Changes After Construction
It was built on the site known as Kazancıoğlu Garden, which was used by the Ottoman sultans as a hunting ground and private recreation area.
Commissioned in the name of Mehmed Seyfettin Efendi, the sixth child of Sultan Abdülaziz, the building stands within the one-and-a-half-kilometre chain of buildings and palaces stretching from Beşiktaş to Ortaköy, and was built in the same period as the structures now known as the Feriye Palaces.
No information has been found regarding the purpose for which the building was used in the early years of the Republic, and from 1928 onward it began to be used as Kabataş Boys’ High School.
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The building, commissioned under the name Seyfettin Efendi Waterfront Palace, was later also referred to as “Kabataş Mekteb-i İdâdîsi” and “Kabataş Mekteb-i Sultânîsi.”
Kabataş Boys’ High School, which has been carrying out educational activities since 1908, is one of the oldest high schools in Türkiye.
Within the Kabataş Boys’ High School campus, the Cemalettin Efendi Waterfront Palace functions as a dormitory, the building known as the Ağalar Barracks functions as an infirmary and lodgings, and the Feriye Police Station building functions as a cultural center.
In the interior, there are painted decorations within geometric divisions formed by wooden mouldings on the ceilings and walls; these decorations include nature, landscape, still life, and animal paintings.
Names such as Ömer Seyfettin, Reşat Nuri Güntekin, Faruk Nafız Çamlıbel, Behçet Necatigil, and Memduh Şevket Esendal graduated from this school.
