Fire destroyed the old Henderson wooden hall in 1924, which had been the scene of many a dance and concert. The hall was situated on the corner of George Street and Thomas Street in the centre of the township.
Mr. Tattersell did two recitations and Mr. Vos comic readings, which were well received. Miss Laurie, Mrs. Milstead and Beach gave us songs. The entertainment concluded with a farce in which Mr. and Mrs. Beach and Mr. Hepburn took part, and which created much laughter. After the concert the usual dance followed which was kept up until nearly daybreak."
The usual highlight of the social year for the hall was the "Plunket Ball'', tickets cost 5/- a double and ladies always brought a plate of food. The hall was well decorated for these occasions by the ladies of the hall committee.
After the fire, the hall was rebuilt in brick and concrete and had two small shops in the front entrance, one a dairy/milkbar and the other, for some time, the Henderson Branch of the Bank of New Zealand, before they moved to the site of Mr. Bussy's bakery and then to their present site in the 1960's. The hall was used as a cinema and a Mr. Pooley was the successful applicant to run it. Equipment was bought and the movie shows began but Mr. Pooley seems to have struck financial rocks. He left £800 worth of equipment and arrears in rent to the Town Board when he left the district in April, 1930.
Falls Park was a favorite place to visit in Henderson on the hot summer days. The creek was wide enough and deep enough for boaties to ply up the waterways to the falls park and enjoy a relaxing picnic, swim if the tide was right, or just fossick around the pools looking for small fish and eels.
Mr. La Trobe who had run the Railway Store for many years, retired in 1924 and sold the shop to a Mr. Blackwell. Bad health forced him to sell two years later, when the shop became the "Universal Store", owned by Mr. Bob Norcross.In the same year, the Waitemata Electric Power Board was formed, absorbing the large area previously part of the Kaipara Board. The Devonport Electricty Board was bought by them for £61,000 in 1925. By 1933, the Waitemata Power Board was servicing 9,290 consumers. There were 1,257 electric ranges, 1,589 water heaters, and 276 electric milking machines drawing power from the board's supplies.
There was a great deal of development during 1924. At a meeting in Auckland on February 28th, it was approved by all the town boards involved, that they would build a concrete road over the often impassable clay road from Oakley Creek at Point Chevalier, all the way to the end of the Henderson Township. Each Town Board's ratepayers bore the cost for their own section of the new highway.
On the opposite corner to the hotel on the main road, the Henderson residents had their own bakery business run by Mr. Bussy. There had been no resident baker since the days of Ben Cranwell's bakehouse. Mr. Bussy ran the bakery until 1931 when he was elected chairman of the Town Board.
In 1925 the Holborrow family came to Henderson and bought the butchery from Mr. Powell. The business had been built origionally by the Holt Bros. in the early 1920's. The Holborrows ran the business until they retired in 1977, when the old wooden shop was used as a scout den.
Henderson's first fire brigade was formed with 12 members in June 1926. It survived only a few months and its equipment amounted to a single head stand pipe, 100ft of 2.5 inch hose and a branch.
A new brigade was formed in 1929 and attracted 21 recruits. Mr. Canton was the superintendant and a second hand reel standpipe, hose and two branches with screw couplings were bought. In 1930, Mr. Canton retired in favour of Mr. Hogan and with the help of the Town Board bought its first fire engine- a secondhand machine- from the Newmarket Brigade. In the years 1929 to 1933 the brigade was called out on sixteen occasions."Tui Glen-situated in Edmonton Road, Henderson, is situated but 10 miles from the heart of the city and is declared by motorists
to be the finest motorcamp in the Dominion. Beautifully lawned and shrubbed on the banks of a picturesque stream, the natural contour of the ground is ideal for either peace and quiet or joyful revelry. Some of the special features are canoes, donkey rides,
beatiful birds and curious animals, goldfish, trout, beautiful flowers and gardens, cozy corners, up to date refreshments and sanitary dressing rooms of a modern order. Charges are moderate, daily admission 6d, while the site is just 12 minutes walk from the railway station and five minutes walk from the school bus-stop."Henderson's first bus service started in 1928. The service was patchy and unreliable, travelling around Glen Eden where the roads were often in poor condition. Several years passed until the Whenuapai Bus Company offered a more reliable service along the concrete road to Point Chevelier and the city via Karangahape Road.
On May 11th 1931 the district highway engineers declared the old iron bridge over Canty's Creek at the south end of the township as unsafe for use by traffic where the ends of the girders had become corroded and weakened. It was restricted at first to light traffic and pedestrians but closed completely to traffic at the beginning of 1932.
Tenders were sought by the Henderson Town Board for a replacement bridge, the lowest tender of £2,997.17.6d being accepted.Steve Ozich was now established as the towns local land agent, taxi driver and hotellier. The unlicenced hotel was run by Mrs. Ozich as the ''Central Hotel & Boarding House'. The first modern block of shops were in Station Road opposite the railway station and were erected by Mr. Ozich in 1932.
They were occupied by Mr. Firkins, a mens hairdresser, Mr. Evans Scott, a chemist; a billiard saloon and a small bootmaker/repairers business. These shops no longer remain today.At the outbreak of WW2 in 1939, the township had most of the basic ingredients of a modern town. The one time timber camp had acquired roads, electricity, telephones, local administration, its own small local industry and commerce and, most important of all, its own identity.
The Auckland Weekly News advertisement for the 1881 Land Sales of the Henderson Township, which claimed that --- "At no distant date Henderson will mark as one of the most thriving townships",-- has certainly been borne out.