The Iconic Masonic

Like any hotel, Napier’s Masonic Hotel has seen some things.
Earthquake, fire, a visit from the Queen, Mark Twain and ballerina Anna Pavlova, deaths - which led to ghosts apparently.
The big art deco hotel is an anchor stone of Napier’s history, it's been there so long it wouldn’t be Napier without it.
It was Joseph Gill who owned the first Masonic Hotel on the foreshore site, opening on September 14, 1861. It was smaller than it is now.
It was expanded to cover the complete section in 1875 by which time it was owned by Alexander Dalziell.
But on May 23,1896, fire destroyed the hotel. There was some controversy as the fire bell was not rung until 15 minutes after the fire started even though smoke was throughout the hotel.
Within a month, plans were underway to rebuild the Masonic, with three storeys with the stables alongside. Another two storeys were later added.
It was huge and one of the most up to date hotels in the country but it all was for nothing when the 1931 earthquake hit and the hotel was again reduced to rubble, mainly from the fire that ravaged through Napier after.
For a while it was replaced with a temporary corrugated iron building. Then the building we all now know was built. Architect William John Prowse (or Prouse) designed it as a simple hotel but with the elegant upper storey pergola and the big Masonic sign in art deco design.
The hotel is now considered one of the jewels in Napier’s Art Deco crown.
Ghostly occurrences have been reported many times. Strange lights, music and cold spots.
Like any hotel there have been deaths on the premises. Two are supposed to have left the hotel haunted - a chef who died in a bathtub and a guest who would stay for weeks at a time in the same room every year.
The hotel has also had its fair share of royal visitors to its royal suite. Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip and the Duke and Duchess of York (who became King George and Queen Elizabeth, the queen mother).
Joseph Gill was born in 1826, in Cornwall, England and came to New Zealand on the Sanford in 1856.
He married Ellen Palmer in 1859 and they had seven children. He went on to run several other hotels in Hawke’s Bay.
Joseph died on June 21, 1870 and is buried in the Old Napier Cemetery along with three of his children who died in infancy.​