Rollin Street in the Heathcote Valley, Christchurch

Rollin St – Formerly Smith Street. Named after Alfred Lee Smith (1838- 1917). Re-named Rollin Street. Named after Samuel Rollin Webb (1848-1933). In 1873 Smith developed three streets in the Heathcote Valley, naming them Lee Street, Smith Street and Vogel Street. He operated a malthouse on the site. Smith Street was renamed Rollin Street in 1933 by the Public Utilities Committee of the Heathcote County Council at the request of the Post and Telegraph Department. Webb was mayor of Lyttelton 1883-1884, 1888-1889 and 1904- 1908.
A reasonable of information from the library website. The council information on Papers Past said reason for name change was to avoid duplicate street names. Alfred Smith’s malthouse was called Wincolmlee Malt Kilns. Samuel Webb came to NZ with his parents who were from Canterbury in Kent.
This street had a mixture of new and old houses and Heathcote was hit hard by the earthquakes. There was one house that I was sure used to be an old church but no it wasn’t and it was built in the 1960s. The older houses were mostly a wooden cottage style. One new house was made of stone and was huge.