It was tested to near destruction - but it didn't die.
The old brick building behind George's Fisheries in Whanganui's Victoria Ave has been on death row for years. Now owner Dave Corney says it will be demolished.
He got permission to pull it down in 2011, despite it being in Whanganui's Old Town Conservation Zone.
Then he donated the building to an international team of earthquake engineers from Auckland University. In 2014 they conducted a series of tests, including subjecting one section of floor to 10 tonnes of pressure, exerted by hydraulic jacks, in the ''snap-back test''.
The wooden floor buckled, but didn't break. Neither did the unreinforced masonry, subjected to other tests.