Hazelwood is a substantial stately home constructed of bluestone, Ōamaru stone and triple brick situated at 17 Elder Street, Dunedin. The site is at the apex of a piece of land running between Constitution and Elder Streets, and the house is joined with cobbling to a stable and other outbuilding. The buildings are of historical and architectural significance. Hazelwood was notable as the home of Sir George McLean (1834 – 1917) banker, merchant, politician and patron of the arts and sports, and Lady Isabella McLean nee Holmes (1846 – 1923) on land that had been held in trust for her by her father Mathew Holmes (1817-1901). The house is a fine example of an early Dunedin residence designed with neo-classical influences.

In the early 1860s this land was Crown granted to Scottish physician Dr William Purdie (1797-1876) who owned the whole block up Pitt Street to Constitution and Elder Streets. Mathew Holmes (1817-1901) purchased the land from Purdie in 1863. Holmes’s daughter Isabella married George McLean in 1867. In 1870 the land on which Hazelwood stands was transferred in trust to James Holmes and William Tolmie for Isabella McLean. Extensive searches have not revealed when the house was built, or by whom it was designed. Photographic evidence suggests the house could have been built between 1868 and 1874 and the stables prior to 1876. The McLeans were living at “Constitution Street” or “Elder Street” from 1874 and Hazelwood is certainly a house reflecting the family’s significant standing in the fledgling Dunedin’s business and cultural community.

The house is a solid building constructed of bluestone, Ōamaru stone and triple brick displaying neo-classical elements. The entrance from Elder Street reveals bay windows flanking an entrance porch surmounted by a sculpted pediment supported by two columns with Corinthian capitals and a slate roof. Both the house and the two-storey addition at the rear have quoining and are joined by a linking building. Behind this a large two-storey stable with hayloft is separated from the house by cobbled yard. A large conservatory graced part of the north side of the house, and the large rooms featured marble fireplaces, moulded plaster ceilings, Baltic pine floors and heavy kauri doors. At its time of sale in 1920, the house comprised 14 rooms and 3 bathrooms.

Hazelwood was sold to Robert Laverty in 1920; it was quickly converted to flats and bedsits as well as providing accommodation for the extended family through to the 1990s. The stables had been let as a club rooms when it sustained fire damage which was restored in 1960. In the 1970s the hayloft was rented to a couple who converted it into an open-plan flat. The original slate roof of the house has been replaced however the exterior of the house is largely unchanged. The large interior rooms have been divided and few original elements remain. In 2019 Hazelwood continues to operate as a rental property.