Emmett Street in the suburb of Shirley, Christchurch

Emmett Street in Shirley – Named after Arthur William Emmett (d. 1948). Emmett was a dairy farmer whose herd of cows on his 100 acre farm in Quinns Road supplied milk to Shirley, Richmond, St Albans and Fendalton. He donated money for the stone fence around the Shirley Methodist Church. For many years his daughter, Ruth Emmett (1910-1987), ran a dairy in the block of shops opposite Shirley Intermediate School. Emmett’s farm was sold after his death. Part of the land was bought by the government for a state housing area “laid out on modern town-planning lines”. Named on 24 June 1948. First appears in street directories in 1950. A reasonable amount of information from the library website. I am amused by Emmett’s name as he was from Cornwall and Emmett is a Cornish slang word for second home owners.

After walking several streets in the area in 2021 I made a note on my Facebook about walking this street once lockdown was finished. I researched Arthur Emmett during lockdown. I am obviously a bit late in walking the street but as it has been in the news lately because of the residents wanting to save the trees I decided to walk it. It is a long street to walk.

The earliest entry on Papers Past that I found was from 1949 where there was a ceremony to make the completion of the 30,000th State House. There was a speech by Mr Semple and the keys to the house were handed over to the new tenants. In December 1950 the foundation stone was laid by Archbishop West Watson for the Anglican church which was on the corner of Shirley Rd and Emmett St. Note this building was demolished after the earthquakes and it is still an empty section. In 1953 the foundation stone was laid for the Presbyterian Church new hall. In 1954 the new hall was opened and it was described as a brick building. In 1958 the new Catholic Church was opened.

Flooding was mentioned in the 1950s and in 1975. The residents on this street seemed to be an accident prone lot as they were frequently mentioned in articles about car accidents. Also several minor house fires on the street. In 1966 the new Post Office at the corner of Emmett St and Acheson Ave was opened. This Post Office was mentioned again in 1987 after an armed robbery. There had been several armed robberies at Post Offices and it was rather nerve racking for those of us working at Post Offices.

I was amused by an article from 1985 where the residents petitioned the council to top the trees on the streets. The council refused to do this as it would spoil the beauty of the trees. I believe that they agreed to give the trees a prune. The reason that I decided to walk the street is because the residents on this street are protesting about the council wanting to cut down all the trees in the street.

I started my walk at the Shirley Rd end where there is a big empty section and this is where the Anglican church used to be. All the houses here look like state houses and I believe that the entire street was originally state housing. Nearly half the houses are still state housing / social housing. I couldn’t tell the difference. Most houses were built in the 1950s. When walking the street I didn’t spot the Catholic church so I checked google maps and in May 2024 it was surrounded by scaffolding. Didn’t look like a church. The Presbyterian church seemed to have survived the earthquakes which is surprising as it was a brick building. The brick has now been painted white and the church is called Emmett Street Community Church. Lots of entrances to McFarlane Park and this is a long and mostly narrow park.

This is a tree lined street and many of the trees had Lorax shaped protest placards attached to them. The footpath was a bit rough in places because of tree roots. When I was in the Port Adelaide area there were a couple of streets where to save trees they had done a raised asphalt cover over the tree roots.