The Public Works Department constructed the building at 3 Hay Street in Mangaore Village in 1929 as a hostel for single men working at the Mangahao Hydroelectric Power Station. It has historical heritage value for its relationship to the significant Mangahao power scheme, which, supplying Wellington, Horowhenua, Taranaki, Hawke’s Bay and the Wairarapa, was the first of many large hydro power stations to be built in New Zealand under a Government-resourced plan to provide a national electricity supply. It also has some architectural importance as an example of a type of worker accommodation devised by the Public Works Department during the interwar period.

Mangaore Village was established in 1920 with the building of four bungalows for engineering staff working on the construction of the Mangahao Hydroelectric Power Station. By 1923, seven additional bungalows were arrayed on sections along three sides of the recreation reserve at the centre of the village. These modern, well-designed houses and the overall landscape plan formed the nucleus of a permanent community for workers employed at the power station after it became operational late in 1924. No further bungalows appear to have been constructed until 1936-37, and in the interim housing needs were met in part through the continued use of roughly built wooden huts. As the system of allocating housing preferenced married workers, it is likely that most, if not all, of the unmarried workers initially lived in these huts.

Built in 1929, the single men’s quarters or staff hostel afforded a level of comfort and modernity equal to that of the bungalows. Stylistically, the building’s form was, arguably, the most bungaloid in the village with a broad, low-pitched, side gable roof that extending low over a wide front verandah. A small, decorative cross gable ‘dormer’ provided the only break in the sweep of the roof. The overall form, centred cross gable, and full-width verandah obscured the functional division within, evident only by two front doors. The one on the left opened into an L-shaped hallway providing access to a sitting room with fireplace, three bedrooms, a WC, and a bathroom. The door on the right opened into a spacious dining room bounded by a kitchen and other service spaces. The residential side had internal access into the kitchen. The portion of the verandah outside the dining room was partitioned from the rest, suggesting that the dining facility might have also been used by workers living beyond the hostel.

In 1936, the portion of the verandah fronting the dining room was fully enclosed with weatherboards and sliding casement windows above built-in seats along two walls, creating a ‘small lounge or common-room for those using the Hostel.’ This was thought necessary because ‘at present there is nothing available of this nature except the dining room itself, which is not desirable to use for this purpose,’ suggesting that the original sitting room may have been used as a fourth bedroom. A succession of government entities owned the accommodation at Mangaore until sold off in the mid-1990s as part of the privatisation of New Zealand’s electricity sector. With the exception of the addition of a single-stall garage, the property is largely unchanged on the exterior and now exists as a four-bedroom, one-bathroom house for a single household.