[1] The low-set brick house, Largo, on the corner of Arthur and Mary Street was designed by Harry Marks for prominent Toowoomba businessman Alexander Mayes and built in 1901 or 1902.
[1] Alexander Mayes born at Largo, Fifeshire, Scotland, in 1859 came out to Queensland and established himself as a Toowoomba builder and contractor in 1886.
[1] Successful and prosperous, Alexander Mayes and his wife Helena Agnes, daughter of grazier William Grieve, had moved into their new architect designed home by 1902.
[1] In 1922 Mayes retired to northern New South Wales and Walter Watts occupied the house until Dr Albert Furness acquired it in 1936 when he employed noted Toowoomba architect William Hodgen for alterations.
The need for their own large premises saw the 1945 president and South Girls School headmistress, Miss Aileen Myfanwy Wadley, with a deposit of £50, able to acquire a loan to purchase Largo for the YWCA.
[1] The Toowoomba Chronicle of 12 November 1945 described the new hostel, saying how it was ideally situated on an acre of ground with mature shady trees and turf lawn and "should provide a happy atmosphere for many students and Service girls away from home".
The solid brick house had a central hall off which were four spacious rooms with fireplaces and large windows and doors which opened onto wide verandahs.
[1] An increase in country girls wanting secondary education and needing accommodation in Toowoomba resulted in construction of the Wadley Wing in the late 1950s.
An increase in the accommodation needs of business and secondary students necessitated further expansion, with a new wing named after past president Margaret Hofmann opened by 1971 — it replaced a couple of army huts that had been used by senior girls.
[1] With the Education Department's policy of building country high schools, the number of girls requiring accommodation in Toowoomba reduced.
Fund raising, donations and a grant through the Queensland Government Housing Accommodation Assistance Scheme enabled the expansion.
This included, for example, the addition of wheel chair access, increased accommodation by adding new wings, as well as modernising and maintaining the complex.
[1] The core of this brick house has a symmetrical front facade; a central entrance porch separating bay windows which extend through the veranda roof and are surmounted by a finial.
Use of lighter coloured bricks for quoins framing windows and wall edges are also employed, and this emphasises the separation of higher and lower gutter lines, as do the timber brackets supporting the superior roof.
Surviving details in the house include doors, skirtings, all fire surrounds, plaster ceilings, coving, windows and stained glass.
[1] Gowrie House is set back from the road and a new garden has been constructed around its western and southern elevations, while the grounds include several mature trees.
[1] The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history.