the primary reason for his visit to Melbourne cannot be known for certain, but on his return Anscombe became an apprentice carpenter in Waiwera South, Otago, and worked for his father as a builder. This experience perhaps influenced his later architectural work which he approached with an entrepreneurial pragmatism. He married Douglas Watt on 24 May 1898 in Kaihiku near Balclutha, after which they lived with Edmund's parents. Their first child, Ruby, was born 1899. In 1911 their second daughter, Marjory, was born. Their first daughter would marry a fellow architect in 1935; George F. Penlington was the grandson of William Penlington. In 1901 Anscombe travelled to America. This 1901–1906 trip is the most written about of his travels. He visited St Louis Purchase Exposition where he "received ... practical training in exhibitions in 1904" and it is during this time that he is said to have studied architecture, an idea first asserted in an obituary but something Anscombe himself does not refer to. Architectural practice in Dunedin On their return to Dunedin, the Anscombes enrolled Ruby at High St School (24 July 1907). Described as "an architect now resident in Dunedin, who has had considerable experience in the United States," Anscombe won the University of Otago School of Mines competition in 1907 under the pseudonym: "Esperanto." This winning entry began his productive relationship with the university council which in 1911 conferred on him the position of university architect – a position he retained until 1928 when he left Dunedin for Wellington. This position gave him access to commissions across the university including: extensions to Maxwell Bury's work, Allen Hall (1914), the Domestic Science building (1918), the Physics building (1922), Marama Hall (1923), the Dental school (1924), and the Medical school (1927). Anscombe's early and consistent success in competitions (which included: the School of Mines (1907), Hanover Street Baptist Church, Dunedin (1912), Y.M.C.A. (1910), Central Hall (1910), and Otago Girls' High School (1910 and 1921 ) – where he won first and second place ) coincided with a number of ecclesiastical commissions: St. Clair Presbyterian Church (1909), Oamaru Presbyterian Church (1910), Musselburgh Presbyterian Church (c1910), Mornington Baptist Church (1910/11), North East Valley Presbyterian Church additions (c. 1913), Opoho Presbyterian Church (1913), and residential design work for: Mr Turnbull, for a residence on The Crescent, Roseneath (c.1936), Mr. Ivory (c.1909), Thomas Fogg (c.1910), Rev. James Chisholm (c1910), H. C. Campbell (1911),