Rhoades Residence

Accordingly, the site on which this house now stands does not appear to have been developed by any of its nineteenth century or early twentieth century owners. The land was part of a 99 acre landholding granted to Isabella Dawson in 1862. The following year, fifty acres of this passed to Rockhampton bank manager George Tuson, who held the land until his death in 1903. In 1918 David Henry Rhoades acquired a 45 acre block of Tuson’s estate, transferring it to his wife Edith Catherine and another trustees soon after. The Rhoades family were furniture dealers, who operated several branches across Brisbane and south-east Queensland. The family already had a residence in London Road, Clayfield, called ‘Rhodesia’, and so left this property vacant. 

In March 1938 the Rhoades began to sell small sections of their Samford Road land. Their son David Edward Ainsworth Rhoades acquired two resubdivisions, the block on which the house stands, in May 1939. Rhoades, a warehouseman working in the family company, took out a mortgage in June.

In April 1939 tenders were advertised for a two-storey timber residence on Samford Road, designed by DFW Roberts. The successful tenderer, AG Butler, evidently started work immediately as the Steering Wheel reported that construction of the striking Dutch Colonial style house ‘set in spacious grounds’ was underway in April 1939. The architect was the son of architect and master builder Douglas Francis Roberts. He had worked as a draftsman in his father’s office from 1922-1929.  Although registered as a Queensland architect in 1930, Roberts worked in Sydney and travelled overseas before becoming one of a group of young interwar architects designing buildings in Brisbane in contemporary styles, such as Old English and the more modern Functionalist. In Brisbane, Roberts also designed alterations to the Ann Street Presbyterian Church and ‘Mairita’ at Coorparoo, before ill-health forced him to transfer his business to Conrad and Gargett in 1941. He died later that year, aged 35.

The Rhoades’ new house drew media attention. A sketch of the timber house was included in both the Telegraph and the Steering Wheel in April 1939. Articles described the ‘old world charm’ of the proposed house. The house was to have a massive brick chimney, a tile roof and boast a ‘spacious entrance hall’, lounge and dining rooms, kitchen with breakfast nook, and upstairs a master bedroom, guest room, nursery for two young sons, and an L-shaped bathroom. Outside, an area hedged with fir trees and entered via a wicker gate was planned as a children’s playground. The Rhoades were congratulated on ‘selecting a position that is delightfully rural and refreshing’. On its completion it was featured in the Sunday Mail, which noted its ‘clean, bright appearance’, the face brick and mottled tile details of the roof and entrance, and the rising sun effect of the wavy weatherboards over the main entrance.

Significant urban development occurred in the area in the postwar period. Housing Commission estates were constructed in areas of Grovely and Mitchelton. The old Grovely School established in 1916 became Mitchelton Infants’ School in 1925 when the Mitchelton State School was opened. Directly across from the Rhoades’ house, Mitchelton State High School was operational from 1956, though not officially opened until 1959. The year after the high school’s official opening, the Rhoades sold their house in 1960, and the house remains in private ownership. 

The Rhoades’ house is evidence of mid-twentieth century development, and a rare example of a bespoke, architect-designed house, in an area that is dominated by postwar development. 

1. Brisbane City Council Water Supply and Sewerage Detail Plan No 2538, 27 October 1966

2. Department of Environment and Heritage Protection, Entry on the Queensland Heritage Register, St Matthews Anglican Church [600256]

3. Department of Natural Resources, Queensland Certificates of title and other records.

4. Donald Watson and Judith McKay, Queensland Architects of the Nineteenth Century, South Brisbane: Queensland Museum, 1994

5. Kennedy, Michael Owen. Domestic Architecture in Queensland Between the Wars. Unpub Thesis. Master of Built Environment. 1989

6. ‘The home of Mr and Mrs DEA Rhoades on a picturesque Enoggera hillside’, The Steering Wheel and Society & Home 3(4), 1 April 1939

7. Information from Helen Park, owner