The Academy of Music was built on the east side of Lydiard Street, South, opposite Craig's Royal Hotel, on the site of a previous wooden building which had been used by the Stock Exchange. Ballarat's mining had encroached so far into the business area that the previous wooden building had itself been built over an old shaft.

The foundation stone of the new building was laid by Madame Arabella Goddard on the 24th September 1874. The site was owned by W.J. Clarke with whom an arrangement was made for the erection of the academy and the estimate of cost was limited to ten thousand pounds. It opened on the 7th June 1875.

The architect was George Browne, who was also the architect of the Theatre Royal in Melbourne. The original design comprised a three storey elevation to Lydiard Street with vestibule and entrance passages to the academy and shops on either side. The Ballarat 'Star' commented, 'It was found that this would involve a larger outlay of capital than was contemplated, and the more sightly original elevation has been dwarfed on two stories only, and thus material architectural effect has been sacrificed to economy.' Owing to one or two deviations from the accepted plans and estimates the original cost increased to thirteen thousand pounds.

The building was described as having the most elegant interior in Ballarat. The 'Star' was most impressed, 'We may go further than that and say that there is no interior in the colony that can excel it for lightness and gaiety of appearance, whether by night or day. For the academy differs in that respect from most theatres in ordinary, which in the day time are are dismal and dreary to the extreme. The academy, on the contrary, being amply lighted on either side, may be used for day purposes as well as night.'

The block on which the academy was built measured 66 by 175 feet, the area of which is greater that the 'quarter acre block'. The stage occupied 60 by 50 feet and the auditorium 60 by 74 feet whilst the vestibule and other approaches occupied 66 by 51 feet. The stage accomodation was very nearly the equal of Melbourne's Theatre Royal. There were three entrances from the street, the centre one being a wide vestibule and leading to the pit and stalls, and the side entrances led to what in architectural phraseology is called the paradis. Fortunately, for those of us ignorant in that field the 'Star' elaborated, 'We may inform the unlearned that the paradis means what in the Theatre Royal, in Sturt Street, is called the dress circle and boxes.' Over the vestibule and side entrances in front was the large supper room which measured 63 by 25 feet and had a height of 16 feet with a coved and enriched roof. Crush, cloak, dressing and retiring rooms, properly furnished and carpeted, 'so that ladies visiting the dress circle or boxes will find every necessary convenience for their accomodation'.

The floor of the auditorium was level, the front portion of the floor immediately behind the orchestra was occupied by the stalls which were supplied with continuous, backed, cane seated chairs. The stalls accomodated 400 persons, and the pit, which was seated with plain deal forms, 800, and the paradis tier, which ran around the whole house, except of course the stage end accomodated another 500 persons.

Construction had occurred so that the hall or academy could be used for dancing. The whole floor of the lower auditorium was level and the seats were moveable, the paradis (gallery) was not supported by pillars from the floor but by brackets and rods, which allowed an unrestricted floor space. It was therefore a perfect ballroom, the floorboards were extremely well finished and highly polished, and were two and a half inches thick. The gallery brackets were of wrought iron and passed through the wall and buttresses and were strongly bolted on the exterior.

The ceiling of the academy instead of being plaster and therefore liable to crack and tumble, was of wood in narrow boards, covered with canvas and finished in such a manner as to give the appearance of an ordinary ceiling. With respect to the ventilation the 'Star' commented, 'there is no building in this city that can approach the perfection of the Academy of Music. The architect has been astute to employ ample means of making this very important matter an entire success. Over doors and under windows, over windows and under windows, in coves and corners, through walls and windows, the architect has arranged means for the ingress and egress of air, and the sunlights in the ceiling of the central portion of the auditorium are also important means of ventilation, the roof of the academy being surmounted by air towers, thus affording ready and ample means of giving free currents of air.'

The sunlights themselves were ornate. They were six feet in diameter and instead of being close to the ceiling as normal they were suspended three or four feet. Each sunlight had forty five burners besides the sixty smaller jets in the surrounding coronal fringe which prevented a shadow being cast apon the ceiling. The sun-lights afforded ample illumination to the paradis tier and the major portion of the lower auditorium, but after the opening it was found that sidelights were needed, to be attached to the brackets on the pilasters under the paradis tier for better illumination to the outside portions of the pit and stalls.

The stage was fitted 'with every convenience and appurtenance necessary. A comparison of the stage and staircases and general arrangements of the 'behind the scenes' at the academy with those at the Theatre Royal in Sturt Street, and some
other dramatic houses in the colony, would at once show the superiority of the arrangements.'

Because the land at the rear of the block fell away so quickly, the building which was two storeys at the front, was four at the back, which enabled good storage space, the lower floor being asphalte.

With respect to acoustics, the theatre was described as being equal to the best halls in New York and Philadelphia. The Ballarat 'Star' in another glowing report stated 'So far as our own judgement goes, we think sounding qualities of the academy almost perfection.'

The interior was described as being elegant, bright and harmonious in colouring. The steep inclination of the paradis tier whilst not only affording patrons an unbroken view of the stage gave an imposing appearance. The seats of the paradis tier were framed in kauri pine and were seated in crimson rep on springs backed with brass rods carrying green damask curtains. The steps and passages were all carpeted or matted, and at the back of the central portion of the dress circle tier was an elegantly curtained alcove or dais, which served for the accomodation of local or visiting magnates of the hour.

The front of the paradis tier was elegant iron scroll work, and the centre of each panel was ornamented with a lyre, which was so appropriate to a hall of music. A lyre also adorned the front elevation. The iron scroll work front of the paradis was surmounted by a polished cedar handrail eight inches wide and curtains of crimson rep backing the open scroll work threw colours in which the iron was finished. The ceiling was ornamented in panels with colour in distemper. The crimson and gold of the paradis tier were relieved by the softer colours employed in the ornamentation of the ceiling, of the iron scrollwork, of the brackets, and other details below. Greater glory of colour was expended upon the details of the proscenium, which was enriched with crimson and gold and produced a 'very beautiful effect'.

The proscenium had an opening of 29.5 feet in height by a width of 28 feet, and was enriched on the sides by three quarter corinthian columns, whose capitals were picked out in harmonising colours, and whose shafts were well relieved by backgrounds of crimson. The entablature included the golden lyre, with silver strings. The 'Star' report had been most impressed with Ballarat's new theatre, however they did find one disappointment, 'the drop-scene is not the best we have seen; it is inferior to that at the Opera House in Melbourne, but is still rather pretty. But this is a small item in the general presentment'.

That great theatre danger, fire, was mentioned when the report included, 'The vestibule, as well as the side entrances leads to broad stone staircases, which conduct the visitor to the paradis tier, and are railed with iron, thus affording one material guaranty of safety in the event of fire. Escape doors are placed leading out to the front and back, besides a side door opening into the Unicorn passage. The building is amply protected from fire as far as an admirable water service can protect it. Everywhere, on the floor, on the stage, on the upper and, to the general public, invisible portions of the stage appurtenances, at each end of the paradis tier, about the lower auditorium, are seen jutting out from the walls the brass nozzles of the water service, with coils of hose at the ready, so that in the event of so undesirable and so extremely unlikely a disaster as an alarm of fire, the whole of the interior can be deluged with water in a few seconds.'

In addition to George Browne, the architect, the contractors were Messrs Sumner & Co, 'who have performed their work in excellent style, and have achieved the phenomenon of completing their contract two or three months before the expiration of the contract time.' The gasfittings were supplied by Mr Dempster, of Melbourne and the furniture for the auditorium was supplied by W.H. Rocke & Co., Melbourne. Local input was achieved by Stansfield & Robson of Sturt Street who did the painting and decorations. The holland coverings for the seats of the paradis were supplied by Messrs Smith & Hardie of the Exhibition Mart, Main street.

The 'Star' commented, 'the interior is one of great elegance and beauty. It presents this appearance even by daylight, but when lit up at night by the ample flood of gaslight, which is relieved and heightened by the multitude of harmonising colours, and inspirited by the additional life and colour which a large and well dressed audience contributes, the spectacle presented is one well worth seeing..'

Early Ballarat historian William Withers was less impressed with the new theatre than the Ballarat 'Star'. He wrote 'The Academy has a more beautiful interior than any of the other theatres, but it is less cosy than the Royal was, and its long shape is less adapted to the convenience of spectators of the drama.'

In its early years the floor of the Academy of Music was also used for roller skating. In 1884 the Academy was the site of the first provincial art gallery in Australia when the Ballarat Fine Art Gallery was founded in a portion of the Academy which was rented at a nominal rate.

The origins of the Academy of Music survive in Her Majesty's and the recently restored exterior has successfully returned the facade to its origins, excepting that as built it did not have a portico.