Mount St Marys College and Convent is a heritage-listed former community arts centre, school and convent at 10-14 Civic Place, Katoomba, in the City of Blue Mountains local government area of New South Wales, Australia. It was designed by Nangle and Nurzey subsequently known as Henry E Budden & Nangle. and built from 1909 to 1946 by Michael Byrne. It is also known as The Renaissance Centre between 1985 and 1992. The property is privately owned and occupied. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 21 November 2003. History The Sisters of Charity were the first Order of Nuns to be established in Australia with their convent being founded at Parramatta in 1838. In the late 1890s the Sisters of Charity were seeking to found an order in the Blue Mountains to provide a place of respite for exhausted nuns "where they might find fresh vigour for God's work". It was also noted that there was no Catholic school in or near Katoomba, hence there was an opportunity for the nuns to regain their health and energy whilst conducting their appointed work. The Sisters rented a small cottage close to the Catholic Church and Presbytery in Katoomba and moved in in 1900. A new college called Mount St Mary's opened on the main Street of Katoomba in 1901, and in 1903 Mother Mary Eulalia was appointed Rectress of the college. The Mount St Mary's premises in town eventually proved inadequate for the rapidly increasing student base, so, in 1907, it was decided to purchase substantial acreage to the north of the railway station on which to build a brand new boarding house for girls and convent accommodation for the Sisters. Bridget McGuigan, Julia O'Connor and Helena Bourke of the Congregation of the Sisters of Charity (but denominated on the title deeds as spinsters) purchased the subject site (Lots 26 - 35) from Frank Grimley (The Grimley Subdivision) on 10 June 1907. The site included the cottage known as "The Rocks" (designed by Varney Parkes for John Fletcher M.A.) which was located in the south west corner of the site. The cottage and the lands the Sisters were to purchase are associated with Fletcher who had established a boarding college for boys in the mid 1880s called Katoomba College (later known as the Priory and then The Royal Palace) which was located on the opposite side