Henderson Heritage Trail

TThe Henderson Heritage Trail is a joint venture by the West Auckland Historical Society and the Waitakere City Council as a contribution to the Henderson 150 Commemoration (1844 - 1994).  The Henderson Trail is divided into two loops of about 40 minutes walking time, each with an optional 10 minute extension. Both loops start and finish at the Henderson's Mill Cottage.

Loop A

Loop B

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Henderson Heritage Trail Map (Size 104K)

Trail Landmarks -Loop B

B1. Henderson Mill Cottage

The original part of this cottage is believed to have been built about 1848 as the mill cook house. In 1875 it became the second Henderson's Mill school room. After 1880 it is believed to have been converted into a four roomed cottage.

In the 1930s it was extended by the Corban family, who gifted it to the City in 1993, when it was restored to it's present condition by the West Auckland Historical Society.

B2. Henderson Mill

On 8 October 1844, Governor Fitzroy proposed a Crown Grant of half the land claimed by Henderson and Macfarlane, and the partners commenced milling activities in this area. They established a timber mill on this site about 1847.

B3. Methodist Chapel

The first church to be built in Henderson district, the Methodist Chapel was opened on Christmas Day 1898. People from many denominations were involved in its early worship life, with the Presbyterian church holding services here from 1899 to 1911. Services had previously been held in Henderson's Mill School. From 1858 to 1876 this was the site of the first Henderson's Mill Racecourse.

B4. Original site of the old Anglican Church

St. Michael's Anglican Church was dedicated on 13 September 1914 by the Bishop of Auckland. The altar was made and donated by the sons of Rev. R. C. Boler. When the present church was built in 1962 the old church was moved back from it's original site to make way for it. In 1997 the old church had yet another move when it was taken over the road to the Corban Winery grounds.

B5. Corban's Wine Depot

Corban's Homestead and Wine Cellar in the 1920s. A.K. Corban Collection

A prohibition majority in 1909 meant that the selling of wine in Henderson was illegal, but as the Henderson no-licence boundary ran along the railway line, the Corban's built a depot here to sell their wine. Boundary changes later closed this depot.

B6. Corban's Winery - present  site of the old Anglican Church.

In 1892 the winemaker Assid Abraham Corban (1864-1941) emigrated to New Zealand from the Lebanon. Ten years later, having been joined by other members of his family, he established a vineyard here which was to become Henderson's best known winery. The wine cellar, built in 1907, is the oldest industrial building in Henderson, while the 20 room homestead, built in 1923, is Henderson's finest family home.

B7. Coronation Bridge

Opening of Coronation Bridge, Great North Road, 1911.  Waitakere Public Libraries Historic Collection

So named because it was opened in 1911, the year of King George V's Coronation, this bridge replaced an earlier wooden bridge over the Opanuku Stream and remained in use for over fifty years. The remains of other road and rail bridges may be seen in the vicinity.

 

B8. Railway Station
 

Steam locomotive in front of the Henderson Town Hall, 1961." Waitakere Public Libraries Historic Collection

The coming of the railway in 1880 hastened Henderson's development and helped its transition from a mill settlement to the centre of an agricultural and horticultural district. A passenger platform was installed in the 1890s and in 1905 Henderson became an officered railway station. The present station was built in 1912.

B9 Town Hall Site

Henderson's first civic hall was a kauri hall built on this site in 1896, which burned down thirty years later. In its place the Henderson Town Board constructed a new reinforced concrete Town Hall, opened in January 1927, which later became the Civic Theatre. Forty years later it, too, was destroyed by fire, on 20 July 1967.

B10. Catherine Street

All the central Henderson streets were named after members of Thomas Henderson's family. Apart from Catherine Street, named after Thomas Henderson's wife Catherine (1811-1867), all have been renamed or no longer exist. Other streets named after the family were Thomas, Henry, John, Mary and George Streets.

B11. Henderson School

Henderson School opened in 1873. Classes were held in the Mill reading room and cookhouse until the school moved to its present site, donated by Thomas Henderson, in 1880. The first teacher at the new site, Miss Helen Hanson, lived in a house which once stood in the Baptist Church car park across the road opposite this sign.

B12.  Newey's Corner

Miss Eileen Newey, who lived on this corner, was a teacher at Henderson Primary School, where she taught for eleven years, finally as infant mistress from 1959 to 1963. She remained a well known local identity right up to her death in 1987. She left her property to the Henderson Borough Council for development as a park.

B13. The original site of the Oratia / Falls Hotel

Falls Hotel on its original site c.1926, at the corner of Great North Road and Railside Ave. Waitakere Public Libraries Historic Collection

This hotel was built in 1873 to provide accommodation for the travelling public. Originally named Oratia Hotel after the Oratia stream, the hotel's name was changed in 1890 to Falls Hotel, after the Waitakere Falls, which were a major tourist attraction in the late nineteenth century. The first proprietor was "Shepherd" John McLeod, Thomas Henderson's farm manager.

B14. Fall's Park and site of the Falls Hotel since December 1996 

The "Falls Recreation Ground" was purchased and developed by the Henderson Town Board from 1923 to 1925, and was a popular picnic area, playground, swimming hole and overnight anchorage during the 1920s and 1930s. It was later occupied by the Henderson Women's Bowling Club.