Adelaide High School - History

History

In 1879 John Anderson Hartley, Catherine Helen Spence and others created the Advanced School for Girls in Grote Street, Adelaide; the first public secondary school in South Australia. The school became the part of Adelaide High School in 1908, the same year the South Australian state high school system was launched. Adelaide High School was officially opened on 24 September 1908 by the premier of South Australia Thomas Price. It was the first secondary school in the Commonwealth of Australia.

It started off as two schools, with a boys' and a girls' campus; though these combined in 1908. In 1927 it had an enrolment of 1,067, making it the largest school of its kind in the Commonwealth. By 1929, the school occupied two sites - one at Grote Street and another at Currie Street (now part of the Remand Centre). The current site of the school on West Terrace was originally set aside for an army barracks in 1849, but an Observatory was built instead in 1859. This became the Bureau of Meteorology in 1939.

Based on an award winning 1940 design, a new building was erected on the site from 1947 to 1951. An application was made to have the building listed as a Historic Building on the Australian Register of the National Estate. The nomination was on the basis of the building's "Art Modern" style and significance in Adelaide education, but had not led to the building's listing on the register as of 2007. The original Grote Street school buildings were listed on the register as Historic in 1980. As of 2007 they were used as a centre for the performing arts.

Adelaide is part of the longest-running sporting exchanges with Melbourne High School and Mac.Robertson Girls' High School, both in Melbourne. It competes in the Prefects Cup with Melbourne High.

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