El Nido is a heritage-listed detached house at 194 Kingsford Smith Drive, Hamilton, City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by Eric Percival Trewern and built from 1928 onwards by Burton Hollingsworth. It is also known as Cassa Anna. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 28 February 2003.
History
Possibly originally known as Cassa Anna, this early Brisbane Spanish Mission style house was constructed for Mr and Mrs E. F. Powers. It was designed in 1927 by important Brisbane architect Eric Percival Trewern, who was instrumental in popularising the Spanish Mission style for domestic architecture in Brisbane. The builder was Burton Hollingsworth of Coorparoo, who constructed many of Trewern's residential designs.
The site was first alienated from the Crown in 1853/54 by William Robert Howe Weekes of Brisbane, as part of a parcel of land which comprised the whole of Hamilton Hill through to what is now Crescent Road, and down to Eagle Farm Road (later Hamilton Road, then Kingsford Smith Drive) along the Brisbane River. In the 1860s Weekes sold much of this land to Brisbane auctioneer and politician James Dickson, who erected Toorak House at the top of Hamilton Hill. By the mid-1870s Hillside Crescent had been formed, and the subdivision which was later the site of El Nido (subdivision 1 of allotment 6 of portion 1) had been created, with title held by Dickson.
In late 1878, Dickson transferred title to subdivisions 1–3 of allotment 6 of portion 1 (three blocks between Hillside Crescent and Hamilton Road) to another Brisbane auctioneer and politician, John Francis Buckland, and an adjacent two blocks, also fronting Hamilton Road, (subdivisions 4 and 5) to dentist David Ralph Eden. Braeside House, a substantial two-storeyed residence, appears to have been erected on subdivisions 4 and 5, and was occupied by solicitor John Robb Baxter Bruce by 1883. In the early 1890s Bruce acquired title to all five subdivisions and part of the adjacent subdivision 6. The house stood about two-thirds of the way along the site, overlooking the Brisbane River.
Braeside changed hands a number of times between 1902 and the 1920s, but remained on one title until the late 1920s. An aerial photograph of Hamilton Hill dated shows Braeside and its grounds very clearly. The main carriage drive led from a surveyed road (later closed) along the western boundary of subdivision 1 (near its intersection with Hillside Crescent), eastward across subdivisions 1-3 and parallel to Hillside Crescent, until it reached the house on subdivisions 4 and 5. Also evident in the photograph is a set of stairs leading south from the main carriage drive down the steep slope to another carriage drive running parallel to Hamilton Road. This second carriage drive led to two structures in the southwest corner of the estate (on subdivision 1), close to Hamilton Road, which may have been stables or garages. The stairs appear to be those still in existence at 25 Hillside Crescent, and shared by "gentleman's agreement" with the occupants of 19 Hillside Crescent, since the late 1920s.
The Braeside Estate was subdivided during the 1920s economic boom, when rising Council rates combined with the lure of attractively increasing prices obtained for inner city suburban blocks in good locations, led to the subdivision of most of the remaining large suburban estates at New Farm, Hamilton, Ascot and Clayfield. Edward Ferdinand Powers acquired title to subdivision 1 in September 1927; title to subdivision 2 was transferred in 1928, as was that to Braeside on subdivisions 4 and 5 and re-subdivision 1 of subdivision 6; and subdivision 3 was transferred in 1932, although possibly sold in 1927–28. New houses on subdivisions 1-3 were erected and occupied by 1929.
The block which Powers acquired in 1927 comprised of steeply sloping land with views over the Hamilton and Bulimba reaches of the Brisbane River, and east toward the mouth of the river. The site may also have contained the buildings associated with Braeside House, evident in the aerial photograph.
In mid-1927 Powers commissioned architect EP Trewern to design a substantial Spanish Mission styled residence for this site, to take advantage of the views. The design was well publicised (likely by its architect) and attracted considerable interest at the time, being heralded in the Architectural and Building Journal of Queensland of 11 July 1927 as: