Mary Alcorn

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Mary Alcorn (30 March 1866 – 5 March 1928) was an interior designer and shop owner in Wellington, New Zealand. She was born in Hokitika to Samuel Wesley Alcorn and Jane Andrews. The family moved to Wellington in 1874 after her father opened a draper shop on Lambton Quay. The business burned down in 1877, killing her younger sister Winifred, and the family later moved to Ashburton, where Mary finished school and worked as a shop assistant. Mary loved music and sang in a church choir and played the piano at local concerts.

In 1906, Mary and her sister Margaret opened Liberty’s Wellington in the Kennedy Building on Lambton Quay. The shop sold art furniture and furnishings, with goods imported from Liberty in London, and they offered design advice to customers. Mary rode her bicycle to the shop from Oriental Bay.

In 1913, she travelled to England and Europe to select goods in person, visiting Florence, Birmingham, and Liberty’s in London, meeting potters and pewter makers and seeing Royal Doulton and Wedgwood. In the early 1920s, the business moved to larger premises along Lambton Quay, taking over Thomas Pringle’s embroidery shop. They hired artist Marjory Mills to design embroidery patterns.

Mary Alcorn died in Wellington on 5 March 1928 and was buried in Bolton Street Cemetery. After her death, her sister Margaret opened a second Liberty’s shop in Burlington Arcade and ran both shops until the 1930s Depression.