The University Lodge at St Leonards is a collection of buildings now used as the residence of the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Otago. Originally the land was used as the country retreats of successful Dunedin businessmen, one of whom – Isaac Stevenson – had the existing imposing lodge building erected to a design by H. McDowell Smith (1887-1965) in about 1930. However, the oldest existing buildings on site date to the 1870s-80s. The University Lodge has aesthetic and historic significance.

Both iwi history and archaeological evidence show Māori occupation in the Ōtākou / Otago region since the twelfth century. The harbour was shallow before Europeans arrived and provided abundant resources for hapū. Awa Ōtākou / Otago Harbour was an ara tawhito for access to the north, south, and inland for access using waka hunua to tauraka waka, where there were sites for mahika kai and nohoaka. After a brief use of the area as fête and picnic grounds in the early-1870s, the land was purchased by Basil Sievwright (1835-1902), a lawyer and businessman of Dunedin. Sievwright built a grand house on land uphill of Scotland Street (now called Takahe Terrace), with a with stables, a dairy, orchard and the large glasshouse or ‘vinery’ on the land below. The Glasshouse (List no. 2224, Category 2) still exists as the oldest building on site. Sievwright called this country residence Pa Waitaha.

In 1894 a new residence was built adjacent to the Glasshouse by Sievwright, on what was to be the future site of the existing Lodge. In 1900, Sievwright sold the property to Isaac Stevenson, an engineer and businessman who had made a success through partnership in the engineering firm Stevenson and Cook of Port Chalmers.

In 1905, Stevenson had the current Lodge’s Ball Room constructed and connected to the 1894 residence. As the early decades of the twentieth century moved on there was an increasing need for a new residence on site; the old residence was demolished in about 1928-29 – with the vinery and ballroom retained – and the current building was erected in about 1930 to a design by H. McDowell Smith (1887-1965).

As described in the late twentieth century, the 1930 Lodge building was built of cavity brick and plaster with a Marseille tile roof. It comprised of six bedrooms, including two small maids’ rooms, dining room, drawing room and study. The 1905 Ball Room was built of timber and slate, with a 12-metre-long space, laid with mataī. Drawings by H McDowell Smith show a richly panelled entrance hall.

Following Isaac Stevenson’s death in 1946, his daughter, Annie, gifted the Lodge and grounds to the University of Otago in 1950 – on the condition that she could portion off a small part of the site for a residence of her own. She lived on site at this new residence, which inherited the name Pa Waitaha, until her death in 1985. In the 1950s, a freak wind snapped off three of the elegant chimneys and sent them crashing through the roof and the ceilings of three rooms. In 1994, an extension was added to the rear to create a sunny family living and dining area.

As of July 2024, the Lodge was awaiting its latest tenant, the new University of Otago Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka Vice-Chancellor the Hon Grant Robertson.