David Murray traces the history of a handsome York Pl home.
New Zealand's first female medical graduate, Emily Siedeberg, lived in lower York Pl for much of her life.
Her handsome residence at number 59 (since renumbered 75) was built in 1903, five years after she established her private practice in Dunedin. Her family connection with the land dated back nearly as far as her birth.
Emily's father, Franz David Siedeberg, was a Jewish settler from Memel, Prussia (now Klaipeda, Lithuania) and had been a pioneer in the Otago gold dredging industry in the 1860s.
He married his second wife, Irish-born Anna Thompson, in 1867, and Emily was born in Clyde on February 17, 1873. She grew up as the second eldest of four children.
Six months after Emily's birth the Siedebergs moved to Dunedin, where Franz worked as a builder.
His larger contracts included the construction of the Royal Exchange Hotel (later Standard Insurance building), Albany Street School, and stone abutments for the Jetty St overbridge. He first occupied property in York Pl in 1875.
Emily was educated at the Normal School (Moray Pl) and Otago Girls' High School, and studied medicine at the University of Otago from 1891 to 1895, graduating in 1896.
She furthered her studies in Britain, Ireland, and Germany, before returning to Dunedin at the end of 1897.
Early the following year, she set up practice in a house provided by her father, a few doors down from the old family home. Her sister, Isabella, was housekeeper.
Franz died in September 1902, and six months later Dr Siedeberg visited architect James Louis Salmond to commission designs for a new house in front of the old family home.
Salmond's diary records his work on plans at the end of March 1903. He estimated the cost would be over £1500, and Siedeberg requested changes to get the cost under £1200.
The final drawings were ready in May, and at the end of that month the building contract was awarded to S. S. Aburn, who put in a tender of £1065.
Aburn must have considered the job a good example of his work, as one of his advertisements showed his staff posed outside the nearly completed building.
The house is in the style sometimes called Queen Anne (confusingly, as the revivalism was not specific to the reign of Anne).
The bay windows, elaborately decorated gable, and exposed red brick are typical of Salmond, and originally the house also featured his signature chimney stacks. The roof was slate.
It is interesting to compare the York Pl house with one of Salmond's timber designs, at 12 Pitt St.
A photograph taken circa 1910 shows the original exterior appearance. It also includes Dr Siedeberg herself, seated in her yellow Clement-Bayard motor car.
She was one of the first women in Dunedin to own a car, and was once prosecuted for driving it at faster than a walking pace (a charge she successfully defended).
On the upper floor were four bedrooms and a drawing room, necessary as Dr Siedeberg's mother, sister, and younger brother all lived with her.
Her mother remained for 20 years and died in the house in 1923.
Isabella, a talented artist who had studied at the Dunedin School of Art, stayed until the 1920s, when she moved to Auckland.
The youngest of the family, Harry, lived in the house until his marriage in 1911, after which he moved next door.
Harry was an insurance agent and a well-known sportsman.
He played cricket for New Zealand and was four times national billiards champion, as well as an Otago hockey and soccer representative.
The older brother, Frank, was New Zealand chess champion and later worked as an engineer in Berlin.
An entrance at the side of the house (since closed up) led to Dr Siedeberg's waiting room, and across the hall was the consulting room, which faced the street.
This arrangement presumably kept the front door and hall clear for visitors making use of the corner sitting room where, if it was not time for tea, sherry and biscuits were the favoured refreshments.
Other downstairs rooms were a large dining room, a dressing room, a bedroom for the maid or maids, and a kitchen with adjoining pantry and scullery.
Dr Siedeberg's niece, Emily Host, left some brief but delightful personal insights into life in the house, although it is not possible to fully verify them.
She recalled a large tin bath in the scullery, which most of the time had a thick slab of wood placed across it for use as bench.
Dr Siedeberg was adamant that the maids must take a bath every Saturday, although at least one objected to so much washing and bathing.
This was Elsie, a "blowsy blonde'' whom Host described as being much addicted to boyfriends.
On one occasion a noise was heard and Emily and Isabella came downstairs in gowns and long plaits to find one of these boyfriends climbing out of Elsie's bedroom window.
Afterwards the window was nailed up so that it could only be opened about two inches at the top.
Host described her aunt as someone who acted and thought according to Victorian principles.
She had a sweet, dignified nature, and was very understanding of the human failings of those who were nasty to her.
She shocked her family and a large proportion of Dunedin by not taking a "proper'' view of "fallen women'' and would frequently take them into her home and help them during pregnancy.
Dr Siedeberg was medical superintendent of St Helen's Maternity Hospital from 1905 to 1938, and the hospital was the first in New Zealand to have an antenatal clinic.
She was also medical officer of the Caversham Industrial School from 1907 to 1930, and earlier in her career had helped establish the Society for the Protection of Women and Children.
She was first president of the New Zealand Medical Women's Association, and also of the Pioneer Women's Memorial Association. She was awarded a CBE in 1949.
Emily Siedeberg married in Los Angeles in 1928, at the age of 55.
Her husband, James Alexander McKinnon, was the retired manager of the Mosgiel Branch of the National Bank, and Emily became known as Dr Siedeberg-McKinnon.
A new house for the couple was built in Cairnhill St around 1929, and they moved again to Cargill St around 1938.
The house in York Pl remained in family ownership with rooms rented to various tenants, including Mrs Elizabeth Tweedy who lived there for more than 25 years.
James McKinnon died in 1949 and Emily moved back to her York Pl house around 1954, remaining there into the 1960s.
She spent her last few years at the Presbyterian Social Service Association home in Oamaru, where she died on June 13, 1968.
In its more recent history the house again became a place of medical practice, being the premises of the Dr Safari Appearance Medicine Clinic.
Dr Soheila Safari is, in common with Emily Siedeberg, a graduate of the University of Otago, and has also worked as a general practitioner. She established her clinic in 2006.
Studio rooms are found on the first floor, still accessed by the same beautiful grand staircase built in 1903.
75 York Pl
Built: 1903
Architect: James Louis Salmond
Builder: Stephen Samuel Aburn
