Terrace Shops

The shops are built on land along the main thoroughfare through Red Hill, Musgrave Road, between Federal Street (formerly Newman Street) to the east and Confederate Street to the west.  Development along Musgrave Road occurred relatively early in Brisbane’s European settlement as the Enoggera Reservoir constructed in 1866 was accessed via Musgrave and Waterworks Roads.  Musgrave Road was referred to as part of Petrie Terrace in the 1860s and as Waterworks Road until circa 1890. Horse drawn omnibuses provided transport to Red Hill from the 1880s.  They were replaced by the electric tram along Musgrave Road in 1897, one of the earliest tramlines in Brisbane. A 1930 article in the Brisbane Courier recalls the changes over time to this important route since the 1870s:

A few other good sites on the town side of Red Hill were taken up, for Brisbane was beginning to develop as the result of an influx of immigrants by the British-India boats and houses were spreading to adjacent hills. Just over Red Hill the nucleus of a township soon was being formed……Musgrave-road [sic] today is very different from the place of the late ‘70s. The rough bush road is a well-made street, leading to at least three important suburbs. Houses and shops line the thoroughfare on either side and on the crest of the hill stands the large brick Church of St. Brigid. 

The corner of Federal Street (formerly named Newman Street) and Musgrave Road was part of portions 595 and 596 granted to Isaac Markwell in 1865. Markwell almost immediately subdivided his land into the allotments which have survived until the present.  The adjacent land on the corner of Confederate Street and Musgrave Road was purchased by Robert Wishart in 1875. Wishart established a drapery store on this corner which operated from the late 1870s to the late 1890s. In 1885, Wishart also purchased the subject site. In 1890 and 1891, Wishart mortgaged both sites. Perhaps this financed the construction of the present, masonry terrace building as the first record of a presence on the site in postal records occurs in the 1891 directory. This indicates that the Ithaca Shire Council Offices were at this address from at least 1891. Alternatively, an earlier building may have existed on the site before the masonry terrace was built.

The next names to appear in postal records for this section of the block are Alexander Wishart, photographer, in 1893 and Mrs Quine, fruiterer and William Quine, drayman, in 1895-96. It seems likely that the terrace building had been constructed by this time.

In 1898, Wishart sold his holdings in Musgrave Road toRobert Muter Stewart.  After Stewart’s death in 1908, the subject site had several owners. Tenants during the early 1900s included John Lloyd: bootmaker; William Wright, fruiterer; William King, bootmaker; William McKenniarey, furniture dealer and Mrs Davis, newsagent. 

On inspection, it appears that alterations were made to the shopfronts during the interwar period.

From the late 1910s to the 1930s, a “Japanese laundry” operated from the building. McKenniarey’s furniture shop continued to operate from this address until at least the 1940s, and a second hand furniture shop still occupies one of the shops in the building today.

The shopfronts and battened ceiling under the awning appear stylistically similar and are likely to be later changes to the original building, possible dating from the same period as the next door Interwar commercial building.  These shopfronts are of traditional design with recessed entrances and good quality timber framed joinery.

The rear elevation also has a first floor cantilevered timber veranda with an access stair.

1. Brisbane City Council Water Supply & Sewerage Detail Plans

2. Brisbane Courier, 21 June 1930

3. Department of Natural Resources. Queensland Certificates of Title

4. JOL Estate Map Collection and photographic collection

5. Lawson, Ronald. Brisbane in the 1890s: a study of an Australian urban society ( St Lucia, Queensland: University of Queensland Press, 1973)

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

7. Queensland Post Office Directories