Purchase Of Hotel Forecasts New Feature In Changing Face Of Oxford Street

Chronicle (Levin), 9 April 1949, Page 4

Purchase Of Hotel Forecasts New Feature In Changing Face Of Oxford Street

Occupying a strategic position in Oxford Street, the twostorey wooden Arcadia Hotel building underwent its third change of ownership on April 1, on which date its purchase by the shareholders of Messrs. A. W. Allen, Ltd., took effect and its long diity as one of Levin's regrettably few private hotels ceased.

The price paid for the land and building is understood to be in the vicinity of £10,000. It is interesting to learn from its first owner, Mr. W. H. Wilson, now living in retirement in Levin, that the building, then a 32-room structure, was built for the contract price of £1750. The contractor Was the late Mr, G. K. Douglas. That, of course, was some 40 years ago, the exact date, unfortunateiy, hot beittg on record. The land was originally subdivided and sold by lots at -public auction in Wellington, togethet with most of the seetions north to the post office corner. It was then the property of the Manawatu Railway Company, which had intehded extending its metal pit in that direction. The corner section on which the hotel stands was bought by Mr, Wilson for £65. The other seetions sold at a fiXed rate of £56 each. The Arcadia Hotel building emerged as an imposing structure, there being in those days only a 'eW scaltered shops in the township, and a large metal pit on the opposite side did not make for beautification. The building, it is understood, was Levin's only venture into three-storey structures, and the third storey was destroyed by fire not long after the hotel was opene'd. The arehitect was a Mr. Smart. Mr. Wilson says he was negotiating the sale of the hotel when • the fire took place; it naturally put an end to the sale. Later it was

'leased for a period to a Mr. Barnett and subsequently sold outright to Mr. and Mrs. J. McFarlane, who operated it as a private hotel for many years. The final owners were Mr. and Mrs. L. T. and D. Green. who took over on Oetober 22, 1947, Before building the Arcadia, the original owner, Mr. Wilson, was engaged in the baking trade, his bakehouse being at the rear of the section in a building which is n^w the Levin Travel Agency. A house which was at the front of the section Was moved on skids when the hotel" was built, and transported by means of a bullock team to a section next to what is now -the Levin Primary School. It is there still. The Arcadia Hotel has sefved as a home for mahy persons during the years, and as a place of transit for others- awaiting the erection of thebr own houses. Dufing the past year, however, it has experienced riiany structural changes, the front rooms being eagerly sought for- the commercial expansion of Oxford ahd Bath Streets. Gradually the rooms were let for offices and shops, .-Yulminating in the building's outright purchase. It is understood that it will now be used entirely for office and shop {accommodation, and that the pur* chasers intend ultimateiy to incorporate it and the section adjoining in their plan for a large expansion of the firm's present premises, and thus create a neW feature in the changing face of Oxford Street,