The original house was designed by Frank L.H. Fleming of Baker and Fleming in 1918 for Leopold Greenberg in the Arts and Crafts style, which favoured the use of traditional English vernacular forms, local materials and fine craftmanship. Greenberg started his legal practice in Johannesburg in 1909, was appointed judge at age 1939 and Judge-President of the Transvaal Provincial Division in 1938 (when he moved to Pretoria), eventually becoming a Judge at the Appeal Court . One of his famous judgements was in the Daisy de Melker trial. He received an honorary doctorate from the University of the Witwatersrand and was on the controlling board of the University of Jerusalem. Its Institute for Forensic Medicine, created from funds provided by the South African Jewish community, carries his name.