Harris House is a heritage-listed house at 1 Clifford Street, Toowoomba City, Toowoomba, Toowoomba Region, Queensland, Australia. It was built from 1912 to 1946 by Montague Ivory. It is also known as Cliffordene. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 26 July 2019.
History Harris House, a substantial Federation-era masonry residence, located at 1 Clifford Street in the regional city of Toowoomba, was constructed , probably by its owner, Toowoomba building contractor Montague Ivory. It is important in demonstrating the development of Toowoomba as the principal urban centre of the Darling Downs region in the 20th century. Harris House also demonstrates the principal characteristics of a substantial early 20th century suburban villa residence and of Federation-era domestic architecture, and has aesthetic significance for its beautiful attributes, picturesque qualities and streetscape contribution.
European settlement of the Toowoomba area, traditional country of the Giabal and Jarowair people, commenced in 1840 when squatters occupied pastoral runs on the Darling Downs. The small settlement of Drayton evolved from 1842, but was soon surpassed by a more desirable location six kilometres to the northeast, known as Toowoomba from the 1850s. Better suited to market gardening, with a more reliable water supply, and supported by squatters and land speculators, Toowoomba was incorporated as a municipality (Borough of Toowoomba) in 1860. Its rapid economic and social development was influenced by local residents who strongly promoted the prospects of the town, and political representatives who successfully lobbied for government funding for civic improvements.Maurice French and Duncan Waterson, The Darling Downs: A Pictorial History 1850-1950, Darling Downs Institute Press, Toowoomba, 1982, p. 130.
Toowoomba expanded rapidly from the late 1860s, becoming the main urban centre of the Darling Downs by 1888. The arrival of the Main Line railway in 1867 secured the town's development and subsequently made it the hub for the Southern and Western railways. The Selection Act 1868 brought selectors to the district, improvements to freehold estates, and revived trade with western areas. Toowoomba's economy diversified to include numerous small-scale manufacturing firms, while the majority of administrative, service and other government and education functions for the surrounding region were established in the town.DB Waterson, Squatter, Selector, and Storekeeper: A History of the Darling Downs, 1859-93, p., Sydney University Press, Sydney, 1968, p. 81French and Waterson, The Darling Downs: A Pictorial History, p. 111W Frederic Morrison, Aldine History of Queensland, Illustrated, embracing sketches and portraits of her noted peoplethe rise and progress of her varied enterprises, and illustrations of her boundless wealth, together with maps of latest survey, vol II, The Aldine Publishing Company, Sydney, 1888, p. 558. Its progress was reflected in improvements to the physical environment, through important capital works projects, including the draining of its swamps, improved water supply, gasworks for lighting, extensive tree plantings and the initial development of Queen's Park. Earlier temporary structures were replaced with more permanent and impressive buildings.French and Waterson, The Darling Downs: A Pictorial History, pp. 130-1Ivan McDonald Architects in association with Mark Baker Town Planning Consultants Pty Ltd, 2001, Toowoomba City Centre Heritage Study, pp. 13-5 cited by QHR602824 Toowoomba South SS.
Toowoomba experienced an urban land boom throughout the 1870s and 1880s. Newtown, its first working-class suburb, was created in the 1880s, while speculators extended the "shopkeepers" residential areas to the north east of Ruthven, Russell and Margaret Streets, the commercial core of the town. Prosperous Darling Downs landowners, business-owners and professionals established residences in Toowoomba; and from the 1880s, the town acted as a summer resort for those seeking a cooler climate, including Queensland Governors.
By the turn of the 20th century, Toowoomba had outstripped the development of every other urban centre on the Darling Downs, with its population in 1901 equalling their combined populations. After the passage of the Local Authorities Act 1902, Toowoomba became the Town of Toowoomba on 31 March 1903, and on 29 October 1904 was proclaimed the City of Toowoomba.French and Waterson, The Darling Downs: A Pictorial History, pp. 130-1. The 1910s were a period of commercial and social expansion for the new city.
The land on which Harris House stands was purchased from the New South Wales government in 1852 by ex-convict and Bull's Head Inn publican William Horton, as part of an approximately block.New South Wales Deed of Grant dated 5 Jan 1852 cited by Department of Natural Resources Mines and Energy (DNRME), Certificate of Title 11415025. Horton became Toowoomba's "first, largest and most eager purchaser of land".Maurice French, Pubs, Ploughs and 'Peculiar People': Towns, Farms and Social Life, University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, 1991, p. 31. In 1868, he sold the block to pastoralist and parliamentarian James Taylor, who was a major Toowoomba land speculator and advocate. Following Taylor's demise in 1892, approximately of this land, bounded by Clifford, Margaret, West, and Hill Streets, was subdivided into 64 allotments each of in 1899. John Hugh Munro purchased subdivisions 1 to 3 of this estate, the site of Harris House, but subsequently sold the land in 1909 to Toowoomba building contractor, Montague Ivory.DNRME: Certificates of Title 10125205DRNME: Certificate of Title 10923020Survey Plan 16249DNRMECertificate of Title 10957086 Earlier that year, Ivory had purchased adjoining allotments 4 and 5, while allotments 6 to 8 had been purchased in his wife's name.DNRME: Certificate of Title 10957086Certificate of Title11007189.
Ivory was residing in Toowoomba and working as a building contractor by 1901.NTAQ, Harris House file, TOOW 1/120, Toowoomba Historical Society notes on Cliffordene, 1 Clifford Street, also Harris House notes by Beris Broderick from NTQ Harris House file. Born in 1861, he moved from Sydney to the Warrego region in Queensland .Evening News, [Sydney], 15 Dec 1891, p. 6Queensland Electoral Rolls, Warrego, 1891 and 1900. He lived in Charleville from about 1893, where he was a tobacconist and the treasurer of the Charleville Branch of the AWU, until .Queensland Electoral Rolls, Warrego, 1891Queensland Electoral Roll, Warrego, 1893Worker, 28 Jan 1899, p. 11Western Champion and General Advertiser for the Central-Western Districts, 28 Feb 1899, p. 5Watson and McKay, A Directory of Queensland Architects to 1940, p. 114Queensland Electoral Roll, Warrego, 1900 cited by applicantWorker, 28 Jan 1899, p. 11.
Ivory's work as a building contractor in Toowoomba and Warwick during the first two decades of the 20th century included regionally important projects. In Toowoomba, he constructed a brick chimney stack at Perkins & Co. Brewery in Margaret St (1901), an additional storey on the Fire Brigade Building in Neil Street (1906), two additional wings for Crawford's Freemason's Hotel on the corner of Neil and Herries Streets (1906); and completed extensive alterations and additions to W Jones & Son's malt house at Black Gully in Toowoomba in 1907.'Local and General News', Toowoomba Chronicle and Darling Downs Gazette, 14 Sep 1901, p. 3'Toowoomba & District', Brisbane Courier, 8 Mar 1906, p. 6'Crawford's Freemason's Hotel', Darling Downs Gazette, 24 Jul 1906, p. 5'Toowoomba & District', Brisbane Courier, 5 Oct 1906, p. 2University of Queensland Fryer Library, W Hodgen collection, University of Queensland Fryer Library 116, Manuscript Finding Aid: Item A583 Alterations to bath rooms and lavatories, and sewerage connections at Fire Station, Neil Street for the Toowoomba Fire Brigade Board, 19 Oct 1930, Job 587. In 1908, Ivory won the tender for additions and alterations to the Toowoomba Post and Telegraph Office.Toowoomba & District', Brisbane Courier, 6 Oct 1908, p. 2. During 1910–11 Ivory resided in Warwick for 12 months, constructing a brick department store for Messrs Barnes & Co, before departing the town in March 1911.'Barnes & Co's New Trade Palace', Warwick Examiner & Times (WE&T), 28 Jan 1911, p. 2Darling Downs Gazette, 27 Mar 1911, p. 8Queensland Figaro, 6 Apr 1911, p. 17 In 1923–24, Ivory designed the Queensland Brewery Ltd's new four-storey brewery in Toowoomba after it took over Breheny Brewery.'Confidence in Toowoomba', Toowoomba Chronicle and Darling Downs Gazette, 12 Apr 1924, p. 6"Queensland Brewery", Toowoomba Chronicle and Darling Downs Gazette, 3 Dec 1924, p. 7.
By 1913, Ivory was living in Harris House on the western corner of Clifford and Margaret Streets (1 Clifford Street) and remained there until , when the house was sold.Queensland Post Office Directory, 1913-20. The designer and builder of the house are not known, but considering Ivory's role in the building industry, it is believed he built the house for himself, as well as the adjacent houses at 3 Clifford Street and 256 Margaret Street. In 1919, Ivory reconfigured the allotments that comprised 1 and 3 Clifford Street to create three allotments, including an allotment to the west, which became 256 Margaret Street.DNRME, Survey Plan RP16250. 3 Clifford Street was sold in 1920 and the purchaser was listed in the Queensland Post Office Directory as resident in the house in the same year, while 256 Margaret Street was sold in 1924 and its new owner listed as resident in the Queensland Post Office Directory in 1924.