Harper Avenue in the Central City, Christchurch

Harper Avenue in the Central City – Formerly Park Road and North Park Road. Named because it runs alongside Hagley Park. Re-named Harper Avenue. Named after George Harper (1843- 1937) Joseph Cornish Helmore (1832-1920) constructed a road through his land which was named Park Road, then North Park Road. These names do not appear in street directories because they had no residents. J. C. Helmore advertises in the Star in 1883 for his spectacles lost in North Park Road. Re-named Harper Avenue. Harper was chairman of the Christchurch Domains Board. On 8 May 1931, at the annual general meeting of the Christchurch Domains Board, Henry Kitson moved “that North Park Road between Carlton Bridge and Fendalton Bridge be re-named Harper Avenue as a compliment to the retiring chairman and his early family associations with Canterbury”. The proposal was confirmed at a city council meeting on 18 May 1931.A reasonable amount of information from the library website. One thing that the library website doesn’t mention is that George Harper was Sir George Harper when he died as he had received honours in the New Year Honours List just a few months before his death. I had always assumed that Harper Ave was named after Bishop Harper so I was surprised to learn that this wasn’t the case. George Harper was Bishop Harper’s son so it was within the family. There was discussion after George Harper’s death of renaming the street Sir George Harper Ave but that obviously didn’t happen. At the same time there was discussion about beautifying the area. Huge number of entries on Papers Past for both Park Rd and North Park Rd as most cities and towns in New Zealand had streets with the same names. Most of the entries pre 1900 concerned forming the road. In 1919 Hurst Seagar wanted the street to be a memorial Ave. The council announced in 1927 that the proposed upgrade to the street wouldn’t be going ahead and the reason given was the the Riccarton Council refused to pay their share. This might explain the letter to the editor in 1928 about the street being a vile road. I think that the best information that I found were the letters to the editor. One man in 1932 complained about evergreen trees being planted as they were dull and green. In 1935 and 1936 there were complaints about horses in the park and on the footpaths. The complaints said that the horses were prohibited from being in the park and that many riders were galloping at some speed and at times narrowly missing pedestrians. I only have cyclists on the footpaths to bitch about and can you imagine what I would be like if I had horses to contend with. I am still amused about the bullock that escaped from the sale yards and terrorised golfers and cyclists on this road and in the park. The vision of the cyclists being forced to climb a tree is priceless. This street runs from Bealey Ave to Fendalton Rd and there are no houses on this road. There are no footpaths either but that doesn’t matter as you have a lovely path to walk in North Hagley Park.