Franklin Villa

In November 1878, after Thomas Grenier’s death, this land, comprising subdivisions 50 to 57, 60 and 91 to 97, passed to Franklin Grenier. He began selling off these subdivisions in October 1883, so that he was left with just subdivisions 60, 96 and 97. Franklin transferred the title deed to Lot 60, which comprised 1 rood, to his wife, Ellen Henrietta Grenier, in January 1885. He then placed the other two blocks, covering 1 rood and 33.6 perches, to his wife’s name in the following month. In May 1885, financial need forced Ellen and Franklin Grenier to take out a 400 mortgage through the City and Suburban Permanent Building and Investment Society on the vacant block, subdivsion 60. A second mortgage, for 40 was taken out on the same block in April 1887. Finally, in November 1888, Ellen and Franklin disposed of subdivision 96 to Jane Thaw and this reduced their land holdings to 1 rood and 36.8 perches.  

Franklin Grenier died on 5 January 1889 but Ellen did not remain a widow for long. On 20 June 1890, she married another member of the Grenier family - Thomas Leichardt Grenier. Six days later, Ellen took out a third mortgage on subdivision 60, for 200, possibly to cover her wedding expenses. But a fourth mortgage, this time for 1,500, that was taken out on subdivision 60 in July 1890, was to be used to pay for the building of a house on subdivisions 60 and 97 along Brighton Road. Ellen Grenier took a first mortgage, of 100 on subdivision 97, and a fifth mortgage of 100 on subdivision 60 on the same day in December 1890. This money was possibly used to ensure the completion of the Brighton Road residence, with the building work beginning in 1891.

    

Completed by 1892, the two-storey house was named ‘Franklin Villa’ by Ellen Grenier, presumably after her first husband Franklin. ‘Franklin Villa’ was built as a rental property to be leased to people of means. This was a common practice in the 1890s, as similar substantial investment properties, such as ‘Hillside’ in Gray Road, were built throughout South Brisbane. Thus ‘Franklin Villa’s’ first tenant was Archibald Meston, a journalist, Justice of the Peace and the official Protector of the Aborigines. During 1893, ‘Franklin Villa’ remained vacant but from 1893 to 1902, the house was leased by postal inspector Samuel Marshall. In 1902, ‘Franklin Villa’ was vacant again. Then in 1903, Robert S. Nevill, a tobacco exporter working for the Department of Agriculture moved in and remained a tenant until 1911. John G. Wildharbour rented ‘Franklin Villa’ during 1911-1913 then storekeeper Henry John Neylan became the leasee.

In September 1911, Ellen Grenier sold 29.5 perches, that was part of subdivision 60, to John Joseph Barry. This reduced her property to subdivision 97 and resubdivision 2 of subdivision 60, a total of 1 rood and 9.25 perches, thus giving 35 Brighton Road its existing size. Ellen Grenier passed ‘Franklin Villa’ onto Mary Jane Neylan in December 1924. As Mary Neylan was deceased, the property passed into the hands of the trustees, Henry Neylan and John Francis Neylan. When John Neylan died on 12 July 1939, Maurice Burke was appointed as a new joint trustee of the property. Having rented ‘Franklin Villa’ since 1911, the other trustee, Henry Neylan, continued to reside in the house until 1942, thus making him its longest resident.

Amy Edwina Muriel Andrews purchased ‘Franklin Villa’ in May 1942. At the time of purchase, she took out a mortgage on the property through Henry Neylan and Maurice Burke. In 1944 she married Ernest Duminski and the two owned the property until 1951, an indicator of some of the Eastern European influence that occurred in the area after the Second World War. In January 1948, the Duminskis converted the house into two upstairs flats and a third downstairs flat was added in April 1950. ‘Franklin Villa’ remained a multiple dwelling for the next 45 years. In January 1951, George Raymond Goldsmith obtained the deed to ‘Franklin Villa’ and he held it until August 1976, when the property passed into the hands of Marie Elysia Dennis. Thereafter the property had numerous owners, reflecting the South Brisbane area’s poor property values at that time. Mavis and Robert Graham Matheson became the owners of ‘Franklin Villa’ in May 1980 to be followed by Milgrave Pty Ltd in January 1986. In July 1986, subdivision 97 and resubdivision 2 of subdivision 60 were converted into a single allotment Lot 2. Phil Hasid Properties Pty Ltd obtained the title to Lot 2 in August 1989 and the current owner, Frederick Nicholas Proctor, took control of ‘Franklin Villa’ in August 1993.

The residence has a pyramid roof of corrugated iron, with two street facing gables and a small dormer roof vent between. Each gable has a decoratively shaped bargeboard with a final and pendant and a diamond of battening providing further decoration. The gutter and fascia edge of the roof wraps around to enclose the ends of the bargeboards at the sides of the front elevation and between the two gables. These are decorated with acroterias at each corner and timber bracketing under. A decorative chimneystack rises from the right side of the main roof.

The verandah roof is a separate corrugate iron roof. The verandah wraps around the front and left side of the house but, as mentioned above, is no longer as it was originally built on the upper floor. Previously, the posts were moulded and corniced with decorative brackets. A skirt of moulded dowels runs along the lower edge of the verandah roof. The verandah balustrade consisted of cast iron filigree. 

The lower level verandah remains similar to the original, with a solid paneling along the upper portion, which is decorated with a square patterning across the exterior surface. Decorative timber valances line the lower edge of the panelling. The posts are corniced and moulded with an iron filigree balustrade and lattice infill within the middle portion. A gable roof with a battened gable end expresses the lattice entry doors to the verandah. Pairs of moulded posts support the sides of the gable, with iron filigree and lattice work, as per the rest of the verandah, between them.

The side windows, which are not shaded by a verandah, have corrugated iron skillion sunhoods with iron filigree brackets. A picket fence with moulded posts formerly ran along the front alignment of the property. A new, tall fence with a metal gate now takes the former fence’s place.

1. Brisbane City Council Property Notices

2. Brisbane City Council Water Supply & Sewerage Detail Plans

3. Brewer, F.J., & Dunn, R., The Municipal History of South Brisbane, (Brisbane: H. Pole & Co, 1925)

4. Department of Natural Resources, Queensland Certificates of title and other records.

5. Evans, Ray, Saunders, Kay & Cronin, Kathryn, Race Relations in Colonial Queensland, (Brisbane: University of Queensland Press, 1993

6. JOL Estate Map Collection and photographic collection

7. Lawson, Ronald 1973, Brisbane in the 1890s: A Study of an Australian Urban Society, University of Queensland Press, St. Lucia

8. McKellar's Map of Brisbane and Suburbs. Brisbane: Surveyor-General’s Office, 1895