Grand old lady looks good 100 years on

LAID: The foundation stone for the building, with the date of June 3, 1915.

Masterton's council building may have lost the trappings of its ornate grandeur, but it still looks good for 100 years.

Council officers and councillors gathered for a blessing yesterday morning beside the building's marble foundation stone, laid on June 3, 1915.

Kaumatua Mike Kawana led a short blessing, followed by a speech from Masterton mayor Lyn Patterson.

On the stone, the wife of mayor James Coradine, Sarah, is recorded as the person who laid the stone, alongside the mayor, councillors, town clerk and the building's architect, Herbert Jones.

Mrs Patterson said she felt "a little bit emotional" when she reflected on the building's 100th birthday. "I think about the mayors of the time, and Mrs Coradine, who laid the stone.

"The discussions that might have been had, the events held, balls, cabarets - all the things a muncipal building brings.

"It's like wearing the mayor's chains, you get that sense of history."

She said the 1942 earthquake had caused much of the exterior decorative finery to be removed, but "I think it is a gorgeous building".

"I wonder who will be standing here in another 100 years."

Wairarapa archive historian Gareth Winter came to the blessing with Jones' original plans of the building.

"It's quite different today," he said.

The plans show decorative pillars, wreaths, palisades and even different shaped windows, much of which was damaged or destroyed in the earthquake.

The building was eventually stripped down and repaired in the early 50s.

"This is a point that people have forgotten in Christchurch," said Mr Winter.

"With our experience of an earthquake, it was 10 years before anything was fixed.

"The delay that Christchurch is experiencing, we had the same level of delay."

Ornate facia, while looking good, was deadly in a quake.

"The main damage was stuff falling off buildings, rather than buildings falling into the street."

The hand-drawn plans are beautiful - no computer-aided draughting in those days, he said.