National Tobacco Company Building
Out of the rubble of the 1931 earthquake, a tobacco magnate demanded the most beautiful building in New Zealand — and got it: Louis Hay’s arched doorway wreathed in roses is the face of Art Deco Napier.
At a glance
The National Tobacco Company Building stands in Ahuriri, Napier’s port quarter, rebuilt after the Hawke’s Bay earthquake of 3 February 1931 flattened the town and killed 256 people. Its designer, J.A. Louis Hay — a Napier architect devoted to Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright — gave the tobacco factory’s office front a composition unlike anything else in the rebuilt city: Art Deco geometry softened by Art Nouveau ornament, with an arched entrance framed in sculpted roses and native raupo bulrushes. It is the most photographed building in a town that markets itself as the Art Deco capital of the world.
Key facts
- Built: 1933, in the post-earthquake reconstruction
- Architect: J.A. Louis Hay
- Client: Gerhard Husheer, German-born founder of the National Tobacco Company (established 1922)
- Style: Art Deco fused with Art Nouveau ornament — sculpted roses and raupo bulrushes at the entrance
- Heritage status: Heritage New Zealand Category 1 (List no. 1170)
- Location: Ossian Street, Ahuriri, Napier
- GPS: −39.483008, 176.896155 — View on Google Maps
History
Gerhard Husheer had built his tobacco company into Hawke’s Bay’s industrial success story when the earthquake levelled the region in 1931. The rebuilding of Napier was fast and frugal by necessity — a plains town raised again in two years of concrete and optimism — but Husheer wanted none of the economy: he sent Hay’s first plans back with instructions to make them more elaborate, and paid for what resulted. The building served the tobacco company and its successors for decades, survived intact where much industrial Ahuriri changed, and now stands protected at Category 1 — the highest heritage ranking in New Zealand — as the emblem of the earthquake city’s rebirth. It has housed wine companies and offices in recent decades, its doorway polished for the thousands who come each February for the Art Deco Festival.
What you see
The composition centres on the entrance: a semicircular arch of ribbed plaster framing carved wooden doors, the whole wreathed in a garland of sculpted roses so deep they read as garden rather than ornament, with stylised raupo — the native bulrush — rising at the flanks. Hay’s admiration for the Chicago School shows in the way mass and ornament are held in balance: sunburst motifs and speed-lines belong to the Deco thirties, while the naturalistic roses look back to the Art Nouveau world of his youth. The interior vestibule, with its dome and leadlight glass, continues the show; the rest remains working commercial space.
Practical information
- The exterior is freely visible; the vestibule is often accessible during business hours — guided Art Deco Trust tours include it
- Ahuriri is a 25–30 minute walk or short drive from Napier’s centre; combine with the port quarter’s cafés
- February’s Art Deco Festival is the high season — book everything ahead
Getting there
The building stands on Ossian Street in Ahuriri, just west of Napier’s centre around the base of Bluff Hill. Local buses connect the port quarter with the town; by car, parking is easy on the surrounding industrial streets.
Nearby
- Napier — The Art Déco Town Rebuilt After the Earthquake — the CHO city guide
- Napier’s Marine Parade and city centre — the world’s most concentrated Art Deco townscape, ten minutes away
- Ahuriri waterfront — the old port, now the town’s café quarter
- Bluff Hill lookout — the panorama over port and bay
Sources
- Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga, List no. 1170 — Category 1 listing and building history
- NZ History (nzhistory.govt.nz) — earthquake context and building description
- Hawke’s Bay Tourism (hawkesbaynz.com) — Husheer commission, current use
- Wikidata Q79302969 — coordinates
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