Leebank is one of a pair of elegant timber mansions in Dunedin designed by E.W. Walden in 1905 and built for prominent businessman Andrew Lees’ daughters. Of enormous aesthetic appeal, architectural grandeur and historical associations, Leebank makes a significant contribution to our understanding of turn-of-the century residences and Dunedin’s elite.

Andrew Lees (1833-1904) arrived in 1859 in Dunedin and ‘established one of the most successful firms in New Zealand’ specialising in paint, wallpaper and glass. On Andrew’s death in 1904, his married daughters Catherine Smith Melville (1869-1953), or Kate as she was known, and Annie Millar Blakely (1865-1918) kept two sections from his estate bordering Tweed Street. They commissioned noted architect Edward Walter Walden (1870-1944) to design two adjacent residences. The land transfer was completed in February 1905 and construction on the houses must have begun immediately as they were in situ by October 1905.

Kate’s residence, like her sister’s next door, was designed in ‘then popular Queen Anne Revival style, distinguishable by its pointed turret, which was typically, for the Edwardian period, festooned with decoration, inside and out’. On the exterior, timber and slate were complemented by cast iron filigree liberally draped on the verandas. The interior downstairs included a drawing room, dining room and morning room. Upstairs were five bedrooms. The grand interior showcased stained glass art, designed and created by Robert Fraser (1868-1947). Fraser was ‘a highly skilled artist’ and one of the first artists in New Zealand to produce painted and fired stained glass windows. Fraser’s work can be seen around the front door, in the fanlights topping the turret windows, and in the ‘huge window lighting the staircase [which] is nothing short of magnificent’. Kate named her house ‘Leebank’, incorporating her family name. Annie named her house ‘Mahara.’

Kate died at Leebank in 1953, aged 84. The house was sold in 1954, and in 1957 was bought by manufacturers Ross and Glendining Ltd to use as a hostel for immigrant workers brought out to work for the firm. It was used as a hostel until the early 1970s. In 1972 Leebank came into the personal possession of the Company Manager John Glendining and again become a family home.

Over the intervening century, Leebank has passed through various hands - yet it remains an elegant and grand mansion. Gracing the Littlebourne hill with its sister house Mahara, they stand as a testament to the Lees’ family wealth.