Constructed in 1908-09 to a design by Otago Education Board architect, James Rodger (1867-1941), Dunedin Teachers' Training College (former) was built near the corner of Cumberland and Union Street. Replacing the original 1876 training college, this purpose-built building has historical significance being the site of training of nearly four decades’ worth of trainee educators. A major contributor to the streetscape and part of the architecturally distinct collection of buildings that now form the University of Otago, it also has aesthetic and architectural significance.

Schooling in Dunedin had been undertaken in the block formed by Great King, Union and Cumberland Streets since at least 1862, when a stone building was erected on Great King Street. Later, in 1879, the earlier ‘wretched apology for school buildings’ were replaced by a large building fronting Union Street; this new building, known as the Union Street School, could hold 1200 children. By 1908, the buildings ancillary to this school building (and sitting at the site of the future Teachers’ Training College) included a gymnasium and janitor’s residence. The rising population of the Otago Province in the latter decades of the 19th century led to the necessity for acquiring a greater throughput of well-trained teaching professionals to service the rapidly expanding schools. This led to the establishment of the Training Department of the Otago Normal School, situated at Moray Place, Dunedin from 1876. However, by the beginning of the 20th century the building was found to be ‘too small and completely unsuitable’ with ‘gloomy and uninviting’ and ‘dungeon-like’ workspaces.

In 1906 the Otago Education Board made the decision to ‘convert the Union Street School into a Normal School, and to erect a new Training College on the Cumberland Street side of the…site’ with Board architect James Rodger commissioned for the design. Opened in April 1909, the original building was of two storeys, built mainly of brick with Corinthian plaster pilasters on its lower level façade and quoining at the edges and between the window bays of the upper storey. The original Cumberland Street façade displayed gable ends to the roofs running back from each end bay; the gable ends were enhanced with delicate iron finials. The roof was decorated with two thin horizontal bands of lighter coloured tiles. The construction cost £7,692 ($1,330,677).

In 1920, pressure caused by the ever higher number of trainee teachers was being felt and an addition storey was added to the building, mirroring the design of the original, but replacing the roof with a flat one; this was constructed by Fletcher Brothers. Shortly before the Second World War, the Teacher Training College moved to Logan Park. During the war, the building was mostly unutilised, save for the top storey, which was converted into an addition to the Otago Dental School. By 1948 the building had been acquired by the Physical Education Department of the University of Otago. The interior was remodelled just prior to this. The former Teachers’ Training College building still remains with this department, with little outward change to its appearance; however, much of the land surrounding the building has been further developed, most notably in 1985 and 1992.