When the Rangitāiki swamp was drained and converted to farmland, Whakatāne grew rapidly as a farm service town. A hotel built there in 1879 was replaced by this one in 1939, when the art deco style was popular.
Using this item
Te Ara - The Encyclopedia of New Zealand
Photograph by Jock Phillips
This item is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 New Zealand Licence
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