Napier’s dome a stripped-classical gem: Michael Fowler

The T & G building under construction in 1936, which today still sits – albeit with some renovations, proudly on the corner of Emerson St and Marine Parade. Photo / Hawke’s Bay Museums Trust

Michael Fowler is a Hawke’s Bay author and historian.

OPINION

One hundred and 10 years ago – in 1914, on the corner of Marine Parade and Emerson St stood an old shed, described as a “visible eyesore ... namely a tumble-shed”.

Much celebration was had when the owners, Kirkaldie and Stains, announced they were to build in 1914 on that site an imposing two-storeyed office building to be leased by stock and station firm, Murray Roberts & Co.

Seven years later, the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) in 1921 purchased the building from Mr S Kirkaldie to establish their Napier YMCA premises.

All was going well for the Napier YMCA until the February 3, 1931 Hawke’s Bay earthquake which destroyed the building.

The YMCA faced financial difficulties after the earthquake and was forced to sell the section.

It was purchased by Napier Borough Council’s depreciation fund commissioners.

In 1928 an act of Parliament (Municipal Corporations Amendment Act) was passed to ensure municipal enterprises (councils) made proper provision to replace municipal trading enterprises replacement of assets (such as abattoirs) which were worn out or obsolete. Depreciation fund accounts were created and administered by commissioners separate from the council.

When the Napier Borough Council wanted to purchase the site from its depreciation fund commissioners in 1934, the Audit Office – said no – it was too much of a conflict of interest.

Principally, what Napier Borough Council wanted to do was to round off the corner of Emerson and Marine Parade to make it easier for traffic (which did eventually happen).

The land was sold to the Australasian Temperance and General Assurance Society Ltd (T & G) in 1935 for £4000 (2024: $600,000), who also bought a neighbouring section belonging to the Napier Women’s Club.

Their plans were to construct a three-storey building on the sections to be called the T & G building.

Most of Napier’s central business district had already been rebuilt, but most would agree this late addition would do justice to its prime site.

It would be designed by Wellington architects Atkins and Mitchell and the successful tenderers were Napier’s W M Augus Ltd, for the estimated £30,000 ($4.2 million) building contract.

An interesting feature of the building would be a “lofty port-holed dome” (which was made of copper, which quickly oxidised to a green colour) and above this a four-faced clock tower.

When the four bells (Westminster chiming bells from England) were trialled on November 28, 1936, a T & G manager who was in Westshore reported: “He heard every note as distinctly as if it had been broadcast to him.” These bells are now in Napier’s Faraday Museum.

T & G would take office space on the ground floor, and the newly formed Hawke’s Bay Women’s Club would be on an upper floor with some residential flats.

Space was also created for a cabaret – Napier’s first – named the “Silver Slipper Cabaret.”

The T & G building opened on December 1, 1936, and the public was invited to enjoy the panoramic view of Napier from its roof.

The building was sold in 1985 to Buck Buchanan and renamed the “A & B Corner” – the initials of Buck and his wife Alice. They ran a restaurant there called “Buck’s Great Wall Restaurant.”

Buck told me he had originally wanted to open a Chinese restaurant in Hastings near the Stortford Lodge corner, but it didn’t work out due to a difference of opinion over car parks with the Hastings City Council. As he had already brought a chef over from Singapore, he searched for a site and paid $455,000 ($1.49 million) for the T & G building.

When he bought the building the tenants included dentists, doctors, a school for the deaf, a milk bar and a hairdresser. A Mrs Tonkin who leased a flat from 1936 when it opened was still there.

Explosives were used to clear some of the reinforced concrete to make way for the ground-floor restaurant, which opened in 1987. It never, according to Buck, made any money – and the first non-smoking restaurant in Hawke’s Bay, he said, “was too upmarket for many of the locals, whom I imagine, because of the apparent opulence of the restaurant, thought it looked too expensive”.

In 1990 the first floor was converted into a conference centre, and accommodation called the Landmark Hotel was opened after this.

In 2000/01, after the building had been sold by Buck and Alice in 1999, the ground floor was remodelled again.

During 2003/04 the upper floors were converted to apartments and two additional apartments were built on the roof, with the approval of the New Zealand Historic Places Trust and the Art Deco Trust.

The stripped classical-style building in 2024 is now referred to as “The Dome”. It now includes waterfront studio and apartment accommodation, conference facilities and has the restaurant ‘Lone Star” on the ground floor.

* Michael Fowler’s Stories of Historic Hawke’s Bay is available from Wardini books, Havelock and Napier, and Whitcoulls Hastings and Napier.