Saint Joseph's Christian Schools

Detached seven-bay double-height Gothic Revival former school, dated 1871, retaining original aspect with single-bay single-storey gabled projecting porch to centre. Hipped gabled roof with slate (gabled to porch; gabled over window openings in form of half-dormer attic). Clay ridge tiles. Cut-stone chimney stacks. Cut-stone coping to gables. Profiled cast-iron rainwater goods on cut-stone consoled eaves course. Coursed cut-limestone walls. Cut-stone dressings including buttresses with quoins. Cut-stone plaque. Cut-stone date stone/plaque. Paired lancet-arch window openings in cut-stone lancet arch frames having trefoil openings to arches. Block-and-start surrounds. Chamfered reveals. 6/6 timber sash windows. Pointed-arch door opening. Moulded cut-stone doorcase with colonettes having hood moulding over. Tongue-and-groove timber panelled double doors. Road fronted. Concrete footpath to front.

Saint Joseph’s Christian Schools is a fine and imposing Gothic Revival-style building that has been very well maintained to present an original aspect. The appearance of the building adds a sophisticated effect to the streetscape of School Street. The school is of considerable social and historic interest as one of the earliest educational facilities in the locality. Composed on a symmetrical plan centred about a gabled porch the front (north-west) elevation is much ornamented and the many gables add variety to the roofline. The construction of the walls in coursed cut-stone with cut-stone dressings is evidence of the high quality of stone masonry practised in the locality. The building retains most of its original features and materials, including timber sash fenestration and a slate roof having ornate rainwater goods that are a fine example of early decorative cast-iron work.