Otago Girls High School

New Zealand’s first secondary school for girls. Otago Girls’ High School - 1871 In 1910 Edmund Anscombe designed a new building for the oldest girls’ high school in the Southern Hemisphere. The inner city site has always lacked space outdoors, but new buildings have been added, providing the latest facilities, without spoiling the impressive frontage of Anscombe’s building with its projected, castellated central bay. The interior is notable for its staircases with cast-iron balustrades, moulded plaster ceilings and arched hallways. New Zealand’s first woman doctor and barrister were educated here; the school has continued its proud tradition of educating women for many roles in the country’s public and cultural life, including Governor-General, Dame Sylvia Cartwright.