Waikato Hospital Band Rotunda
Built in 1903, the band rotunda at Waikato Hospital was originally located at Te Waikato Sanatorium on Maungakawa (a.k.a. Sanatorium Hill), near Cambridge. Te Waikato was the first public tuberculosis sanatorium in New Zealand. The Hamilton Municipal Band visited the sanitorium, playing on the rotunda, in 1918. When the sanatorium closed in 1922, the rotunda was moved to Waikato Hospital.
The band rotunda was first installed on a lawn to the north of the main wards. At this time it was used for band concerts. However, when the hospital was overcrowded, several beds could be moved into it, and was covered in canvas and used as a shelter for patients. Between 1920 and 1950 the Sunshine League, a patient welfare support group, provided summer concerts on the band rotunda. It was moved to a new location adjacent to Hockin Ward in 1969, when a surgical block was built on its original site, and then behind the Hockin Building in 2009. In February 2014 it was moved to its current location on the northern side of Hockin Building.
Published Articles[edit]
- Municipal Band Visits Waikato Sanitorium, Waikato Times, 5 November 1918, p7
External Links[edit]
- Historic Rotunda Finds Final Home in Hospital Grounds, New Zealand Doctor, 12 March 2014 [1]
