Scott Street

Scott Street lies on the southern slopes of Mount Moturoa and winds its way to the lookout at the summit, which provides panoramic views of New Plymouth.

Plans for the development of this area date back as far as 1919. But our first recorded instance of the new subdivision named Port View appears as an insert on a 1931 Lands and Survey cadastral map.

It seems likely that the planned subdivision was a result of ambitious expansion plans for the port.  In 1918 the new port engineer, J. Blair Mason, outlined a proposal to build new wharves, a seawall from Moturoa Island and an eight hundred foot extension to the breakwater. As it turned out, much of the port development languished on paper, as did the Port View subdivision.

The man behind the plans for Port View was Robert Scott, who was born in South Canterbury in 1867. Scott moved to the Hawkes Bay in his teens, where he became well known as a champion blade shearer. Robert married Kate Catherine Fahey and in 1907 the family moved to Taranaki. He bought land at Ōhura and Ahitītī and was a key figure in the formation of the Okau Co-operative Dairy Co. Ltd.

The Scott's next move was to Moturoa, and a farm on Breakwater Road. This would, in time, become home to the Port View subdivision. In New Plymouth, Scott developed a reputation as a shrewd businessman and for many years was a director of Devon Finance Company.

Scott died in 1953, before work finally began on the Port View subdivision, in response to New Plymouth's need for more residential land.  In 1956 the New Plymouth City Council accepted his daughter's request to use street names from the original plans, including, of course, the name Scott.

This story was originally published in the Taranaki Daily News.