Virginia Private Hospital (former)

Major William John Clatworthy purchased a large block of land in Prince Street in 1924. He was a director of the Virginia Brick Company, which he helped establish in 1893. In 1927, he built this house using bricks made at his Enoggera and Virginia Bricks & Pipes Ltd factory located at Brickyard Road. In 1941, the house was converted into the Virginia Private Hospital and run by Nurse Catherine Gemmell. She and her husband Alexander purchased the property in 1943. Suburban private hospitals were common throughout Brisbane until the construction of Brisbane's major public hospitals in the late 1950s and 1960s. These small, private hospitals provided medical services for their local communities, particularly ante-natal and post-natal care. The Virginia Private Hospital closed in the late 1950s.