Spratt Building, 104 Princes Street (1922)

This single storey reinforced concrete building was erected in 1922 for Hāwera solicitor H.L. (Harry Leopold) Spratt. 

The previous year Spratt dissolved his business partnership with fellow solicitor, H. G. Brodie, and went out on his own. In April 1922 Hāwera architects Duffill & Gibson called for tenders to erect office premises for H.L. Spratt in Princes Street. 

It appears that Spratt moved to Sydney in the late 1920s. 

The entry for the building in the Hawera Town Centre Heritage Inventory (2003) states that the building has had a long history of occupancy by accounting firms, followed by an insurance company, Special Education Services, a finance company and was even briefly home to a burger bar in the late 1990s.

Conservation architect Chris Cochran described its significance as being, "Although modest in its architecture, it is entirely authentic to its period of construction in the 1920s and it is valuable for this reason." 

Related items:

Hawera Crown Grant Map (1899), Archives New Zealand. 

Taranaki DP3280 Sheet 1 (1914), ICS Pre 300,000 Cadastral Plan Index (Imaged by LINZ)

Taranaki (Lot 3) DP4349 Sheet 1 (1923), ICS Pre 300,000 Cadastral Plan Index (Imaged by LINZ)