Peter and I are travelling down to Napier for the Annual Art Deco Weekend to relax and unwind after the exam. We are also going down to collect some more pedigree Dorset Horn Ewes to cross over our current Ram (yes, thing are really taking off on the Rare Breeds Farm).
Napier is known as the Art Deco capital of New Zealand.
The 1931 Napier earthquake (10:47 AM on Tuesday 3 February) killed 256 people and devastated the Hawke's Bay region. It is still NZs deadliest natural disaster. It was 7.8 on the Richter scale and lasted for 2.5 minutes. There were then some 525 after shocks over the subsequent fortnight.
When the rubble was cleared, many of the Buildings were redesigned in the voguish art deco style, and some Spanish mission style. Thus, Napier remains the Art Deco Capital of NZ to this day...
Above and Below: The iconic National Tobacco Company building
Above and Below: The Daily Telegraph Building
Above and Below: Views down Marine Parade
Above and Below: It's just not deco without those glamourous deco ladies...
People usually go all out with their dress and there is usually a vintage car parade. And being the Hawke's Bay there is good weather, plenty of fresh produce and wine in abundance.
I'm not sure why the formatting is odd in the first part of the blog? Guess I did something wrong! I find the new blogger interface is more prone to doing what it wants, and not what I tell it to do!
ReplyDeleteWhat is that fantastic white building with the red contrasts? It may say "masonic" on the front.
ReplyDeleteIt looks deco and dashing, alright, but totally unlike the deco buildings I have seen in New Zealand (and Australia, for that matter).
The first Masonic Hotel was opened on the site in September 1861. In May 1896 it was destroyed by fire and subsequently rebuilt the following year in a very grand fashion. The building was originally three storeys with a single storey building alongside housing the stables and in 1906 a two storey extension was added. The extension had a promenade roof with an area of 18,000 square feet. It was one of the largest and most elaborate, up to date hotels in New Zealand at that time. In the 1931 Hawke’s Bay Earthquake the Masonic Hotel was destroyed, mainly by the fire that followed rather than by the earthquake itself.
ReplyDeleteAfter the earthquake a temporary corrugated iron building was erected to serve the patrons while the new hotel was built. The 1932 Masonic hotel was designed by Wellington architect W J Prowse. It is a simple symetrical structure, enlivened by it’s conspicuous “MASONIC” in Deco capitals of red lead light in the canopy at the entrance of the hotel.
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