Linden at 22 Royal Terrace, built in the 1870s, is associated with the prominent Isaacs and Hudson families and is a testament to the position Dunedin once enjoyed as New Zealand’s commercial capital.

The section on which this house stands was originally part of a larger block purchased by John Logan (1819-95) in 1855. In 1878 Section 28 was purchased by Jacob Isaacs (?-1935), a Jewish merchant from Melbourne who was in Dunedin by 1864. He partnered with Bendix Hallenstein in the New Zealand Clothing Factory until he retired in 1890. The purchase of the section was inspired by Isaacs’ marriage in Melbourne, May 1878, to Helene Michaelis, daughter of Moritz Michaelis of the Hallenstein/Michaelis dynasties.

Isaacs commissioned a Mason and Wales design in 1878. The design was likely by Nathaniel Wales. Completed by April 1879, the house was named ‘Linden’ after the Michaelis’ family home in Melbourne. There is even a similarity of design, particularly in the restrained ornamentation, slim columns, quoins and lace-like cast iron veranda.

Linden was a two-storied, two-bay Victorian residence of more than fifteen rooms. The exterior was plastered triple brick with quoins. The foundations were Leith Valley andesite, the roof was slate and an ornate balcony was installed over the front door. The ground floor interior included a lounge-drawing room, dining room, breakfast room, and library; all with 14 foot (4.3 metres) high ceilings, decorated plaster centre roses and detailed cornices. Interior fittings included ‘Heavy Turkey, Wilton Pile and Brussels carpets, Magnificent Gilt Wall and Mantel Mirrors and Girandoles’. Furniture was solid oak, walnut and ebony, manufactured in London to special order. Servants’ stairs lead upstairs to three servants’ bedrooms, a bathroom and sunroom. The entrance stairway led to four bedrooms with a dressing room off the master. Beneath the ground floor was a wine cellar, laundry and storage area. The earthen floor was sealed with pitch, probably an early method of preventing rising damp. Between floors was an early method of sound and heat proofing – cinders.

The Isaacs prepared to move to London and in 1890 Linden was sold to James Wilson. In 1896 Richard Hudson (1842-1903), the founder of Cadbury Schweppes Hudson Ltd., bought Linden. Hudson had arrived in New Zealand in 1865 and after working on the goldfields, he trained as a baker. Hudson set up his own bakery and sold ships' biscuits from a barrow on the wharves. During the 1870s and 1880s he built larger and larger biscuit and confectionary factories. Finally in the early 1900s he bought the present factory site in Cumberland Street. Hudson died in 1903 but his widow Mary lived in the house until 1937.

Subsequent owners converted Linden into a lodging house, and it was not until Professor Richard and Eleanor Dowden bought the house in 1975 that it was restored to its former glory and a family home. In 1986 the house was sold again to become the headquarters of the Buddhist community in Dunedin.

This is one of Dunedin's grandest houses and is relatively unmodified. The elegant Linden is architecturally, historically and socially significant for its association with prominent businessmen Jacob Isaacs and Richard Hudson, and as a fine example of Nathaniel Wales’ design skill. An important part of the group of fine Victorian houses in the Pitt Street/Royal Terrace conservation area, Linden stands as a testament to the wealth and entrepreneurism which established Dunedin as an early commercial centre.