Otago University was established in 1874 and is the oldest of the New Zealand universities. The Clock Tower is a distinguished piece of architecture dating from 1878 and features an early use of local basalt stone on a dramatic and large scale, emphasising the value placed in Otago on higher learning. Although the interior has been largely altered, its exterior remains mostly unchanged and along with the Chemistry Building, the School of Mines and Marama and Allen Halls, forms part of an outstanding group of well related buildings which was erected in the period of Dunedin's pre-eminence and prosperity.

Both iwi history and archaeological evidence show Māori occupation in the Ōtākou / Otago region since the 12th century. Today, Kāi Tahu mana whenua is recognised over a large part of Te Wai Pounamu. Kāti Māmoe and Waitaha shared occupation are always acknowledged. The hapū Kai Te Pahi, Kāti Moki, and Kāti Taoka still maintain their presence and responsibility as kaitiaki in this region. Traditional Māori place names include Ōwheo (the Water of Leith), a river that runs directly in front of the Clock Tower building and though campus, would have facilitated travel by waka from the coast to places further inland and the mouth of Ōwheo, known as Te Tutai o Te Matauira, was likely a valuable settlement area for accessing kaimoana and other resources. Roberts (1909) states that Ōwheo, the name of a Kāti Māmoe chief, resided on the bank of the river where Howe Street joins Leith Street.

The Otago Provincial Council established New Zealand’s first university in 1869, very close to the site of Toitū Tauraka waka Waka (List no. 9774). When the new institution opened on 5 July 1871, offices and shops shut to let people watch the ceremonies. By 1877 the University had outgrown that space and requested the government for use of the northern half of the land assigned for botanical gardens lying between St David, Union. Leith and Castle Streets which was granted.

The gothic complex of university buildings built between 1878 and the 1920s, which the Clock Tower is part of, constitutes a major example of nineteenth and early twentieth century gothic in New Zealand, impressive in its size and completeness. In 1876 architect Maxwell Bury (1825-1912) won the competition for the design of the Clock Tower and Geology buildings for the Otago University in 1877. Bury was heavily influenced by the recently completed Glasgow University, design by George Gilbert Scott in 1870. The decision to build in stone was influenced by the poor quality of bricks available in Dunedin at the time and the Chancellor stated they wanted “to have the University with some architectural style”. Unfortunately costs on the building overran to such an extent that a Commission of Enquiry into the matter was held in 1879. Thereafter Bury found his commissions declining.

The building was built with a vivid contrast of white Ōamaru stone facings, grey Leith Valley basalt and footings of Port Chalmers breccia. The roof was covered with Welsh slate. Builders McGill and Forrest’s tender was accepted in September 1877 and after building the present Geology Block, they completed the northern end of the clock tower block in time for classes in April 1879. The building ended just south of the clock tower, which interestingly had no clock until 1931 when Sir Thomas Sidey presented one.

The site has a harmony of style that reflects the care that later architect Edmund Anscombe (1874-1948) put into the extensions to the southern end in 1912 and 1922. Hon. Richard Oliver’s widow presented the University with £2000 ($403, 900) for two classrooms which Anscombe designed modifying Bury’s plans. In 1919 Professor Jack proposed a new physics building south of the Oliver classrooms which were completed by 1922 by Anscombe. Though all the windows are gothic in design, there is considerable variation in their shapes and proportions. Although the clocktower began as Bury’s design, it was completed to a different conception of Anscombe’s.

The exterior is unmodified except for a small section at the northeast end, but the interior has been changed several times. The Council Chamber (the original library), the entrance foyer, main doors, central staircase, stained glass windows, and most of the upstairs administrator’s rooms have been retained in or restored to the original style of panelling or plaster work.

In 1957 a letter was written by the Department of Education recommending that the tower be demolished. A report by AH Johnstone of the Works Department stated that the tower was unsafe with earthquake risk and deterioration of masonry. The University Council obtained further advice and on this report the Council took on the responsibility itself and carried out the repairs. In 1965 the Library (which had spread over the years across the building) moved out of the building into a new one and the University Administration took over their old area.

Major alterations were undertaken to the ground floor in 1997 with a new glass wall being built. The clock tower building is still impressive and very much photographed building although now dwarfed by twentieth century campus buildings.