Drew Residence is a heritage-listed detached house at 20 Wharf Street, Shorncliffe, City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.

[2] This substantial timber residence with sub-floor, attic and tower, is understood to have been constructed in the 1890s, possibly in three stages, by American carpenters and boat-builders Samuel Drew and his sons Albert Edward and Frederick William, as their family home.

As builders, the Drews erected many houses in the Sandgate/Shorncliffe district in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, during the peak of Sandgate/Shorncliffe's popularity as a seaside resort.

They established a boat-building enterprise (constructing mostly pleasure craft) on Cabbage Tree Creek behind 20 Wharf Street, and were well known in local sailing circles.

[2] Native police were stationed at Sandgate from late 1852 until 1862 to "disperse" the Bribie Island and Ningy-Ningy peoples, and facilitate non-Indigenous occupation of the land in the Cabbage Tree Creek and Pine Rivers districts.

In the 1870s the permanent population increased, agitation for a rail link with Brisbane emerged, and municipal status was granted to the Borough of Sandgate in April 1880.

With the opening of the extension of the railway from Brisbane to Sandgate in 1882 the permanent population grew rapidly, settlement spread along the flats, and weekend holiday-makers turned the township into a bustling seaside resort.

The popularity of Sandgate/Shorncliffe as a seaside resort attracted day-trippers, seasonal holiday-makers and the Moreton Bay sailing fraternity, well into the 20th century.

[2] Samuel Drew, his wife Jane Harris and family emigrated to Australia from the United States of America in the mid-1880s, and by 1887 were resident in Sandgate.

Samuel Drew acquired title to 1 rood 22.4 perches (1,580 m2) (resubdivisions 96-98 of subdivision A of allotment 3 of section 15, Village of Sandgate) of unimproved land backing onto Cabbage Tree Creek and fronting Wharf Street, in May–June 1890.

His Wharf Street property was transferred to four of his children in 1895: Mary Ellen, Elizabeth Jane, Albert Edward and Frederick William, then in 1905 (perhaps following Albert's purchase of the Creek Street property in 1904) back to Samuel, who on the same date nominated Mary Ellen and Elizabeth Jane Drew as trustees.

[2] In 1947, prior to Elizabeth's death in 1950, Samuel John Drew and his son Oliver, also a builder, repaired and repainted 20 Wharf Street in white and several different shades of grey, believed to be the original colours.

As both had homes elsewhere, it was decided to convert the house into two flats to provide an income sufficient to pay the rates on what was effectively three blocks of land.

It is located at the southern end of Shorncliffe, on a property of over 60 perches (1,500 m2) which slopes to Cabbage Tree Creek, providing boat access.

[2] The rear elevation also has a central, decorative focus, where a dormer window and a room beneath this project from the core of the house, overlooking Cabbage Tree Creek.

[2] The enclosed undercroft, which is accessed via a recent stair in the room behind the vestibule, contains a living space, dining area and kitchen.

A tennis court has been constructed in the southeast corner of the block along the creek frontage, and gardens have been built up in front of the house.

Constructed in the 1890s by American carpenters and boat-builders Samuel Drew and his sons as their family home, the place is important in illustrating the expansion of Sandgate as a town and seaside resort in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The place is closely associated with the Drew family and their contribution to local pleasure-craft construction in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, further illustrating the nature of Sandgate as a bayside community.

The former Drew Residence is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a substantial, late 19th century artisan's residence designed to impress, and of large timber sea-side homes in the Sandgate/Shorncliffe area in general, including in the design a tower room with views over Cabbage Tree Creek to Moreton Bay.

The place exhibits a range of aesthetic characteristics, including the setting of the house adjacent to Cabbage Tree Creek; the scale, form, and materials employed; the decorative external timberwork; and the quality of the interior detailing, particularly the well-crafted joinery.