This postcard shows a view of Rangitikei Street from the Square and was taken around 1901-1915. The building on the right is the Royal Hotel, which was established in Palmerston North about 1871. Over the years the building was repeatedly enlarged and improved. In 1915, the Bank of New Zealand erected their premises on this site and the licence was transferred to a building further up Rangitikei Street to what had been Dawick's Buffet. Alongside the hotel is a two-storey brick building (once the site of the Bank of New South Wales, it is now Victory Bar), then the Phoenix Hotel (on the corner of King and Rangitikei Streets). This two storey building was replaced in 1911 by the Hotel Imperial, which occupied 30 Rangitikei Street from 1911 – 1968, after which it was replaced by the Commercial Union building. The next visible building is Dawick's Buffet (on the corner of Queen Street). The left side of the photograph shows the three-storied brick Clarendon Hotel, which was constructed in 1904, after fire had destroyed the earlier wooden hotel. Mr H Baker was the Proprietor.