More Info →Palermes Street, Name and History

Description: Name: Palermes

Suburb, Takaro

The origin of the name Palermes is unknown.

Geographically, Palermes is the French spelling of Palermo, the capital of Sicily, Italy. Parlemes is also found in the Nord-Ouest region of Haiti.

The map is a derivative of this Palmerston North Borough map from 1923. Please note: the 's' in Palermes has been omitted on the map.

History

Brothers, Mr Louis M Pascal and Mr Claude Marie Pascal emigrated to New Zealand from Loire, France, in 1878 and were early settlers in the Manawatū. Mr Jean Baptiste Pascal also emigrated and joined his older brothers in 1884. Palermes Street, D.P.3617, section 311, was owned by either Mr CM Pascal or Mr LM Pascal, of Messrs Pascal Bros, from 1890 onwards.

To learn more about the Pascal brothers, take a look at Pascal Street.

To build and access Palermes Street, Messrs Pascal Bros first needed to extend Cuba Street through the Education Reserve. The reserve was leased to the Manawatū and West Coast Agricultural and Pastoral (A&P) Association by the Education Commissioner.

When this was first negotiated, in 1908, Messrs Pascal Bros agreed to transfer allotment 9 of section 294, to the A&P Association. This would allow the Association to extend their grounds alongside Pascal Street and provide access from the rear. In exchange, the brothers would have the right to form the Cuba Street extension through the Education Reserve.

This was permitted by the Education Commissioner but did not proceed at the time.

Once fresh negotiations commenced in 1912 the Education Reserve had passed into the hands of the Wellington Land Board. When the Land Board refused permission, a petition was made to parliament by A&P Association members. The government, led by Prime Minister Massey, issued permission and the transfer proceeded.

In October 1912 the Borough Council gave consent for the extension of Cuba Street and construction of a new street, connecting to the Cuba Street extension.

At a Borough Council meeting in June 1914, a letter was acknowledged from Mr L Pascal, and referred to the Public Works Committee. He wished to name a new street running from Cuba Street extension to Main Street west, Palermes Street. The street, comprised of a mixture of residential and business sites, was ready to be taken over. Mr Pascal reminded the council, that they were to add a culvert. This was also referred to Public Works.

Auctioneers, Abrahams and Williams Ltd., on behalf of Mr Pascal, advertised seventeen sections for sale in July 1914. Some of the sites had already been built on.

In April of 1917, Mr JB Wither on behalf of Pascal Bros., asked the Borough Council for permission to construct a continuation of Palermes Street to Chelwood Street. This was agreed and a time extension allowed in January 1918 and again in February of 1919.

Sewers were laid in March 1919 and improvements to footpaths made in 1924.

In February of 1926, the Borough Council proposed renaming streets where a continuation had been made to an existing street. The resolution was passed in March. Town clerk, Mr James Robert Hardie, gave public notice throughout March and April that Palermes would become Bryant. From July 1926 the street was known as Bryant Street.

Early residents included

By 1917, Mr and Mrs E Fisher had taken up residence at 5 Palermes Street. Mr Edward Fisher was born in 1872 in New South Wales, Australia. He arrived in New Zealand from c. 1892 to c. 1903.

Miss Elizabeth England was born in Aotearoa New Zealand in 1869, to immigrant parents from Somerset, England. She married Mr E Fisher in Upper Hutt in 1904. They had one child, Kathleen Elizabeth b.1905.

In Palermes Street, they provided “On the Farm” produce opposite the Railway Station engine shed. Mr Fisher unsuccessfully sought election to the Dairy Control Board in 1923. The couple gave up dairying in 1925.

In the late 1920s Mr Fisher, a former engineer of the River Board, was the New Zealand patentee of several types of groynes for mitigating river erosion. By then their address had become 180 Bryant Street and was renumbered to 80 Bryant Street in the 1930s.

Mrs Elizabeth Fisher died in November of 1941, aged 72, and is interred at Kelvin Grove Cemetery. Mr Edward Fisher sold his house and its contents in 1945 and returned to Australia. He died in New South Wales in October of 1960, at the age of 88 years. He is interred at Sandgate Cemetery.