The Mason College of Music and Fine Arts was started in 1906 in Charleston by Dr. William "Sandy" Mason, a talented violinist. He had studied music in Cincinnati and Europe before returning home to start a music school.

In 1936, the school became Mason College of Music and Fine Arts. It offered music and art classes for children, adults, and college students. Some teachers were talented musicians and artists who had fled from Nazi persecution, and one famous student, George Crumb, became a Pulitzer Prize-winning composer.

After Mason died in 1941, his sister-in-law and later artist Grace Martin Taylor led the school. In 1956, the college merged with Morris Harvey College, now called the University of Charleston.