SILVERSTREAM HOSPITAL

- ARTICLE-

  The Silverstream Park Christian centre doesn't sound like a place that has had any military associations. If you thought this you would be correct in that the centre has and has had nothing to do with the military. And you would be wrong in that the buildings were built back in World War 2 for military use.

     The site overlooking the Hutt River was chosen for a hospital back in 1941. Construction started in September that year and was nearly completed and furnishing was underway by May 1942 when instructions came through for the hospital to be handed over to the US Navy instead of the NZ Army. The same instructions also required the hospital to be increased in size to 1,200 patients.

     The US Navy occupied the hospital in August 1942. The hospital eventually grew to accommodate 1,600 patients with the hospital's sports field being built upon. By now the hospital had 46 buildings and a combined floor area of 143,000 square feet, had 100 HP worth of boilers for heating and even had it's own bio-filtration sewerage system plant.

     The US Navy occupied it until April 1944 while the Public Works Dept. provided maintenance and services. Afterwards the hospital was taken over by the (then) Wellington Hospital Board and it thus became Silverstream Hospital.

     The hospital closed in 1990 by the Wellington Area Health Board by which time it was being used as a long-stay geriatric hospital. Mr John Ross (a Lower Hutt real-estate agent) brought it and vested it in a charitable trust that is gradually renovating the buildings.

     The place is now known as the Silverstream Park Christian centre and is run on Christian principals. The centre can cater for groups of up to 700 people and also has a number of tenants living on site. Many of the spaces such a centre requires already existed which means that no major construction work has been required. The old wards were in use by various non-profit groups and organisations.

     When I visited the centre in 1999 to take photos of the buildings a youth conference or similar event was just starting.