OLD WELLINGTON

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 227, 22 June 1936, Page 6

OLD WELLINGTON

Mr. Lipman Levy’s Garden

One has to go only a few years back in the history of Wellington to discover how far this city has moved along the slow path of development. Only ,the other day an old resident, who still works spasmodically, stated that he could remember when a certain Mrs. Sinclair kept a boarding-house where James Smith, Ltd.’s, big drapery store now stands (on the corner of Cuba and Manners Streets)', while behind it stood the residence and garden of the late Hon. W. B. Rhodes, one of the pioneer merchants of Wellington. Those were the larger days when land was comparatively cheap and the population was no greater than Petone, if as large. Now the clearing-away of the houses adjoining the De Luxe Theatre, in Kent Terrace, has brought memory* back to the days when the whole of that block of land, extending from Kent Terrace to' Brougham Street, was in the possession of one owner. At present that block is divided by a right-angle road, one leg of which is Lipman Street and the other Levy Street. The names of those streets perpetuate the memory of the owner of 60 years ago—one Lipman Levy, Mr. Levy was a boot and shoe merchant, who conducted a business on Lambton Quay, somewhere near Kelburn Avenue, He was evidently successful in business, for he erected a very fine house on his big block on the lower slope of Mount Victoria, and had one of the largest gardens in that locality. ■ '■,-■1 . . • '' ; In those days most of the large estates of the wealthy, or near-wealthy, were situated in Wellington , North, in the vicinity of Hobson Street and Fitzherbert Terrace, but few of them had such a lovely anti sunny garden as Mr. Levy possessed. At one time he kept a pair of long-legged storks, who used to pace sedately about the estate, picking up the pest insects and, at the same time, adding a picturesque touch to the grounds. It is recorded that on one occasion a boy was peeping through the cracks in the high wooden fence Which surrounded that part of the garden occupied by the De Luxe Theatre, when one of the storks, with unerring aim, picked at his nose with its beak until the blood ran and shrieks were heard for a quarter of a mile around. After Mr. Levy’s death the estate was subdivided. For a long time partof it was left vacant and became a playground for the children of the neighbourhood, but as settlement increased and streets were formed through the block the building lots were taken up and gradually covered with houses.