Salvation Army Boys' Home

Salvation Army Island Bay Home, 1912 – 1928

The Salvation Army bought the nine-room house at 16 Melrose Street in September 1909. From January 1912 this was opened as a boy’s Home providing residential care for 30 to 45 boys aged 4 to 14 years old. Commandants / Managers were Albert Scotney, Charles Davies, Edward Albert Brown around 1920, and Charles Frederick Botteley. In December 1928 the boys were transferred to the Wallaceville Boys’ Home in Upper Hutt. The Salvation Army Territorial Archives, 204 Cuba Street, P O Box 6015, Wellington, hold registers of children in their orphanages. From 1929 this large house became a Eventide Home for elderly women and from 1975 a Bridgehaven Rest Home for people with alcohol issues. In 1985 the Salvation Army sold this property.