THE HOTEL MAJESTIC

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 291, 8 September 1928, Page 10

THE HOTEL MAJESTIC

“ALBERT” TO BE DEMOLISHED AN HISTORIC HOSTELRY OF VICTORIAN ERA Arrangements have been made by a company to take over the old Albert Hotel property (on the corner of Boulcott and Willis Streets), demolish the existing wooden building (a photograph of which appears on this page), and erect on the site in permanent material an eight-story building to be known as the Hotel Majestic, the plans for which have been prepared by Mr W. J. Prouse. Provision will be made for 200 guest rooms, with ten shops on the frontage, and, within, lounges, writing-rooms, and all the appurtenances of a first-class modern hotel. There will also be a spacious diningroom, capable of accommodating- 350 guests. The old Albert Hotel dates back over sixty years. The rear portion, with a pillared entrance from Boulcott Street, was the second building erected in Wellington for the accommodation of the Union Bank of Australia, a wooden structure of some pretension in the early days. It fell into the hands of the late Mr. John Plimnier in the early 'seventies, and, with additions dowii to the Willis Street frontage, became the Albert Hotfel, named after Prince Albert Edward, consort of Queen Victoria. When the Wellington and Manawatu Railway was formed, between Wellington and Longburn, Mr. Plimnier, who was one of the. founders anti a director of the company, commemorated the -went by having masks carved in wood, life-size, of the directors, ami made them an exterior decorative feature of the Imtel. He also recognised the genius of Edward Gibbon Wakefield by placing a wooden statue of that gentleman on the highest point of the hotel building, where it still stands in memory of the founder of the city, and a coloniser of imperial note.