The Baird Institute, 3 Lugar Street

The Baird Institute, built in 1891 by R S Ingram, is a single-storey and basement museum designed in the Scots Baronial style. It is located on a sloping site and features a distinctive octagonal, two-stage entrance tower with bartizans. The building is constructed from squared and snecked red sandstone with ashlar margins and includes a deep base course and a moulded, stepped string course on the tower. The eastern side has a canted gable, and there are some tripartite window openings with stone mullions.

The main elevation faces north, with the entrance tower on the left. Steps lead up to a two-leaf, six-panel timber entrance door that has a chamfered architrave and a glazed rectangular fanlight above. The tower is topped with a corbelled, crenellated parapet featuring crenellated bartizans and arrow slits.

The building predominantly has nine-over-two pane timber sash and case windows, covered with grey slates. It features coped gables and wallhead stacks, along with moulded skew putts. Some basement windows have been bricked up.

Inside, the original floor plan remains largely intact. There is an internal porch with a tesserae tiled floor and two-leaf timber and glass swing doors to the right. The hall is accessed through segmental archways, and the interior has timber flooring. Some rooms feature simple cornicing, timber dado panelling, and one room has a very simple classical marble fire surround. There are also some working timber shutters, as well as glass and timber doors with glass sidelights and timber architraves.