Municipal Chambers Westport

Glowing in golden Motueka sand, set back from Palmerston Street by lawns and courtyard, is one of New Zealand's most successful wartime Municipal builds, the 1941 Westport Municipal Chambers, complete with elegant clock tower.

It is also incomplete, in that the planned Town Hall never eventuated, and despite an attempt at public fundraising measured by a huge outdoor a 'hall-o-meter' here in the 1960s, Westport still goes without a Town Hall.

The original Municipal Chambers went up in 1873, after it became clear that coal was flowing out of the port and the town was taking shape. But the building materials of the day, roughsawn timber and corrugated iron, were not going to last far into the next century. Council commissioned this building during a period of depression and then war, which is why the Town Hall was never started. However the finish of the main building, it's coating of golden sand from Motueka beaches, was an inspiration (possibly of the Architect Archibald MacDonald) which has served the building and the town admirably and remains striking today.

Opposite, on Lyndhurst Street is the currently unoccupied Carnegie Library, and two blocks away on Palmerston is the (also Moderne, and also celebrated) Buller County Chambers.