These smiling sailors from the HMS Diomede are posing in front of Hawke's Bay Farmers' Co-op Association's head office on the corner of Market and Queen Sts a few days after the 1931 Hawke's Bay Earthquake.
When the Hawke's Bay Farmers' Co-op Association made the decision in 1929 to build a new head office in Hastings, and shift from Napier - it was seen as a vote of confidence in the future of Hastings.
The building opened in November 1930, and materials such as Swedish emerald pearl granite were used in the construction - showing the prosperity of the business. More important was the design of the building by Wellington-based architect Edmund Anscombe. It was built to withstand a sizeable earthquake. The co-op would not have to wait long for the first test.
Anscombe was in the building on the day of the February 3, 1931, magnitude-7.8 earthquake, and reportedly danced a jig as the building easily survived the quake. Many post-quake buildings, such as Westerman's, and the Central Buildings were designed by Anscombe.
While the old Hawke's Bay Farmers' Co-op Association building still stands, the business, and many other stock and station-type businesses of that era, have not survived. One of the last, Williams & Kettle, was taken over by Wrightson's in 2005. On the last week of its 120-year existence, the company flag at Wilket House, Napier, was flown at half-mast.
