Isaac Richardson Vialou, ?-1884

Isaac Vialou was a man of many talents. Not only was he elected Hamilton Borough’s first mayor, in February 1878, he owned a general agricultural implement manufactory with a blacksmith and wheelwright department, made mattresses, was a builder, timber merchant, cabinetmaker, picture framer, painter, decorator, surveyor and, most importantly, an architect.

In 1872, he built a ‘‘handsome dwelling’’ in Victoria St, just north of Hood Street, with his carriage works beside it.

From about 1858, Vialou was in Auckland. An 1863 advertisement in the Daily Southern Cross for his Sanitary Depot in Victoria Street describes the business as ‘‘importers of stone, cement and building materials, manufacturers of bricks pipes etc, stockists of closets, lavatories, hand basins etc’’. Later in 1863, he was proprietor of the Auckland Hotel and catered for the regatta and for the presentation of the Victoria Cross to Major Charles Heaphy in 1867. He had a pig farm at Pt Chevalier, owned a hay and straw store, ran the Greyhound Hotel and then the Panmure Hotel until June 1872. He designed several prominent buildings, including the Auckland courthouse and a hotel in Thames. He was also bankrupt at least twice.

At the beginning of 1873, he advertised that he had ‘‘resumed his profession of architect and surveyor’’ in Hamilton following on from his