This historic place was registered under the Historic Places Act 1993. The following text is from the original Registration Proposal report considered by the NZHPT Board at the time of registration. History of the Place: Otaki is one of New Zealand's oldest towns, planned on the authority of Governor Grey as a community in which Maori and Pakeha would work in partnership. To a great degree, it has retained this quality, best summed up in the success of Te Wananga o Raukawa, a near neighbour to the former bank building. The two Otaki missions, Anglican and Catholic are justly reverenced. The bank building represents the economic and government roles of the town's development although the bank has moved elsewhere, the bank building remains dominant in the main street. The first branch of the Bank of New Zealand in Otaki was opened on 1 October 1909. On 24 October 1911, it was reduced to agency status and serviced from a branch near the Otaki railway station. This was reversed in 1918 when the new main street Bank of New Zealand building was constructed at a contract price of 5258 pounds (Otaki journal 4.76). This building was used as a bank and manager's spacious residence until the office portion became too small and it was decided to rebuild on the adjoining site, opening on 1 December 1965. A new home was provided for the manager elsewhere in the town. After the building was vacated by the bank, it was bought by the Otaki Borough Council to be used as Council Chambers and offices. It served as the council offices until the amalgamation of the Borough into the Kapiti Coast District Council in 1989 and was then used as a council service centre. The first citizen's advice bureau in Otaki began here in two rooms at the back of the building, opening on 29 September 1980. The bureau moved out in December 1996. The former bank and council building has always been one of the most imposing structures in the town offering wide views from the upper floor. It is also one of the few two storeyed buildings in the area. It was used as a bank in an era when bank managers had high status. Its use as a Council office and Council chambers for the Otaki Borough Council added to its importance. However, when the council vacated the building in 1998, Otaki had been part of the Kapiti Coast District council for nearly ten years, and with the construction of a new library, Council business was served by a desk in that building. The Council had difficulty finding a use for the building and could not sell it. In 2002, a group of concerned Otaki residents decided to form a charitable trust to lease the Building, to renovate it, and to establish a museum in it. The Otaki Heritage Bank Preservation Trust has already carried out excellent work to prepare the building for its new role, revealing the architectural qualities and greatly extending its potential life.

This historic place was registered under the Historic Places Act 1993. The following text is from the original Registration Proposal report considered by the NZHPT Board at the time of registration. Tenants: Bank of New Zealand 1918-1965 Otago Borough Council building 1965-1989 Kapiti Coast District Council Service Centre 1989-1998 The 1950s kitchen and dining room were used as a Citizens Advice Bureau 1980-1996 Physical Description: The building was a two-storeyed cube with a single storeyed addition at the back (south). The front, north facade, was neo-classical, with three bays. The manager's entrance was from a porch added to the west of the cube; the eastern side also had a door (the staff entrance), with a canopy above, and the south, which had a lean- to extension including a veranda, had two outer doors, one leading to into the dining room - into a bay with sash windows - and one into the scullery. Floor plan: plans are only available for the ground floor. The main doors opened into the public space, which was at various times partitioned or sub-divided into areas for tellers, ledgers etc. On the north-west corner was the manager's office, with fireplace, now completely removed. Along the back wall of the public space was a door leading into the staff cloak room, with its triangular wash hand basin (the toilets were in a separate building outside) and beyond that the' stationary' room. In the main office was a fireplace, with brown hearth tiles including a few nouveau ones (the tiles still exist), then the strong room, another cube with thick walls and a fine 1914 Chubb door. At the western end of the wall, a door led into the manager's flat. Manager's flat: on the ground floor, this comprised the entrance porch noted above, with leadlight windows surrounding the door, and a fine staircase of rimy ply with kauri rails, and a cupboard beneath. Doors led from the hall into the large dining room (which was in the 'lean-to' and extended to the width of the porch) and into the kitchen. The Dining room and kitchen had back to back fireplaces and a hatch. It is assumed that the kitchen one originally contained a coal range. This was altered in 1950 to house a 'chip' type heater, which is still there. From the kitchen there was a door to the scullery, with a sink on the southern wall and a large pantry on the northern end. An outside safe extends from the eastern corner of the pantry. Upstairs: A large leadlight window lights the staircase, which leads to a spacious landing. Plans are not available for this area; however the walls of the bedroom (and a wardrobe) on the south eastern corner, the toilet and the bathroom (now a kitchen) are intact. It is believed that the current upper hall was double the width it is now and that there was a drawing room on the north western corner, with a fireplace above that in the manager's office, and two bedrooms, one with a fireplace above the one in the main office. This area was modified to provide a council chamber and the pressed ceilings were removed, though one wardrobe still remains, with its pressed steel ceiling intact. Apart from the provision of electric lighting at a cost of 56 pounds in 1924, when the Mangahao Power Station at Shannon was commissioned, the building seems to have been largely unaltered for over thirty years, apart from a toilet outside, at the rear of the building. This was provided for the first female employee who started in 1942, when most of the male employees were serving in WWII. Around 1950, alterations were made to the manager's flat, the dining room became the living room, the kitchen the dining room and the scullery and pantry (both unusually spacious) became the kitchen. It seems to have been intended that an electric fire be put in place of the coal range and a hot water cylinder in the new kitchen. However, there is a 'chip' type heater in the old range space with a hot water cylinder beside it. An 'Esse' heater was put in the fireplace in the main office; this is no longer there as electric heating was provided in the 1960s. These alterations also provided for four bedrooms upstairs. The northern facade was cut back by approximately 2 metres to allow for road widening around 1966-67. It is possible that modifications to the upper floor as noted above were made at this time. About 1990, the steel reinforcing inside the pebble-finish panels on this facade were found to be rusting and additional panels were put over the top. Interior details: the public space has rimu and matai tongue and grooved dado, the manager's office is panelled. All timber was stained and varnished; the stain the manager's office being quite dark. Walls were plastered and painted, mostly in shades of green; the eastern porch and stationary room, and the upstairs toilet and bathroom were blue. Most rooms had pressed metal ceilings, that in the main chamber being particularly fine. These ceilings have been removed from the manager's office and as noted, from the northern half of the upper floor. In the 1980s the walls of the former banking chamber were covered with grass cloth, painted peach, and the timber dado, doors and architraves painted grey. The grass cloth and paint have been removed. Current Physical condition: The building is currently in reasonable condition now that leaks and drains have been repaired. However, the upstairs windows in the north facade leak and there has been some difficulty in repairing them, largely because of the poor design of this present facade. Some electrical repairs have been carried out and the staircase has been conserved. The Kapiti Coast District Council has scheduled exterior painting within the next two years and re roofing some years further out.