| Address | The Priory, 59 Alma Road, St Kilda |
| Date Established | 8 February 1887 |
| Date Closed | December 1913 |
Miss Hatchell Brown purchased Alma Road Grammar School (the house Lansmere), and the adjacent Sherwood Cottage on the corner of Odessa Street, in late 1886 (Argus 13.11.1886 p12) and established The Priory Girls School in 1887. In 1890 she replaced Sherwood Cottage with a Romenesque style building to serve as boarding accomodation, still extant as a house.
Miss Brown was a teacher who had previously been one of the senior staff at the private girls school at Oberwyl in St Kilda. In 1886 Miss Brown purchased two adjoining houses in Alma Road, ‘Lansmere’ and ‘Sherwood Cottage’ where she established The Priory Girls School. ‘Lansmere’ had been used as the home of Alma Road Grammar since 1875. ‘Sherwood Cottage’ was demolished to make way for this building, which was used as the headmistress’s residence and also for boarders (SKHS). Enrolments at The Priory Ladies’ School plummeted from 66 to just 27 in 1893 and the school eventually closed in December 1913 (Peel 1999:36, SKHS).