Glenview

The title of the land on which it stands was acquired in October 1881 in the name of Ann Sarah Smith, the wife of Henry Smith. A mortgage taken out in January 1883 by Smith is a possible indicator that the residence was built in that year, and Henry Smith is recorded in Dornoch Terrace later in that year.

Henry Smith resided in ‘Glenview’ only for a short time, before renting the house to tenants. Accountant John G Barnes, later manager of Morehead & Co., rented the premises until 1892. Smith in the meantime was using the property as collateral to a number of mortgages during the late 1880s. In March 1892, the property was mortgaged to William Hopkins for £700. November 1893 saw the property transferred to Fanny Hopkins, the wife of William Hopkins, perhaps as some arrangement to repay the mortgage during the severe economic depression, which hit the colony.

Hopkins appears to have been a railway contractor, and initially resided in Paddington. In the ownership of the Hopkins, ‘Glenview’ remained a short-term rental property, occupied by prominent individuals such as solicitor Dermot O’Donaghue, and the widow Fraser formerly of ‘Torbrek’. Fanny and William Hopkins moved into the property around 1898. Upon Fanny’s death in 1908 the property was transferred to her daughters Emily Ryland Hopkins and Susan Martha Hopkins, spinsters. William Hopkins continued to live in the house, possibly with the daughters, until the late 1910s. Thereafter the Misses Hopkins lived there, possibly until Susan’s death in 1943.

In 1941, a 24 perch subdivision was sold to Demetrios Cominos, heralding the changing cultural mix that would impact upon South Brisbane in the postwar period. Emily Hopkins then became the sole owner and the property was transferred to Arthur and Albert Hopkins upon her death in 1948, passing out of family hands in that year.