The Mansions

This decorative and stately row of six attached town houses was the unusual ‘baby’ of a trio of parliamentarians - Premier Boyd Morehead in conjunction with his treasurer William Pattinson and business associate and member for Clermont John Stevenson.

In1889 it was built after they secured the services of esteemed architect GHM Addison, who using his signature materials of red brick and Oamaru limestone came up with the unusual aesthetic of unifying the houses using arcades and alternating pairs of dormer windows and entries as well as using cats as gargoyles on the parapets. He also resisted the in vogue lace iron balcony, instead using limestone loggia to help give the façade its distinctive look.

One of its first tenants was as unique as the building and is perhaps its most famous – Dr Lillian Cooper, who was Queensland’s first female doctor. From here she made house calls by day from a horse and sulky and by night on a bicycle.

More than a general practitioner, her achievements, along with her lifelong partner Mary Bedford, included revolutionising early childhood education and improving the lives of countless impoverished women and children. Mt Olivet, now St Vincent’s Hospice at Kangaroo Point was built on the site of their house, which was bequeathed to the Sisters of Charity for that purpose.