It was probably designed by Napier Borough Council architect J T Watson, or architect Stanley Natusch (the late Guy Natusch's uncle).
Representing the style of the era, and what we now call Art Deco, geometric patterns in the shape of zig-zags were created around the outside.
Stanley Natusch would be responsible for sourcing from England the black, yellow, red and terracotta-toned cement dye from England. He would also supervise the laying of the patterns, which would be separately timber-boxed.
Three cement companies had donated between them 12,000 kilograms of cement to Napier after the earthquake to which shingle was added from the foreshore.
For the Art Deco pattern, a layer of coloured cement was poured over the top, which from a sample I have seen, was only a few centimetres in depth. (These now are almost worn completely away.)
Unemployment relief workers were used on the project. The shingle used for the aggregate wasn't cleaned (something Guy Natusch told me that both Stanley and his father Rene would have insisted on for their jobs to get a better cement mixture).
The auditorium, as they called it, was completed in late 1932, but the central mosaic pattern of the ornamental star was covered in 100mm of limestone until late 1933 when the dye colours for it were sourced.
A grassed area next to the auditorium was laid in September 1933, and intended as a children's playground, and as such, no shrubs or rock gardens were laid.
Plans for a seaside pavilion on the Marine Parade had been disallowed in May 1933 by the Napier Borough Council on the basis of interrupting the "sweep of the bay" – that is restricting views out to the Pacific Ocean.
In 1934, the Thirty Thousand Club managed to convince the Napier Borough Council to get an outdoor stage on the condition it was a temporary structure. This is the present Sound Shell, and it did not escape the attention of many that upon seeing the structure go up, it was anything but temporary.
The Duke of Gloucester was visiting Napier in December 1934, so the Napier Borough Council became quite keen to get the Sound Shell finished so as to provide a platform upon which the good duke could speak from which he did.
Obscured to the left of the skaters was the semi-circular bay pergola (renamed the Veronica Sunbay in 1937). This too was subject to much too-and-froing over sea view blockages, but the Thirty Thousand Club's inclusion of glass windows swayed the argument. There was also some anxiousness to get this finished and relief when it was before the Duke of Gloucester's visit.
The steel reinforcing of the Veronica Sunbay corroded over time and was replaced in 1991 (minus the glass windows) by public fundraising and work led by the Napier Rotary Club.
With the duke's visit over with, the Thirty Thousand Club did a public relations exercise to convince Napierites the Sound Shell should stay by holding musical concerts. Resigned to the fact that dismantling the Sound Shell would be quite a task, and everyone seemed to be happy with the musical tunes emanating from it on a nightly basis – it was granted a stay of execution.
Flush with cash (they were notorious fundraisers, even during the Great Depression through their Madi Gras), the Thirty Thousand Club then pushed for arches which adjoined both sides of the Sound Shell and for two colonnades to extend alongside the grassed area in front of the Sound Shell.
Old arguments of obstructing sea views surfaced again, but their powers of persuasion won over when they said you can see through the colonnades. This project was completed at the end of 1935.
Under the auspices of keeping out chilly breezes during night concerts at the Sound Shell five large canvas schemes were ordered – two to be placed either side of it to hide the arches, two which covered up the colonnades and one at the northern end to fully enclose the Sound Shell /auditorium area. And now not only could the Thirty Thousand Club keep Napierites and their guests protected from chilly wind, but they could also get cold-hard cash to let people in to some concerts.
Many in Napier (as pictured) used the auditorium as a skating rink and this was in heavy demand (albeit on concrete not exactly smooth in places) until the skating rink further along Marine Parade was opened in 1955 (now demolished and replaced by Bay Skate).
In 1936 permission was given to the Thirty Thousand Club to extend the Marine Parade-facing colonnade and include an arch named for Harold Latham, a Thirty Thousand Club member, whose friends paid the £100 (2021: $12,000) cost for the arch.
The colonnade was extended, and two more arches added during 1938 and 1939. The Arch of Remembrance – or Napier Arch - was completed first, and the smaller Robert C Wright (a prominent member of the Thirty Thousand Club) next.
Inscribed on the Napier Arch are the words of English essayist and poet Joseph Addison (1672-1719) "Courage is the thing. All goes if courage goes." Past Napier mayor's Bill Dalton's father, Doug, worked on this arch as a plasterer.
The words on Napier Arch of Joseph Addison were appropriate to Napier after their courageous recovery after the 1931 earthquake. One could say his words have a contemporary ring about them today with the various trials and tribulations society sometimes finds itself in.
Michael Fowler (mfhistory@gmail.com) is a contract researcher and commercial business writer of Hawke's Bay history. Follow him on facebook.com/michaelfowlerhistory
