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United Service Club Premises is a heritage-listed club house at 183 Wickham Terrace, Spring Hill, City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by architect Claude William Chambers and built from 1906 to 1947. It is also known as Montpelier and The Green House. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 28 April 2000. == History == The United Service Club consists of two buildings, a timber house known as the Green House (on the right/east), and a masonry structure known as Montpelier, built on the site of an earlier three-storey masonry building, also known as Montpelier (on the left/west). Claude William Chambers was the architect of both the Green House and Montpelier. The buildings became the United Service Club premises in 1947. Prior to this date, both the existing and earlier Montpelier, and later the Green House, functioned primarily as residences and boarding houses.〔 The settlement of Brisbane was established as a penal colony in 1825, and while it remained as such for less than twenty years, no land was alienated from the Crown until 1856. In this year, portions of Spring Hill were sold in one acre lots. The Deed of Grant for the land on which Montpelier and the Green House were to be built was issued to William Wilson on 29 January 1856. Title to the property subsequently transferred to Anglican Archbishop Edward Tufnell in February 1864, coinciding with the construction of the original Montpelier. William Davies purchased the property in 1897 and it remained in the Davies family until purchased by the United Service Club in 1946.〔 Wickham Terrace, with its elevated position close to the city, quickly became popular with aspiring professional and business families following the sale of land in the 1850s. During the 1860s and 1870s Wickham Terrace was evolving into an area of boarding houses and homes, schools, clubs and medical rooms. Entrepreneurs built houses for rental and as lodging-houses, including Montpelier, built in 1864 as a pair of large semi-detached villas beside the Albert Street Wesleyan Methodist minister's home. Designed by Benjamin Joseph Backhouse, the two storey house with a hip roof and no verandahs soon became a lodging house. On 1 April 1865, an advertisement for the lease of a, "highly eligible and pleasantly situated two-storey BRICK HOUSE, situated on Wickham Terrace, near the Observatory", was included in the ''Brisbane Courier''. It is likely that Montpelier is the building being described in the advertisement.〔 The Green House was constructed on vacant land between Montpelier and the Baptist City Tabernacle. Approval was given in October 1906 for a new building on Wickham Terrace, to be made of "wood", for William Davies. The building was designed by Claude William Chambers and constructed by A Anderson. The first occupant of the Green House was Dr Thomas Howard Morgan, who remained at 173 Wickham Terrace from 1908 to 1913. By 1928–29, the building was occupied by Mrs AM Whyte, at which time it was being advertised as a boarding house.〔 It appears Montpelier was replaced with the existing three-storey masonry building which continued the name Montpelier. At this time a new brick boarding house on Wickham Terrace was constructed for William Davies. The architect was Claude William Chambers. It is possible that a portion of the 1864 villa was retained and incorporated into the Montpelier.〔 Until the United Service Club obtained the Wickham Terrace property in 1947, Montpelier was used almost continuously for the provision of boarding house style accommodation. During Tufnell's ownership of the house, Lady Musgrave Lodge, founded in 1885 by the wife of Queensland Governor Sir Anthony Musgrave, used the boarding house to provide accommodation for young women from 1888 until moving to the rear of 121 Wickham Terrace in 1892. Annie Mabel Forsyth leased Monpelier in 1910. These leased premises were used as a first-class private gentleman's hotel, and were so exclusive that applicants required references to obtain lodgings.〔 In 1940, the lease was purchased by Molly Sheehan, a former private secretary to politician Reginald Macdonnell King, Minister for Public Works and Public Construction in the Queensland Parliament from 1929 to 1932. Ms Sheehan remained as manager during World War II when the building was commandeered as accommodation for officers of field rank. One of the long-term residents of this period was Colonel Johnston, personal physician to American General Douglas MacArthur.〔 Ownership of the site was transferred to the United Service Club in November 1946, and the Club relocated to its new headquarters in 1947. Founded in 1892, the United Service Club had occupied several premises before moving to the Wickham Terrace site. The last relocation was precipitated by Australia's involvement in World War II, when club membership increased to 1200 so that new premises were needed urgently. In a near-city location, with a tram stop close-by, and provisions for ample parking, Montpelier and the Green House, with on-site tennis courts were ideal.〔 Immediately following the club's acquisition of the site, conversions teams of carpenters, bricklayers, electricians, refrigeration experts and others began on a refurbishment of the two boarding houses. The ground floor of Montpelier was used for two lounges, a dining room, library, bar and kitchen, the second floor for residential rooms, and the third floor for three billiard rooms, card room and bathing facilities. All levels had wide verandahs facing the city that provided pleasant places to sit on hot summer evenings. The verandahs were later enclosed on the two upper levels.〔 The Green House was not utilised at this time. Although valued at £5000, money was scarce immediately after the war, so various uses were considered such as providing a venue for entertaining women or renting rooms out to medical people. Although ladies were not admitted to the club, the Green House was rented to an exclusive ladies group, the Moreton Club. They remained tenants in the Green House until 1959 when the building was converted to professional rooms and offices to raise revenue for the United Service Club.〔 While a Ladies' Night on Thursdays was introduced in the 1940s, it was not until 1966 that women were permitted to join as associate members and the Green House refurbished. Club membership, once exclusively for serving and retired officers, was opened to nominated civilians about 1990 when both buildings were again refurbished. Further work, completed in 1996, included converting the brick building's 22 bedrooms to 16 units and enlarging the dining room. Refurbishment works were also completed on the Green House lounges, meeting rooms and top bar.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「United Service Club Premises」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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