1911 Opotoru Bay looking up Stewart Street. Photographer Gilmour Brothers. Raglan & District Museum Collection
This 1911 postcard of Opotoru Bay is in the museum collection (now in the centre of the photo). It was three years before the walkway was dug into the cliff and long before the footbridge was built in 1929.
On top of the cliff are the 1883 beacon and the police station built in 1907-8, but moved to the corner of Robertson St in the 1960s.
A kerosene street lamp was on the corner of Stewart St and next to it the 1895 Congregational Church, which has been the Union Church since 1943. In 1956 it was hidden from this angle by a new fire station and is again hidden by the 2011 museum.
Up Stewart St from the church is the Headmaster’s house, built In 1903 by J. Rowe as a 5 room residence for £495.
W.F. Wallis wrote, “There was another house on the hill between the School and the site of the present Opotoru traffic bridge. I think it belonged to the Wesleyan Mission Board and for some time was occupied by the Rev. Stevenson, the Wesleyan minister.” The New Zealand Herald reported a 14 March 1889 valedictory soiree for Rev. Mr and Mrs Stephenson. So presumably the house on the right of the photo was built before 1889.
Do you know any more about the history of these buildings? If so, talk to the museum.