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In 1924 a butchery was established in Swanson by William (Bill) Calvert, who ran a farm on No 1 Road (now Coulter Road). A small shop was built where The Trusts retail shop, Swanson Village Wine and Spirits, is today. In 1935 the Calverts built a new shop on the site where it still is today.
The Calverts initially had a slaugtherhouse on the farm and, with the shop, a sound business was established that continues to this day. Bill Calvert was assisted by his wife Julia (nee O’Meara) and was later joined by his son Bill (junior). Currently John (Bill junior’s son) and Eileen Calvert run the shop with their son Brad and grandson Matt (respectively great-grandson and great-great-grandson of Bill Calvert senior).
By 1923 an Anglican vicar gained enough support to build an Anglican church in Swanson and at the beginning of 1923, £300 was borrowed to pay for Mr Erickson’s ground (next to the school). The trustees who saw the project through were: Messrs T.M. Kay, G.H. Mills, E.S. Green, A. Christian, and the Rev A. Venables. Money was raised to Read more...
Bill Calvert’s first butcher’s shop was originally on this site (part of the Calvert block). After the current butchery was built in 1935 his old shop was leased for Mrs Hintz’s Home Cookery and Cyril Morris’ Boot Shop until the building burned down in 1945. Many remembered Mrs Hintz’s hot mince pies for 6d. In 1962 Bill Calvert built the Read more...
The ‘Weekly News’ reported in February 1901 that James Wilkinson of Auckland, who owned a 24-acre block west of Church Street, “has given a piece of land at Swanson for the building of a place of worship, but it is conditional that the place be erected in twelve months, which is rather hard lines on Swanson… (in October 1901) busy Read more...
Started in 1948, the art-deco style house at 710 Swanson Road is a single storey square form building finished with cement render. A square bay is utilised at the front with a centred entrance and vertical and horizontal bands deco the walls. The concrete blocks are hand-made. Read more...
John Beecher Guy built this shop in 1926 for his sister Charlotte (Lottie). It was called ‘Wendy’s Tea and Candy Kitchen’ and sold Peters ice-cream, soft drinks, aerated waters and tobacco and home-made confectionary (Lottie had taken a course in sweetmaking). Without refrigeration the ice-cream was chilled in a mixture of bought ice and salt. Lottie provided morning and afternoon Read more...
Arty Strother ran a garage on this site for almost 30 years. After returning from World War II he bought a house (through the rehabilitation programme) next to the present garage and in 1947 accepted the offer of a job from Doug Mattson who had just built a new garage on the corner of Swanson and O’Neills Rd. After working Read more...