Park Terrace

Prior to the construction of Park Terrace, Fortescue Street was a well-established suburban street with houses lining both sides of the street with residents mostly from the artisan and working classes. In 1884 this included two vanmen, four mariners, a bricklayer, police constable, butcher, two storeman, a monumental sculptor and a printer. Specifically between Wedd Street and Gregory Terrace there was a vanman, a builder and contractor, ironmoulder and draughtsman. 

James Anderson resided in the second house down the hill from Gregory Terrace in Fortescue Street and had since the early 1880s. Anderson, an iron-moulder, and his wife Mary had purchased a twelve perch block of land on Fortescue Street in 1878 on which they constructed a house. In 1879 this land was recorded in the Post Office Directories as ‘vacant land’, confirming Anderson built a new house between 1878 and 1883. It is unlikely that this was the house that is on the property today.  

From 1884 James Anderson, then working as an engineer and perhaps on a better wage than as an iron-moulder, began to buy properties on Fortescue Street. The first of these was just over ten perches of land at 134 Fortescue Street in 1884; the next was a little over thirty four perches of land at 138 Fortescue Street in 1884; in 1893 he bought just over fifteen perches of land at 130 Fortescue Street (it is likely that the recording of the transfer of the land in the Title Deeds was delayed, as is sometimes the case, as Anderson had constructed a house on this property by 1889). 

Anderson had five timber cottages constructed following the same design. The cottages were built between 1889 and 1890 and set side by side along Fortescue Street. All but one of the cottages, 146 Fortescue Street, were built as rental properties and in 1890 the Post Office Directories first listed the row of cottages as ‘Park Terrace’. The five cottages were numbered 1 -5; No. 1 was Anderson’s house at the top of the row (now No. 146), No. 2 and No. 3 were built on one lot (now No. 138), No. 4 was the next (now No. 134) and at the end of the row was No.5 (now No. 130). These cottage numbers are confirmed by the 1912 Surveyor’s Notebook 

drawings that detail each cottage and include both the Park Terrace number and the street number, for example “Park Terrace No. 1, No. 146 (wood)”.  

The new cottages available for rent were targeted at a professional clientele and the rents for each cottage may have been higher than other houses in Fortescue Street. This is demonstrated by the range of tenants that resided in the cottages from when they were first built: in 1890 the cottages were home to an engineer (Anderson), an architect, the secretary of the Queensland Club and Madame Bushwell (correctly spelt in the next year as Madame Boucherville). In 1891 the cottages began to be advertised in the Brisbane Courier. An example of this was on the 30 March 1891, “To Let, Superior Cottage of four rooms, kitchen, servant’s room, baths…[contact] J. Anderson, No. 1 Park Terrace, Fortescue Street”1. Another was featured in 1896, “To Let, No. 3 Park Terrace, Fortescue Street… four rooms, kitchen, servant’s room, bath”2. 

By 1910 a shift had taken place with the tenancies with more artisan and working class people residing in the cottages, including a shop assistant, a tailoress, a guard and a missionary. 

In 1920 the Anderson family sold Nos. 134, 138 (both houses) and 146 to Edward John Lynch, a coach trimmer who lived in nearly Mulgrave Street. Lynch continued to rent out the properties as he was never recorded at the address. 130 Fortescue Street was sold in 1924 to Mary and Owen Nugent who were first listed at the address in 1921. 

As a row of five timber cottages, constructed at the same time for the same property holder, Park Terrace is a rare example in Brisbane of speculative property investment and development from the late nineteenth century. Park Terrace contributes to the streetscape of Fortescue Street and remains one of Spring Hill’s most picturesque streets.

1. The Brisbane Courier, 30 March 1891, p2

2. The Brisbane Courier, 24 March 1896, p7

3. Post Office Directories

4. Department of Natural Resources. Queensland Certificates of Title

5. Queensland Electoral Rolls

6. Allom Lovell Marquis-Kyle, The Character of Residential Areas, Brisbane, A Study for the Brisbane City Council, 1994

7. Brisbane History Group, Housing, Health, the River and the Arts, Papers No. 3, 1985

8. Original Surveyor’s Notebook Drawings, Brisbane City Council Archives, 1912