More Info →Garden of 'Te Puke' homestead, 145 Ruahine Street

Te Puke was built on the Terrace, near the Ruahine and Featherston Streets intersection, for Mr G H Bennett, stationer of Palmerston North. it was built by Arthur Bennett for his brother c1902. The hillside was rough, and it took many hours of labour, directed by the Bennett’s gardener Dick Harwood, for the top of the rise to excavated and the driveway to be levelled. The line of trees were a later addition. the property was sold to the Gibbs family in 1920 and during the 1920s the extensive grounds were subdivided, leaving the house on a smaller property.