A garage sale on the weekend cleared out Napier's Hinepare Accommodation Centre as furniture and other items which have been in the building since it opened as a hospital nurses' home almost 60 years ago were sold.
The four-storey building which hosted seasonal workers, backpackers and other guests was foundto be a potential earthquake risk and forced those living there to vacate.
Former Napier Hospital orderly Dr Russell Farquhar helped out at the garage sale and said it was a very difficult thing to see the old hospital buildings no longer in use.
"It was a very good facility - I have more of an emotional attachment not so much to the buildings but to the people I worked with on something as good as that hospital was."
Items that sold at Saturday's sale, included a 12-ring stove and other kitchenware, 40 rimu dressing tables, mirrors and drawers, tables, chairs, bunks, pillows and linen.