In 1851, Mowbray was instrumental in establishing at Grey Street, South Brisbane, Queensland's first Presbyterian church.

Young immediately subdivided this land as the Mowbraytown Estate, from which East Brisbane derives much of its identity.

[1] In 1909, major alterations to the Mowbraytown former church included completion of the second half of the transepts, construction of a new vestry, extension of the nave 3 metres (9.8 ft) toward the street, removal of the main doors from the sides to the front, and the addition of an entry porch.

[1] The former Mowbraytown Presbyterian Church has played a strong role in the spiritual and social life of East Brisbane.

The hall has been the venue not only for church activities, but also for community concerts, ballet and gymnastics classes, meetings and seminars, dances, children's play groups, and polling booths.

Both the former church and hall are local landmarks, and have featured prominently in heritage walking tours of East Brisbane organised by the Mowbraytown Residents' Association.

The building has a steep pitched gable roof, a twin gable transept, sprocketed eaves, asbestos cement tiles laid in a diamond pattern and a sheet metal spire surmounted by a cross over the south end of the nave.

A small apse extends to the north with a vestry to the west and a store with a corrugated iron roof to the east.

A timber kindergarten room, clad in the same material, with a steep pitch gable roof is attached to the north.

[1] Internally, the former church has a diagonally boarded raked ceiling with scissor trusses and arched timber braces to the nave.

The building has concrete stumps, weatherboard sheeting to balustrade height and chamferboard above, with twin centrally pivoted hopper windows and coloured glass fanlights.

[1] Internally, the hall has a diagonally boarded raked ceiling, a flat section with fretwork vents at the collar beam and metal ties to the top plate.

[1] Thee former Mowbraytown Presbyterian Church Group was listed on the Queensland Heritage Register on 22 October 1993 having satisfied the following criteria.

The former Mowbraytown Presbyterian Church Group is important in exhibiting a range of aesthetic characteristics valued by the Brisbane community and the former church congregation, in particular the contribution of the buildings, in scale and form, to the Mowbray streetscape and East Brisbane townscape, the quality of the former church interior, including the timber joinery, leadlight windows, furnishings, organ, memorials, decorations and inscriptions and the intactness and aesthetically cohesive nature of the group.

[1] The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history.