New Zealand Parliamentary Library

New Zealand Parliamentary Library
New Zealand Parliamentary Library
	The Parliamentary Library in 2006
General information
Architectural style	Gothic revival
Town or city	Wellington
Country	New Zealand
Coordinates	41°16′38″S 174°46′36″E / 41.27723°S 174.77666°E
Construction started	1897
Completed	1899
Heritage New Zealand – Category 1
Designated	20 July 1989
Reference no.	217
References
	NZHP website

Completed in 1899, the New Zealand Parliamentary Library is the oldest of the buildings in the Parliament complex. It stands to the north of Parliament House (to its right, looking from the front).

The library was designed in Gothic revival style and was fire resistant, being constructed of masonry. The third story of the design was not built to save money. It had an iron fire-door separating the library from the main entrance section. This saved the library from the fire of 1907 which destroyed the rest of the (wooden) parliament buildings. Coincidentally, exactly the same thing happened in Ottawa in 1916—with fire doors saving the Library when the Centre Block of the Canadian Parliament burned.

Like Parliament House the library was strengthened and refurbished in the 1990s. It still houses Parliament's library.^[1]

The building is registered with the New Zealand Historic Places Trust as a Category I heritage structure with registration number 217.^[1]

References

^ ^a ^b "Parliamentary Library". New Zealand Heritage List/Rārangi Kōrero. Heritage New Zealand. Retrieved 10 January 2014.

External links

Parliamentary Library on the New Zealand Parliament website
History of public buildings, including the Library at Te Ara

[NZHPT-1] "Parliamentary Library". New Zealand Heritage List/Rārangi Kōrero. Heritage New Zealand. Retrieved 10 January 2014.

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