Bodell’s Bellevue Private Hotel

Belle Vue House, opposite the Town Wharf, Tauranga, New Zealand. Superior Accommodation. Suites of Rooms. Baths. Stables. Royal Mail Coach leaves daily for Hot Lakes and Terraces. Telegrams attended to. J. Bodell, Proprietor.
Photograph attributed to Charles Spencer, c. 1882
Image courtesy of Tauranga Heritage Collection, Ref. 0134/10

The Bellevue Private Hotel was established in 1882 by James Bodell on the corner of Wharf Street and Cameron Road. It was a temperance hotel which, according to newspaper advertisements, offered commodious accommodation to tourists, visitors, boarders and the travelling public. Baths and pianos were available on the first floor and good stabling was offered. Guests could enjoy extensive views of the sea, harbour and surrounding country from upstairs rooms and balcony.

Bodell was quite the entrepreneur and in this photograph one of his other businesses an Auction Mart is visible on the opposite side of Cameron Road. However, more importantly, Bodell himself can be seen standing outside his establishment – Bodell is the taller of the two men with very distinctive pork chop sideburns.