Willard Street – Named after Frances Willard (1839-1898). Miss Willard was an American educator, temperance reformer and women’s suffragist. One of two streets named after the two leading temperance women of the world at the time. Named by the Spreydon Road Board in 1895.
A reasonable amount of information from the library website. This street runs off Somerset Crescent and was named at the same time as Somerset Crescent. Named at a special road board meeting.
Checked Papers Past and in July 1938 there was a headline Homes for Aged Poor. The council agreed to purchase a site in Addington to build houses for the old age pensioners. The site was in Willard St and the original plan was to build 38 units but there was an objection for this. They eventually built 26 units and allowed space to the pensioners to have a garden. There were 20 units for married couples and 6 units for single women or widows.. A public telephone was installed in this street in 1940.
The houses range in age from 1905 to 2010. The older houses seem to be on the opposite side of the newer houses. The pensioner cottages are still there but I doubt that many pensioners live here and is more likely to be now social housing. One of these pensioner houses is fire damaged and this was a recent fire.There is entrance to Simeon Park here. There were some nice houses here but the social housing would put me off.
Lytteltonwitch's Walking the streets of Christchurch Project 