Te Awamutu School was established in 1877 as the settlement began to grow as a European town and service centre for an expanding farming district. In 1880 a school building with one classroom was built close to the centre of town in Roche Street by the Auckland Education Board. The passing of the 1877 Education Act which made the provision of schools and schooling the responsibility of Boards of Education coincided with the development of the rural economy and population expansion in the town; this resulted in the erection of the school.
Te Awamutu School was not the first school in the district, one having been established in 1839 by missionaries at Otawhao (the earlier name for the area) for the local Maori and Pakeha-Maori children, closing in 1863 as racial tensions increased. After the confiscations of Tainui land by the government, Imperial Regiments occupied Te Awamutu during 1864-1867. Te Awamutu’s initial years as a colonial settlement were unsuccessful and it was not until 1873 that members of the local community began requesting the establishment of a school for its children. In May 1876 the Auckland Education Board finally agreed to the establishment of a school, by which time there were 40 eligible children.
The first school classes were held in the public hall in January 1877. Land that had formed part of the Camp Reserve adjacent to the 40th Regiment’s redoubt was set aside for educational use and in 1879 the Board agreed to provide a purpose built building.
Te Awamutu School was designed in 1879 by Henry Allright (1827-1906), architect to the Auckland Education Board. Allright designed several similar structures in the Auckland region. The construction tender was won in November 1879 by Thomas Oram and Hugh Gray, builders, and James Stitt, painter, all of Auckland, at a cost of £446. The one acre plot was an L shaped section, with the school building straddling Allotments 53 and 55 and facing northwest to Roche Street. The teacher’s residence was nearby on Roche Street and the horse paddock for the pupils’ horses was on Allotment 58, the corner of Herbert Street (now known as Vaile Street) and Palmer Street. The building was completed and opened for its first classes on 5 April 1880.
The school was associated with prominent local businessmen such as Henry Lewis who kept the Te Awamutu Hotel in the 1880s and J.B. Teasdale who ran a livery stable and was a local body politician. The chairman of the first school committee was James Mandeno, a builder and architect who was also chairman of the Town Board. Several former pupils of the school became nationally important in sport, finance and historiography e.g. H.R.H. Chalmers who became general manager of the Bank of New Zealand; and James Cowan, an author and historian who published a large number of monographs on local and Maori history. During his lifetime his writing did much to shape the way New Zealanders perceived their history.
The school when built had a single classroom measuring 40 x 21 feet (12.2 x 6.4 metres) with a coved ceiling, and two porches on one side, each with its own entrance approached by ‘massive wooden steps’. The height ‘to the collar ties of the roof’ was 16 feet (4.9 metres). The design included Gothic elements such as the pointed top to each door and the label mouldings (hood mouldings) above the windows. The interior was lined with matched timber and all was made of heart kauri. The doors were of local workmanship. The specification included an open fireplace with wooden fire surround and mantelpiece, three ventilators in the roof and a louvered ventilator in the two main gables. The rear (southeast) wall contained two windows, the southwest wall seven windows and on the northeast wall there were one or two windows plus doors opening into each of the porches. In each porch was a hand basin, fed with water piped from an external tank, with a bucket beneath to catch the dirty water. The children were provided with two detached lavatories.
In 1880 the North Island Main Trunk Railway reached Te Awamutu, and the town’s businesses and population numbers began to expand as new economic opportunities arose. By 1885 the school was too small for the number of pupils and a shed at the rear of the school, already in use for classes, was fitted up to take the junior classes. The locally-elected School Committee asked for permission to take out the dividing wall between the two porches. The building was considered ‘so badly planned that a fire is more ornamental than useful’. The school had a bell mounted on the gable ridge of the original double porch.
The school roll continued to grow rapidly such that in 1893 there were 103 children, of whom 94 might attend on any one day. Despite intense lobbying by staff, parents and the committee the Board deferred any decision regarding expansion. However a report from their inspector in October 1893 that stated 113 children, six of whom were 15 years or older, were occupying a space of only 840 square feet (78 square metres), resulted in a decision in November 1893 to enlarge the school. Board Architects Mitchell (John Mitchell (c.1859-1947)) and Watt (Robert Martin Watt (1860-1907)) designed an additional classroom and the tender of builder E. Wrigley for £220 was accepted in January 1894.
The new room measured 23 x 21 feet (7.0 x 6.4 metres) and was in the same style as the original, although its windows were spaced further apart. The expansion included a lean-to porch behind the original porches (now one space); this was accessible from the rear porch and from the new classroom. The new porch was equal in size to the combined former two porches, but of considerably less stud height. The former rear windows were retained in the common wall between the two classrooms; there was a communicating door between the two classrooms. The new classroom had one rear window in the gable end wall. The new classroom had no ceiling, only timber match-lining under the corrugated iron roof.
In circa 1903 the school was described as having two classrooms and two smaller classrooms, so it would seem that the divided original porch, or the porch plus the new lean-to, were being used as classrooms. In 1911 another extension was built, consisting of another classroom connected to the original building by a large porch. The classroom was built on the southwest side of the original and designed in a similar style with a matching gable front facing the road. The windows of the original front gable end were altered and a new row of centrally hinged casement windows installed above the sash windows. One of the original windows on the southwest side was altered to form a door into the new porch. The additions and alterations were designed by Education Board Architect John Farrell and built by George H. James. At some time after 1894, probably in 1911, the shingles were removed and the roof covered with corrugated iron. The supporting lathes were retained.
Within four years the additional space was again inadequate, and with some classes having to use a church hall nearby the community pressured the Board for a larger school. The secondary classes moved to another church hall in 1920, and in 1921 new school buildings were opened on a site in Teasdale Street. Despite this there was still a shortage of space and towards the end of 1921 it was suggested that the old school be used for the infant classes. Possibly at this time the open fireplace was removed and replaced with a freestanding enclosed fireplace with chimney flue; undated sketched additions to the 1911 plan include the addition of ‘Infant’ to the title, the new fireplace position with the old recess scribbled out, a new side door and steps in the lean-to and repositioning of a window in the lean-to. The side door with canopy is seen in an historic photograph.
From 1922 the old school building continued to be used for infant classes, even though in 1929 a deputation to the Minister of Education described it as having outgrown its usefulness, over-crowded, much deteriorated, the site ‘insanitary’ and that a ‘good deal of sickness among the children and teachers had been caused by the conditions…’. Repairs were undertaken in 1932.
Large numbers attended the Golden Jubilee in 1939, which was a combined celebration with the centenary of the mission school; attendees included a few who had been at the school in its first two decades, reflecting that even after 30-50 years the school was held in high esteem.
In July 1945 it was announced that the old Roche Street school building was to be abandoned and children would ‘no longer have to be educated in conditions that were far from ideal’. The rooms were emptied of equipment and furniture but three months later an official visit from Education Board members and the Department of Education reversed the decision. Despite objections, some classes were shifted back in 1946 and another class in 1947 so that by May 1947 all rooms of the old school were again occupied. This necessitated some repairs.
In April 1952 the high school was using the school for evening classes; it was also being used as clubrooms by the Te Awamutu Highland Pipe Band. By May 1952 the school building was empty and no longer required by the Education Board.
In 1953 the land was created a reserve for the purposes of municipal buildings. During 1953 the school was used for a kindergarten. In June 1954 the Te Awamutu Free Kindergarten Association was formed and leased the old school building after alterations and approval from the Department of Education. Title was issued to the mayor, councillors and burgesses of the Borough of Te Awamutu in 1955. The Borough Council bought the school building for £300 with the intention of making it available for local organisations. In 1955 it was also occupied by the Junior Chamber of Commerce and in 1956 the Te Awamutu Lyceum Club. Other organisations interested in using one or more rooms were the Pipe Band, Te Awamutu College, Scouts, Cubs, Chess Club and Watchtower Society. By the 1950s or 60s an external door had been cut from the 1894 classroom. There may have been another external door in the rear wall of the porch.
Te Awamutu Kindergarten remained in the building until the end of 1959, with a roll of 80 pupils. From the late 1960s the building was leased by Little Theatre, an amateur theatre company.
In 1973 when the site was required for the municipal buildings, Little Theatre and other community groups and individuals pressured the Borough Council for the old school building’s preservation. Council acknowledged the building’s historic significance in March 1974 by shifting the 1880 and 1894 parts of the structure to Allotment 58 which backed onto the original site. The shift entailed levelling a terrace on the side of the hill and turning the building 180 degrees. The building on its new site continued to be leased by the Te Awamutu Little Theatre for use as clubrooms, theatre and workshops. At that time Little Theatre was the sole drama group in the town. The local branch of the Lions Club undertook the task of renovating the building.
Little Theatre made some modifications to the building, both before and after its relocation. The most significant of these was the removal of most of the original rear wall of the 1880 classroom to open the two rooms into one space as auditorium and stage, the remaining portion forming the proscenium arch. Alterations to the foyer included the introduction of elements from other buildings: two doors from a house in Paterangi and a ceiling rose from Nelson. In 1991 the lean-to was extended to make a larger workshop and the external door from the 1894 room became an internal door to this new space. A new external door with canopy was created to give rear access.
In 2002 the subsidence caused by the building’s position over a stream bed caused concern; rather than shifting the building again, remedial work was undertaken to prop up the corner of the building.
The Little Theatre group initiated the erection of a commemorative plaque to inform the public of its significance. The building is part of Te Awamutu’s heritage trail and is marked by an interpretive sign board. It is included in the heritage inventory for Waipa District. The Little Theatre group remains as the tenant of the building.
