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Mrs Jeanette Edwards, Ethel Edwards and Jack Hair: Circa 1908. Photographer unknown.
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Waverley Nursing Home – Abbotsford
The original Waverley Nursing Home came into being around 1907 – 08 and was established by Jeanette Edwards under the watchful eye of Dr. Harvey of Waverley. Mrs Edwards, a mid-wife and at that time still bearing her own large family of fifteen ( not all survived) spent much of her time travelling by either horseback or gig to the houses around Waverley.
Both she and Dr Harvey decided that it would be easier for women to come into town to have their babies and as Mrs Edwards owned a two storied house on the corner of Suther and Smith Street it was obvious this would be an adequate place to be turned into a nursing home. Her daughter Lizzie was the logical choice to run the home having helped bring up her own siblings. As the Home was a private one patients had to pay to stay there.
It is said in the story of Harvey Come Quick, a biography of Dr Harvey , Lizzie was inadvertently the means to acquiring a new and more modern Nursing Home in 1912. The original home was ordered to be closed down for fumigation by Dr Harvey. The fumigation was done by burning acrid smelling tablets over spirit lamps. One was apparently left too near to a curtain and the two storied house “went”. The purpose built Home remains today but has ceased to be a Maternity home. It still serves the Community however, in the care of babies through the Plunket rooms and also meets the general health needs of the elderly and infirm .
References -
Harvey Come Quick written by his Daughter, Dorothea Joblin 1963 - the story of The Little Doctor of Waverley
Waverley, the Early Years written by Laraine Sole 1997
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War Memorial Clock Tower
The clock tower was built in 1925 as a World War I Memorial.
Plaques on the memorial were later extended to commemorate the fallen of World War II. The plaques on the memorial read:-:
"For God and humanity they whose names are inscribed thereon men of this district laid down their lives in the great war 1914-1918 [followed by 38 names].
Erected by their fellow citizens in proud and loving memory and as a thanksgiving that such men were of their number." [A number of people are identified.]
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| The earliest visible remains of the town lie around the World War I Memorial clock tower within the confines of the old military redoubt. Although severely eroded, the remains of the 1868 redoubt can still be seen. |
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ANZ BankThe ANZ Bank is a prominent corner section building built up to the edge of the footpath. The building is constructed of timber with French imported tiles on the roof.
The ANZ Bank building was purpose built to house the Bank of Australasia and has been used for banking purposes ever since. The stables once used by the bank are now part of the property owned by a Waverley resident.
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Waverley Railway Station
The Waverley Railway Station is a lean-to designed, Vogel Class 4 station. It was designed with a centrally located lobby, an office to the left and a ladies waiting room and adjoining toilet to the right.
Although the building has been extended, the compactly rectangular shape with its incorporated verandah remains. Rusticated weatherboards clad the building and the roof is corrugated iron. Some features of the original façade remain, including one small arched ticket office window.
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The interior has match-lined walls and some sash windows. Access to some rooms is gained via the rear of the building. Associated buildings include sheds, a loading bank, sidings, and signals which have been relocated. The addition of the verandah in 1912 gave the building a gable form. It sits on six posts which were formerly railway iron. The decorative valancing at either end of the verandah iscut to form a scalloped edge. The lobby was enclosed in 1956 and there have been other additions toboth ends of the building.
The Waverley Railway Station building was built in 1881 as par of the Foxton–Carlyle railway at a cost of £1,125 to erect There were no documented changes to Waverley Station during its first 40 years of service until a verandah was added to the building in 1911. In 1939 new toilets were provided. The most substantial alteration to the original building was the closure of the open lobby in 1956 when a swinging door from the platform was installed to protect passengers from the elements and the ladies waiting room was relocated. In 1981 a gang amenity was provided in the building, and walls and partitions were rearranged to provide lockers, toilets, showers and a communal room. In1986 Waverley became a special purpose station. After over 100 years of service, the building’s future as a museum has been secured by the local organisation “Friends of the Waverley Railway Station.
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Waverley Hotel
The Waverley Hotel stands on the site where Palmer's Hotel once stood. As the story goes the name was originally spelt “Waverly” on the front sign because, it is said, that“the board ran out before the name did”. It had been rebuilt in 1870 as a two storey building with seven bedrooms, and called the Commercial Hotel. The Commercial Hotel too was claimed by fire in 1907. The current building was constructed in the 1930’s after another fire claimed the building.
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Rewi Alley's HouseRewi Alley's house was built about 1919-1920. It is a simple cottage, with rusticated weatherboards and double-hung windows. The front elevation has a verandah, while the gabled roof is clad in corrugated iron.
Rewi Alley’s farm was a World War I rehabilitation farm which he jointly owned with his partner Stevens. They went on to the farm at the beginning of the rural depression. In 1926, Alley decided to leave the property to Stevens when he travelled to China.
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Rewi went to China in 1927 after fighting in World War I and farming six years in Taranaki. He died in Beijing sixty years later soon after his ninetieth birthday. His exploits in China are now legendary. His achievements include helping establish the Chinese Industrial Co-operative with Peg and Edgar Snow in 1937, then gaining the support of Sun Yat Sen’s widow, Madam Soong Chingling. During the war, Alley travelled fearlessly throughou China establishing small-scale co-operatives on both sides of the Japanese lines to help the war effort and expand the co-operative spirit. This was the famous Gung Ho co-operative movement, whose name means “work together” and became a battle cry during the war.
In the final stages of the war, Alley turned his attention to founding schools that would train young Chinese in technical and academic skills to serve he great reconstruction effort after the war. In 1952, Rewi moved to Beijing where he lived until his death in 1987. During that time he was honoured by all the leading figures in China, including Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping, and by the New Zealand Government which recommended him for the Queen’s Service Order which he received in 1985. Read more about Rewi Alley here.
In the December 1988 issue of Historic Places in New Zealand there was an article about a rather dilapidated house in the back country at Moeawatea, near Waverley, which was occupied by Rewi Alley for six years in the early 1920s. Alley left the house in 1926 to journey to China and start his world-renowned life’s work in that country. Since the publication of that article a year ago, David Harre (who helped to make the film Two Blades of Grass about Alley’s life in China) originated a Conservation Corps project under a government scheme to renovate the house.
This renovation was completed over a six month period and the house was officially reopened on 28 July 1989 by the Minister for the Environment, Phil Goff. The ceremony began with the presentation of a carved Maori guardian spirit for the place. Access by vehicle to the Rewi Alley house remains difficult. A seven kilometre, fair-weather track provides the only road access.
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Acknowledgements
The information on the History pages has been collated from a number of sources, the principal of these being the Waverley Heritage inventory prepared by South Taranaki District Council. The Waverley Heritage Working Party was made up of: Bill Hone, Laraine Sole and George Ross.
Others who assisted them were Chris Cochran, Conservation Architect of Wellington, Browyn Allerby and Tracey Coles of the South Taranaki District Council and Carolyn Vercoe, a student from Waikato University.
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