The School of Mines was established in 1889 in Hodgkinson Street by the Charters Towers Mining Institute, to train mining engineers and technicians to secondary and tertiary levels. It offered subjects such as surveying, chemistry, assaying, mineralogy, geology, metallurgy, physics, mathematics, engineering and mechanics.
The School was taken over by the Queensland Government in 1900, and continued to operate until 1925, when wider secondary and tertiary education became available.
The old School of Mines building still stands today, and has seen many uses since the 1920s, including the PYC, a dance school and martial arts studio, and now forms the home of the Towers Arts.