Importance of place at heart of building stoush

The fate of a simple, but meaningful, building at Dunedin’s oldest school is still undecided. Wyatt Ryder takes a look at the history of the Arthur Street School infants’ building and why tensions are high as redevelopment of the school site looms.

Past the classrooms and across the sports courts of Dunedin’s Arthur Street School sits a small wooden building tucked in among the trees.

On each side, tall windows reach up the off-white weatherboard walls towards a grey slate roof spotted with lichen.

To the southwest is the school playground, which may soon stretch north and overtake the site where the building has stood for more than 144 years.

If the Ministry of Education and the school have their way, that is.

It is proposed that the historic infant department, commonly known as the infants’ building, will be relocated when the school undergoes a $10.9 million redevelopment later this year.

But the fate of the building is not yet set in stone and Dunedin heritage advocates are determined not to let it go quietly, or at all.

As a category 2 historic place, the infants’ building’s story falls into a significant period in the history of New Zealand education.

Its construction in 1887 coincided with a boom in school rolls and saved the school from overpopulation as primary education became compulsory.

A Heritage New Zealand report on the building says it embodies little-known facts about the evolution of early childhood education.

Arthur Street School was established as Dunedin’s Beach School in 1848 at the foot of Bell Hill.

In the 1860s it was moved to a new building in Dowling St and renamed Middle District School.

After roadworks made the building unsafe it was moved to Arthur St in 1876, reopening in October 1877.

The infants’ building was built at the new site as a solution to the "cramped and unhealthy conditions" caused by overpopulation at the school.

The 1877 Education Act had made primary education free and compulsory for children, leading to a steep rise in pupil numbers.

Infant pupils, 5 and 6 years old, made up a large part of school populations.

The large numbers left little space for older pupils, who were often left sitting in cramped positions inside poorly ventilated rooms, which was detrimental to their health.

The construction of the infants’ department made room for 200 pupils, leaving the main building for the use of senior pupils.

It was built to a standard Otago Education Board plan from the 1880s and continued to be developed throughout the years.

In 1928 the building was remodelled and had floor tiers removed.

It was further developed in 1933, when an "open-air" room was added as per the trend of the time, designed to provide a healthy, ventilated environment for children.

However, the design did not mix well with Dunedin’s cold weather and it was subsequently enclosed again.

It was used as the new entrants classroom until 1985 and eventually became the school library in 1999.

The building has not been in use since 2018 due to significant weathertightness issues, poor insulation and age-related roofing and building failure.

The Ministry of Education first announced it was looking for a new home for the building in 2020.

It was unsafe to occupy and the cost to refurbish the building had been identified at about $1 million, it said.

Updated estimates from last year indicated almost $2 million would be required.

Ministry of Education infrastructure and digital leader Scott Evans said relocating the building, and subsequently transferring ownership of it, would generally confer maintenance responsibilities on the new owner.

The ministry was considering all available information before it consults with the community on the future of the building.

If it was relocated, the space where the building is now would form part of the school’s outdoor learning and play area, he said.

Most recently the ministry had been in discussions with Ferrymead Heritage Park in Christchurch about taking the building.

The very idea the infants’ building could be moved off site or even out of the city has greatly irked Dunedin’s heritage advocates.

Ultimately the decision comes down to the Ministry of Education. However, there are guidelines it has to follow along the way and the heritage advocates believe the ministry is neglecting these guidelines.

They believe the ministry just wants to move the building to avoid paying to repair and maintain it.

Southern Heritage Trust founding trustee Ann Barsby is leading calls to protect the building and keep it in Dunedin.

The proposal as it stood was another example of Dunedin’s heritage being taken out of Dunedin, she said.

It was "crazy" to believe relocating the building would maintain the heritage value of it.

There was still a chance it would remain on site, and heritage advocates would continue protesting the move until the building was dug up and taken away, she said.

Most recently the group had started a petition to try to garner support for their cause.

Mrs Barsby believed the estimated repair prices were inaccurate and the ministry and the school instead wanted to spend any money they had solely on the redevelopment.

The cost of fixing the infants’ building was an excuse so convenient that the ministry and the board of trustees would undermine their own guidelines to avoid fixing the building, she said.

Under the ministry’s 2016 historic heritage management guidelines, it must ensure that any places of heritage value are not disposed of without fully exploring options for reuse.

The guidelines also recognise that for some structures, the location, site and setting is essential to their authenticity and integrity as cultural heritage places, and they should remain on their original sites.

The ministry disputes claims the infants’ building’s location is essential to its authenticity as a cultural place because the building was not present at the original two locations of the school.

Other heritage advocates have made their feelings on the matter publicly known, too.

Dunedin heritage building owner and developer Stephen Macknight said it was nonsense the building could not be incorporated into a modern learning environment.

Architect Sue Larkins said its retention offered an outstanding opportunity to educate students in both environmental sustainability and history, while longtime built heritage advocate Lois Galer said Dunedin prided itself on its heritage and moving the building to Christchurch was a "ridiculous" suggestion.

Roberta Coutts, who spent 15 years as manager of King Edward Court, Dunedin’s largest historic building, suggested converting the infants’ building into a Montessori primary school, an idea that has been rejected by the school, which said its roll was already at the limit for the site.

The general agreement among those who have spoken up is that the school should be proud of its heritage, not remove it.

As the school’s new iteration develops around it, only time will tell what is to become of the Arthur Street School’s infants’ department.

wyatt.ryder@odt.co.nz