Major General Sir Howard Kippenberger laid the foundation stone of the Hāwera & District War Memorial community centre in Albion Street on 9 February 1957. The building was formally opened on 6 June 1958. Designed by architects Graeme Laurenson & Associates, it consisted of a theatre, two meeting rooms and a large public hall. The entrance lobby featured a wooden memorial panel worded simply REMEMBER THOSE WHO SERVED. (The names of those who gave their lives during the Second World War had previously been added to the town’s First World War memorial arch.)
Both the memorial theatre and the memorial hall were closed for earthquake strengthening in April 2015, but the theatre was reopened in May 2016.
See: Kete New Plymouth, Hawera War Memorial Hall and Community Hall (accesses ‘Hawera fulfils a promise’, New Plymouth Photo News, no. 18, 10 July 1958, pp. 20-3; A.P.C. Bromley, Hawera: An Outline of the Development of a New Zealand Community, Hawera, 1981, pp. 106, 152-4; Chris Cochran, Hawera Town Centre Heritage Inventory, Hawera, rev. ed., 2003, pp. 13-14; etc.); ‘Hawera Memorial Theatre open for business’ [press release, 18/5/2016].
Community contributions