The fate of the public school reflects the transformation of the John Street community in the twentieth century. The school was crammed by 650 students in 1920, but shrank to 245 in 1933. Pyrmont had become a fully industrial precinct with roads and bridges offering easy access to markets in the city. Houses were demolished for wool stores and flour mills, and the school was closed.
Meanwhile, as CSR diversified into distilling (from 1901) and opened laboratories and engineering works, the workforce mushroomed. The company bought cottages whenever they came on the market, and renovated them as houses for key employees. Apart from the three pubs and the school (which remained in state ownership even when schooling ceased), almost all accommodation was rented to refinery or distillery workers.