Baretta Street in the suburb of Somerfield, Christchurch

Baretta St in Somerfield – Named after Frederick Baretta (1846?-1916). Several Italians were brought to New Zealand to quarry and dress the stone quarried on the north slope of Marleys Hill. Baretta was one of these and lived in nearby Dunn Street. First mentioned in The Press in 1904 when sections in Baretta Street, “Castellan Estate”, are advertised for sale. First appears in street directories in 1906.

A small amount of information from the library website. Papers Past had the usual birth and death notices. I couldn’t find out who the original two owners who sold the land were but as Frederick Baretta was selling sections at the same time he was possibly one of the land owners especially as the street is named after him. Between 1904 and 1907 there were a lot of ads for selling houses and sections and a company called Baker Bros seemed to be the estate agent for the subdivision. The road was formed in 1907. A reporter in 1905 was shown around the area by one of the agents from Baker Bros and there were new cottages being built on the 10 acres of land that was Castellan Estate. The land was put up for auction in December 1903 by the two owners. In 1977 Gordon Ogilvie in his write up about Marley’s Hill Quarry described Frederick Baretta as the principal quarryman and that he lived in one of the largest stone cottages. The article said that he moved to Somerfield in 1902 where a street is named after him yet the electoral rolls have him living on Dunn St as early as 1893. In 1980 there was a house fire where two people died and the fire was probably started by a cigarette butt.

This is a lovely wee street and it is narrowed in the middle. At least a quarter of the streets were built between 1905 and 1915. Many houses were built in the 1970s and 1980s and then there are some ugly ones from last year. The older houses are lovely with nice gardens. I did take a photo of a lovely older house on the corner of Baretta St and Somerfield St. The address for this house is actually Somerfield St and I was worried that they were planning on demolishing the house because of the fence around the property. I looked at street view and the house is being renovated. It was in a fairly poor condition before they started the work.