lovely lunch at the Stone Oven and we wandered in and out of several shops.

 

I particularly enjoyed seeing the Flagstaff Gallery.  (I was born in Flagstaff, Arizona so with a name like that, how could I pass it up?)  They had great pieces, friendly staff, and just a really good vibe for discovering both established and up-and-coming New Zealand artists.

I could not agree more with this review posted over at yelp:

"What impressed me the most about Flagstaff was their very innovative wall drawer system at the back of the shop - there were all these massive sheets of fencing that would slide in and out of the wall, and they would all have pieces of artworks displayed on them (each fence belonged to a different artist). I thought it was a very clever use of the limited space in the gallery."

From the gallery website:
Flagstaff Gallery was established in Devonport in 1993 as the first dealer gallery on Auckland's North Shore. Now one of Auckland's leading dealers in contemporary New Zealand fine art, we occupy a spacious gallery that enables us to exhibit art and make it easy for clients to browse.

The gallery at 30 Victoria Road (just up the road from the original gallery) features custom-designed sliding racks which have expanded our display capacity to more than 1000 artworks.

Our aim is to provide a friendly, relaxed environment in which to make a wide variety of quality art accessible to all. Well-established and new artists contribute to our exhibition programme, which includes paintings, sculpture, and hand-worked prints. 

I would heartily recommend this place to anyone who comes to Devonport.  It's definitely worth a look. Some of the pieces on display were totally captivating, capturing the feel of New Zealand in a very powerful way.

There were a lot of cool old historic buildings but one that will bring me back for sure was the old church we saw just as we came into town.   It is St. Franis de Sales Catholic Church. 

According to the church's website, the parish was established in 1904, although there had been a worshiping community here for several years prior to this date.The original church building was a small wooden structure which had been commissioned by Bishop Pompallier in 1866 as a mortuary chapel in Symonds Street, Auckland, and named for one of his patrons, François (de Sales); it was barged across the harbour and erected on the current site in 1893.
 
 In 1919 a second and larger building, of Gothic Revival design, was erected over the old chapel, which was then dismantled and removed through the entrance.

What interested me most was the old cemetery next to the church. 

  I checked on Find-a-Grave and it seems those graves have not been added to that resource.   I would love to take a day to go photograph each grave site and get them added to the website.

There was so much to see and do in Devonport.  We just barely scratched the surface.  I'm sure we will be back other times, as it's just a short drive from where we live. 

All in all we really had a very fun day.