Get Out Of The Ghetto | Issue 22

Get Out Of The Ghetto | Issue 22

Olveston

Despite having the slightly cringe slogan “Visit yesterday today!” Olveston – a historic home perched halfway up the hill overlooking Dunedin – is quite the local gem, and definitely worth venturing out of the ghetto to see. With over 30,000 visitors a year (coincidentally, this is around the same number of Americans who illegally visit Cuba annually), Olveston attracts locals and retiree cruise ship passengers alike.

Olveston 1

Built between 1905 and 1906 by the Theomins, a filthy rich Dunedin family originally of German Jewish origin, Olveston was, in its heyday, a real life Downton Abbey. A butler, chauffeur, gardener and multiple live-in maids serviced the Theomins’ every need. Like characters from a game of Antipodean Cluedo, they bustled around rooms such as the Library, the Card Room, the Billiard Room, the Great Hall, the Vesitbule, the Scullery and the Butler’s Pantry. While the plebs in surrounding Dunedin remained without electric lighting, Olveston was built with its own electricity generator and even has central heating, as well as a snazzy servant calling system with buttons throughout the house.

Olveston 2

The head of the household, David Theomin, made his fortune supplying Dunedin’s gold-rush noveau riche with exotic nick-knacks and cutting edge devices from all over the world. His extensive travels – to China, Japan, the United States and Europe – and eye for souvenirs have left Olveston studded with a veritable trove of treasures. An impressive set of Samurai swords in the entrance way? Check. A Steinway grand piano in the sitting room? Check. Original paintings by Charles Goldie and Francis Hodgkins, a 17th-century Spanish tapestry, and a full-sized billiards table? Sure, why not. Oh, and Mr Theomin had an obvious penchant for timepieces – there’s a rather impressive St. Ives grandfather clock which just chills on the beautiful wooden staircase (itself shipped in parts from England and assembled on-site, fitting together like a puzzle without glue or nails) and features a sailing ship-shaped second hand that has been ticking backwards and forwards for 300 years.

Olveston 3

When Dorothy Theomin, a strapping, mountain-scaling lass who never married (although she did keep a “secretary companion” in quarters onsite … hmmm) died in 1966, she left the home and its vast array of rare and valuable fixings to the city of Dunedin. The house has been beautifully maintained and has barely changed since 1933, the year in which David Theomin died, leaving his daughter the property. The coolest thing about the place is the fourth floor annexe (once the servants’ quarters), which is rented out as a flat to post-grad students (of good character, naturally) who keep an eye on the place in exchange for free rent.

Olveston 4

Think of it as a nearby Larnach Castle, sans supposed ghosts but with a friendlier admission price ($14.50 for students, which includes a guided tour). Enjoy.

Get there: on foot. Olveston is on Royal Terrace – huff and puff your way up Pitt Street from the Knox Church corner to get there.
Do: check out the beautifully restored 1921 Fiat 510 Tourer in the garage. David Theomin gifted it to his chauffeur on his deathbed but it subsequently disappeared, only being discovered in 1994 in a Central Otago shed.
Don’t: miss the splendid publication Eating Without Fears on the kitchen bench – “One would think it almost unnecessary to give a recipe for making tea. And yet one gets such remarkably bad tea as a rule, that I am going to give instructions regardless of criticism.”
Eat: up the hill at Spelt Bakery on Highgate. They have cronuts!
This article first appeared in Issue 22, 2013.
Posted 1:51pm Sunday 8th September 2013 by Phoebe Harrop.