Daily Photo – Dunedin’s Most Elegant Edwardian Home

After an hour or so of wandering aimlessly through the museum, my mind started to drift toward what else the city might be hiding. Curiosity eventually nudged me uphill, into the Dunedin suburbs, and toward the stately home of Olveston. Spread over one acre, the site originally held an eight-room villa purchased by the Theomin family on Royal Terrace in 1881. Twenty years later they bought an adjacent property, and in 1904 they acquired another, giving them enough land to plan a new house and garden across all three sections. Construction began soon after and, by 1907, David Theomin — a wealthy English merchant who wanted to create an English country house in the city for his wife Marie and their children, Edward and Dorothy — had completed the grand four-storey home.

The finished house featured reception rooms, a library, a kitchen, a dining room, downstairs guest rooms, and a galleried hall rising from the ground to the upper floors, which also served as a ballroom. There was a billiard room, a card room, and numerous bedrooms, with the servants’ quarters on the top floor and a large laundry in the basement. Olveston remained a family home from the time it was completed until 1966, when Dorothy, the last surviving member of the Theomin family, passed away. She bequeathed the property to the City of Dunedin, and it opened to the public the following year.