Alice Wylie Reserve (Corner of New North Road and Burch Street)

The densely wooded Alice Wylie Reserve was set out on the plot formerly occupied by the Mount Albert Industrial School and is named after Alice Wylie, formerly Deputy Mayor of Mount Albert Borough. The Industrial School existed from 1900 to 1927 as a home for abandoned or neglected children. After 1916, it was for girls only. ‘Inmates’ had their hair shaved off when they arrived and were farmed out to foster parents, often as free domestic labour. The building was subsequently a boarding house for Mount Albert Grammar School until it was demolished in the 1970s and turned into a reserve. Information boards are dotted throughout the reserve with further details on the Industrial School and related topics.

Opposite the park, Bennett Street runs off at an angle from New North Road. This is named after Alfred Bennett, elected Mayor of the borough of Mount Albert in 1921. His term was dominated by the ‘Morningside Dump’ affair, in which a reserve behind the Council offices attracted press attention for its “menace of rats, flies and obnoxious odours” from refuse left there by Council staff. Bennett did not seek re-election in 1923, but even a short and lacklustre tenure got him a (quite short) street named after him.

Continue along New North Road until you return to Rocket Park. Cross the park and pass behind the War Memorial Hall to return to the beginning of the tour.