Aubigny (later called Loretto) was a house located at 273 North Quay, Brisbane,

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

, Australia. It is associated with many significant aspects of Brisbane's history.

Brisbane's first synagogue

The house was originally built in 1870 by Samuel Davis, a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

businessman, and included a separate building used as Brisbane's first synagogue.

Society mansion

Wedding guests of Miss Perkins and Mr Randall McDonnell in the grounds of Aubigny, at North Quay, Brisbane, 1897

In 1883

Patrick Perkins Hon. Patrick Perkins, J. P., (10 October 1838 — 17 May 1901), nicknamed Paddy Perkins, was a brewer and politician in colonial Queensland. He was a Member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly and, later, a Member of the Queensland Legislati ...

, brewer and politician, used his wealth to buy the palatial home, which he called "Aubigny" after the

electoral district of Aubigny The electoral district of Aubigny was a Legislative Assembly electorate in the state of Queensland. It was first created in a redistribution ahead of the 1873 colonial election, and existed until the 1972 state election. Based in the Darling ...

that first elected him to the Queensland Legislative Assembly. Patrick Perkins used the former synagogue as a billiards room.

Police facility

In 1899, the Perkins family rented the property to the Criminal Investigation Department which used the house as offices and the synagogue as a photography room.

The first Mater hospital

In 1906, the house was sold to the Rev. Mother Patrick of the Sisters of Mercy to create the 20-bed Mater Misericordiae Hospital (now a tertiary hospital located at

South Brisbane South Brisbane is an inner southern suburb in the City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. In the , South Brisbane had a population of 7,196 people. Geography The suburb is on the southern bank of the Brisbane River, bounded to the north-west, ...

); the former synagogue being the hospital chapel. Eventually, the hospital outgrew the house and relocated to the South Brisbane area where it still operates.

Loretto, girls hostel

In 1913, the Sisters of Mercy then renamed the house "Loretto" and used it as a hostel for respectable Catholic girls coming from the country to work in Brisbane; the former synagogue being the maids' quarters.

Resumption

When the Brisbane City Council decided to build the

Grey Street Bridge The William Jolly Bridge is a heritage-listed road bridge over the Brisbane River between North Quay in the Brisbane central business district and Grey Street in South Brisbane, within City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It was designed ...

, it was necessary to resume the property to facilitate road widening. However, until the council needed to use the land, the church were permitted to continue to lease it. In about 1939 a portion of the land not needed for road widening was sold to the

Church of Christ, Scientist The Church of Christ, Scientist was founded in 1879 in Boston, Massachusetts, by Mary Baker Eddy, author of '' Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,'' and founder of Christian Science. The church was founded "to commemorate the word an ...

to build the (now heritage-listed) First Church of Christ, Scientist in Brisbane and the house was sold for £148.

References

{{coord, -27.4670, 153.0168, type:landmark_region:AU-QLD, display=title Houses completed in 1870 Houses in Brisbane Jews and Judaism in Queensland Religious buildings and structures in Brisbane Hospitals in Brisbane North Quay, Brisbane Heritage-listed hospital buildings in Australia