– The historic home at 14 Sheen Street, Dunedin, built for the Speight family, is for sale.
– It has attracted interest from locals and a US buyer looking to move to Dunedin.
– The four-storey mansion features stained-glass windows, ornate fireplaces, and modern upgrades.
A US buyer and a raft of curious locals are showing interest in the sale of a historic home built for one of New Zealand’s best-known brewing families.
The mansion at 14 Sheen Street, Roslyn, Dunedin, known locally as The Summit, was commissioned by the Speight family almost a 100 years ago.
Hugh Speight, the grandson of beer magnate James Speight, enlisted Dunedin architects Mandeno and Fraser to design and build a home for his family.
The home has been upgraded to include a modern kitchen complete with a butler’s pantry. Photo / Supplied
Original features such as the decorative ceilings and ornate fireplaces have been retained. Photo / Supplied
LJ Hooker Dunedin owner Jason Hynes told OneRoof that few people in the city were aware of the Speight connection until the house hit the market for sale at the end of last month.
“It’s garnered quite a bit of interest from locals. I can categorically say they are familiar with the name,” he said.
A significant chunk of interest had come from outside the city, with Hynes telling OneRoof that he had even been contacted by a US buyer who is selling their home and looking to move to Dunedin permanently.
LJ Hooker had a lot of properties listed for sale in Dunedin at the moment, but The Summit was one of the most popular, he said.
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Over the years, the four-storey home had been upgraded, with the vendors adding a new kitchen, new bathrooms, and heat pumps to make it more comfortable for modern-day living.
Hynes’ favourite feature was the stained-glass windows of a ship and portraits of two men in the stairwell. “That’s something I was pretty blown away with when I saw that.”
Rimu and oak stand out in the panelling and staircase, and the ornate fireplaces have all been carefully retained.
The stained glass windows of a ship and two men are a striking heritage feature. Photo / Supplied
The layout of the home hadn’t changed much since the 1930s. A garage – a rarity for the time because cars were relatively uncommon – was included in the basement, and on the ground floor beside the kitchen and lounge was the maid’s room. The bedrooms are on the first floor, and the attic was lined because it was where Hugh Speight’s daughter practised ballet.
“It’s the history and the grandeur of the property. It’s something a little bit different,” he said.
The vendors purchased the house six years ago and lived there for a few months before deciding to rent it out. They had recently subdivided the land, with the house now sitting on an 841sqm section.
Hynes said the vendors had already purchased another property and were selling Sheen Street now that they had completed the subdivision.
The property has an RV of $1.44m, but Hynes declined to give a price indication, adding that it was hard to find a comparable property. “It just comes down to people’s budget and emotional attachment.”
Earlier this year Emerson’s beer founder Richard Emerson sold his childhood home on Brownville Crescent, in Maori Hill, Dunedin, for $821,000. The four-bedroom villa had been in his family for more than 50 years and was snapped up within two weeks.
– 14 Sheen Street, Roslyn, Dunedin, is for sale, deadline closing August 21