Courthouse and Museum

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The Courthouse was built in 1909 by local builder Fred Potts who completed the work for £1,044:3:4d.  It has a Neo-Classic facade with ornate Ionic capitals on the columns at the entrance and the royal ‘ER’ emblem on the pediment.  Inside are kauri ceilings, varnished rimu dados and tiled fireplaces.

Courthouse, Cambridge, New Zealand, 1909, Cambridge, by Muir & Moodie. Purchased 1998 with New Zealand Lottery Grants Board funds. Te Papa (PS.001028)

Copy of the Cambridge Courthouse plans

At its official opening in 1909, Minister for Justice, the Hon Dr Findlay said the building:

“symbolised the national struggle our forefathers had to secure for themselves and their descendants liberty and justice.  I would like the courthouse to be regarded as a place where the innocent will be vindicated against guilty, the wrong will be punished, and justice and fair play will prevail.”

This photograph was taken on 28 May 1960. It shows the Magistrate Mr E S Tuckwell. S M and stenographer Margaret Ennis, the Court Registrar Mr J A Petrin, together with police traffic officers and the press. From the “Cambridge Independent”, 30 May 1968

By 1969, the court facilities were becoming inadequate. It was reported that the court romm was heted by only one small fire and the Magistrate had to shift his heater (which he had provided himself) from room to room.

The building was used until August 1979 when all local court hearings were moved to Hamilton. In 1983 the Cambridge Borough Council negotiated to buy the building and some of the land form the New Zealand Police Department and the former courthouse now accommodates the Cambridge Historical Society’s Museum.