Located on Rose Terrace, overlooking the southern end of the North Inch, it is a Category A listed building, built between 1803 and 1807.

Perth's lord provost Thomas Hay Marshall was involved with its design, by Robert Reid, four years before his death.

[2] The building's balustraded parapet with a clock and statues of Britannia and a British Lion was added in 1886, the work of sculptor William Birnie Rhind.

[5] His father, John Rhind, died in Perth three years later.

[7] Perth Academy moved to its current location, in the Viewlands area of the city, in 1932.