General Headquarters Building

A building that has gone full circle by going nowhere. This imposing yet strangely attractive, brick built Defence General Headquarters on the corner of Taranaki and Buckle streets is in a part of town now reclaiming it's original Rangitane name of Pukeahu (Pa). The Defence department built this under Government Architect John Campbell in the 1909 and after a century of use, alternate use and disuse, it is planned to become the Defence Recruitment and Reserves centre. Having held it's position for all this time, it is now thought to the oldest serving military building in New Zealand, and teamed with the new Pukeahu National War Memorial Museum and the old Mount Cook Police station and Jail (Gaol) serves in anchoring the area's long military heritage.