Wellington Earthquake 1855

Sometimes life in our beautiful country , can be short + death very unexpected . Because in many cases we don't live in the area or never experienced an earth quake we often forget very quickly the huge damage
it can cause to many lives . Here is a story in time and about one of those Earth Quakes in NZ.

Source : Heritage Research NZ History, June 26 2015( This is a shortened version )

Baron Alzdorf and the Wellington earthquakes

Charles Ernest von Alzdorf was one of the few people killed in Wellington's massive 1855 earthquake "“ he was killed in his Wellington Hotel. Charles Alzdorf (sometimes spelled Alsdorf) arrived in Wellington on the Adelaide in March 1840. He had land in the Hutt Valley, but it seems he preferred being a hotelier to being a farmer. Sources vary as to whether he was Austrian or German, but he most likely lived in London during the 1830s.
The hotel apparently had a steam bath-house "“ one room had a vapour bath, which had three shelves to enable patrons to adjust themselves to the various temperatures, and the other room was a dressing room. "If one required titivation a whisk was available, a brush made of manuka twigs."[3]

In 1848 Colonel William Wakefield (the main New Zealand Company official in Wellington) is said to have had an epileptic fit at or near the Baron's Wellington Hotel and was taken to a room there, where he died four days later. The suspicious who saw this as a bad omen would have had their belief confirmed when the 1848 earthquake struck a month later. Alzdorf's hotel (or sometimes called a tavern) was damaged in this earthquake and in the list of damaged buildings it was described as a one-storey brick and clay building and the brick work was cracked.[4] However, in November 1849 there was a meeting in the "˜large room of the Wellington Hotel' so presumably it was repaired, or rebuilt, by then. In April 1850, the licence of "˜Alzdorf, Wellington Hotel' was renewed.[5] He opened a grand two-storey hotel in September 1852; the architect was a Mr Roberts and the builder a Mr Cotter.[6] This is said by Hilda McDonnell to be his third on the site.[7]

Alzdorf Pearse 1852 John Pearse, 1852, Wellington [detail]: "˜a' = Baron Alzdorf's new hotel; "˜g' = government house; St Paul's above, Alexander Turnbull Library, E-455-f-030-1: http://natlib.govt.nz/records/22478067

In 1853 a Canterbury settler, Henry Sewell, described Alzdorf and his hotel (taken from McDonnell pp. 97-100):

"˜The most pretentious we have yet seen in New Zealand, a Classical front with a portico. It might be a respectable town hall, quite new and raw, but apparently substantial, the rooms good. They give us a comfortable little room with plastered walls and oil-clothed floor, but [the mirror is] disfigured by an ugly crack"¦ I dined at the table d'hote"¦ the Baron seemed perfectly in his element "“ a shrewd, broad-faced, large bodied, German looking person, evidently accustomed to society"¦ great upon the subject of cookery and good living"¦the Baron discreetly avoids all political talk"¦.

(On another day) We got miserably wet and dirty returning to our hotel after dark. The place is utterly unlighted and the paths which should be paved streets are here and there quagmires. (Some months later) The old baron is as corpulent and shrewd as ever. They talk of buying his house for the provincial government, which I think is a wise idea"¦ He is mightily entertaining now and then and gives most amusing accounts of his early days with the Maories. He understands Maori very well and is a favourite with them.

(May 1854) Sewell noted that the "˜poor Baron' had had a paralytic stroke and the hotel was at "˜sixes and sevens'. Baron Alzdorf was one of the few people who died in the January 1855 earthquake "“ Sewell reported that he had been standing near the chimney when the side of the wall fell in, carrying with it a mirror that broke over him, cutting him. He was buried in an unmarked grave (at his request) in Bolton Street cemetery. I don't know of any image of him.

The hotel seems to have been repaired and became the Criterion Hotel for a few years before being used by the Wellington Club and later by retailers. The site was the Kingsway Carpet Centre before being demolished in the late 1970s to make way for Bowen House.[9] Pat Lawlor, however, says that the building was later called the Commercial Hotel, which seems incorrect "“ this may have led to later confusion with another Commercial Hotel in Willis Street.
The hotel was located on original Town Section 491,[11] seen here next to the pink "˜Govt House' block. This hand drawn sketch was made by Louis Ward in the 1920s taking the original survey plan of Wellington and adding names of original purchasers and some subsequent purchasers. For those who know Wellington, but don't recognise many of these street names "“ Kumutoto Street has become Bowen Street (since extended); Charlotte Street has become Molesworth; Sydney Street has mostly disappeared into a larger Parliamentary complex and "˜Strand' is Lambton Quay. Alzdorf didn't own the section the hotel was on. McDonnell says he probably leased the building in 1843 "“ it was opposite Taine's jetty (which later became known as Alzdorf's wharf).[12]
Alzdorf late hotel
In a few different sources it is said that the remains of Alzdorf's hotel (the one damaged in the 1855 earthquake) can be found in Willis Street (in the Grand Arcade, formerly the site of the Grand Hotel). As far as I have established, Alzdorf's hotels were always on the same site at the northern end of Lambton Quay. I think the confusion has arisen because a hotel on this site was called The Commercial, and according to Pat Lawlor, so was Baron Alzdorf's hotel at some later time called The Commercial.[13] He said that trying to disentangle the various Commercial hotels gave him "˜a mild hangover'! I haven't tried; but other sources suggest that after Baron Alzdorf's demise the Wellington Hotel became the Criterion Family Hotel (for a few years)[14] and not the Commercial.
Alzdorf - another Wellington Hotel 1907