Bluestone rocks to 150th birthday

In 1861, the American Civil war is raging, English poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning breathes her last and a nondescript block building goes up in the thriving commercial centre of the far-flung British colony of Auckland.
One hundred and fifty years later, the Bluestone Store resolutely remains anchored in Durham Lane, surrounded by highrise apartments and offices.
Named for the distinctive volcanic stone - quarried and carted from Mt Wellington - the store has the Historic Places Trust's highest degree of protection as a category one building.
It is one of the city's oldest examples of a small 19th-century warehouse. The store survived the wrecking ball which demolished the neighbouring His Majesty's Theatre in the 1980s, a site now home to the 24-level CityLife Auckland Hotel.
For a while it was the factory of the famous Kiwi Boot Polish Company and later it was used for rock concerts. Variously, it has been a nightclub, coffee bar, warehouse and storeroom, and leased to an auctioneer and a confectioner.
By the early 2000s, the block building was a cumbersome obstacle in a gravel-lined carpark.
In 2003, quantity surveyors Kingston Partners estimated $445,000 was needed to fix its rusted and leaking roof, repair mortar, do carpentry and fix the brickwork.
In June 2003, owners Rheingold Parking undertook to carry out the restoration of the building in accordance with the conservation plan prepared by Dave Pearson Architects.
Since then, it has been earthquake strengthened and fully refurbished as a Monteith's bar and restaurant downstairs with a functions room on the first floor.
Tonight, the bar is hosting a 150th birthday celebration.
Browning penned the famous words 'How do I love thee? Let me count the ways" but perhaps the celebrations at the Bluestone Room this weekend might be better to recall another of her quotes: 'What I do and what I dream include thee, as the wine must taste of its own grapes."