The former Rectory, the Central Block and the South Wing of Waitaki Boys’ High School, built between 1883 and 1912, have an imposing architectural presence recalling the school’s founding philosophy harking back to the English Public School and its academic and cultural model. These buildings have special architectural, historical and social significance.

Waitaki Boys’ High School has its origins in the 1878 Waitaki High School Act. The Act vested the management of the proposed Waitaki High School in a Board of Governors which might among other tasks, spend ‘any sum not exceeding £10,000 on buildings.’ The Board acquired a 30 acre site on the outskirts of Oamaru. In March 1881, the Board selected the design of prominent Oamaru architectural partnership Thomas Forrester and John Lemon. According to historian K. C. McDonald, the architects ‘paid little heed to the financial limits imposed on them, for the plans submitted were of a most palatial building, with a frontage surpassing in grandeur even the fine façade of the school to-day.’ The Board elected to call for tenders for the master’s residence, setting aside the remainder of the plan. Art historian Conal McCarthy writes that master’s residence was built to serve as the first school. McCarthy writes that Forrester and Lemon’s ‘extravagant conception’ was ‘not out of keeping with the visions of some members’ of the Board of Governors. An old Etonian, Sir Henry Millar wished to make Waitaki Boys a New Zealand version of Eton College. The school was to be a ‘radiant centre of culture to the youth of certain classes.’ The schools critics saw the building as a symbol of privilege. Rector John Harkness held the first classes for 19 boys in May 1883.

It was not until the early years of the twentieth century, when the roll had stabilised at over 100 pupils that the school facilities were expanded. In 1905, money was raised to build new classrooms designed by John Megget Forrester, son of the original architect. The new classrooms ‘formed an extension of the main building towards the south’ and constituted the ‘central portion’ of the school’s frontage. In 1911 the Board decided to build another ‘substantial’ two storeyed stone classroom and laboratory block – the South Wing. To keep with the original design, they decided to ‘continue the façade of the School by erecting the new building to the south of the wing opened in 1904.’ The classrooms were ready for the boys in the third term of 1912. McDonald describes the new block as a ‘handsome two storeyed erection, containing bright airy rooms. At the beginning of Term 3 in 1920, the school suffered a heavy loss with a serious fire in the South Wing. The classrooms were reinstated over the next year.

These three buildings, their functions changing over the years, make up the imposing frontage of the school, giving it its imposing and impressive character. In 2015, these buildings in their beautiful grounds, along with the Hall of Memories and the former Junior High School, remain the centrepiece of Waitaki Boys’ High School.