Long forgotten Hutt plans

In August 1943, Wellingtonians were surprised to wake up and read in the Evening Post that Eleanor Roosevelt, First Lady of the United States, was in town.

The purpose of her visit was to thank the Red Cross for its contribution to the war effort and to study the contribution made by New Zealand women.

Her itinerary included Lower Hutt, where on August 30 she met women employees in the Ford Factory at Seaview.

It’s one of Lower Hutt’s most well-known buildings but few people now remember that during the war it was converted into a munitions factory. Staffed by women making grenades, it played a major role in New Zealand’s war effort.

Hutt City Council Archives and Heritage is running a three-week free public exhibition called Heritage In The Hutt featuring tours, presentations, walks and a speaker series on the city’s architecture, industry, environment and social history.

One of the highlights is a public tour of the old Ford Building in Seaview. It was designed by Detroit-based architect Albert Kahn, whose firm became a worldwide leader in the design of factories.

There are now only six Kahn examples left worldwide.

And for the first time in almost 80 years, the public can see drawings and hear the story of the country’s most ambitious townplanning scheme, which involved the design of three suburbs – Epuni, Naenae and Taita – housing 100,000 people.

The plans, kept in the Hutt City Archives since 1940, have never been shown to the public before.

The Government appointed John Mawson as director of town planning and he was in sole charge of the design for what was called the Hutt Valley Development Scheme.

His design reflected the Garden City Movement, which was influential worldwide in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Well known examples includes Canberra, innercity Melbourne and Christchurch.

Streets were purposely curvilinear to reduce monotony; parks, shopping centres and schools were carefully planned; industrial land was zoned in separate areas; and the houses were mainly single dwellings and well-spaced in residential zoned areas.

Although it was a great idea, his design was never implemented and is now largely forgotten.

Off The Grid: The Spacious And Curvy Suburbs Of The Hutt – runs until September 30, featuring the original designs by Mawson. 10am-4pm, 4 Laings Road, Lower Hutt. Check out other activities at huttcity.govt.nz/ heritagemonth

When First Lady of the United States, Eleanor Roosevelt visited the Seaview Ford Factory in 1943, someone forget to tell the photographer she was there to visit the female munition workers.