The school was first established by
William McIntyre, pastor of the West Maitland Presbyterian Church, at the site of the Presbyterian manse. The foundation stone for the school was laid by McIntyre on 25 September 1855; his brother, Rev. Allan McIntyre, was the first rector or principal.
Samuel Griffith, future
Premier of Queensland and
Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia and
Charles Pilcher, later a local MP and
King's Counsel, were among the students at the school. The Presbyterian High School was relatively short-lived before its closure. A Mrs. Johnson operated a private ladies' high school out of the buildings during the 1870s and 1880s before it was acquired as the first premises of the West Maitland State High School for Girls, which opened on 21 January 1884. The new headmistress, Mary Olsen, was critical of the state of the building as "entirely out of repair and unfit for residence" and stating that the sanitary arrangements were "in such a condition that no students should come to school before improvements had been made". The school operated out of the buildings until the 1893 floods; after which
Grossmann House was acquired as a new and less flood-prone school site. By 1929, the premises was again being used as a manse. It was threatened with demolition in the 1980s, but was prevented because of heritage concerns. A Permanent Conservation Order was granted on 8 May 1989. It is now incorporated into All Saints' College. == Heritage listing ==