By Roselyn Fauth
A view looking north along Caroline Bay from the Pavilion towards the Tea House, photographed around 1916. A lolly and fruit stall stands at the left. Along the skyline are the Dominion Hotel, then operated by John Reilly, the gabled Hydro Grand Hotel, and Seaview House. Below the Hydro Grand is the Caroline Bay Piazza, with a telephone booth visible beneath and slightly to the right. Frederick George Radcliffe, Caroline Bay, Timaru, c.1916, black-and-white half-plate glass negative, Radcliffe Collection. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections, record 35-R1492.
There is a gap on The Bay Hill that is easy to miss... today beside in the shingle pop up bar and food court, what used to be the former Hydro Grand site, there is open space and car parking. But for more than 80 years, another substantial building stood there, looking directly across Caroline Bay. It was called Seaview House...
Built in 1911 by Messrs Anderson and Brown, Seaview was designed to capture Timaru at its most attractive. It stood two storeys high, built of brick and roughcast, with 35 rooms, including about 25 bedrooms.
Guests had access to private sitting rooms, a large drawing room, a smoking room and a billiard room with a full-sized table. A balcony faced Caroline Bay. Better still, the flat roof doubled as a promenade, giving visitors somewhere to walk, sit and look across the bay, town, coastline and distant mountains.
The building was arranged around the view because the view was what brought people here.
By 1911, Caroline Bay was becoming one of Timaru’s strongest attractions. Visitors were arriving for holidays, events and summer excursions, creating demand for accommodation close to the beach.
Mr and Mrs Hyman managed the new establishment, with Mrs Hyman named as proprietress. Early advertisements described Seaview as offering “superior private board and residence”, with single and double bedrooms, hot and cold baths, modern sanitary appliances and a liberal table.
Seaview does not appear to have opened as a conventional licensed hotel. It was closer to an upmarket private boarding house, offering permanent residents and holidaymakers the comforts of a hotel with the privacy of a home.
The building continued to develop. In 1917, Richard Hyman applied to the Timaru Borough Council for permission to construct wooden additions.
Three years later, the company buying the neighbouring Hydro Grand secured an option to purchase Seaview. The plan was to eventually combine the two properties into one large tourist hotel. It never happened.
Instead, Seaview and the Hydro Grand remained separate neighbours, standing shoulder to shoulder above Caroline Bay. Historic photographs show just how full The Bay Hill skyline once looked, lined with hotels, boarding houses and large homes facing the sea.
By 1935, Seaview was being advertised by C. J. and H. K. Dodd, who were named as its owners. Over time, it became known as Hotel Seaview and continued accommodating visitors for decades.
A later guide published by the hotel promoted attractions across Timaru, Waimate and South Canterbury. Seaview was not only selling rooms. It was helping sell the whole district.
Then, in the early hours of 19 February 1993, fire swept through the hotel.
The Hydro Grand Hotel on corner of Stafford and Sefton Streets, Timaru, circa 1918. The hotel has arched windows on the lower floor (originally for shops). A car is parked out the front of the building to the right and people appear walking along the pavement. The Seaview hotel and T J Thompsons home, Ti-Ora, can be seen in the background on the extreme right. https://timdc.pastperfectonline.com/photo/0F20DBDF-8EF6-433E-9186-283357177260
Two guests died.
The damaged building was demolished soon afterwards, leaving a space in the Bay Hill streetscape that remains today. Seaview itself did not survive. However, the tradition of welcoming visitors to the hill continues nearby.
In 2026, Sea Breeze at 28 The Bay Hill reopened after a complete renovation, refreshed with a relaxed seaside character and stories drawn from Timaru’s past. It occupies the former Ti-Ora property, not the old Seaview site, but the appeal is familiar.
More than a century later, visitors are still being invited to stay on the hill and wake to the view that Seaview House was built to sell.