The Rebuild
Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, Napier city or ‘New Napier’ as it was then known, rose from the rubble of the 1931 earthquake. Using a group of New Zealand’s most renowned architects and effectively re-writing building standards, the city rebuild was heralded around the country.
Stories from the library vault are collected from the Napier Libraries Heritage Collection. To find out more see our website https://bit.ly/3G92ELN or visit our Napier or Taradale branch.
Images taken from the Napier Libraries Heritage Collection and MTG Online Photograph Collection:
Temporary building of Masonic Hotel
The Auckland Weekly News, 8 April, 1931
Temporary building of Provincial Hotel
Hawkes Bay Today, 3 February, 2010
Tin Town (view from above)
Hawkes Bay Today, 5 November, 2011
Temporary bank building being constructed
NZ Free Lance 18 February, 1931
Temporary premises of the associated Banks;
Road damage;
Shattered Westshore Embankment Road
Daily Telegraph. (1981). Hawkes Bay: Before and After: The Great Earthquake of 1931. The Daily Telegraph.
Tin Town;
J.S. Barton;
L.B. Campbell;
Ruins of Napier Technical School
Conly, G. (1980). The Shock of ’31: The Hawkes Bay Earthquake. A.H. & A. W. Reed Ltd.
The proceeding restoration
Reconstruction: Ten Months After – New Zealand’s Greatest Disaster, (1931). Wilson & Horton Ltd.
New buildings taking shape in Tennyson Street
The Daily Telegraph, 2 February, 1991.
Hydes Building (Architects: Finch & Westerholm);
Daily Telegraph (Architect: E.A. Williams);
The National Tobacco Company (Architect: J.A. Louis Hay);
Blythes (Emerson Street) (Architects: Natusch & Sons)
Bank of New Zealand, 1932
McGregor, R. (2003). The New Napier: The Art Deco City in the 1930s. Art Deco Trust.
Market Reserve Building (steel frame)
MTG Online Photograph Collection
https://collection.mtghawkesbay.com/o...
Completed Market Reserve Building
McGregor, R. The Hawkes Bay Earthquake: New Zealand’s Greatest Natural Disaster.
Market Reserve Building under construction
The Napier Mail, n.d.
Drainage Repairs
MTG Online Photograph Collection https://collection.mtghawkesbay.com/o...
Mending chimneys on suburban Napier residences
The Auckland Weekly News April 1, 1931
New business area, June 1931;
Napier under reconstruction
Auckland Weekly News June 10, 1931
The opening of “Shopping Week” on August 31, 1931
The Auckland Weekly News, September 9, 1931
New Napier Carnival 1933
MTG Online Photograph Collection https://collection.mtghawkesbay.com/o...