Grove Lodge

The house was built at a time when Ashgrove was predominantly a farming community on the outskirts of Brisbane with several large homes and country estates belonging to more affluent citizens. Several residential estates, such as the nearby Grove Estate, were auctioned during the 1880s when mass immigration saw settlement expand beyond the inner suburbs. However, Ashgrove's distance from the city centre and lack of public transport meant that these allotments sold gradually. 

During the 1890s, Ashgrove Avenue, initially named Serpentine Road and, later, Three Mile Scrub Road, was inhabited by farmers and middle-class residents, such as clerks and merchants. Chinese market gardens were situated at the Newmarket end of the road.  It was not until the extension of the tramline to Ashgrove in 1924 which prompted the subdivision of large residential estates that Ashgrove became a well populated suburb. Prior to 1924, the closest tramline to Ashgrove Avenue was the Enoggera Road tramline that was extended to Newmarket in 1903.

The land on which the house is situated was purchased by Robert Graham in 1871. The property of thirty-seven acres comprised the whole of portion 651, bounded to the north by Enoggera Creek and to the south and east by Serpentine Road. Although Robert Graham is listed as a dairyman in Three Mile Scrub Road in 1883-4, records suggest the house was constructed in 1895-96.  

The house, which is known to local residents as The Grove, was Robert Graham's residence until his death in 1915. It was at this time that the section of Ashgrove Avenue fronting the Graham's farm was named Graham Road. Nearby Yardley Avenue was formerly named Robert St. This suggests that the Grahams were a family of some standing in the local community.

After the death of Robert Graham in April 1915, more than 12 acres of the property passed to George Graham, who continued the family's dairying business. Over 24 acres was purchased by Ernest Phares Robinson and Richard Gailey Jnr who subsequently subdivided and sold their holdings. Between 1918 and 1920, 19 of these allotments were bought by Edmund Williams, including the land on which the house was situated. Post Office records suggest that Edmund Williams resided in the house until his death in 1923. Earlier this century, the house was named Grove Lodge.

In 1924, the house and accompanying six allotments passed to Mrs Mabel Simmonds, wife of Henry Mortimer Simmonds. After her death in 1932, the property was transferred to her four daughters as tenants-in-common. Although the three allotments behind the house were sold in 1954, the remainder of the property stayed in the possession of the Simmonds family and their descendants until recently when the house was sold.

This elegant and intact residence is significant as evidence of Ashgrove's development as a farming district and elite residential suburb during the late nineteenth century.

1. The Brisbane Courier.

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

3. Queensland Post Office Directories

4. Titles Office Records