Originally published in Waikato Times, Monday 1 December 2025.
By Mike Mather.
Senior carpenter Johno Weston says restoring the American oak staircase at the Waikato Regional Theatre has been the icing on the cake of his career.
PHOTO: Mark Taylor / WAIKATO TIMES.
A century-old American staircase, likely ascended by Queen Elizabeth II, is the crowning glory for the builders of the Waikato Regional Theatre.
There’s all kinds of elements of Hamilton’s new theatre that its builders, led by Fosters Construction, will be proud of.
Possibly the most will be the 102-year-old staircase made from American oak that was among elements salvaged from the theatre’s predecessor, the old Hamilton Hotel.
The imposing and still-pristine staircase was a significant part of what was actually the second Hamilton Hotel, built on the site after the original hotel was destroyed by fire in 1922.
The staircase in 2021, before it was removed and the wrecking ball arrived. Pictured are Waikato Regional Property Trust chairman Ross Hargood and Momentum Waikato communications and marketing manager Mark Servian. PHOTO: Mark Taylor / WAIKATO TIMES.
The second hotel went through several eras - ending its life, in part, as a student-oriented pub - and was the scene of numerous events and gatherings. It was famously used as lodgings by Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip when they visited Hamilton in December 1953.
Incredibly, the staircase is now back almost exactly where it used to be - and is the first thing seen by people visiting the new drinking establishments on the building’s bottom floor when they walk in the doors facing Victoria St.
The imposing staircase is the first thing people see when they walk in the doors from Victoria St. PHOTO: Mark Taylor / WAIKATO TIMES.
Those doors, like the staircase, some window frames, and numerous other “heritage items” were part of the old building and are now a major component of the new.
And the stairwell is even more than that: It’s integral to the entire building.
“The level, floor to floor, was set up according to the height of the stairwell,” revealed Fosters site manager Dave Middlemiss.
The restored staircase could accurately be described as being fit for a queen - Queen Elizabeth II, to be precise. PHOTO: Mark Taylor / WAIKATO TIMES.
Fosters’ involvement in the theatre project is about to come to an end. On Monday the construction firm officially hands the building over to the international entertainment firm Live Nation, which will manage its day-to-day operation.
It will open its doors to the public on January 19. But the doors to the building’s hospitality section have already been opened.
Fosters’ senior carpenter Johno Weston was the man responsible for the removal and return of the staircase and the other historical items.
He had fun doing it.
“This is the icing on the cake of my career. Not everyone gets to muck around with a 100-year-old staircase. There would be few builders in the country who have been part of a project like this.”
Each part of the staircase, including all the treads, risers, handrails and bannisters were lovingly restored by Johno Weston. PHOTO: Mark Taylor / WAIKATO TIMES.
The staircase “was all carefully pulled apart and catalogued and itemised by Heritage New Zealand and put into specially-made boxes and put into storage in Te Rapa.”
And, eventually, Weston painstakingly reassembled the structure, which was recently revealed to the public.
In the Hamilton Hotel the staircase sat against an interior wall. Now it also sits against an interior wall, overlooked by one of the original’s window frames.
“Structurally, it is more sound than it probably ever was at any time in the past. The best thing that ever happened to this beautiful old staircase was us coming along. Who knows what could have happened to it otherwise.”
Many former students will remember the distinctive American oak panelling from the days of Bar 101. Now, they can revisit it in the new bars inside the Waikato Regional Theatre building. PHOTO: Mark Taylor / WAIKATO TIMES.
While it is not in itself an accessway from the hospitality component of the building to the theatre, the stairwell does provide egress to the upper gallery level of the theatre’s “commercial space”.
And as well as being a metaphorical portal to the past, the stairwell is also, arguably, an accessway to the future.
Already, since the arrival of the new bars in the Hamilton Hotel section of the theatre building it has been used as the backdrop to numerous photos, as groups of people - many partaking in end-of-year functions, line themselves on each step, posing for pictures that will likely be seen by generations to come.