Marble Wood Drive in Papanui – Developed in 1997 on the former site of the South Island Methodist Orphanage and Children’s Home which had opened in 1914. Suburban Estates developed the subdivision in a joint venture with the Methodist Mission.
A small amount of information from the library website. Nothing in Papers Past even with the newspapers now going up to 2001.
The houses here were built in the 1990s and 2000s and I was surprised that the valuation website said that there were only 29 houses here. I doublechecked with google maps and the houses are at one of the street while there is a reserve and a retirement home at the Harewood Rd end of the street. The houses here are huge with some nice looking gardens. The Orphanage covered about 12 acres and the subdivision was created on this land.
I entered this street from a walkway leading from Harris Crescent. I had been geocaching in the area. I couldn’t believe the size of the houses here. The footpath is on both sides of the street and there is two places where there is a tree in the middle of the road. One is at the end of the street where the walkway entrance is and the other is next to the entrance to Mission Lane. That one creates a roundabout effect and after doing some research on the orphanage I actually wonder if this tree is the Jubilee tree planted in 1964. This end of the street has March Wood Reserve on one side and the Wesley Care Retirement Home on the other side. Looking at google maps you can see that the retirement home covers a huge amount of land.
Lytteltonwitch's Walking the streets of Christchurch Project 