Masonry Shop

The interwar period was a time of residential and commercial growth in Morningside. In 1921 the population of Morningside was 1806 people and by 1947 it was 4919 people. In 1926 a School of Arts was built in Morningside, a reflection of the growing suburb’s need for community facilities.  Along Wynnum Road an increase of commercial activity also took place. From 1926 when the School of Arts was first built there were seven commercial businesses between Thynne Road and Mary Street  (now known as Burrai St) on the left hand side of Wynnum Road away from the city. By 1939 this had increased to ten.  

In 1912 Martin Henry Pickthorne purchased one rood and eight perches of land at Morningside. From as early as 1918 there was commercial activity on the block of land. In 1925 John Robert Smith and his wife Fanny purchased the property but were recorded as having a shop at 606 Wynnum Rd. It is not until 1938 when Charles Thomas Crabb and his wife Emily Jane purchased the property that a direct connection between the property holders and the business proprietor is apparent. The Crabbs ran a confectionary store at 602 Wynnum Road. Crabb is first recorded in the Electoral Rolls in 1937 as ‘storekeeper’ on Wynnum Rd, Morningside. By 1940 the business had been sold to Matthew Conroy who leased it out to a series of tenants. 

It is unclear when the two storey masonry and timber shop and first floor residence was constructed as the sources record continuous commercial activity on the site throughout the interwar period. There is no record of the building being approved for construction in the Register of New Buildings from 1925 – 1945. It is apparent, however, through architectural analysis of the building that the two-storey masonry and timber building is likely to have been built in the interwar period.      

602 Wynnum Rd, Morningside is an important refection of the commercial growth of the Morningside ‘village’ in the interwar period. The two-storey masonry building is the only masonry commercial building remaining in the Morningside commercial strip from this era and as such is rare.

1. Historic Titles, Department of Environment and Resource Management

2. Queensland Post Office Directories

3. Metropolitan Water and Sewerage Survey Maps

4. Brisbane City Council Building Registers

5. Queensland Electoral Rolls

6. University of Queensland, ‘Queensland Places: Morningside”

7. History of the Bulimba Electorate 1859 - 1959, Bulimba Electorate Centenary Committee, 1959, pp.19-20