66 Wassell Street, Wynnum

The house on the corner of Wynnum North Road (formerly Lytton Road) and Wassell Street was constructed in 1934 for John W. Watson, a mill engineer, by Newstead contractors Brown and Broad. The site had been part of the Sheppard Smith Estate, offered for sale in 1905 but unsold until 1917, when Benjamin Burton Whitehouse purchased over seven acres of the estate. Whitehouse sold off sections of the land in the 1920s, including this corner allotment comprising 76.4 perches, to Germaine Sheppard in 1928. Watson purchased the site in 1934, shortly before the construction of his timber residence. Watson’s house was one of the first residences on the street and was for several years surrounded only by farmland and undeveloped allotments. The large corner block was subdivided and partially sold in 1966, finally passing from the family’s ownership in 1974.