It started with a group of eight men wanting to set up a club, now 100 years later the Rotorua Club has more than 400 members and is still going strong.
It started with three doctors and five other men sitting around a table coming up with a plan for a gentlemen’s club.
The Rotorua Club was born. Fast forward 100 years and the club has more than 450 members and is still going strong.
But there has been change over the decades - some of the archaic rules are gone - women are now allowed through the doors and men no longer have to wear shirts, jackets and ties.
The club’s history will be celebrated this weekend with a 100th anniversary get-together.
A Rotorua Club minutes book from 1921. Photo / Kelly Makiha
A dusty minutes book details the history of the club showing the first meeting on September 21, 1921 when Drs Bertram, Price and Hay got together with Messrs Hampson, Barron, Mclean, Urquhart and Biddle and decided to form the Rotorua Club.
The club was formally incorporated three years later in December 1924. It was located at a building on Hinemaru St, next to the now Prince’s Gate hotel, in a part of the premises now called the Monarch room.
The Rotorua Club's first president, Dr H Bertram. Photo / Kelly Makiha
Membership grew over the decades. Towards the end of the 1960s the club’s space was deemed too small for its growing membership and too costly to manage, so the club moved to a new venue, swapping premises with three women who had a brick building on the corner of Fenton and Park Sts, where the club remained for many decades.
The club excluded female members until the 1980s. When women were finally allowed to join, they had to be accompanied by a man and were not to be served at the bar, but men could buy drinks for them.
Club president Tony Thompson said a cupboard of jackets and ties used to be at the old Fenton St premises to help out the men who were caught short trying to enter without adhering to the proper dress code - those rules are gone too.
Rotorua Club representatives looking forward to celebrating 100 years this weekend are (from left) Jeff Timmins, Tony Thompson and Colin Wood. Photo / Kelly Makiha
Thompson told the Rotorua Daily Post that by 2009 the Rotorua Club was at a crossroads. Membership was declining and some hard decisions needed to be made.
Thompson said membership had dropped to about 150 people, rates were “skyrocketing” and the Fenton St building was becoming run-down and needed costly repairs.
Timmins said it prompted talk about the club’s future.
After much discussion, an agreement was reached with the Rotorua Racing Club and Arawa Park Trust for the Rotorua Club to move into the first floor of the main grandstand at Arawa Park in exchange for the land and building where the Rotorua Club formerly stood, Timmins said. The former club premises were later demolished.
Some of the RSA's memorabilia now sits within the Rotorua Club. Photo / Kelly Makiha
Now the two clubs are based at the racecourse premises but run separately. The Rotorua RSA has also been based at the Rotorua Club for the past two years since falling numbers forced the closure of the RSA building next to the Rotorua Lakes Council in 2015. It was without a clubrooms for several years.
Rotorua Club manager Colin Wood said it was great for the RSA members to have somewhere to go, especially during special occasions such as Armistice Day and Anzac Day, as well as for visitors who liked to drink at RSAs.
“Often they come to town and just ask where the local RSA is,” Wood said.
Thompson and Timmins said the club had a proud history displayed on the walls at the club, including past presidents. Among them were Sir Paul East’s father, EC East, and two generations of McDowells - GT McDowell and Ian McDowell.
The Rotorua Club's oldest surviving life member, Brian Winks, who was president from 1989 to 1991. Photo / Kelly Makiha
Thompson said this weekend’s 100th celebration would include lifting a time capsule on Friday night. He said the time capsule was buried at the old premises 25 years ago when the 75th anniversary was celebrated - but with the moving of the premises in 2009 the capsule was moved to the new site.
The time capsule will be opened on Saturday night, when there will be an official dinner and live music with invited guests. The club’s oldest surviving life member, Brian Winks, who was president between 1989 and 1991, will be in attendance.
Another formal occasion will be held on Saturday, December 14 when a pounamu (greenstone) patu in the form of a mere will be presented to the club. Master carver Lewis Gardiner from Rākei Jade has been commissioned to make the mere with funding help from One Foundation.
The mere will remain with the club and will be used at ceremonies at significant and formal events.
Kelly Makiha is a senior journalist who has reported for the Rotorua Daily Post for more than 25 years, covering mainly police, court, human interest and social issues.
