Falmouth Boys Grammar School was built on Killigrew Road in 1868 as a successor to the 1824 Classical and Mathematical School on the site.

The school building was very small with a schoolroom and a classroom, and in 1892 had only 29 pupils when Mr AN Deakin joined as headmaster.

In around 1910 an inspector from the Board of Education reported that the school was inadequate to meet its growing demands, which had been boosted by its reputation under Mr Deakin. Plans were prepared for the addition of a lecture theatre and two classrooms, but just as building was ready to commence a further inspection took place which recommended that the school building should be abandoned entirely, and a new building erected on a suitable site.

In February 1912 the management of the school was transferred to the county education authorities, and that summer a site on Tregenver Road to the west of Falmouth town was negotiated. Plans for a new grammar school were drawn up in early 1913 by Sampson Hill (1862-1917), a Redruth architect who was also Cornwall County Council’s Education Committee Architect. Hill’s design comprised six classrooms to accommodate 152 boys (with space available for two additional classrooms); a hall, 43 feet by 26 feet; a science laboratory; an art room; two staff rooms; and a cloak room and lavatories.

A workshop, dining room, stores and offices were planned for in a detached block. The architect’s specification, dated September 1913, provided great detail on the materials used such as the composition of Portland cement used in different parts of the building, including for reinforced-concrete floors, stairs and landings. ‘Burhos’ pink elvan from quarries near Tolcarne was specified for all squared-joint facings and quoins, although pink elvan from Tremore quarry near Bodmin was eventually used.

Other dressings were specified to be of ‘deep-quarry’ grey granite. Old Delabole grey slate was specified for the roof and red deal for all joinery including the woodblock flooring. Falmouth Boys Grammar School was opened in autumn 1915.

The grammar school is shown on the 1930s Ordnance Survey (OS) map which illustrates an almost-symmetrical plan with wings to the east and west and a curved bay to the north; to the west is an ancillary building, or annexe. Across the road from the school a large playing field with a pavilion is shown; physical exercise was a compulsory daily part of the curriculum - the emphasis was truly on healthy boys.

After the Second World War there were 306 boys on the school roll, and in 1947 a new dining room block and an army cadet hut were built to the west of the annex. In 1957 the chemistry laboratory (within the single-storey north-west wing) was replaced with a library, and a further classroom and laboratory block were constructed to the west of the annex. After 1965 a floor was added in the double-height hall to create extra classrooms on the first floor. In 1971 the grammar school became the lower school of the newly-expanded Falmouth School. It became an Adult Education Centre in 2003. The post-war additions to the west of the annex have been demolished.