From the outside, it looks like going to school at Hogwarts. From the inside, it feels even more so.
Famed children's book author Dorothy Butler was a student at Auckland Girls Grammar between 1939 and 1942. The 84-year-old remembers the old school building as resembling a castle and being enchanting, with
secret passages, an impressive library and study hall, a huge presence above Auckland.
The school's current head girl is promising actor and comedienne Rose Matafeo. The 17-year-old says the century-old structure resembles Harry Potter's school of wizardry.
On windy days when the vines clinging to the building are in leaf, she says the two-storey red brick building with two impressive towers looks to be alive.
Like Mrs Butler, Rose loves literature and writing, but her skills are manifesting themselves in theatre and stand-up comedy.
The articulate teen has performed at Auckland's comedy festival and wants to take her show to the Edinburgh Festival one day. She was also inspired by her teachers and the impressive school.
''It's a school that has kept an element of tradition,'' says Rose. ''Not stuffy and clinging
to the past, but proud of its traditions. The building is representative of those traditions.''
Sections of the building, like the Jubilee library and tower classroom, she says, may
look like museum pieces but are still in full use.
Dorothy Butler was a working class girl in year six at Grafton school and living above a shop in Symonds St when a teacher suggested she attend Auckland Girls.
Seventy-years ago, few girls went onto what was then known as higher education.
There were few schools for girls, especially schools as impressive as Grammar.
Mrs Butler's name is permanently etched in the annals of the school and her maiden name, Norgrove, may also appear on the building. She recalls a secret cupboard at the top of winding wooden stairs that led to the roof and the only access to the bell tower. There, the rebellious teen inscribed her name 70 years ago.
''I remember such enormous joy. I could not believe it. It was the most wonderful looking school. I just thought it was something out of a book, like a castle.''
Mrs Butler loved playing cricket on the large front lawn and a form of handball called
Three Walls Five.
''I enjoyed school but was a bit uproarious at the time. We sat exams the first day. It was the first intelligence test I had ever had contact with.''
She obviously made an impression.
''A fourth form teacher took me to one side and told me I could write well enough to be a writer when I grew up. Nothing was published in New Zealand at the time. No one suggested 70 years ago that you could grow up and be a writer.''
The Karekare resident was so enamoured with her school years that she wrote about it in her first autobiography, There was a Time.
Past muster
- In 1888, 78 girls and five teachers entered the boys' grammar school on Symonds St.
- Although on the same site, the girls' section operated as a separate school.
- The girls had their own quarters, a separate entrance and a 4m wall dividing their playground from the boys.
- The school moved to Howe St in February 1909. The cost of the brick school came to 13,930 pounds.
- Since then, many more buildings have been added and Auckland Girls' Grammar now occupies almost all of one side of Howe St. The school now has more than 1300 students.
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