Mission Library

Est. 1839.  Historic Places Category 1.  The oldest free-standing library in New Zealand, there are 1,000 beautifully bound books, letters, pamphlets, family records, and personal papers inside. During the Musket Wars (1818-1842) threats were frequent with a trapdoor in the floor opening to an underground hiding space.

Map No. 18.
15 Mission St,
Tauranga, 3110.

Mission Library (est. 1839), 15 Mission Street

The Brown family were still living in a raupō whare when Rev. Alfred Brown completed the library in 1839, now the oldest free-standing library in New Zealand and the first permanent structure on the site. In Brown’s diary he records ‘painting the library’ on the 18th and 19th of November 1839. 1,000 beautifully bound books include practical manuals on how to grow crops of various kinds, medical books, encyclopaedias and religious tracts, letters, pamphlets, family records, Brown’s personal papers and his daily journal. Meetings with important figures were held here, and a trapdoor in the floor leads to an underground hiding space in case of attack during the Musket Wars (1818-1842). Worried about the damp affecting his books, Brown added a chimney in 1844.