Gold Coast Open House 2016: Step inside Southport’s historic Sata Nita home built in the 1930s

IF the walls of Sata Nita could talk, they would tell a story of one of Southport’s oldest and most unusual buildings dating back more than 80 years.

Sata Nita House in Southport. Photo: Regi Varghese

IF the walls of Sata Nita could talk, they would tell a story of one of Southport’s oldest and most unusual buildings dating back more than 80 years.

The Spanish Mission-style building has stood on the corner of High and Nind streets since the 1930s and is known today as the home of Somerville Funerals.

Images of the interior and exterior of the Sata Nita House, Nind St Southport circa the 1970s by photographer Frank Bailey. Supplied courtesy of City Libraries Local Studies Collection

While normally a location for sad occasions, its doors will be thrown open to the public in search of smiles on November 5 as part of the second annual Gold Coast Open House.

The one-day event allows people to get a closer look at some of the city’s oldest and quirkiest buildings which are not normally accessible to the public.

Somerville Funerals Southport location manager Jenny Crewes said visitors would be surprised at the long history of the building.

“People come in here to use our services and I have often been asked what it was like on the inside so now people can come and see without it being a sad occasion,” she said.

“The building, known as Sat Nita, was built by Robert Tennant Johnston as a bridal suite for his new wife Lila Hughes.

Interior of the historic Somerville Funerals building in Southport, Gold Coast. Photo: Regi Varghese

“The whole area used to be a lumber yard owned by the Johnson and Freeman timber mill and it is one of the few remnants of it.”

Johnson, known to friends and family as “Sonny” commissioned the house in the then-popular Spanish Mission style which can also be seen in the old Southport bathing pavilion.

The building’s wooden floor, now hidden underneath carpet, was cut from a single tree in the Numinbah Valley in the Gold Coast Hinterland.

A plasterer was brought from Italy to design and make the interior ceiling, the creation of which took more than six months to complete.

Ms Crewes said the couple married later in life than was common at the time and did not have children.

“Curiously they did not sleep in the same bed but had two single units which were placed end-to end,” she said

“They never had children but lived happily in the house until the late 1980s when it was finally sold.

“Sata Nita became an antiques shop for six years before Somerville Funerals relocated to it in 1994.”

More than 30 Gold Coast properties from Coomera to Currumbin are already listed for Gold Coast Open House 2016

Event co-chair Greg Ewart said the buildings selected for this year’s event were “multifaceted and impressive”.

“The buildings on display this year create a snapshot of the evolution of architecture on the Gold Coast,” he said.

“Some buildings date back to the late 1800s and early 1900s, through to cutting edge design of recent years by some of the city’s leading architects.

Among those to be featured are St Hilda’s School, TSS clock tower, Southport Masonic Centre, Southport Uniting Church, Q1 and the Gold Coast Bulletin historic building in Southport.