Location of what was once Rangi Street (2021). Rachel Sonius. Word on the Street image collection.
Location of what was once Rangi Street (2021). Rachel Sonius. Word on the Street image collection.
Rangi Street used to run off the western side of Egmont Street in New Plymouth, on the block between King and St Aubyn. The little dead-end street was named after the great chief of Puke Ariki pā, Te Rangi Apiti Rua (Te Ātiawa and Taranaki iwi), whose mighty fortress once covered this part of town. The carved totara doors inside the ceremonial bronze entranceway to Puke Ariki Museum tell the story of Te Rangi Apiti Rua, who some traditions maintain was the leader who actually oversaw construction of Puke Ariki around the year 1700. The fortifications of the pā stretched roughly from what is now the intersection of St Aubyn and Queen Streets to the intersection of King and Brougham, but was abandoned around 1830. Te Rangi Apiti Rua’s descendants also became influential leaders.
Rangi Street only appears to have been on the town map since 1930, when it pops up between the premises of Flyger & Carter, a hardware store, and Campbell’s Motors (later Dominion Motors), approximately 60 metres up from the intersection with St Aubyn Street.
After the remnants of Mount Eliot (the name given to the remains of Puke Ariki by Pākehā settlers) were razed around 1905, much of that block on the western side of lower Egmont Street was left as open ground. It was used for entertainments like the Wirth Brothers Circus on its yearly visit to New Plymouth, until businesses started constructing premises there in the late 1920s. Flyger & Carter’s building was turned into the city’s Municipal Bus Service Depot from 1960.
Rangi Street disappeared when it became part of the Richmond Centre shopping mall carpark in 1994. The old bus depot was demolished, along with DB Brewery, to make way for the redevelopment. Richmond Centre officially opened for business on 19 November 1994. The owners also had to come up with a plan for the Mangaotuku Stream, which once routinely flooded the central city and ran directly past the end of Rangi Street. The stream was diverted via a culvert down Queen Street to the sea.
This story was originally published in the Taranaki Daily News.
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