Two iconic heritage institutions are joining forces to reopen the historic Carnegie Library in Queen St, Thames.
Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga’s Thames School of Mines and Te Whare Pātaka The Treasury Heritage Research Centre and Archive will share the Carnegie Library, creating a unique heritage hub. The collaboration aims to revitalise heritage operations within the Carnegie Library and inspire future generations with the rich history of the Hauraki-Coromandel region.
The Carnegie Library, a category two heritage-listed site, has housed the Treasury since 2009. Due to a lack of funding, it temporarily suspended services at the end of 2023, as the charitable trust could no longer pay administration and specialist staff.
The library will reopen from Wednesday to Sunday in early August, when the Thames School of Mines relocates its operations there. The School of Mines retail shop will occupy the reception foyer, and an education room will be set up in the current meeting room. Future tours of its historic school and museum will begin from the library, and restoration efforts will commence on the historic electricity room at the Thames School of Mines site.
The Treasury will continue operating the library’s reading room, which houses paper-based records from the Hauraki and Thames-Coromandel districts. The board of the Treasury is working with volunteers to reopen the reading room for part of the week, welcoming visitors to explore the stories of those who shaped the region. Other research and archival services will be reintroduced over time.
“The taonga cared for by Te Whare Pātaka The Treasury tell the post-colonial stories of our region’s rich industrial, economic, and trading history,” interim chair Anne-Louise Robertson said.
“Most are the records of European settlers but we also have some extraordinary records that give us a glimpse into how the relationships between Tangata Whenua and Pākehā shaped this area. We hope to grow these collections so we can tell a fuller history of our unique rohe.”
Alongside the 1905-built Carnegie Library is the trust’s ultra-modern state-of-the-art archive facility. The archive’s strict temperature and humidity controls and fire-suppression system safeguard the region’s post-colonial documentary heritage. The collections, which include letters, photos, newspapers, telegrams, maps, ledgers, and minutes, provide details of Hauraki-Coromandel’s early days of colonisation.
Efforts to diversify the records in the reading room and archive are expanding the collections to better represent Pare Hauraki iwi and the many communities that make up the region’s cultural heritage.
The partnership between the Treasury and the Thames School of Mines marks the start of a new era of community engagement and collaboration, the Treasury said.
“By uniting and working with other local heritage sites, these institutions aim to create a heritage hub in Thames that attracts visitors and establishes the town as a premier heritage destination in the Coromandel region.”
