The Acetylene Gas Lighting Co Ltd blazed a trail, setting up the street lighting in Picton, the first town in New Zealand to use the system. The company's building on the corner of Stuart St and Bath St retains its prominent window pediments and volutes, and continues to be well-used.
The original owner of this building was the New Zealand Acetylene Gas Lighting Co Ltd, which named its premises the Acetylene Buildings.
Acetylene lighting became popular during the Edwardian era, and was particularly suitable for towns or properties that were not easily connected to electricity.
Calcium carbide pellets combined with dripping water to produce acetylene gas, which was then burned to produce light.
The company was established in Dunedin in 1902, and within a short time branches were operating in Christchurch, Wellington, and Auckland.
In 1906, it was responsible for setting up the street lighting in Picton, the first town in New Zealand to use the system, and Kaiapoi, Geraldine and Opunake followed over the next three years.
The company also supplied lighting for gold dredges, private houses such as ''Aorangi'' at St Leonards, and institutions such as Waitaki Boys' High School.
Other acetylene products sold by the firm included stoves and heaters.
A difficulty with acetylene gas was that it was highly combustible, and it was initially blamed for the deaths of eight people in an explosion at an Upper Hutt general store in 1914.
Following a long inquest and vigorous argument, the coroner eventually concluded that gelignite on the premises was to blame rather than acetylene, but the bad press probably hastened the decline of acetylene lighting in New Zealand, together with safer and increasingly accessible supplies of electricity.
The Acetylene Buildings were erected during a boom in construction that came to Stuart St after the resiting of the railway station.
Architect John Arthur Burnside called for tenders for construction in September 1909, and the buildings were complete by April 1910.
There were three storeys to Stuart St, with two shops on the ground floor, generously proportioned offices above, and an adjoining workshop building behind (facing Bath St).
Acetylene lighting was used throughout.
The exuberant Queen Anne styling included exposed brickwork, and prominent window pediments and volutes echoing those on the nearby Roberts Building, which Burnside had designed six years earlier.
Most of the ornamental features remain today, although the parapet decoration and cornice have been removed, and as a result the overall composition has lost some balance.
The brickwork has also been painted and a hanging veranda and fire escape have been added.
The Acetylene Gas Lighting Company occupied the corner shop and workshop, where it traded in different forms for more than four decades.
The business was renamed New Zealand Acetylene and Hardware Ltd in 1919, and after downsizing it was reorganised as Electric and Plumbing Supplies Ltd in 1929, before eventually closing in 1956.
The corner shop was afterwards taken by the Otago Missionary Association, which ran a book room, and then from 1961 to 1979 by Lullaby Fashion House (children's wear). Later tenants included Fiesta Fashions and Toy Traders.
William James Bell, a hairdresser, had the other shop from 1913. He died in 1955 but Bell's Hairdressers continued at the address until 1985, and its 72 years in business came close to matching the record of Hendy's Hairdressing Room in Princes St.
The former hairdressers' became a Middle Eastern cafe/restaurant for a few years and is now combined with the other shop as Minami Sushi Bar and Restaurant (opened in 2002).
Up a charming timber staircase, its handrail worn to a fine finish after a century of use, is Lure Jewellery Workshop, established by Ann Culy in 1995.
There is a link here with one of the first tenants in the building, Thomas Long, a manufacturing jeweller who established his Zealandia Jewellery Manufacturing Company at the address in 1913.
Within five years he dropped the Zealandia name, but he continued to work in the building until 1929.
Lure has workspace for up to four jewellers and its retail gallery represents up to 30 New Zealand jewellers. Jeweller and painter John Z. Robinson has had a studio on the top floor since 1999.
Other tenants in the upstairs rooms have included August De Beer (indenting agent, 1913-32), Chrissie Hall (dressmaker, 1913-25), Robert Bennet (tailor, 1925-53), and Bertrand Quelch (barrister and solicitor, 1954-67).
The Otago Chess Club (established in 1884) had its clubrooms on the top floor from 1941 to 1955. In those days, tournaments were typically carried out in a haze of cigarette smoke, and it is hoped the concentration of the players was not disrupted by the Dunedin Ladies Brass Band, which had its band rooms in the building for a few years after 1946.
Watson Studio, photographers, had rooms on the upper floors from 1962 to 1993, before becoming Gary van der Mark Photography.
The old workshop fronting Bath St became a restaurant about 1987.
Smorgy's and Just Desserts were there for a few years before Geoff and Lois Simpson opened Tull in 1993.
Named after the rock band Jethro Tull, it was particularly known for its desserts, and diners were awarded a certificate (''The Blodwyn'') if they were able to finish the famous Chocolate Massacre.
Other dishes paid homage to the band with names such as Aqualung (a seafood salad) and Bungle in the Jungle (a green salad).
The Simpsons were folk musicians and from 1999 the New Edinburgh Folk Club (established c1977) met at the restaurant on Sunday nights.
Tull closed following Mr Simpson's death in 2006, and since 2007 the space has been a Japanese restaurant, Yuki Izakaya.
by David Murray
For more from David Murray, go to builtindunedin.com
