About Us
Once an old school house, now a boutique gift-shop and gallery - our ethos is centred around Aotearoa made, designed and hand crafted products. Our wares range from Cardrona Hotel merchandise to locally made jewellery, ceramics, wine barrel platters, artisan throws, soaps, art prints and more.
The Old School House is located adjacent to the Cardrona Hotel, one of New Zealand's most iconic historic Hotels. We are next to the side carpark, open seven days.
A little history..
We believe our school house building was first constructed in the late 1800s in the Crown Terrace area of Queenstown. The building was then relocated to a second location in Cromwell where it was to serve as a Sunday school for many years. To get to Cromwell, the building was transported over the Crown Range during a snow-storm, typical of our climate here in Central Otago. After some years in Cromwell the Old School House was relocated once again, in the 1990s to the Cardrona Valley, where it now sits proudly beside the Cardrona Hotel. For a time the School House building was used as staff accommodation for hotel workers, and in more recent years was used as the studio for artist in residence of the time Melissa Sharplin. The Old School House as it is today, has been open for official shop business since 2018.