About Us

When we were raising money for the New Brighton Pier, people brought in photos and memorabilia about the old pier and we put them on display. The collection grew and when the Pier was finished and we no longer had a shop we took them home, put them under out beds and in our spare cupboards.

One volunteer complained that he couldn’t get his car in the garage and needed to get rid of the Pier paraphernalia. I felt that we needed to get it all under one umbrella. Through the Mary McCammon from the New Brighton Project, we were fortunate to get a workroom in the old office of the Price Chopper’s building, Mark Munro, rent free.

We had the opportunity to buy 100 display stands from the Philatelic Society for $1,500. There may be several people here who knew Kay Jackson. Kay was the Treasurer of New Brighton Handiscope which had set up housie evenings in 1978 as a fundraiser. When they were disbanded in 1982, Kay indicated the idea to form a Charitable Trust, from which suitable applicants would benefit. We applied to several funding organisations but couldn’t come up with the total amount so it was finally through a grant through the Pegasus Charitable Trust that we were able to buy them.

When Kay’s mother died, she bought the house diagonally across the road from the museum, on the corner of Beresford and Hardy Streets. At that time, Kay made efforts to buy this building when it was derelict. Kay had a dream for a museum in New Brighton so we were fortunate when we had the opportunity to lease this building in 2006. We had a grant from Cogs $6,000 in the bank and if we didn’t find a building by the end of the year we had to give the money back. However we took possession of the old church in April 2006. The Trustees of the Pegasus Charitable Trust considered it appropriate to pay 3 months rent to enable us to move in.

The men from PEEEPS undertook the huge task of moving the displays, and Burwood – Pegasus Community Board helped with $5,000 for ongoing costs and displays.

The museum building is historic, having been built in 1913 as St Enoch’s Church and Sunday School. In 2010 we received advice that the building was to be sold by auction. The thought of losing the building and shifting again was horrifying and we were so grateful when a local family with close links to the museum purchased the building and rented it back to us, making our future secure here.

After the February 2011 earthquakes, PEEEPS came and lifted all the cabinets back and helped with getting the museum back in order. The old building fared well, although we had to close for a month in June 2012 while repairs were done in the ceiling.

The year 2015 saw the winding up of the Pegasus Charitable Trust and the bulk of the funds ($40,000) came to the museum. Kay Jackson, the founder of the trust, had always hoped for a local museum.