| Accession No |
2005.56.100
|
| Name/Title |
PHOTOGRAPH; Ridgway Street from Drews Avenue
|
| Brief Description |
One of a collection of black and white photographs of buildings and streets in Whanganui, this print shows Ridgway Street from Drews Avenue, formerly Wicksteed Place. The old Court House building is visible at the left rear.
The street was lined with solid, respectable businesses, including McFarlane’s Department Store and Beauchamp & Co, which traded as shipping insurers, land and travel agents.
In May 1920 an incident took place in a room above the Waitotara County Council offices, between Mayor Charles Mackay and poet Walter D’Arcy Cresswell, which led to Cresswell being shot and injured by the mayor, allegedly because Mackay was being blackmailed after his homosexual advances to Cresswell. Mackay was convicted of attempted murder and sentenced to 15 years of hard labour. His name was expunged from the public record. Mackay later became a journalist and was reporting on the May Day riots in Germany in 1929 when he was accidentally shot by the police.
|
| Classification |
Print, Photographic/Documentary Artifact/Communication Artifacts/Nomenclature
|
| Primary Maker |
Bethwaite, Francis Haddow (b.1884, d.1961)
|
| Primary Prod Date |
1939
|
| Primary Prod Period |
20th century
|
| Primary Prod Place |
Whanganui
|
| Measurement Reading |
25.4cm
20.3cm
|
| Signature/Marks |
Block 6 Ridgway St from Wicksteed Place
Wang 56
|
| Collection |
F H Bethwaite Photograph Collection
|
|
|
