This is one of Napier's oldest streets. It was constructed in 1857.
Alexander Alexander was the first European to live and work at Ahuriri. He set up a permanent trading base here, at Onepoto ( Corunna Bay ). The maoris sold him maize and pigs for slaughter at a bacon factory he established near what is today the Iron Pot. The produce was sold to Wellington. The shoreline followed the present Corunna Bay Road before the 1931 Hawkes Bay earthquake.
In 1902 a cooperative of Hawkes Bay sheep farmers bought the land and the HB Woollen Manufacturing Company building was constructed on its present site further up this road. It produced and also exported many woollen goods until the 1970s.
A number of the present houses along Main Street were built from 1870 - 1900. Men in this street were employed as mariners, fishermen, stevedores, railway workers or in trades such as carpentry and brickmaking, and later as workers in the Woollen Mill.
The information board standing here gives more info and photos of this historical street.