Franklin Villa

Highgate Hill is an inner-city suburb with views to the city. Many fine homes were built there in the colony's early days, and this is one of them. Franklin Villa was built on Brighton Rd around the year 1890, and the following image dates from around 1928.(Photo: State Library of Queensland and John Oxley Library; #167454)

A two-storey residence with distinctive wrought-iron lattice work and unusual panelling, the old home survives in its original location - click to see a larger image.
(Photo: © 2010 the foto fanatic)

Huge palm trees at the front of the house made photographing it difficult, so you might want to go and look for yourself :-) The house was constructed as rental accommodation by a woman called Ellen Grenier, who named the house Franklin Villa in memory of her deceased husband Franklin. Franklin Grenier was the brother of well-known publican and local alderman Thomas Grenier who originally owned a large parcel of land including this block. Thomas Grenier sub-divided the land, but died before building on any of it, and the land was bequeathed to brother Franklin. Franklin transferred the property to his wife's name, but he also passed away before the house was built. Although ownership of the house has changed several times over the years, it is still used as rental accommodation. You can click here to go to the Franklin Villa web site to see some more photographs and to get a feel for how the house operates. There is also a substantial page about the history of the house.

Click here for a Google Map.

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Next: The little church that could