The Marist Brother originally opened the school in response to the educational needs of the poor in the North Sydney area, which was, at the time, a low socioeconomic area. The school was the fourth Marist School opened in Australia after Church Hill (1872), Parramatta (1875) and Hunters Hill (1881) and had a teaching staff of three Brothers and an enrolment of 65 boys. The school initially started as a two-room campus on the site of what is now the St Mary's Campus (Ridge Street).