During their occupation of the site the land had been cleared and fenced and the Society had erected suitable buildings, formed a water tank, trenched and manured and furnished the necessary stock for grafting "for the purposes of introducing the growth of the finest kind of fruit trees into the colony".

[1] Governor Brisbane was a president of the Society and in the 1820s granted an experimental garden at Parramatta for the promulgation of various species of plants and trees for scientific research.

In January 1833 the Agricultural and Horticultural Society offered the land which they had occupied for a nursery on the north side of the river as a site for the school.

The "house and ground lately in possession of the Agricultural and Horticultural Society" was officially handed over to Mr Forrest, the first master of The King's School on 2 January 1834.

[1] The schools were to provide "a good classical, scientific and religious education to the sons of parents in the middle and higher ranks of life".

[1] Robert Forrest was recommended to the Colonial Office for the Headmastership of The King's School by Bishop of London Charles James Blomfield.

[1] In 1836 the school comprised the two-storey main building with a shingle roof and two single-storey wings, that on the east for the accommodation of the Headmaster and that on the west for various domestic offices.

[1] James Walker, described by William Woolls as "one of the most learned men who ever came to the colonies", was an Oxford MA, had been chaplain at George Town, Van Diemen's Land, before Broughton in 1843 appointed him to the new incumbency of Marsfield and the headmastership of The King's School.

Walker had studied botany in Europe, but neither published, wrote, described any species, assembled any collection, or performed any task by which posterity is able to judge the quality of any botanical labour he undertook.

On the upper floor the southern side of this extension was carried through, under the roof of the main building, emerging in the form of a large dormer window above the portico.

Rugby was introduced in 1870, the first tennis courts were constructed and the playing field in Parramatta Park was levelled, all with the assistance of boys from the school.

A second storey was added to the headmaster's residence and completed in the same year by Blacket Bros. Other additions included a carpenter's shop (1887), a new cottage hospital and gymnasium (1886) and a new system of lavatories and showers (1888).

In 1893 negotiations began to obtain land on the west side of Parramatta Park as a site for the school and in 1894 to purchase the area as a permanent play ground, but these floundered due to public opposition.

The new dining hall was built on the site of the original single storey west wing and was constructed immediately abutting the main building.

At the same time the filter beds for the swimming pool were converted into dressing rooms for masters and visiting teams and the top of the structures was modified to provide a spectators' gallery.

In 1923 a block along the western side of the courtyard formed by the early 1900s additions was completed, containing three classrooms, a book room, fiction library, dental surgery and tuck shop.

The main additions to the buildings on the site since its acquisition by the Health Department were the boiler house to the north of the kitchen wing built in 1971 and Jennings Lodge at the intersection of O'Connell Street and Victoria Road.

[1] Following the recommendations of the Richmond Report in 1985, the services of the Marsden Rehabilitation Centre were gradually wound back and most of its clients were moved to alternative community-based living arrangements.

[1] In January 2001 approval was granted for conservation, restoration and adaptive re-use of the Main Building and the former Headmasters Quarters (Laurel House) for use by the NSW Heritage Office.

[1] Three-storeyed Georgian Revival style building with terracotta tiled roof, variegated face brickwork with sandstone string courses and other decorative features on the west facade.

The main landscape feature of the site is that its southern half is dominated by the Oval, the former Parade ground of the School, on a level terrace above the Parramatta River.

The School era buildings are to the north of the Oval, and fill much of the rest of the block, with the exception of the St Patrick's Cathedral complex to the north-east.

[1] Other mature plantings southeast of the Head Master's cottage include a mature bull bay/evergreen magnolia (Magnolia grandiflora), laurustinus (Viburnum tinus), firethorn (Pyracantha angustifolia), large leafed Senecio (Senecio petasitis), Canary Island date palm (Phoenix canariensis), the latter having been relocated in 2002 from near the entry gates on Marist Place to the south side of the Main School building, on the eastern side of the portico.

The school was one of the large institutions which shaped both the urban form and cultural framework of the regional town of Parramatta in the early 19th century, and counts a number of notable Australians among its former students.

[1] Archaeological evidence associated with the development and occupation of the King's School would also be of high State significance for its ability to provide information about a major institutional site over an extended period of time.

[1] Archaeological evidence associated with the development and occupation of the Marsden Rehabilitation Centre would be limited and would have little potential to provide information about the operation of this institution that could not be obtained from other sources.

This layout of the site greatly contributes to the understanding of the early development of Parramatta as an important centre in the Colony and the attitudes to particular landscape settings.

It was the first large private boarding school run by the Anglican Church to provide secondary education, which was established in the colony of New South Wales.

The stonework of the original 1830s school building and its eastern wing is evidence of the relatively high level skills of the Scottish artisans who were brought to Australia following the depression in the British construction industry in the 1820s.

The site is evidence of the role of major social institutions in the evolution of the physical and cultural framework of the regional town of Parramatta during the nineteenth century.