This historic place was registered under the Historic Places Act 1993. The following text is from the N.Z Historic Places Trust Building Record Form research by James Blackburne included with the Proposal for Classification at the time of registration. The Store at Matawai is now a family home but it was once the most important part of the small community. It was started in 1908 by Arthur Hustler and his wife Alice Elisabeth, who between them ran a small shop from the building they built. This is the western gabled section of the house. In approximately 1910 a lean-to was added to the shop to house the Bank of Australasia agency which was serviced from Motu. On the eastern side of the building there was at the time a corrugated iron lean-to which was the main part of the shop. In 1914 this was removed and in it's place was erected what is today the eastern gabled part of the house. This housed the post office and the telephone exchange. The store's phone number was '1'. This part of the house has also accommodated a dentist rooms at one stage. At the rear of the house there was also a tearooms. What is now the back of the house has been added at different stages, with the first being added in 1950, the next in 1955 and finally the dining room and verandah being added in 1976. An upstairs bedroom was added c.1989. Arthur Hustler was also important to the town, not only because he ran the store, post office, telephone exchange and the tearooms but he was also the first Justice of the Peace in the Matawai area and also paymaster for the Toads Board while the Waioeka Gorge road was being built. Today the building is only used as a family home with a very plain front façade on to the road, which gives few clues as to it's past importance to the town of Matawai.