It is located on 108 acres of land given in 1855 by Sir George Grey, Governor of New Zealand, to Philippe Viard, the first Roman Catholic Bishop of Wellington for the establishment of a school.

The Catholic connection is further highlighted in the Redwood area by several street names, including McKeefry Grove named after Cardinal McKeefry, third Archbishop of Wellington, and Lane Crescent, which commemorates Fr John Lane, a parish priest of the area.

It followed a gradient on the contour of the hills from Takapu Road to Duncan Street below the present day Taylor Terrace.

The station at Takapu Road opened on 19 June 1937, the same day as the new railway station in Wellington, when the present-day route on the Tawa Flat deviation was opened for passenger traffic and the Johnsonville to Tawa section of the older, more circuitous, railway route from Wellington through Johnsonville closed.

[11] St Francis Xavier Schoolis a coeducational integrated Catholic contributing primary school, for year 1 to 6 students,[12] established in 1960.