The building faces Ola Cohn Place, with the rear facing Gipps Street. The outline of the original carriageway entrance can still be seen from Ola Cohn Place.
This building was designed as livery stables by the notable architect, Charles d'Ebro in 1888 for William Taylor. In 1938 it was bought by Ola Cohn, the sculptor best known for her Fairies' Tree in the Fitzroy Gardens. She turned it into her home and studio. It became a meeting place for artists and in particular it became the permanent home of the Melbourne Society of Women Painters and Sculptors. On her death in 1964 Ola bequeathed the property to the Council of Adult Education to be kept as a place of meeting and learning for artists and sculptors. The CAE have run art classes here ever since. However in 2002 the CAE found the property to be a financial drain and attempted to break the terms of Ola's will, allowing them to sell it. The East Melbourne Group in tandem with the Cohn family, mounted a determined campaign to thwart these plans. They successfully nominated the Centre for the Heritage Register. The registration includes the garden and courtyard making future development unlikely. In their submission to the Attorney-General the Group argued that the CAE's own arguments of financial burden were not valid. They won their case and the building is now being restored under the watchful eye of a committee of management.