Atauloma Girls School (original) (raw)

The Atauloma Girls School is a historic parochial school building in Afao village on the island of Tutuila in American Samoa. The London Missionary Society opened it in 1900 as the second secondary school on Tutuila (after the Fagalele Boys School), and the first to admit girls. For most of its history it prepared girls primarily to be pastors' wives, and after 1913 provided graduates to the nursing school at the naval station at Pago Pago. Its establishment saved Tutuila girls the necessity of travel to Upolu for secondary school, which separated them from their families and exposed them to the dangers of the international port at Apia. Atauloma was abandoned by 1970.