Claude Plumer Jones

Claude Plumer-Jones (c.1879 – 1938) practised in Wellington from about 1914 to around 1927. He was a Canadian by birth and a slightly eccentric character. He had a reputation for being a fanatical follower of the Classical styles of architecture. All his work was meticulously correct in detail in accordance with the laws of Vitruvius and other classical masters. He was no modernist, and to him, anything departing from Classical models was not really architecture.

He was also a student of astrology and in many of his buildings he incorporated the signs of the zodiac, so earnest was he that on occasions he arranged that the opening dates of his buildings coincided with a favourable position of the stars. This frequently annoyed his hard-headed and less imaginative clients. But he was firm and stood his ground; in most cases he won. He left New Zealand in the late 1920s.

Sources:
WCC Heritage Building Inventory 2001
WCC Heritage Building Inventory 1995