Otago Boys' High School
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 Boys' High School | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Address | |
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2 Arthur Street 9016 New Zealand | |
| Coordinates | 45.871597°S 170.495051°E |
| Information | |
| Type | State secondary, day and boarding |
| Motto | Latin: Recti Cultus Pectora Roborant ("The ‘right’ learning builds a heart of oak") |
| Established | 3 August 1863; 158 years ago |
| Sister school | Otago Girls' High School |
| Ministry of Education Institution no. | 377 |
| Rector | Richard Hall |
| Gender | Boys |
| School roll | 811[1] (March 2020) |
| Houses | Aspinall McIndoe Park Saxton |
| Socio-economic decile | 9Q[2] |
| Website | www.obhs.school.nz |
 Central block | |
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
The Arts
- Alistair Te Ariki Campbell – poet, playwright and novelist
- Edwin Carr – composer
- Fergus Hume – pioneering detective novelist
- Rodney Eric Kennedy – drama tutor, pacifist and art critic
- Jonathan Lemalu – opera singer
- Bill Manhire – poet and short story writer[10]
- Colin McCahon – painter
- John Grenell – country music singer-songwriter
- The four original band members of Netherworld Dancing Toys[10] – pop band
- Sir William Southgate – conductor and composer
- Mark Hathaway - One News Reporter
Business
- Robert Laidlaw (1899–1901) – founder of Farmers Trading Company
- Murray Raffills – founder of Treble Cone skifield
- Wong Tape (1875–1967), merchant in Dunedin[11]
Law
- Alfred Charles Hanlon – barrister[12]
- Sir John Salmond – legal thinker and judge
- Sir Bruce Robertson – judge court of appeal, president of the Law Commission
Public service
- Sir Francis Bell – former Prime Minister of New Zealand
- Peter Chin – former Mayor of Dunedin
- John Hannibal George (1901–1996), Member of Parliament[13]
- Allan Highet – former Cabinet Minister
- Sir Clutha MacKenzie – World War I soldier, worker for the blind and author
- Sir Jack Marshall – former Prime Minister of New Zealand.
- Sir Keith Park – Gallipoli soldier and senior commander in the Battle of Britain
Science
- Eric Arthur - Canadian architect, writer and educator
- Frank Holmes – mining geologist, father of oil in the Arabian Peninsula
- E J "Ted" McCoy – architect
- Sir Archibald McIndoe – pioneering plastic surgeon
- J. Louis Salmond, architect[14]
Sport
- Ian Billcliff – cricketer[10]
- Hamish Bond – Olympic gold medallist rower
- Max Chu - cricketer
- Wyatt Crockett – All Black
- Russell Coutts – yachtsman
- Greg Henderson – cyclist
- Roger Johnson – Olympian – 1968, 1972 – 400 Meter Hurdles[15]
- Byron Kelleher – former All Black
- Richie McCaw – Rugby World Cup-winning All Black captain
- Tom Palmer – England International Rugby Player
- Mahal Pearce – golfer, winner of the 2003 New Zealand Golf Open
- Hamish Rutherford – cricketer
- Charles Saxton – former All Black
- Ron Scott – sports administrator
Other
- Alexander Aitken – soldier, author, and mathematician
- David Gray – mass murderer
- Stewart Graeme Guthrie – police officer killed during David Gray's Aramoana massacre
See also
- List of schools in New Zealand
References
- "New Zealand Schools Directory". New Zealand Ministry of Education. Retrieved 26 April 2020.
- "Decile Change 2014 to 2015 for State & State Integrated Schools". Ministry of Education. Retrieved 12 February 2015.
- Benson, Nigel; Jaquiery, Stephen (8 January 2012). "Nautical ghosts inhabit coast". Otago Daily Times. Retrieved 27 April 2015.
- 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.
- Arnold (et al), 1963 p.6.
- "Otago Boy's High School (Central Block)". Register of Historic Places. Heritage New Zealand. Retrieved 7 July 2008.
- Griffiths, Eccles, McCoy, 1983, pp.40–41.
- Otago Daily Times 2 May 1914 p.5c
- Arnold (et al), 1963 p.23.
- "Where Are They Now?". Otago Boys' High School Foundation. Retrieved 22 August 2008.
- Ng, James. "Benjamin Wong Tape". Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Ministry for Culture and Heritage. Retrieved 1 December 2011.
- "Alfred Charles Hanlon". Te Ara – The Encyclopedia of New Zealand. 18 September 2007. Retrieved 27 August 2008.
- 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.
- "Salmond, James Louis". New Zealand Historic Places Trust. Retrieved 13 August 2009.
- "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.
External links
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