Ex-bank retains classic tradition
It is interesting to consider how much effect, if any, a modern paint scheme can have on a heritage building and whether local authorities might do more to manage colour choice to maintain and enhance heritage values.
Having once painted a villa yellow, with red, blue and green trim, I can honestly say I’m no purist when it comes to paint schemes for historic buildings.
That said it is interesting to consider how much effect, if any, a modern paint scheme can have on a heritage building and whether local authorities might do more to manage colour choice to maintain and enhance heritage values.
One Waikato building that brings to mind the issue of colour is the former Bank of Australasia in Te Aroha, a building I knew well when I lived just outside the town in the late 1990s.
A fire in mid-February 1913 almost destroyed the Bank of Australasia on Whitaker St.
At the time it was one of two banks in the town, the other being a branch of the Bank of New Zealand. The Bank of Australasia opened its first branch in Te Aroha in May 1910, which was taken as a sign of the progress of the town and district. Considering recent news about banking profits, it may interest some readers to learn that the announcement of the new Te Aroha branch was accompanied by reportage that the bank held paid-up capital of £1,600,000, a reserve fund of £1,710,000 and a reserve liability of £1,600,000.
I’m not sure where the bank’s premises were initially but in 1921 tenders were called for new premises that are still standing on Whitaker St, close by its intersection with Bridge St.
Wellington architect CH Mitchell, a partner in the firm Atkins, Bacon and Mitchell, called tenders in midSeptember.
Atkins, Bacon and Mitchell were architects to the bank, with Cyril Mitchell in sole charge by 1921 following the retirement of Roger Bacon and the death of Alfred Atkins.
The contractor was George Mason of Taumarunui and the work had been completed by July 1922. Accommodation for the manager was provided on the first floor and at the rear of the banking chambers and the building was constructed from concrete with a roughcast plaster finish.
What the author of the description of the new building failed to note in the winter of 1922 was what colour the exterior of the building was.
Several former Bank of Australasia buildings are listed by Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga elsewhere in New Zealand, the one in Taumarunui (Atkins, Bacon and Mitchell, 1919) most closely resembling the Te Aroha building.
Both buildings are Neoclassical in style and have symmetrical facades with central entries flanked by end bays suggestive of towers.
The Te Aroha building is more overtly classical in the fluted columns that frame the steps to its main entrance but both buildings feature bracketed cornices at first-floor level between the end bays. Both former banks demonstrate the persistence of the classical tradition into the 20th century and the cultural association between finance and classicism to evoke feelings of strength and security. Sold by the ANZ bank in 1987, the Te Aroha bank has been in hospitality use ever since.
Observant readers will notice that today’s photograph is a couple of years old, which can be judged from the name of a previous cafe´ above the door.
What hasn’t changed is the red paint scheme, which has been in place since the 1990s.
The Matamata-Piako District Plan includes the building in its schedule of heritage items and makes some provision for controlling maintenance of heritage items, which could be assumed to include painting. In keeping with many of the district plans I have perused over the years, the M-PDP refers to permitting minor redecoration ‘which is carried out in a manner and design and with similar materials and appearance to those originally used’.
The question then is how the owner, or the local council, might know what the original colour of a building was, based on the historic record, and/or whether the district plan is referring to the colour of the building when it was originally scheduled.
I’m a fan of the paint scheme for Te Aroha’s historic bank but I also think that the more information you have about a heritage item the better owners and local government can look after landmark buildings and places.
A dramatic paint scheme can be difficult to reverse; although I notice the current owners of my former villa appear to have done just that.