Papakura & Ellerslie, Then & Now

I sell homes in suburbs with deep stories. Two of my favourites just got a full archival walk-through. Interactive sliders, archival photos, the whole timeline. Here's a quick taste of each.

If you love the way a street looks but you have never asked yourself why it looks that way, this is for you. Most Auckland suburbs are not accidents. They are the trace of a road, a railway, a racecourse, a motorway, a planning decision, or a war. The bones are still there if you know how to read them.

I have just built two flagship pages, one for Papakura, one for Ellerslie. Each one walks the suburb's full timeline with proper archival photographs, before-and-after sliders, and a map of the landmarks that still carry the past.

A few things you might not know

• "Papakura" means red flats or red earth, after the reddish volcanic soil that gives Red Hill its name.
• Papakura's town centre street grid was surveyed in 1882 and still maps almost exactly onto today's roads.
• Ellerslie was named for a Scotsman's family home. The original spelling was meant to be "Elderslie".
• The world's first automatic totalisator was installed at Ellerslie Racecourse in 1913.
• The 6.2 hectares Fletcher Living is now redeveloping as "The Hill" was sold by Auckland Thoroughbred Racing for more than 100 million dollars in 2021.

Why I built these

If you live somewhere, knowing how it got that way is part of what makes it home. If you are buying, knowing the bones of a street tells you a lot about how it will age. If you are selling, the story of the suburb is part of what you are selling. Buyers feel it whether you point it out or not.

I do this work in suburbs I actually know. Pop the pages open, drag a few sliders, and you will see what I mean.