In 1870 the Athenaeum Society was formed, to provide a library service for Invercargill’s increasing population. Land on the south-west corner of Dee and Esk Streets was given by the Government for a building to be constructed, and local architect Angus Kerr was contracted to design it. The foundation stone was laid on August 27, 1874. The building was completed in 1876. The Athenaeum included a library, reading rooms and various collection of objects, including those belonging to Andrew McKenzie, known for having a large assortment of museum artefacts which he displayed within his “Scotch Pie Shop”.

A bronze statue of the Minerva, the Roman goddess of knowledge, was placed on its parapet. She looked down upon the city for more than 60 years, until the Council decided to lay it down on the roof because of the threat of it potentially collapsing onto the street from an earthquake. In 1941, the Council debated over whether to sell the statue for scrap metal for the war effort but, after no agreement was reached, accepted an offer by the Southland Museum Board to erect it outside its new museum in Queen’s Park, where it stood until its removal for renovation in 2018.

In 1917, under the Invercargill Athenaeum Act, the Athenaeum was taken over by the Municipal Council and became a Public Library. The building was bought by the Government Office Accommodation Board in 1962, in order to use the site for future development of a Government centre. However, because it was considered an earthquake risk and economically unviable to renovate, the Athenaeum was demolished in 1966, after a new library had been established in Don Street in 1963.

This image also shows two competing drapers and clothing stores on the ground floor of the building, Thomson and Beattie’s, and Lewis Moses’ Edinburgh House. In the background, far right, is the old railway building.

SOURCES: THE ANATHAEUM 1875 – 1966 BY COLIN KERR, REF:LC 727.8 ATH; CENTENARY OF INVERCARGILL MUNICIPALITY 1981 – 1971 BY J.O.P. WATT, REF: 993.98 WAT