The Ellen Melville Centre is a community centre located in Freyberg Square in central

Auckland, New Zealand Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...

. It is named after

Ellen Melville Eliza Ellen Melville (13 May 1882 – 27 July 1946) was a New Zealand lawyer and politician. She was New Zealand's second female lawyer, and the first woman elected to a city council in New Zealand. She sat on the Auckland City Council for 33 ye ...

, the first woman to be elected to the

Auckland City Council Auckland City Council was the local government authority for Auckland City, New Zealand, from 1989 to 1 November 2010, when it and Auckland's six other city and district councils were amalgamated to form the Auckland Council. It was an elec ...

and the second New Zealand woman to become a lawyer.

History

Melville proposed a community hall in the central city as a centenary project to mark 100 years since the signing of the

Treaty of Waitangi The Treaty of Waitangi (), sometimes referred to as ''Te Tiriti'', is a document of central importance to the history of New Zealand, Constitution of New Zealand, its constitution, and its national mythos. It has played a major role in the tr ...

and to commemorate the work of pioneer women in the establishment and development of Auckland. However work only got underway in the late 1950s and the hall was opened in 1962 as a base for women's societies. The original building, named the Pioneer Women's & Ellen Melville Memorial Hall, was designed by Auckland City Chief Architect

Tibor Donner Tibor Karoly Donner (19 September 1907 – 11 March 1993) was an Austro–Hungarian born New Zealand architect, who was the chief architect for the Auckland City Council from 1947 to 1967. Personal life Donner was born in Szabadka, Austria-Hun ...

. It cost £56,200, including a £30,000 donation from the Queen Street Business Association, £19,000 from the Auckland City Council and £8,000 raised by 64 women’s organisations. The centre was extensively refurbished and reopened in September 2017. As part of the refurbishment a large scale bronze sculpture by Lisa Reihana was commissioned. The work, ''Justice'' depicts the scales of justice but tipped in favour of women. The centre has five bookable spaces available for community use, with classes and programmes run by organisations including the

Plunket Society The Royal New Zealand Plunket Trust provides a range of free services aimed at improving the development, health and wellbeing of children under the age of five within New Zealand, where it is commonly known simply as Plunket. Its mission is ...

. The five rooms are each named after a prominent woman from the region:

Helen Clark Helen Elizabeth Clark (born 26 February 1950) is a New Zealand politician who served as the 37th prime minister of New Zealand from 1999 to 2008 and was the administrator of the United Nations Development Programme from 2009 to 2017. She was ...

, Betty Wark, Elizabeth Yates,

Marilyn Waring Dame Marilyn Joy Waring (born 7 October 1952) is a New Zealand public policy scholar, international development consultant, former politician, environmentalist, feminist and a principal founder of feminist economics. In 1975, aged 23, she bec ...

and Eleitino (Paddy) Walker.

Gallery

Architecture Women Walking Tour 2024 - Ellen Melville Hall.jpg, Entry and colonnade of Ellen Melville Centre Justice (Lisa Reihana sculpture) 20240114 160339 02.jpg, ''Justice'', a 2017 relief sculpture by Lisa Reihana located at the centre Second Floor of Pioneer Women Memorial Hall.jpg, Interior of the Ellen Melville Centre Ellen Melville Centre 04.jpg, Architect Yvette Overdyck speaking about the 2017 Ellen Melville Centre refurbishment outside of the centre in 2024

References

{{Reflist 1962 establishments in New Zealand Community centres in New Zealand Buildings and structures in Auckland Auckland CBD