Happy birthday Smith & Caughey’s

Smith & Caughey’s is one of the few remaining old-style department stores that is still delivering quality goods and a touch of luxury to their customers. I walk past the Queen Street department store on my way to work and always pause to look at their artistic and imaginative window displays. Seeing that Smith & Caughey’s is celebrating their 140th year in business this year prompted me to take a look at what we have in the Auckland Council Archives collection about this venerable store.

Smith & Caughey’s building on Queen Street, 1982.  Photographer J Nelson, Auckland City Council. Auckland Council Archives, ACC 024/2ar.

Smith and Caughey’s building on Queen Street is in fact made up of two buildings that are joined together across the lower four levels to form the department store. Auckland Council Archives holds many beautifully detailed building permit plans for the buildings that make up the present-day store, including these drawings by architect Roy Lippincott for the extension to the store on Wellesley Street in 1929.

Smith & Caughey Limited, Wellesley Street extension (south façade and north elevation), 1927. Architect Roy Lippincott. Auckland Council Archives, AKC 336/1047 sheet 3 of 21.

Smith & Caughey Limited, Wellesley Street extension (west and east elevations), 1927.  Architect Roy Lippincott. Auckland Council Archives, AKC 336/1047 sheet 4 of 21.

Roy Lippincott (1885-1969) was an American architect. In 1921, he entered a design competition with Edward Billson for the Auckland University College arts building. Lippincott and Billson won the competition and later that year Roy moved to Auckland. While based in Auckland, he designed many distinctive buildings which often incorporated intricate ornamental design motifs. The best known of his work is what we now know as the Old Arts Building at the University of Auckland.  He also designed the University’s biology building, the Berlei factory (on the corner of Hobson Street and Wellesley Street West) and the tearooms in the Farmers Trading Company building (now The Heritage Hotel on Hobson Street). Roy Lippincott returned to America in 1939, eventually retiring from practice in 1958.

Smith & Caughey Limited, Wellesley Street extension (cross section and longitudinal section), 1927.  Architect Roy Lippincott. Auckland Council Archives, AKC 336/1047 sheet 5 of 21.

Smith & Caughey Limited, Wellesley Street extension (half elevations and sections), 1927.  Architect Roy Lippincott. Auckland Council Archives, AKC 336/1047 sheet 7 of 21.

Auckland Council Archives has three offices where the public and Council staff can access the archives of the former councils and undertake research. The archivists can advise visitors about the nature of the information they can expect to find, research strategies and navigating the archives database. At present under Level 2 of the Covid-19 lockdown, Auckland Council Archives remains closed to the public. We are still answering phone and email enquiries and be contacted via archives@aucklandcouncil.govt.nz or ph: 890 2427.

Author: Vicky Spalding, Senior Archivist (Outreach) Auckland Council Archives

You can also learn more about the founders of Smith & Caughey’s and the history of the store by reading Smith & Caughey’s own blogs on their website.

Founding a family business: William Henry Smith and Andrew Clarke Caughey, brothers-in-law and partners, building a lasting legacy.

Marianne Caughey Smith-Preston: The inspirational journey of our Smith & Caughey's Founder.