Scotch College 1975

Buildings

According to Bob Grant, my Form Master in Form 2, Scotch was based on designs used for Church monasteries.

The architectural value of Scotch's original buildings was clearly under-valued in 1970, and had been for many decades before this. There had been a number of architectural misdemeanors committed over the 50 years since the building programme of the early 1920's. Obvious examples at the time, even to a new boy, included:

The single-story addition to the Quad on the south side of the Memorial Hall (originally a Masters' Common Room I believe);
The poor placement of the Longmuir Library and Masters' Common Room, built in the mid-1960's on the north side of the Memorial Hall, obscuring the Quad and destroying the symmetry of the original design. (The opportunity to correct this in the 1990's was lost, when this building was re-built!)
The bricking-over of two faces of The Quad with a new veneer of brickwork some time during the 40's or 50's, leaving the other two exterior faces intact;
The building of weather-board single story huts at various locations near The Quad, the worst example being the Slot-Car club, Drama Society and Cadet Signals-Corp rooms on the north side to Morrison Street.

Other curiosities for a New Boy included:

The settling pond, used to filter sediment from the Yarra water for use in the pool.
The imposing Fives Courts
The very original, and aged looking interior of The Gym, the Rowing Pool adjacent to it on the west side, and the Cadet Armory with stores of 303 rifles on the south side.

Above: Site Plan for The Quad in the early 1960's.

Mackie Hall

Mackie Hall seemed like a remote out-post when walking from The Quad to music classes in the first floor of Mackie Hall. It had once housed the library in the top floor (before my time), which seems a strange place to put a fairly crucial resource for students. It was also the location for practicing our singing for Foundation Days, and housed the Director Of Music - George Logie Smith. In fact, I can remember George yelling at us "grotty little boys" from his first-floor window when we couldn't find the location of our first music class in 1970.

I am somewhat uncomfortable that Mackie Hall has been recently demolished, although it is difficult to conceive how the new facility could have been provided without do so.

Junior Science Block and Biology/Art Black

The Junior Science black was almost brand new on 1970, having been built around the mid-60's. I very much enjoyed having classes here, and everything was so new and "cool". Almost as new was the Art/Biology block adjacent to the Main Oval. This building had "air conditioning" which Art-Master "Goofy" Paton would possibly turn on if we were good, but more often let us stew in humid heat!

The Hill

The buildings on The Hill were really left to the imagination of "day boys" as we never ventured on to The Hill. Was it a school rule, or just accepted culture that we didn't go up to The Hill ? I don't recall. But all we could do was to get glimpses of The Hill from Monash Drive.

Above: Mackie Hall site plan.