Bluff_Buildings.jpg

Bluff Buildings

Privacy Level: Open (White)
Date: [unknown] [unknown]
Location: Bluff, Southland, New Zealandmap
Surname/tag: bluff_new_zealand
Profile manager: Kylie Fowler private message [send private message]
This page has been accessed 77 times.
This profile is part of the Bluff, Southland One Place Study.

Buildings in Bluff NZ and their connection to the community.

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.[1]

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[2]. 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.[3] Fire once again swept through the hotel. The Southland Times[4] 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.[5]

The Club Hotel is expected to be demolished by May 2024. An in depth assessment of the building was completed as part of the process and can be viewed online.[6] As noted in the report, the Club Hotel is four buildings originally.

Proprietors

  • 1893 Andrew Scott [7]
  • 1910 Robert Stewart [8]
  • 1929 P Ford[9]

Bayview Hotel

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



Eagle Hotel

Eagle Hotel



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/OW19000905.2.168
  2. ↑ https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZMAIL19030325.2.139
  3. ↑ https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/TS19140801.2.70
  4. ↑ https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ST19140729.2.41
  5. ↑ https://www.heritage.org.nz/list-details/2441/Club%20Hotel%20
  6. ↑ https://icc.govt.nz/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Heritage-Impact-Assessment-Club-Hotel-New-Zealand-Heritage-Properties.pdf
  7. ↑ https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/SOCR18930729.2.55.2
  8. ↑ https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/SOCR19100806.2.38.1
  9. ↑ https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ST19291209.2.91.1




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
Collaboration
  • Login to edit this profile and add images.
  • Private Messages: Send a private message to the Profile Manager. (Best when privacy is an issue.)
  • Public Comments: Login to post. (Best for messages specifically directed to those editing this profile. Limit 20 per day.)


Comments

Leave a message for others who see this profile.
There are no comments yet.
Login to post a comment.