Scraps Of Wellington History

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 16, Issue 28, 4 December 1950, Page 5

Scraps Of Wellington History

From “Old Wellingtonian”

Half a century or more- ago it was a common practice to name a hotel after its owner or lessee. The only one in Wellington so dubbed today is Barrett’s Hotel, which has quite a history. The original hotel of the name was erected by Dickie Barrett, whaler and pilot, and stood on the site occupied in later years by the Hotel Cecil on Lambton Quay. Not only were the plans for Barrett’s Hotel drawn in London, but it was constructed in sections there and sent by sailing vessel to Wellington. The hotel was originally designed and built’in sections as a home for Dr Evans, after whom Evans Bay was named. He was a highly esteemed colleague of Colonel William Wakefield. On their arrival here, Barrett bought the sections from Dr Evans, and set them up on the corner of Lambton Quay and Molesworth (then Charlotte) Streets. But Barrett never kept the hotel; he leased it to successive people. The building was knocked about in the earthquake of 1848, when the lessee, Mr Snisted got permission to transfer the licence to new premises at the foot of Plimmer’s Steps. Just when the timber was on the site, and a start was about to be made the gold rush to California broke out in 1849, and half of Wellington made a wild rush to the new El Dorado. Due to lack of labour, all building came to a sudden end. This was Mr John Plimmer’s chance. He did not think that all the gold in California was worth the then city of Wellington, plus its prospects, so he purchased the block from Barrett’s frontage right up to Boulcott Street, put up a timber building to accommodate the licence and called it Barrett’s Hotel, a name it bears to this day. On the land behind the old Atheneum (later the Exchange Hall) he built his home, in which he lived for many years, and in which he died. That structure became the first editorial offices of The Dominion newspaper in 1907, the Wellington Publishing Company having bought the property from Boulcott Street down the steps to the rear of the Exchange Hall.

Having purchased the site of Barrett’s Hotel, it is easily conceivable why, when Mr Plimmer bought the hull .of the American barque Inconstant (which had struck a rock in making the entrance to Wellington harbour) he should have placed her on the rocks opposite the hotel, and built a warehouse on her main deck. It was called for years “Noah’s Ark.”

Mr Plimmer had a penchant for decorating his properties with inscriptions. Associated with his Ark on the beach (now the site of the headquarters of the Bank of New Zealand) was his own residence, which bore in raised letters above the balcony, surmounted by a carved wooden dove, the lines: “That Noah’s Ark existed, there is nothing left to prove; but here is mine attested, by the presence of the dove.”