Humboldt Street in the suburb of Sydenham, Christchurch

Humboldt Street in Sydenham- Formerly Jacobs Lane. Named after Jonathan Jacobs (1803?- 1877). Re-named Humboldt Street. Named after Alexander von Humboldt (1769- 1859). Jacobs arrived at Lyttelton in 1855 on the Grassmere. He and his wife moved to Waltham in 1863, living in what later became known as Jacobs’s Lane, an informal name for the street. Mrs Jacobs died at her home at 23 Humboldt Street in 1898. Named Humboldt Street in 1887. One of the “poets and writers” streets of Sydenham, Addington and Waltham named by a committee of the Sydenham Borough Council on 19 January 1880. Humboldt was a German scientist. [For a time, due to anti-German feeling during World War I, the name was Anglicised to Humbolt.] A reasonable amount of information from the library website and the statement that Humboldt was a German scientist is rather an understatement. His full name was Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrick Alexander von Humboldt and technically he was born in Prussia. He sounds like he was an interesting man and was described as a German polymath, geographer, naturalist and explorer. He travelled widely especially in the Americas. His personal life was interesting and there is a Wikipedia page about him. The Humboldt Falls in Fiordland is named after him.Papers Past didn’t have anything under Jacob’s Lane apart from the renaming. Building sections were offered in 1893, 1899 and 1905. Quite a few entries for 1882 as there were complaints about the state of the street plus a request for it to become a public street. The council requested that the residents move their fences to the true boundary so that the construction of the street can be proceeded with. In 1883 the street was resurveyed for construction. I don’t know when the work was done as the residents were complaining about the state of the street in 1890. In 1908 there was a petition from the 13 residents in the street asking for improvements. In 1906 someone was fined for allowing three cows to wander. In 1907 the street was to get sewage pipes. The saddest entry I found was dated 1915 and a male illegitimate child aged 6 weeks died of pneumonia associated with malnutrition. This happened at Mrs Wiffen’s licensed home. This was actually a common occurrence for illegitimate children and many orphanages refused to take these children. Reason given was that they would taint the children who were born within wedlock. In March 1898 there was an obituary for Mrs Ann Jacobs but I didn’t find one for her husband who died in 1877. It didn’t say much more than what is in the library information. I walked this street on Monday and it has at least one house from every decade. Several multi dwelling style of housing built in 1970s and 1990s. The oldest house is from 1908 and it has been roughcasted which spoils it. There is a couple of houses from 1940 and about 5 houses from 1950s and I suspect that they were built by servicemen after the war with the special govt loan that servicemen were entitled to. I know that one of the houses from the 1940s was built under this scheme as it belonged to my uncle. We frequently visited this house especially if we were driving home to Lyttelton from Rakaia Huts. I have a vivid memory of a house near the corner of Humboldt and Cameron St having one of those large butterflies decorating the house. They were fashionable in the 1960s. When I walked the street I couldn’t figure out which house had the butterfly but the house possibly no longer exists and there is now one of the multi dwelling complexes on this corner. I am trying to found a photo of my uncle’s house from the 1950s and1960s but my old laptop is being very slow at loading.