Otautau Museum

This building used to be the court house built in 1902. Who would have believed a town like Otautau would have warranted a court house back in the day. Now its the local museum and is an ideal place for such a purpose. It has really interesting local history artifacts on display.

Heritage Building: The Otautau Courthouse is a single-storey double brick building, basically square in plan (12.4 by 11.8m). It is brick construction with brick pillars and infill brick which forms the basis for the decorative scheme of the building. It has a double hipped, corrugated iron roof. The principle elevation faces Main Street with its formally styled Classical façade, with a stripped back Palladian motif. The façade is divided into three bays, the central encompassing the formal double-doored entrance, flanked by symmetrically-placed arched and paired casement windows. The roofline is concealed behind a square pediment which proclaims the construction date as 1908.With its solid formal presence the former Courthouse makes a significant contribution to the streetscape of Otautau. It reflects important aspects of New Zealand history, including the spread of the colonial judicial system into the lower South Island. The Otautau Courthouse (Former) represents the establishment of law in this isolated district. The court was the centre for criminal justice, but also oversaw civil cases, and provided a focus for the administration of justice in the town and district.Significance: The Otautau Courthouse (Former) is a significant element in the historic streetscape of Otautau. The Courthouse was constructed at a time when there was a bylaw which required buildings on the town’s main street to be constructed of brick, and this led to a collection of substantial buildings which gave the town a feeling of solidity and permanence.