It quickly positioned itself as a centre for social change and intellectual life of the city of Sydney with a program of public lectures, courses, lending library and other activities based on its mission of adult education.

[3] By the early 1830s, Sydney Town had come a long way from its origins as a convict colony four decades earlier and free settlers were increasing in numbers.

John Dunmore Lang wished to build an Australian College in Sydney and sent Henry Carmichael to recruit craftsmen in Scotland.

[5] Mechanics' Institutes were a recent phenomenon – the first one had been set up in Scotland in 1821 – and their aim was the intellectual improvement of their members, through the diffusion of scientific and other useful knowledge, and the cultivation of literature, science and art.

The colonial administration of Governor Richard Bourke soon recognised the efforts of the School of Arts and provided a land grant and a small annual subsidy to support its work.

In 1836, aided by various philanthropists, the school was able to lease vacant land at 275 Pitt Street, and the inaugural lecture was given on 4 April 1837 by Carmichael, followed by a chemistry demonstration by Nicholson.

[8] A certain Literary Society or Institution was established in Sydney in the year 1833 under the name and style of the Sydney Mechanics’ School of Arts, the objects being the intellectual improvement of its members and the cultivation of literature, science and art.Under the leadership of such men as Carmichael and Nicholson, Mitchell, engineer Norman Selfe, and businessman Thomas Barker (who had been elected to the council of the Australian College in 1831) the school flourished and became one of the leading providers of adult education in the colony with more than 1500 students attending lectures and classes.

Among those who gave classes were artist and teacher Joseph Fowles, suffragist Louisa Lawson, explorer Ludwig Leichhardt and poet Henry Kendall, and subjects included art, mathematics, architecture, anatomy and simple surgery.

This continued to operate from the SMSA building and other rented properties in the city until it moved to the purpose-built technical college at Harris Street in Ultimo in 1891 which in turn became the University of Technology Sydney in 1988.

[10] In January 1836 a lease was secured for a vacant site in Pitt Street adjacent to the Congregationalist Independent chapel, which had been designed by John Verge and opened in 1830.

It appears, however, that there was a change of heart, for the Committee of the SMSA purchased the building and the leasehold of the property itself, and began planning extensions on the site.

In 1852 a petition was presented to the Legislative Council seeking permission for the SMSA to sell or swap a parcel of land set aside for it in George Street South for the purpose of purchasing a site in a more central location.

The new façade was designed in a Palladian style with late Georgian features such as Corinthian columns on the upper level, round fanlights with keystones, corbelled cornice and interlocking circles with a central panel inscribed "Sydney School of Arts", all of which are still visible.

The funds from the sale allowed the SMSA to purchase in 1996 Lincoln House across the road at 280 Pitt Street – a 10-storey brick building with street-level retail premises and nine commercial office levels.

Many of the original features of the reading rooms, library, halls and Independent Chapel were retained in the new pub called the "Arthouse Hotel" which now occupied the site.