Historic Hawke's Bay: Tough road back for Hannahs

The Marine Parade, Napier, property on which the building now known as "The Dome" is located, was once owned by the YMCA before the 1931 earthquake.

The pre-1931 YMCA building contained a gym and offices on the top floor and sublet offices on the ground floor.

One of the ground-floor offices contained accountants Robert Dobson & Co, and just before the 7.8 magnitude 1931 earthquake, partner John McLennan was talking to client William Hannah - brother of Robert Hannah, who created what is today called Hannahs.

Both men grabbed on to each other during the violent shaking, and then managed to leave the building unhurt.

Hannahs in Hawke's Bay - which was then under the control of William, was badly damaged - its three-storey Napier building was destroyed, as was a new shipment (yet unpacked) of English shoes.

The two Hastings stores in Heretaunga St East and West were also wrecked. But worse was that three people died in the Hastings east store.

William's nephew, Tim, sent the chauffeur-driven family Daimler from Wellington to pick up William and his family.

Refusing to sleep inside a building in Wellington and choosing a tent instead, William thought he would be no better off in Hawke's Bay doing the same, and came back to begin the long process of restoration of Hannahs in Hawke's Bay.

Michael Fowler's book From Disaster to Recovery is available on Amazon Kindle in ebook format.