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Otago Boys' High School

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Coordinates: 45°52′18″S 170°29′42″E / 45.871597°S 170.495051°E / -45.871597; 170.495051
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Otago Boys' High School
Address
Map
2 Arthur Street

Dunedin

Otago
9016

New Zealand
Coordinates45°52′18″S 170°29′42″E / 45.871597°S 170.495051°E / -45.871597; 170.495051
Information
TypeState secondary, day and boarding
MottoTemplate:Lang-la
("The ‘right’ learning builds a heart of oak")
Established3 August 1863 (1863-08-03); 161 years ago
Sister schoolOtago Girls' High School
Ministry of Education Institution no.377
RectorRichard Hall
GenderBoys
School roll860[1] (August 2024)
Houses  Aspinall
  McIndoe
  Park
  Saxton
Socio-economic decile9Q[2]
Websitewww.obhs.school.nz

Central block
The school's buildings can be seen from much of central Dunedin.

Otago Boys' High School (OBHS) is one of New Zealand's oldest boys' secondary schools, located in Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand. Originally known as Dunedin High School,[3] it was founded on 3 August 1863 and moved to its present site in 1885. The main building was designed by Robert Lawson and is regarded as one of the finest Gothic revival structures in the country.[4] Situated on high ground above central Dunedin it commands excellent views of the city and is a prominent landmark.

Otago Girls' High School now occupies the original site in Tennyson Street, closer to the centre of the city and is Otago Boys' sister school.

The school owns a lodge in Mount Aspiring National Park, and has regular field trips for students.

Building history

The school opened on its present site in Arthur Street in 1885. The Main Tower Block was designed by R A Lawson and built for 14,800 pounds[5] in blue stone, Port Chalmers breccia and Oamaru stone by W A Carlton. It has long been regarded as a fine design and is listed as a Category I Historic Place.[6]

Increasing roll numbers from 1903 led to the opening of the Shand Building in 1914, designed by Edmund Anscombe. He was also responsible for the Rectory, 1913, the principal's onsite residence.[7] The Shand Building, originally called "Shand Hall" cost 3,600 pounds. The following year it was extended to a design by Harry Mandeno (1879–1972).[7][8] A memorial arch at the entrance to the grounds, built in blue stone and Oamaru stone and designed by Leslie Coombs (1885–1952) was unveiled in 1923.[9] In 1920 the Fulton Building provided six additional classrooms, but this has since been replaced with the gymnasium complex and rehoused swimming pool designed by E.J. Ted McCoy as part of the later major restoration and redevelopment of the school's buildings.

There is a teaching block, named after a former Rector, Mr. W.J. Morrell, which was erected in 1961 to a standard Ministry of Works design, though contextualised with blue stone fascias by the architect Ian R McAllum.[7] A grandstand with similar fascias on its rearward elevation forms part of a quadrangle, with the Morrell building, behind the Lawson building. This was also designed by McAllum and built from 1962 to 1963. It has a cantilevered, multiple-gabled canopy added in 1964.[7] Specialist science laboratories designed by Angus Black were constructed in 1967 and were named after the pioneering plastic surgeon Sir Archibald McIndoe, an Old Boy of the school.[7] Mr D J MacLachlan, Rector from 1963 to 1985, worked tirelessly for the construction of the main teaching block which now bears his name.

This is part of the major restoration and redevelopment which saw the refurbishment of the Main Tower Block, the central feature of which is the Maurice Joel Theatre. It also involved the construction of several large new buildings, forming a new quadrangle around the former Green in the greatest expansion of the complex since the 1880s. This considerable undertaking, designed by E.J. Ted McCoy was completed in 1983.

The new buildings, though unmistakably Modernist, nevertheless sit very comfortably with the old. Where Lawson's tower block is an exemplary composition in the Scottish Baronial style, taking its inspiration from the 16th-century tower houses and reading something like a toy fort or a castle to a modern eye, McCoy's blue stone aggregate and fair face concrete echo its materials while the new complex's gun slot windows are a playful reference to the Maginot line which echoes the old building's military theme. The new buildings are also very modestly set below the old so the latter take visual pre-eminence from a distance. The project won the architect a National Award from the New Zealand Institute of Architects. It has also been pointed to as an example of his unusual ability to mix the emphatically old with the unashamedly new.

Notable alumni

Main category: People educated at Otago Boys' High School

The Arts

Business

Law

Public service

Science

Sport

Other

See also

References

  1. ^ "New Zealand Schools Directory". New Zealand Ministry of Education. Retrieved 17 September 2024.
  2. ^ "Decile Change 2014 to 2015 for State & State Integrated Schools". Ministry of Education. Retrieved 12 February 2015.
  3. ^ Benson, Nigel; Jaquiery, Stephen (8 January 2012). "Nautical ghosts inhabit coast". Otago Daily Times. Retrieved 27 April 2015.
  4. ^ An English artist visiting New Zealand, signing himself Evacustes in a letter to the Otago Daily Times, when the building was still mostly a design, expressed such an opinion, also that this building and the university's "would do credit to any town either in Europe or America". Otago Daily Times 23 March 1883 p.4h.
  5. ^ Arnold (et al), 1963 p.6.
  6. ^ "Otago Boy's High School (Central Block)". New Zealand Heritage List/Rārangi Kōrero. Heritage New Zealand. Retrieved 7 July 2008.
  7. ^ a b c d e Griffiths, Eccles, McCoy, 1983, pp.40–41.
  8. ^ Otago Daily Times 2 May 1914 p.5c
  9. ^ Arnold (et al), 1963 p.23.
  10. ^ a b c "Where Are They Now?". Otago Boys' High School Foundation. Retrieved 22 August 2008.
  11. ^ Ng, James. "Benjamin Wong Tape". Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Ministry for Culture and Heritage. Retrieved 1 December 2011.
  12. ^ "Alfred Charles Hanlon". Te Ara – The Encyclopedia of New Zealand. 18 September 2007. Retrieved 27 August 2008.
  13. ^ Gustafson, Barry (1986). The First 50 Years : A History of the New Zealand National Party. Auckland: Reed Methuen. p. 313. ISBN 0-474-00177-6.
  14. ^ "Salmond, James Louis". New Zealand Historic Places Trust. Retrieved 13 August 2009.
  15. ^ "Roger Johnson". New Zealand Olympic Committee. Archived from the original on 14 July 2014. Retrieved 4 July 2014.

Sources

  • T.J. Arnold (et al.), Centennial Publication Otago Boys' High School Old Boys' Register, Dunedin: NZ; Otago High School Old Boys' Society (Inc.), 1963.
  • G.J. Griffiths, Alfred Eccles, E.J. McCoy, Otago Boys' High and its historic neighbourhood, Dunedin: NZ; Otago Heritage Books, 1983.
  • Sweetman, Rory (2013). Above the City: A history of Otago Boys' High School 1863–2013. Dunedin: Otago Boys' High School Foundation. ISBN 9780473247720.
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