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If you love antique furniture, beautiful dinner-sets, lavishly decorated rooms, Steinway pianos from 1872, Downtown Abbey or Cluedo boardgame vibes - this is the place for you! Absolutely stunning piece of history from 1904 built by a wealthy Jewish family with many clever features, and donated to the town of Dunedin. Entry was $25pp. Our tour guide was extremely knowledgeable and could answer all our questions. We saw almost all the rooms in the house: library, dining room, billiards room, bedrooms, drawing rooms, servants quarters, kitchen etc. All original family belongings and many beautiful collections of first edition books. The house still has a live-in caretaker so to respect their privacy the tour doesn't go in those rooms. I was very taken aback when I was permitted to play their beautiful piano and was excited to hear they host concerts. I wish I had known that they also do high tea because I most certainly would have loved this. 😊 Thank you to the staff at Bracken Restaurant for recommending we visit. We LOVED it and I cannot wait to come back. 😊❤️

Bron BBron B
10
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This is an authentic period correct historic home built in the early 1900s for a wealthy importer. They imported pianos and other musical instruments during a time when entertainment was home made. Apparently a very lucrative trade. The same family lived in the home until 1966. Miraculously, nothing was changed in all that time. So what you see is essentially a time capsule of a particular time in history. Everything is original to the home, so photography inside is frowned upon. If you are interested in social history, furniture and design this place will be endlessly fascinating. My teens were not so enthralled. There is a guided tour. Recommend buying tickets in advance. Don’t miss the lovely gardens and greenhouse and the historic automobile in the garage.

Laura Spriggs GrayLaura Spriggs Gray
00
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I live a few blocks away from Olveston but I've only been to its garden. My friend wanted to see the inside so I tagged along. It's very recommended if you have an hour or so to kill while visiting Dunedin since it' very close from the city centre. It's an example of Edwardian house at its best. It's fascinating to learn how the house was built and decorated. It' quite modern for an Edwardian house with electricity and a fridge, which still is perfectly running. It's also interesting to hear the story about the family who used to live there. The admission is by guided tour only and we had Greg as our tour guide. He's very familiar with the house and the family stories. We really enjoyed our visit there.

Christian ChristianChristian Christian
00
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Gorgeous home and garden left to the people of Dunedin. You have to book a “tour” and unfortunately we felt our guide rushed us through (We were only a small group of 3 and didn’t have all the answers we were looking for or else wouldn’t answer our questions about the history of the people of house until we were in the correct room). It was a little scripted but worth the trip. A lot of the house was off limits ie tutors room, top floor and bottom floor/basement area. They need a brochure or leaflet with some history of the house, owners, furnishings and a map of the building and gardens.

Ms_Eternal _Traveller.Ms_Eternal _Traveller.
10
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A very interesting home of a Dunedin wealthy businessman in the early twentieth century! The home is currently a historic house museum and it was an enjoyable experience to explore this home. The tour is according to schedule and there was nobody else apart from us joining the last tour of the day. Even so, our tour guide shows utmost professionalism and still brings us around the lovely home. The tour would not have been interesting without detailed explanations from our guide. We truly appreciate his friendliness, sincerity and passion as Olveston Historic Home guide!

Ting TingTing Ting
20
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This house is like a time capsule, capturing the experiences of an extremely wealthy family. The rooms were all done up in such a way that the tour guide was able to walk us through what their inhabitants would have done there on a regular day. I especially enjoyed learning about the technology and attention to detail which was advanced for the time. I'm rating this 4 stars because the experience was great, but the tour was slightly lacking in that I felt rushed in each room and I wanted to see demonstrations of the technology.

Abhinav DharAbhinav Dhar
10
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Address

42 Royal Terrace, Dunedin North, Dunedin 9016, New Zealand

Map

Phone

+64 3 477 3320

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Website

olveston.co.nz

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Overview

4.7(464 reviews)
cultural
family friendly

Description

Olveston Historic Home is a substantial house and museum in an inner suburb of Dunedin, New Zealand. The house was designed by Ernest George in the Jacobean style in the early 20th century for the Theomin family.

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