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...
In 1926, 16 year old Milan Babic Yozin came to New Zealand from the coastal village of Padgora in Dalmatia, a poverty-stricken area. An uncle with an orchard at Oratia paid his passage over; Milan worked for two years to repay him. After this he went to work on a dairy farm in the Waikato, preferring to find work with Read more...
The garage and house behind were built by Doug G Mattson in 1947 with the business called Mattson’s Garage. In the late 1950s Mr Linton took over the garage and house until 1962 when the property was split into two titles. The garage, renamed Swanson Motors, was bought by Clevan Holdings Ltd. During that time it was leased by Bill Read more...
– Listed as Historic structure 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...
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...
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...
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 Read more...
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...