H0LY CITY Greymouth - Then and Now.

About this image

DescriptionH0LY CITY Greymouth-Then and Now.Map^[1]ContributorTony Kokshoorn

Shown in this image

Location (city or town)GreymouthLandmark (Place)H0LY CITY Organisation (eg business)H0LY CITY EventH0LY CITY Greymouth - Then and Now.

Category Information

Category Tagchurch

From Facebook

Date Created27th April 2023CommentsAnnie Van Looy
Loved holy city my playground as a kid

Karen Potter
Great old pic. My father in law bill Downing owned holy city years ago. He had no 10. 10 Downing st.

Leanne Reeve
Tracy Piner Mahon memories

Trish Rennie
Anna Reiha Walters here’s a wee walk down memory lane for you…..

Lois Iacoppi
Why was it called holy city?

Phyllis Aberhart
I think it was because a lot of Catholics were living there

Gavin Case
i played in that place and now live in the unit the right of the photo .

Warren Duthie
we lived there when we first moved to Greymouth from CHCH .Bill Dowling had them then early 1970 s

Christopher Morresey
When it was build it was a Catholic church property

Rob Collins
Remember it well . Some times bike through it on the way home from school.

Cherame Mossley
Pera Tee.. oh the days.. lmao

Kerry Keating
I was told Bill Downing bought the street and the houses back in about the sixties. He re named it Downing St and moved into number ten. Then he could truthfully say he lived in ten Downing St.

Linda Davidson
I remember those days! as a kid fun times

Judy Wood
Remember well that photo of Holy city. My sister and I used to bike through in the late 50s as a short cut to Blackmore st when visiting our Wisdom relatives. They lived next to Grogans and Blackmore cordial factory.( Easier route than over Easons hill) .

Bruce Knight
My great grand-father, Edmond Stratford (co-owner of the sawmilling and logging operation Stratford and Blair) built the houses in “The Holy City”. He and his wife Catherine (nee Blewman) lived there, I can recall visiting Catherine (my great grand-mother) in the 1950’s when I was a nipper.
It was built during the Great Depression, in the early 1930’s. The demand for timber had plummeted so the mills were either closed or ran reduced hours. Edmond was a hard boss to work for, but had a heart of gold, and built Stratford Street (aka Holy City) to provide jobs for men that had families and were having financial trouble. I recall that there was very little space between the houses, if one went up it would have taken all the others adjacent.
Edmond had a saying: “When it’s dork (dark), it’s five”. In other words, if you worked for him, you worked until it was dark, whether that was at 5PM in winter, or 9PM in summer.

Paul Thomas
37 Catholic vocations came from this block, from Murray Street to Threadneedle St. and including Eldon lane.

Janet Hogan
Remembered visiting Holy City in the 1980's as a District Nurse. Alot of vulnerable people lived there.

James Codyre
Used to often ride my bike through Holy City to save biking over Easons Hill on my way to Marist when I lived on the corner of Ngarimu/Alex.

Sandra Arnott
Remember this way back,rode through it to get to drink factory!

James Codyre
Back in the 50's all that hill (Chunn's} was good farmland and we would roam it looking for mushrooms and crawlies in a creek over the first rise.

Vern Pattinson
Didn't Bill Downing have something to do with the houses there

Warren Duthie
hi Frank Neam we lived next door to Bert & Nell woods when we lived there .Mackays were on the outher side of us then Pat & Rita Lahood Snow Renolds on the outher side of Bert & Nell all on the left hand side going in from Alexander st

Joy Cox
Warren Duthie Mackies.. My Nana and granddad

Trish O'Regan
Still Holy!

Ann-Maree Duncan
I remember it well, Holy City.
Linda Hughes
Loved walking around there in the 50's.

Linda Osborn
How did it get the name Holy City?

hDyan Hansen
We lived in Alexander St and often cut through the Holy City as a part of our childhood adventuring. Good times.

Warren Duthie
thank you Joy for correct spelling

OCR Text Transcription Edit Edit +-Close

Editing is temporarily disabled

Cancel Edit

Start typing here to find a location	Latitude	Longitude	Zoom	Actions

loading google map....

Save Cancel

Menu

H0LY CITY Greymouth - Then and Now.

Editing is temporarily disabled