Christ Church School opened in 1849 and played a prominent part in the educational life of North Adelaide. Before the State Education Act was passed in 1875, the school prospered, transferring to a new site opposite Christ Church in Jeffcott Street, where this school building was erected to the design of Wright and Woods. The foundation stone was laid on September 27, 1868, by Mrs Hamley (wife of the lieutenant-governor), with a bottle containing the architect’s name and that of G. Bradley, the builder, placed beneath the stone. The dimensions of the schoolroom were 60 feet by 30 feet by 25 feet.
The building, appropriately constructed in the Gothic style, was of limestone rubble with brick dressings and strings. It is similar to St Paul’s Day School in Flinders Street, also by E.J. Woods. The austere facade is relieved by the porch, the neatly constructed trefoil and polychrome brickwork over the tripartite window.
Following the passing of the Education Act and the erection of the North Adelaide Model School in Tynte Street, the school fell on hard times, being forced to close in 1877. This was only a temporary setback and in April 1878 Daniel Garlick planned additions to the school, presumably those at the rear.
By 1891 the parish school had been supplanted by a school run by J.H. Lindon, a former master of St Peter’s College who established Queen’s College. Lindon’s school moved to Barton Terrace in 1893 and the Christ Church schoolroom was restored to the parish. Christ Church School continued in these buildings until the mid-1960s, when the school closed.
The complex included a two-storey house that held classrooms on the ground floor and the headmaster's residence on the upper floor. Other classrooms, toilets and a shelter shed werebuilt in the grounds behind the original schoolroom. Rectors from Christ Church taught religious instruction and students daily attended the church throughout the life of the school.