Fremantle Grammar School is a defunct school and heritage-listed building in
Fremantle, Western Australia.
Architecture
The building stands at 200
High Street, opposite
Monument Hill. It was built by
Melbourne architect
Charles Inksep in the
Gothic Revival
Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...
style, from
limestone and corrugated
asbestos
Asbestos () is a naturally occurring fibrous silicate mineral. There are six types, all of which are composed of long and thin fibrous crystals, each fibre being composed of many microscopic "fibrils" that can be released into the atmosphere b ...
.
History
The school was established as a
public school
Public school may refer to:
* State school (known as a public school in many countries), a no-fee school, publicly funded and operated by the government
* Public school (United Kingdom), certain elite fee-charging independent schools in England an ...
by the
Anglican church in 1885.
Henry Briggs was sent from England to help establish it, and was its head-master until 1897. The grammar school closed in 1905 and that was put down to the headmaster (later Sir Henry Briggs) interest in politics.
In the 1920s, the building became a short-lived girls' school named Girton College, and in 1945 was bought by The Reorganised Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (now known as
Community of Christ
The Community of Christ, known from 1872 to 2001 as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (RLDS), is an American-based international church, and is the second-largest denomination in the Latter Day Saint movement. The churc ...
) for use as a place of worship until 1988.
It is currently in private ownership, and the condition of the building has been allowed to decline. There are large cracks in some of the walls and in January 2011, the owner was fined $2574 for removing the bell tower.
[ Note: The Fremantle Society link used because the Herald's site doesn't provide deep links.]
References
{{reflist
Further reading
* Fremantle School.(1895) ''Aims, objects, curriculum, rules and nominal rolls of scholars of Fremantle Grammar School 1882-1888 and Fremantle School 1888-1895'' Perth
.A.: Sands & McDougall print. Held in
Battye Library
Defunct schools in Western Australia
Heritage places in Fremantle
Educational institutions established in 1885
High Street, Fremantle
1885 establishments in Australia
Educational institutions disestablished in 1905
1905 disestablishments in Australia
State Register of Heritage Places in the City of Fremantle