property-owning women
In 1893, Margaret Stinnear, who lived in Oxford Terrace, bought land in Bangor Street and subsequently built two simple cottages there. This was just two years after her husband's business was sold in a mortgagee sale, and the beginnings of her (small) property empire. Margaret also owned the couple’s property in Oxford Terrace, and later owned property in both New Brighton and Linwood
Margaret and her husband, John (who was of Italian descent), had arrived in New Zealand in the 1870s. John was a plumber, inventor, a druid, long-time member of the fire brigade and, latterly, caretaker for the Union Rowing Club.
Having bought her sections, Margaret set about developing them, building a small identical cottage on each and renting them out. These cottages were single storey, clad in weatherboards with a brick fire wall. They had five rooms: a parlour, a kitchen, two bedrooms and a hall. There was wainscoting in the hall and each room had a wooden ceiling rose.
Margaret wasn’t the only woman who owned property in the loop.
Marie Weidner (17 Willow Street), Maria Hardie (13 Willow Street), Jane Eliza Goodwin (374 Barbadoes Street), Mary Wheatley (17 Hurley Street), Mahala Mason (245 Kilmore Street, and later the Whiteheads’ property), Eliza Hamilton (44 Bangor Street), Susan Truscott (45 and 47 Bangor Street) and Alice Bullivant (née Oppenheim; 7 Willow Street) all owned land in the loop in the 19th century.
What might have been unusual about Margaret, however, was that Dorothea, her daughter, was adopted. Adoption was not a common practice at the time. Dorothea was Margaret and John's only child.
