147x97mm. View looking N. along Old Court House Street, with St Andrew's Church visible in the distance on the skyline, and the Great Eastern Hotel running along the right hand side of the road beyond the premises of Guthbertson and Harper. The frontage of the hotel occupies Old Court House Street between British Indian Street and Waterloo Street (seen here in the foreground). At the junction with these streets the building curves round, supported on Tuscan columns running through two storeys. The foundations of the Great Eastern Hotel were laid by David Wilson who, in 1851, founded the 'Auckland Hotel and Hall of all Nations' on the site (Macmillan p.108). Massey states that the hotel was originally styled Wilson's Hotel, and started life as a bakery. Wilson sold the premises to a company formed to take them over in 1865, and this was probably the date at which the building became the Great Eastern Hotel, (Massey p.72).