Gracefield is named for parliamentarian
Morgan Grace, who owned land (Gracefield Estate) in the area in the 19th century. At this time Gracefield was an area of farms and orchards. Grace's son Francis Grace was chairman of the board of directors of the Gracefield Syndicate, a company formed in 1907 to purchase over 200 acres of land at Gracefield to subdivide for leasing. A short industrial railway line, known as the
Gracefield Branch, used to run through Gracefield. The line from
Woburn, opened in 1929, was extended into Gracefield in 1943 and a freight terminus established there. This was later extended to a network of sidings serving industries in Seaview. In 1972 a new freight depot was opened at Gracefield. In 1981 the goods facilities at Lower Hutt Station were closed, and goods handling was transferred to a new facility at Gracefield. Gracefield Yard was closed on 30 April 2002, and the tracks are now mothballed. Between 1949 and the 1980s, a workingmen's camp existed near the Wainuiomata Hill Road at the base of the hill. The camp was built by the government, and in the 1950s housed 200 mostly immigrant men who were working on the electrification of the Hutt railway line. In the 1970s, the camp housed groups of up to 100 Tongans brought to Lower Hutt on six-month work schemes by the Hutt Valley Chamber of Commerce, to alleviate a shortage of local workers. The huts were removed in 1988.
Feltex By the mid-1930s a flock mill operated by John Grant and Company, a subsidiary of Felt and Textiles of Australia (
Feltex), was established in Gracefield Road. In 1940 Feltex expanded the business with a new 50,000 sq ft factory nearby, intending to manufacture carpet and all types of felt for slippers, millinery, saddle linings, floor coverings and engineering purposes. The factory employed more than 200 men and shortly after opening was producing up to 5000 yards of felt and 1800 yards of carpet each week. During 2002 and 2003 the Feltex factory at Bell Road was expanded, becoming the biggest yarn spinning operation in the Feltex group. Feltex was bought by Geoffrey Hirst Pty in 2006, and as of 2024 the Bell Road factory in Gracefield still operates under this brand name.
Griffin's Factory Griffin's Food Company built a factory on a five and a half acre site at the northern end of Gracefield in 1938, with the first biscuits being produced in January 1939. The building was constructed of reinforced concrete and had a sawtooth roof to provide good lighting. The factory buildings surrounded a courtyard with lawn, a fountain and flowers. There were also extensive flower gardens around the complex, which led the factory to be known as 'The Garden Factory'. The factory had an automatic conveyor belt oven about 100 feet long, the first of its kind in the southern hemisphere, which was in operation until the factory closed in 2008. Griffin's closed the factory in 2008, with the loss of 200 jobs, and the building became a plastics recycling factory.
DSIR / Callaghan Innovation The
Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) bought 16 acres of land at Gracefield in June 1942 and moved its Physical Testing Laboratory into a new building there in December that year. The Dominion Physical Laboratory had around 80 staff working on radar, metrology and war work. A second building was built at the site in 1946. In 1958 the government approved a new branch of the DSIR, the Institute of Nuclear Sciences (now part of
GNS Science), and it was decided to base this at Gracefield too. The DSIR was disbanded in 1992 and its various departments formed into
Crown Research Institutes, many of which (or their successors) still have a presence in Gracefield.
Callaghan Innovation, formed partly from
Industrial Research Limited, a Crown Research Institute, was established at Gracefield in 2013, with the task of making New Zealand business more innovative. Callaghan Innovation set up the Gracefield Innovation Quarter, which brought together scientists, technicians and businesses in a collection of laboratories, workshops, pilot labs, office space and a centre for Māori businesses on one large site. == Wainuiomata Hill Road ==