Site of Nicks' Timber Mill (12 Northcroft Street)

For nearly fifty years, the G. Nicks & Son timber mill occupied the south side of Northcroft Street behind the Hutchinson building. Founded by George Nicks in the early 1920s at Freemans Bay, the mill moved to Northcroft Street in 1926 and was run by three generations of his family, with George succeeded by his son William, who in turn was followed by his own son Rud. In 1971, the Takapuna City Council convinced Rud to relocate the family’s mill to a new site on Hillside Road off Wairau Road. The company moved to Silverdale in 1987 and was taken over by non-family members in 1991. Briefly running as Nicks Timber Joinery, Ltd., the firm rebranded itself Nicks Components and Accessories, Ltd., in 2003.

The timber mill’s saws were driven by belts working off of a central drive shaft. During World War II, the mill ran late into the night cutting timber to support the war effort. Noise, sawdust, and soot produced by the mill was a bane in the lives of many Takapuna residents. A member of the Jackson family who lived directly opposite the mill remembers that there use to be a siren above the front of the building that could be heard across Takapuna when it went off.

Continue walking to the entrance to the Toka Puia carpark.