Designed by Ernest Arthur Williams in 1932 for Ross & Glendining Ltd, this single-storey commercial building in Napier’s Tennyson Street has architectural and historical significance for being a rare example of an art deco building incorporating Māori motifs. Constructed in reinforced concrete following the devastating 1931 Hawke’s Bay earthquake, the building is now part of Napier’s celebrated heritage precinct and is an example of the restrained art deco style strongly associated with the city’s rebuild.

Napier is within the rohe of Ngāti Kahungunu, whose ancestors arrived in what is now known as Hawke’s Bay during the sixteenth century, and it is also within the area of interest of Ahuriri Hapū. The area was regarded as highly suitable for settlement due to its climate, fertile soil, hills, waterways, and coast. Pākehā whalers, traders, and missionaries had arrived in the region by the 1830s, but it was the purchase of land by the government from 1851 and the founding of principal towns that spurred European settlement and the growth of the region’s economy. Napier was established by the government in 1855 and it remained Hawke’s Bay’s leading town until the early twentieth century.

On 3 February 1931, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake and resulting fires led to the devastation of Napier and Hastings, and a death toll of 256. The city centre was rebuilt with improvements such as wider streets and underground power and telephone lines, and architects opted for Spanish mission and art deco styles, the latter of which ‘emphasised spare, lean lines and geometric motifs.’ Ross & Glendining’s Emerson Street premises were ruined by the earthquake, and they rebuilt on a site long occupied (from around 1860) by the Hawke’s Bay Herald. The newspaper’s store, garage and printing press were also destroyed by the earthquake and subsequent fires.

A call for tenders was made in October 1932 and the contract for the construction of the Ross & Glendining Building (Former) was let to Fox and Hillen, Napier-based building contractors who collaborated with E A Williams on at least one other building. Upon completion, the building was praised for its ‘simple but very effective design’ and was seen as ‘undoubtedly one of the finest buildings in the new business area of Napier.’ Originally serving as a warehouse and offices for the Napier proprietors of Roslyn Worsted and Woollen Mills, it included a warehouse, offices, a packing room, and a sample room, and the exterior had a light grey stone finish with Māori motifs that provided ‘a novel touch.’ Only four other art deco structures in Hawke’s Bay incorporated Māori design, the most prominent of which is Napier’s Bank of New Zealand (Former), List No. 1112.

There is no evidence that Williams collaborated with Māori in the design of this place. It is believed that the architect drew upon the work of South Island carver and farmer John Henry Menzies, who collected Māori designs, published a selection in 1910, and built the heavily decorated house Rehutai and St Luke’s Church, Little Akaloa, List No. 7094. Both the kōwhaiwhai (meeting house rafter) pattern between the windows, based on the pītau (fern frond), and the narrow frieze running along the parapet strongly resemble designs in Menzies’ church and in his publication.

The building’s interior was modified when its occupancy changed to the Social Security Department in 1960. The owners and tenants of this building have changed numerous times since, housing advertising agency Adplus Ltd and the Ministry of Transport in the mid-1980s, and Clive Ralph Photographer. Napier Antique & Jewellery Centre has operated from the building since 1995. Although the building’s art deco embellishment is very limited, its incorporation of Māori design suggests either the architect or client was striving for a point of difference and opted for local influences rather than more commonly adopted international and geometric motifs.