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A pair of Doric columns from the Wesley Methodist Hall in Hastings is available for free.
The columns were saved by Ivan Yukich during the hall’s demolition in 2020 and stored in Awatoto.
Ali Lokhandwala, Yukich’s friend, is offering them to a good home — if you have the machinery to transport them.
A pair of Doric columns that once sat outside a Hastings church hall could be all yours for free, if you have something to pick them up with.
The columns, which sat opposite the Hastings Opera House doors, were taken away when the Wesley Methodist Hall was demolished ahead of refurbishing work in 2020.
The Wesley Methodist Hall was built in 1932, on the corner of Eastbourne and Hastings streets, a site associated with Methodism since 1878.
Harmz Hemi and Ali Lokhandwala stand in front of the columns saved from the demolition of Hastings Welsey Hasting Methodist Hall. Photo / Jack Riddell
Napier-based Reverend WC Oliver purchased it in 1878 and when Reverend JJ Lewis was appointed resident minister in 1883, planning for a church began.
A timber church was erected a year later, before capacity became an issue and a new building was built in 1910.
The 1931 Hawke’s Bay earthquake destroyed most of the church, but the parish was able to rebuild it in the Spanish Mission style within 12 months.
The columns that formerly sat outside the Wesley Methodist Church Hall in Hastings could be yours for free, all you have to do is pick them up.
Demolition One undertook the demolition project in 2020, but business owner Ivan Yukich saw the pillars as a thing of beauty and could not bring himself to break them up.
Yukich died in April 2024 and his beloved pillars, along with other treasures saved from demolition sites, sat in an Awatoto yard.
The owner of the yard and Yukich’s mate Ali Lokhandwala has taken good care of the columns, but is now selling the area and wants to see the historic pieces go to a good home.
Lokhandwala wants to see the columns go to a loving home “intact,” because that’s what Yukich would have wanted.
“Ivan was quite a character,” he said. recalls Lokhandwala says.
“He used to be known as ‘Ivan the Terrible’ around town but he would always come up with the most ingenious solutions to complex demolitions.”
Without Yukich the demolition business “hit the skids” and now Lokhandwala and Harmz Hemi are cleaning up the yard and hoping to move Yukich’s prized possessions to new, loving homes.
Anyone interested in the columns can pick them up for free from 44 Briasco St, Awatoto. First in, first served.
