Hokitika’s National Bank (Former) was built in 1939 to replace an earlier (1902) National Bank building on this site and tells the story of the ongoing role that banks have played in the town since the nineteenth century.

A relative late-comer to Hokitika, the first National Bank in the town was built in 1883, almost twenty years after the first three banks – Union Bank, Bank of New South Wales and Bank of New Zealand - established themselves there in 1865. In 1901, the National Bank purchased a site on the corner of Revell and Hamilton Streets and in June 1902 opened a more substantial bank building, constructed by builders McMillan and Thompson, on this site. In circa 1937 that second bank building was demolished to make way for yet another new bank building. Architectural plans were prepared by Christchurch architect, William Trengrove and contracts were signed for its construction in September 1937. The National Bank moved into temporary premises and the new bank building was completed in 1939.

The National Bank (Former) is located on a prominent position on the corner of Revell and Hamilton Streets in Hokitika, on the same side of the road as other early bank buildings (the former Bank of New Zealand and former Bank of New South Wales). The bank building is single storeyed and incorporates simple geometric art deco elements, notably cornice fluting and repetitive overlapping half circles in the frieze immediately above the windows on the west, east and north elevations. The main entrance, flanked by windows, is on the west elevation fronting Revell Street and is slightly recessed. Construction materials include granite and steel and the strong room and foundations are built of reinforced concrete. At 5 Hamilton Street, on the same land parcel as the National Bank (Former), but not part of the List entry extent, sits the former bank manager’s cottage, an altered single storeyed timber building which has been turned into flats.

When the new bank building was constructed in 1939, it was a time when the population of Hokitika and surrounding areas had been slowly declining and bank trade of gold was being replaced by trade related to farming, grazing and sawmilling. Due to continued shoaling of the mouth of the Hokitika River, the trend from the mid twentieth century was for new or replacement buildings to move away from the river towards Weld Street. The National Bank moved to new premises on the corner of Tancred and Weld Streets in 1979 and the 1939 building was sold to Lawrence and Isobel Roper. The building was modernised and leased to the firm of solicitors, Murdoch James and Roper Solicitors, who occupied the building throughout most of the 1980s. Some time since 1989, a new single door has replaced earlier double entry doors on the west elevation. In recent times, Hokitika Electrical operated from the building, and now it is used as a second hand store.