By: Tracey Kearns30th Jun 2022 9:58AM
I think I'm right in saying it was a refreshment stop for Railways buses coming from the Wairarapa (Don McLeod).

By: UHCL Admin22nd Nov 2019 10:26AMComments from the Upper Hutt Heritage Facebook page in November 2019 included the following:

"In the 50's, the tearooms was owned and run by the Smith family. These were my relatives" (Wayne Smith)

"I worked there from as young as l can remember doing dishes and helping Nana Smith as l grew up knowing her and Mavis and Thelma. Thelma was the late Barry John Smith's mother ..they lived over the road from us in Queen st. I got a half crown now 25c for a days pocket money ...
Both Barry and l were spoilt there but he did all in his power to hide from doing the dishes and eventually when he got his licence he did delivery of crockery etc and didnt work in kitchen..a great family in my childhood days and when got married of course it was there." (Rose Vailima)

'My parents had their wedding reception at Brown Owl in February 1952" (Carole Smith)

By: Rachel Sonius4th Jan 2017 12:25PMThe following comments about this image were posted on the Upper Hutt Heritage Facebook page on 31.12.2016:

"My parents grandparents owned it for years" (Barry John Smith)

"[I] got married here" (Dale van Waveren)

"When I was a preschooler we lived in Taita and Dad was a bus driver. On occasions I would walk to the main road and get on his bus with his and my lunch and we would go to the Brown Owl, eat lunch together, with the staff at the tearoom making a fuss of me. We would return to Taita, Dad would take me across the main road, then continue his journey and I would walk home to my mother and tell her about it all. Boy how things have changed!" (Graeme Reilly)

"The Brown Owl was a very popular dance hall during the war - with the Air Force in Mangaroa, the army in Trentham and plenty of Yanks about there were a few happenings that weren't recorded and remember that in those days the Brown Owl was out of town..." (Mark Williamson)