Meet Syd Martin and learn his connection to the Bath House Building
Friday, 18 October 2024
Meet Syd! Earlier this year Sydney Martin was visiting Rotorua and reached out to the Museum project team about his very special connection with the Bath House building! Let us tell you about it…
Born in Whakatane before moving with his family to Rotorua when we was in primary school, Syd’s first connection with the building was as a musician with the local brass band (he played the flugelhorn, an oversized cornet). They played music concerts by the front entrance, which Syd believes were a fund raising effort for building works.
Syd’s father, Jim Martin, was a regular saxophonist up at Tudor Towers restaurant and nightclub from the late 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. Syd remembers many a fun evening of partying at the popular nightclub over the years as it was the only nightclub/dance hall to be granted a seven-day operation license at the time.
Fresh from completing his building apprenticeship and in his early 20s (early 1970s), Syd was employed as foreman on a Bath House building project to create the Rotorua City Art Gallery in the North Wing of the building.
Syd remembers removing the old baths and internal partition walls – which where were an unusual construction of pumice were used to make the wall panels. The pumice panels went up to about 5ft then wooden frames raised above to hold up the ceiling structures (equivalent to about two stories to ceiling height).
Before they could remove any walls, they had to build a special bracing structure to hold the existing roof up, and strengthen under the floors.
Syd managed a team of about four to six men to do the work which was historically challenging. They had to be careful not damage any existing timbers like the kauri columns and the special double swung lead light arched kauri doors. They also had to remove some of the baths for historical purposes.
Towards the end of the project, a reporter and photographer from the local Rotorua newspaper visited the building and wrote a story entitled ‘Treasures from the Towers – Craftmanship of a bygone era’. The article showed Syd restoring one of the solid kauri columns.
Even now, following a 55 year career in construction, Syd says “It was one of the most interesting jobs I’ve been involved in as my time as a builder. It left quite an impression on me in terms of the quality of the original work, of which I’d never seen the likes of before.”
In 1977, the Rotorua City Art Gallery opened in the North Wing of the Bath House building.
The Bath House building has lots of additions and changes over the years. If you, or someone you know, have story to tell about your contribution to the Bath House building or Rotorua Museum please email kathy.nicholls@rotorualc.nz
