New Plymouth Hospital was built in 1848. Designed by noted architect Frederick Thatcher, it was the third of four public hospitals commissioned by Governor George Grey to be built. It was intended to house European and Māori patients, but its distance from the New Plymouth township meant that it was mainly used by Māori. After Te Āti Awa chief Rāwiri Waiaua died there in 1854 it was declared tapu, and the number of Māori patients treated within its walls dropped significantly. The hospital was rarely used from the 1860s. The building was relocated to its present location at Brooklands, next to Pukekura Park, in 1904. It is the only one of Governor Grey's hospitals still standing.
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