Our Boy’s Institute (OBI) was a junior branch of the Young Men's Christian Association. Opened in 1896, the club was housed in a purpose-built premises at 221 Wakefield Street, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia. The Our Boys’ Institute included lecture and games rooms, indoor running track, pool, and was available for boys aged 13 – 18, a forefunner to the various youth groups which flourished in the first half of the twentieth century such as the Boys’ Brigade, Scouting, etc.

The Our Boys’ Institute promoted a Christian philosophy and also ran camps and provided employment assistance for young men.

In 1898 Rev Kerr (then Headmaster) of Pulteney Grammar School arranged for about a third of the boys attending the School to attend the OBI gym each week for a fee of 2 shillings a term. He was an enthusiastic proponent of physical education.

In 1919 Pulteney moved from the Pulteney Street site but was unable to move to the new building on South Tce until 1921. In the intervening period the boys were housed at the Pepperpots in Hindmarsh Square but the conditions were dreadful and overcrowded. (This was supposed to be very temporary accommodation but building delays etc made the stay a little longer than was desirous.) Early in 1920 the Headmaster WP Nicholls hired a room and desks at OBI because the Pepperpots was so overcrowded.

The carved sandstone Venetian Gothic facade of the OBI building is Heritage Listed. The building has since been used as office space and an external studies college and was converted to Adabco Boutique Motel in 2008. The building is now known as Wakefield Residence and provides short and long term accommodation. Apparently the Our Boys Institute facade is similar to that of the Chicago Athletic Club on South Michigan Avenue, Chigaco.

Wakefield Residence and Wakefield Street are named for Edward Gibbon Wakefield, coloniser of South Australia and former prisoner of Newgate Gaol.

A plaque on the facade of the building shows the role played by the wife of the South Australian Governor, Sir Thomas Buxton, 3rd Baronet, Lady Victoria Buxton. Lady Buxton was a Christian Philanthropist who supported the Mothers’ Union and YWCA and who resided in Adelaide between 1895 and 1898.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Boys_Institute