The gates at the Liardet Street entrance to Pukekura Park were funded by a bequest from Charles Score Sanders (1851-1933). They were completed in 1938.
Sanders established Ngaere Gardens between Stratford and Eltham in the 1880s. He moved to New Plymouth in 1912 where his garden, Dartmoor, in Westown became a horticultural showplace. Dartmoor Avenue in Westown commemorates the estate.
The gates were designed in impressive neo-classical art deco style by Victor Griffiths and Raymond Syme of the architectural firm of Griffiths and Syme, New Plymouth. The pylons and wall were originally planned to be faced in Mt Somers stone but it proved too expensive and a tinted cement plaster was used "marked out and pointed to resemble stone."
The Sanders' Gates replaced the older wrought iron ones presented by Robert Hughes (Robert Clinton Hughes' father) in 1890. Part of these earlier gates is now at the Victoria Street entrance to the park.
Sanders' Park in Westown is also named for Charles Sanders.
Related documents:
Approval for Pukekura Gates (Taranaki Herald 8 July 1937)
Alternative Scheme (Taranaki Herald 13 October 1937)
Gates Almost Completed (Taranaki Herald 7 July 1938)
The Legacies of Charles Score Sanders, Ron Lambert (Pukekura Park Newsletter Volume 9 #2)
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