Love at first site: Location so good Dickasons have never shifted

Lorraine and Trevor Dickason have made Stark St their home. Photo/Bevan Conley

Adopting family names for streets was a common practice in Whanganui's settlement.

According to historian, the late Athol Kirk, while some of the naming was at the whim of the sub-divider or council of the day, generally a street name identifies with that particular suburb.
.

6 weeks of summer - Whanganui Chronicle summer series.

.
One good example where this evolved is the suburb of Durie Hill.

Major David Stark Durie arrived in the settlement in 1851 to take on the role of resident magistrate. Durie acquired some land in the valley between Durie Hill and Bastia Hill.

The settlers called it Rob Roy's Glen but it was known to the Maori as Purua. When Durie built his house there, he named the property Durie Vale.

In time Durie's name and those of his family were attached to the eventual hilltop suburb as well as a number of streets in the suburb.

They include Durie St and Durie Vale Rd. His second name is perpetuated in Stark St, while Fife St recalls the birthplace of his wife, the Isle of Fife.

And Durie's birthplace is marked by Forres St, which is a borough in Morayshire, Scotland. Moray Pl commemorates Durie's shire in Scotland.

Trevor and Lorraine Dickason have been residents of Stark St since the mid-1980s. A section on the corner of Portal St and Stark St came available and they bought it and had a townhouse built. Theirs is one of 22 homes on a street that runs between Portal St and Fife St.

"We thought we'd be here for only a couple of years but it turned out to be such a nice location we never shifted," Trevor said.

"We've got magnificent views out toward Fordell and farmland and we're so close to the city centre. We love it here.".