Henry Esson,[5] were of Presbyterian Scottish origins, and one of their purposes in establishing the school was to provide a solution to the growing influence of Anglicanism in education at the time.

G. F. Simpson to be Rector of the Public College of Canada, about to be established at Montreal", suggesting that the name of the school still remained to be decided.

George Foster Simpson, M.A., was a young Englishman, a graduate and former scholar of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, born in 1811.

The end-of-year ceremony in the summer of 1844, presided over by Peter McGill, with Lord Metcalfe to present the prizes, was held in the large hall that had been the ballroom of Bingham House.

[18] On 28 July 1847 a Provincial Statute was enacted which allocated the revenues from the Estates of the Late Order of Jesuits to educational institutions around Quebec, and the first item listed in the schedule was "For the Salary and Allowance for House Rent, heretofore paid to the Master of the Grammar School at Montreal, to be allowed to the Directors of the High School at Montreal, in consideration of their educating twenty free scholars of the poorer classes ...

[20] In 1850, Foster resigned as Rector and returned to England, where he became headmaster of Lincoln Grammar School, but died suddenly in 1857.

[17] A McGill prospectus for 1863 states that "The High School Department offers a thorough English education, with the French and German languages, and the Classical and Mathematical training necessary for entering the College course.

On 28 November 1890 the dispute between those who believed in a classical education, including Latin and Greek, and those supporting a greater focus on sciences, culminated in the burning down of the school's building on Peel Street.

[29] Dr Howe, a fierce opponent of a move away from classical languages, quickly tendered his resignation, to take effect from the end of the school year.

In return for the Government grant of $2,000, thirty free tuitions are ordered by the Lieutenant-Governor, not on the results of examinations, but on certain conditions of good conduct, etc...

Out of the 1,200 pupils in attendance, 550 are in the High School proper, and 650 in the Kindergarten and Elementary Departments, all of the latter paying fees.

Believing in the principle of mens sana in corpore sano, the school aimed to develop both body and mind, and at its site in University Street had its own swimming pool, two gymnasiums, a shooting gallery, and games rooms, as well as a library, auditorium, and planetarium.

[3] The school's first home was Bingham House, a former vice-regal residence at the corner of Notre Dame and St Denis Streets.

[39] The new school building, designed by John Ostell, was described as "in the Domestic approaching to Tudor style of architecture" and was sixty yards by nineteen, not counting a portico which projected thirteen feet, with a Lecture and Examination Hall nineteen yards square.

In 1878, to bring the boys' and girls' schools together under the same roof, a new building on Metcalfe Street was constructed, but Burnside Hall was not sold until 1883.

The corridors both led to an administrative heart at the centre, with gates topped by iron spikes to separate girls and boys.

[43] The site at 1455 Peel Street was later occupied by the Mount Royal Hotel,[44] which in the 1980s was converted into the present-day Les Cours Mont-Royal.

[26] Built in a neoclassical Beaux-Arts architectural style, used for many public buildings at the time, but unusual for schools in Montreal, the new school was designed by William Sutherland Maxwell and his brother Edward Maxwell, leading Canadian architects who were also responsible for the nearby Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.

Finally completed in 1924, the building is shaped like the letter H and was originally planned to provide wings for boys and girls joined by a smaller central block, where shared activities were to take place.

The many flourishes include four caryatids high above the main entrance and other decorative features, while the design of the staircases is believed to be unique, with separate double flights, one for up and one for down, which do not intersect.