A special part of Hawke’s Bay history was left mysteriously at the doors of Hawke’s Bay Museum and Art Gallery last Friday. On arriving at work HBMAG staff found a marble nameplate bearing the words ‘Upoko Poito’.

Upoko Poito was the name of Dr Walter William Moore’s Private Hospital, an imposing three-story Spanish-mission style building built in December 1919. The hospital was severely damaged in the 1931 Hawke’s Bay Earthquake and subsequently demolished.

Upoko Poito stood on the site of what is now the Hog’s Breath Café on Marine Parade. While the building was only 12 years old at the time, it was badly damaged in the earthquake. Photographs of the hospital on a severe lean have since become some of the most iconic images of the disaster.

The hospital was the site of more than one daring rescue on the day of the earthquake. Gerard Husheer, founder of the National Tobacco Company in Ahuriri was recuperating on the third floor of the hospital after an operation when the earthquake struck. His bed careered across the floor and he was left trapped as the hospital listed at an impossible angle, seemingly about to collapse. Mervyn Barggen, freed from Napier prison to help in the city spotted Mr Husheer, and with two other inmates scaled the building and rescued him.

HBMAG’s Public Programmes Team Leader, Eloise Taylor is currently undertaking research for a new exhibition on the 1931 Hawke’s Bay Earthquake for the redeveloped Museum. “The Upoko Poito nameplate is an exciting find, and may be all we have left to represent one of the modern Napier buildings of the 1920s, lost to us after the devastating earthquake of 1931. The building was systematically demolished and the nameplate, visible in old photographs of the building, must have been recovered and set aside at that time. We would love to be able to solve the mystery of where it has been since then.” Ms Taylor said.

The Museum is very keen to get in touch with the person who left the nameplate at the Museum.

ENDS

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