‘Doors held up with masking tape’: Can a 100-year-old community icon be saved?

An art deco-era community landmark has been brought back from the brink of ruin, but its trustees say it needs a large injection of funds if it’s to survive past its 100th birthday in 2026.

The Morningside School of Arts building on Wynnum Road was officially opened in 1926, and is currently used for art shows, classes, markets, concerts and club meetings.

But parts of its brickwork need reconstruction, and a complete paint job is required, all at an estimated cost of $250,000.

Committee president Debra Hood said the building also suffered drainage and electrical problems through years of neglect, and a storage shed was close to collapsing.

“When I came into the committee at the end of 2024, the front doors of the building were being held up with masking tape,” she said.

Morningside School of Arts is not owned by Brisbane City Council or Queensland State Government, but has a Brisbane City Council Heritage overlay in place dictating that it be maintained for its heritage value.

Artist Debra Hood is the president of the executive committee of the Morningside School of Arts Inc, which looks after the 100-year-old building.Credit: Nick Dent

Hood, an artist well known for her paintings and giftware featuring Brisbane architecture, was a longtime fan of the “Mornsie” and held her Southside Art Market events there until its decrepit state spurred her to action.

“Di Farmer, the state MP [for Bulimba], walked in as one of the old fluoro lights started smoking and toxic smoke billowed through the hall,” Hood said.

“I just burst into tears, looked at Di and said, ‘we’ve got to do something,’ and she nodded and said, ‘Yep, you’ve got my support.’

Since taking over as president last year Hood has applied to state, local and federal members for help in restoring the building.

She has launched the building’s website and a membership drive, wrangling volunteers in a spring clean.

Layers of dirt and lawn cuttings accumulating around the building have now been cleared and replaced with pebble gardens.

The broken doors were removed, new locks added and painting work begun with the help of a grant.

But when volunteers began clearing the dust and cobwebs under the stage they got a surprise.

“We found a number of amazing items under there,” Hood said.

The building was financed by a local hardware merchant, Cecil Crowther, pictured in the far right of the main photo. Credit: Morningside School of Arts Inc

Alongside nearly a century of records of the building’s committees and tenants they uncovered relics of the Ancient Order of Druids, the society that occupied the hall from 1926 to 1978.

A group similar to the Masons that began in London in 1781, the Druids counted Winston Churchill as a member, and peaked in popularity in Australia in the 1930s.

The charter of the United Ancient Order of Druids, Grand Lodge of Queensland, dated November 18, 1926. A digitised copy is now on display at the Morningside School of Arts.Credit: Morningside School of Arts Inc

As well as club regalia and a gavel in a handsome wooden box there were copious photographs, architectural plans and documents.

Hood has had several items digitised and framed, and they now decorate the hall’s interior.

Love letters left in library books from when the building was the municipal library were found, as well as 1960s correspondence about the banning of the Morningside Football Club from the building.

“They were holding rock’n’roll dances on Friday nights which got a bit raucous and wild. Local police were called and the Morningside Hall committee ceased all hire to the football club,” Hood said.

Hood intends to compile the stories of the Morningside School of Arts into a coffee table book to celebrate the venue’s centenary next year, for which she has applied for a Brisbane City Council historical grant.

Meanwhile, she is fundraising by holding trivia and band nights, and selling key rings and tea towels she has designed.

“Simply running the hall requires a lot of fundraising, for example, the basic insurance requirements cost about $13,000 a year,” she said.

One thing that won’t be replaced is the portrait of Queen Elizabeth II overlooking the stage, despite a change in monarchs.

“We’re going to leave Lizzy up there, that’s part of the vintage appeal of the hall.”

Morningside School of Arts is having an open day on Saturday, July 19 as part of Brisbane Open House.

The Love Me Again Market takes place there most Sundays, 8am-1pm.

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