As a sign of Napier's progression as a town, Hawke's Bay's first shopping arcade was built in 1908, which had frontages on Hastings Street and Marine Parade. This building's opening made news around New Zealand.
One tenant was Harston & Co, which became a long-established Napier music store.
Surprisingly, the
arcade only lasted eight years and was demolished to make way for a picture theatre called Everybody's, which opened on December 23, 1916.
The architect of the movie theatre was Henry Eli White, who had also designed the Hastings Municipal Theatre (now Hawke's Bay Opera House), which had opened a year earlier. The exterior of Everybody's Theatre was designed in the Spanish Mission style, as was the Hastings Municipal Theatre.
It appears that Henry Eli White had salvaged the arcade building's facade and made some alterations to create the Spanish Mission style of architecture. The upstairs arcade shops were turned into offices and the interior of the theatre seated about 1200 people.
