Meanwhile, others had been evaluating the potential of the site. In 1874 the Council of Education had purchased the adjoining Sussex Street site, which had been part of Harper's original grant. The Sussex Street Public School was constructed on this site between 1875 and 1877, and in 1880 the Department of Public Instruction (the successor to the Council of Education) approached the administrators of the Refuge with a proposal for the purchase of their Kent Street property. The administrators' rejection of the proposal now appears significant, relative to the prospects for long-term survival of the Judge's House.
