Appearances can be deceptive

Discovered, when taking my usual route for walking with Connie-Dog (past Cinar and Barton buildings, going on to the Plateau for a Bosphorus view) that although the sun was shining and the skies were blue, it was surprisingly really rather cold outside. We didn't walk for long.

The white wooden building, known as 'Barton' was converted from the original C19th Ottoman structure to provide apartments for teachers and their families but at the time that the land was purchased in 1908 it was being used by the British Consul General. Previously owned by the Duz family the whole 65 acre plot of land, stretching from Arnavutkoy village at sea level to the Ulus and Etiler districts at its highest point, upon which the school stands today, was bought as the new site for the American College for Girls who moved here from the Uskadar site (on the Asian side of the Bosphorus) in 1910, although Gould Hall was not officially opened until June 1914.