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Bluff Buildings

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Location: Bluff, Southland, New Zealandmap
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Buildings in Bluff NZ and their connection to the community.

Building activity in Bluff in 1938.[1]

Contents

Post Office

The building was built by Mr Alexander Menzies, of Invercargill, and erected at a cost of a little more than £2500, Mr P. Walker, of Invercargill, being the architect. It was completed in September 1900.[2]

Post Office



Club Hotel

Rising from the ashes of four fires Bluff’s Club Hotel built in 1914 stands on the south side of Gore Street. The hotel, designed in Italianate style by architect Frederick Annison, overlooks what was once a bustling port.

The Club Hotel recalls typical hotel architecture of early twentieth century, where providing a place to stay, food and convivial surroundings was central to the hotel trade. The hotel is a significant example of a relatively grand hotel building for a small Southland town. The Club Hotel represents the importance of hotels in small communities. The scale of the hotel indicates the importance of Bluff as a port of entry and an important transit point for visitors and residents alike.

Post Office & Club Hotel

The first hotel on this site was run by Irish-born Hannah Ward Barron. In the 1860s Mrs Barron leased a guesthouse on the waterfront and set about establishing her own business. In 1870, she converted the boarding house to a hotel, calling it the Railway Hotel. Her children lived with her at the hotel. Her youngest son Joseph Ward lived with her until his marriage in 1883. Joseph Ward became an important businessman and politician. Ward was twice mayor of Campbelltown, as Bluff was then called. He was elected to Parliament in 1887, and became Prime Minister in 1906. The Railway Hotel burnt down in 1880, and was replaced by the Terminus Hotel. The Terminus Hotel was badly damaged in a fire in July 1884. The hotel was rebuilt and named the Club Hotel. Mrs Barron owned the hotel until her death in 1898. After her death a family trust managed the hotel. It was leased to various licensees.

In 1903, the hotel suffered another serious fire[3]. Parts of the building had to be demolished. When rebuilding the hotel, the executors of Mrs Barron’s estate took the opportunity to make it bigger. Invercargill architect Peter Walker advertised for tenders for the ‘erection of Club Hotel’ in brick and concrete in May 1903. By February 1904 the re-building was just about finished. Further misfortune followed in 1914.[4] Fire once again swept through the hotel. The Southland Times[5] reported that all that remained was ‘several chains of burning embers divided only by the bare parched dividing walls which marked the progress of one of the most ravishing conflagrations in the history of the port.’ The new building was designed by architect Frederick Annison (d.1917), and has survived to the present day with a number of additions and alterations.

The Club Hotel is a long two-storey building. The ground floor street front provides access to the bar and restaurant and has several small shop fronts. A verandah and a fire escape run the length of the hotel. The first floor is designed in ornate Classical Victorian style. The brickwork has been painted. The windows are a mix of round and flat headed double hung sashes.[6]

The Club Hotel was demolished in May 2024. An in depth assessment of the building was completed as part of the process and can be viewed online.[7] As noted in the report, the Club Hotel is four buildings originally.

Proprietors

  • 1893 Andrew Scott [8]
  • 1910 Robert Stewart [9]
  • 1929 P Ford[10]

Publican's Licence 7 June 1945 for George William Robb.[11]

Bay View Hotel

Changed hands in 1920[12]

Licence renewal on 7 June 1945 by Stanley Gordon Davidson.[13]

Golden Age Hotel

Photo from c.1900 that looks back towards Bluff from the Town Wharf. The port’s Custom House and Countess of Glasgow Sailors’ Rest can also be seen and the Golden Age Hotel is in the background.

Golden Age in background

Transfer of licence 9 June 1939 from Margaret Louisa Baird to Albert Herbert Jenson.[14]

Publican's licence 9 June 1939 for John Hislop[15]

Publican's Licence 7 June 1945 for George Johnston.[16]

Eagle Hotel

Building of the hotel is said to have started in 1861.[17] Completed prior to January 1863 by J G Hughes[18]. It was advertised in June 'for let'.[19] By August 1863 he had let it to J G Wagner [20] Mr Wagner was an agent for Cobb & Co and as such the coaches arrived and left from the hotel for Invercargill[21]. The fare in 1863 was £1 10s each way.[22] Being located close to the wharf it had a licensed custom house and commission agent's offices adjoining it[23]. In September 1864, it was put up for auction 'by order of the mortgagees'.[24][25]

Eagle Hotel

Capt. Hall's body was brought to the Eagle Hotel after he drowned in Bluff Harbour on 5 Oct 1863.[26] A subscription was taken up at the hotel for both the captain and Henry Aspinall who also drowned.[27] Oct 1863: First class cook and Laundress wanted, apply Cobb & Co[28]

Mention of a need to metal Gore Street from the wharf to the Eagle Hotel.[29]

September 1864: Up for auction[30]

November 1864: Laundress needed, inquire Alex. Sayers, Esk St.[31]

1866: A recount of an incident outside the Eagle Hotel.[32]

Destroyed by fire in 1906 and again in 1953.[33]

Sep 1920: Changed hands[34]

Jan 1924: New owners [35]

May 1929: Sudden death of guest.[36]

Licence renewal on 7 June 1945 for Bernard Charles Boulton.[37]

Argyle Hotel

Prop. Alex. MacDonald[38]

Waddel House

Maori House

https://ngaitahu.iwi.nz/our_stories/tk73-ka-whare-maori-ki-awarua-bluffs-maori-houses/

Stirling Point Signal Station

Dog Island Lighthouse

Sources

  1. ↑ https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ST19381212.2.82
  2. ↑ https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/OW19000905.2.168
  3. ↑ https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZMAIL19030325.2.139
  4. ↑ https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/TS19140801.2.70
  5. ↑ https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ST19140729.2.41
  6. ↑ https://www.heritage.org.nz/list-details/2441/Club%20Hotel%20
  7. ↑ https://icc.govt.nz/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Heritage-Impact-Assessment-Club-Hotel-New-Zealand-Heritage-Properties.pdf
  8. ↑ https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/SOCR18930729.2.55.2
  9. ↑ https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/SOCR19100806.2.38.1
  10. ↑ https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ST19291209.2.91.1
  11. ↑ https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ST19450607.2.90
  12. ↑ https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/SOCR19200904.2.23
  13. ↑ https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ST19450607.2.90
  14. ↑ https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ST19390609.2.30
  15. ↑ https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ST19390609.2.30
  16. ↑ https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ST19450607.2.90
  17. ↑ https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/SOCR18930610.2.12
  18. ↑ https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ST18630120.2.23.2
  19. ↑ https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ST18630605.2.14.2.6
  20. ↑ https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ST18630825.2.13
  21. ↑ https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ST18630324.2.18.1
  22. ↑ https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ST18630317.2.24.7
  23. ↑ https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ST18631102.2.2.3
  24. ↑ https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ST18640917.2.36.2
  25. ↑ https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ST18640913.2.21.3
  26. ↑ https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ST18631007.2.12.1
  27. ↑ https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ST18631014.2.12
  28. ↑ https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ST18631021.2.15.3
  29. ↑ https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ST18640927.2.3.4
  30. ↑ https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ST18640915.2.22.3
  31. ↑ https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ST18640913.2.21.3
  32. ↑ https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ST18661005.2.13.3
  33. ↑ https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19530406.2.47
  34. ↑ https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/SOCR19200904.2.23
  35. ↑ https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/OW19240108.2.111
  36. ↑ https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/PAHH19280518.2.27
  37. ↑ https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ST19450607.2.90
  38. ↑ https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ST18630227.2.2.7




Images: 5
Eagle Hotel
Eagle Hotel
Postcard
Postcard
Post Office Construction
Post Office Construction
Post Office Refurbishment
Post Office Refurbishment
Bluff Post Office
Bluff Post Office
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