Gibb's Camp was renamed Irvinebank after Moffat's birthplace in Scotland, and the Loudoun Mill, comprising a five headed crushing battery and tin smelter, was opened there on 10 December 1884.

Moffat envisaged Irvinebank as a major industrial region of the Atherton Tablelands, and established both his business interests and his home (Loudoun House) in the town.

[1] A School of Arts Committee was established in Irvinebank by March 1885, at which time a subscribed sum of £100, along with a subsidy, was used to construct a building.

They were based on an English model, which provided opportunities for the education of wider sections of the community; this being a popular nineteenth century social concern.

Upon its opening in 1885, the Irvinebank School of Arts was well patronised "...(with) sound judgement...been displayed...in expending a good portion of the funds on books, papers and leading weekly journals...instead of putting too much into the building".

[1] In 1900 a third building was required, and a School of Arts Hall was planned, with a proposal drawn in September 1900 by an unknown author with initials H.H.P., possibly Henry Pope, an architect who was doing work in North Queensland at the time.

John Moffat had retired to Sydney in 1912, and the Irvinebank smelters were sold to the Queensland Government in 1918, since when the town has steadily declined.

Close to the School of Arts Hall are the Queensland National Bank and John Moffat's House, both of which are culturally significant elements of the townscape.

The symmetrically composed north-eastern facade features three projecting gabled bays, enclosed with weatherboards, with simple decorative barge boards, finials and vertical sash windows.

The hall is fully lined with unpainted red cedar timber boards, on the floor, walls and partially raked ceiling.

The building is on a prominent site in Irvinebank, and is an integral part of a precinct including the Queensland National Bank and Moffat's house.