Main Building

Main building and its many images

Sir Charles Lilley, Premier and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, fought hard to establish a school to provide education to young women, a vision that was thought so far ahead of its time and deemed a radical “experiment” in 1875. From a peripatetic beginning first at 428 George St, then to the corner of Lilley Street and Wickham Terrace Spring Hill in a house owned by Hon John Douglas, a Trustee of the time, Brisbane Girls Grammar School began as an offshoot of Brisbane Grammar School. The school’s own dedicated building came from the 1882 decision to separate Brisbane Girls Grammar School from Brisbane Grammar and for the girls’ school to become an independent school under the Grammar Schools Act.

The Main Building, designed by prominent architect Richard Gailey and built in the Victorian style of architecture, was opened in 1884 with Sir Charles Lilley laying the foundation stone in February 1883.

It served as a boarding house with administration and classrooms on the ground floor until 2002 when the boarding school closed and the building was given over largely to administration offices.

Since its beginnings, this iconic Gregory Terrace building has been the subject of more than twenty artistic images held in our fine arts collection. The images take their form from various media, from drawings, etchings, photographs, paintings and even screen print.

A number of these images are proudly those in paint and print from former students.

One of the accompanying works is a lovely watercolour of this Main Building done by former student Linden Seale (1971-76) and presented to the School in 1989. Depicting a gentle perspective of the building, settled into its time and place, the painting is a fixture of the main reception. Commissioned for the 140 th anniversary of the School, in 2015, is the large acrylic by former student and renowned artist Jan Jorgensen (Goeldner, 1960). This is a colourful and vibrant contemporary view which immediately catches the eye of visitors as they open the door to main reception. The Main Building remains proudly today the formal entrance and reception area to the School and these paintings form, appropriately, part of a small collection of images related to the School, and a welcome to all who pass through the front door.

Both these paintings show the Main Building through loving eyes as it transforms across time and yet remains true to its origins.

The many images of Main Building held in our school fine arts collection tell some of the story of the structure over a timeline of history from its architectural skeleton designed in 1882 through to the 21 st century. But the bones of this building house a very human history of stories, many of them told, some still to be told, others lost in time.

Main Building | Page 2