Oak Lodge and Spreydon
| Oak Lodge and Spreydon | |
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Oak Lodge
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| Location | 7 Warra Street & 30 Rome Street, Newtown, Toowoomba, Toowoomba Region, Queensland, Australia |
| Coordinates | 27°33′23″S 151°56′24″E / 27.5564°S 151.9399°ECoordinates: 27°33′23″S 151°56′24″E / 27.5564°S 151.9399°E |
| Design period | 1870s - 1890s (late 19th century) |
| Built | 1890s - c. 1923 |
| Built for | Robert Walker Filshie |
| Architect | James Marks and Son |
| Official name: Oak Lodge and Spreydon | |
| Type | state heritage (built, landscape) |
| Designated | 1 October 2003 |
| Reference no. | 601312 |
| Significant period | 1890s, 1920s (fabric) 1890s, 1908-1917 (historical, social) |
| Significant components | trees/plantings, residential accommodation - main house, garden/grounds |
 Location of Oak Lodge and Spreydon in Queensland
Location of Oak Lodge and Spreydon in Queensland
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Oak Lodge and Spreydon is a heritage-listed pair of villas at 7 Warra Street & 30 Rome Street, Newtown, Toowoomba, Toowoomba Region, Queensland, Australia. They were designed by architectural firm James Marks and Son and was built from 1890s to c. 1923. They were added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 1 October 2003.
Oak Lodge and Spreydon were erected in the 1890s as one house facing Warra Street, at the southwest corner of Warra and Rome Streets, Newtown. The house is believed to have been designed by the prominent Toowoomba architectural firm of James Marks and Son, for plumber and timber merchant Robert Walker Filshie. It was originally a large timber house with a steeply-pitched hipped roof and two projecting front gables in the Warra Street elevation. In the early 1920s, the house was divided into two sections, with the southern gabled section and hallway being moved around the corner to face Rome Street, and extended to the west.
Robert Filshie was born near Dumbarton, Scotland. He trained as a plumber and arrived in Queensland in November 1862. Having tried his luck unsuccessfully on the Gympie gold fields he moved to Toowoomba in 1868. In 1870 he established a Toowoomba plumbing business which he conducted for over thirty years. Filshie is better known for the timber merchandising business he established with James Broadfoot and James Marks in 1884, when they acquired the Hampton sawmill as Filshie, Broadfoot & Co. By 1912 this successful firm was one of the largest in Queensland. The Filshie connection with timber ended in 1987 with the closure of a 41-year-old cabinet making business by grandsons Earle and Ian Filshie.
Like many successful businessmen, Robert Filshie was involved with his local community, serving on the local council, and was active as a founder and prominent member of the Toowoomba Caledonian Society, and as a freemason.
In 1885, when sections of rural Newtown were subdivided for closer residential settlement, Filshie took the opportunity to acquire a number of blocks in the area, including over two acres fronting Warra, Rome and Russell Streets, title to which was recorded in his wife's name. Following Mrs Filshie's death in 1887, this property was administered by Robert Filshie until title was transferred to his eldest daughter, Janet Filshie, in January 1893. It is not clear from Post Office Directories or local authority rate books whether Filshie actually occupied any part of this property prior to c. 1904. His home was in Margaret Street in 1887, and he is listed as a Margaret Street plumber in the Directories throughout the 1890s, although this may have been his business address.
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