Samuel James Reserve Building

This building provides a multi-purpose office space with administration facilities available to community groups/general public and public toilets in the centre of our busy tourist town. CILT fund-raised and co-ordinated the building’s restoration.

Samuel James originally built the Samuel James Reserve Building as Plunket rooms for the town’s mothers and children in the 1930’s and it had been used as a public toilet and office rooms over the last few decades. It was closed down in 2004 when deemed by Council to be unfit for occupation. It had become quite derelict and prone to vandalism, so to CILT, it seemed timely to have a go at saving this rather fabulous old building. There was strong support from the local community for the retention of this building as an accessible public facility.

Before Renovation

The James Family (descendants of Samuel James) and local tradespeople gave tremendous support to this project. Some members donated money; others offered labour and materials.

The building had extensive renovations including: re-piling, re-cladding, re-glazing, conversion of the left hand side of the building to a multi-purpose office space with a new doorway in the north wall allowing separate access via the access ramp, conversion of the right hand side of the building to 2 public toilets with disabled access and baby changing facilities.

Interior of building was lined with gib-board, plastered and painted.

The exterior was painted in heritage colours to fit in with the surrounding architecture.

The front doors were widened to accommodate wheelchair access and give a more balanced look to the front of the building.

The veranda was raised, strengthened and connected to a ramp enabling disabled access to the whole building.

This building provides a multi-purpose office space with administration facilities available to community groups/general public and public toilets in the centre of our busy tourist town. CILT fund-raised and co-ordinated the building’s restoration.

Samuel James originally built the Samuel James Reserve Building as Plunket rooms for the town’s mothers and children in the 1930’s and it had been used as a public toilet and office rooms over the last few decades. It was closed down in 2004 when deemed by Council to be unfit for occupation. It had become quite derelict and prone to vandalism, so to CILT, it seemed timely to have a go at saving this rather fabulous old building. There was strong support from the local community for the retention of this building as an accessible public facility.

With grateful thanks to Barry Brickell, the Driving Creek Railway helped to contribute to the cleaning costs until July 2011 when the Community Board requested TCDC to take over the responsibility for the cleaning and maintenance of the restrooms and subsequently a contract was entered into between CILT and Smart Environmental Limited. Since 2010 CILT has employed two staff with learning difficulties as caretakers/cleaners to assist with the Samuel James Reserve : Sam opens up every morning and Rhys closes and cleans in the evening. Thanks to them both the facility is one of which Coromandel can be proud.

 After Renovation

 The office space  in the building is used by the Coromandel Business Association as an Information Centre for tourists in the heart of the town.

Autumn at the Samuel James Reserve 2015