John Horbury Hunt
Encyclopedia
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
-born architect who worked in Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
and rural New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
from 1863.
Life and career
Born in Saint John, New BrunswickSaint John, New Brunswick
City of Saint John , or commonly Saint John, is the largest city in the province of New Brunswick, and the first incorporated city in Canada. The city is situated along the north shore of the Bay of Fundy at the mouth of the Saint John River. In 2006 the city proper had a population of 74,043...
, the son of a builder, Hunt was trained in Boston, Massachusetts but then migrated to Australia in 1863. He worked in Sydney with Edmund Blacket
Edmund Blacket
Edmund Thomas Blacket was an Australian architect, best known for his designs for the University of Sydney, St. Andrew's Cathedral, Sydney and St...
for seven years prior to pursuing his own practice. His output was extremely varied and included cathedrals, churches, chapels, houses, homesteads, stables and schools. Probably his first building designed in Australia was the Superintendent's Residence at the Prince of Wales Hospital, Randwick
Randwick, New South Wales
Randwick is a suburb in south-eastern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Randwick is located 6 kilometres south-east of the Sydney central business district and is the administrative centre for the local government area of the City of Randwick...
, designed in 1863. A few years later he designed the Catherine Hayes Hospital, which was also built at the Prince of Wales Hospital, with the design modified by Thomas Rowe
Thomas Rowe
Thomas Rowe , wasone of Australia's leading architects of the Victorian era.-Biography:Thomas Rowe was born in Penzance, Cornwall, United Kingdom, the eldest son of Richard Rowe and Ursula Mumford, and attended Barnes Academy. At 15 he became a draftsman in his father's building business before the...
. Hunt's other works include the Convent of the Sacred Heart, now Kincoppal-Rose Bay, School of the Sacred Heart, Sydney
Kincoppal-Rose Bay, School of the Sacred Heart, Sydney
Kincoppal-Rose Bay, School of the Sacred Heart , is a private, Roman Catholic, day and boarding school predominantly for girls, located in Rose Bay, an eastern suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia....
, in the Sydney suburb of Vaucluse; and Tivoli, now part of Kambala Girls School
Kambala Girls School
Kambala is an independent, Anglican, day and boarding school for girls, located on one campus in Rose Bay, an eastern suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Established in 1887, Kambala has a non-selective enrolment policy and currently caters for approximately 950 students from Pre-school...
, in the suburb of Rose Bay
Rose Bay, New South Wales
Rose Bay is a harbourside, eastern suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Rose Bay is located 7 kilometres east of the Sydney central business district, in the local government areas of Waverley Municipal Council and Woollahra Council .Rose Bay has views of both the Sydney...
. In Armidale, New South Wales
Armidale, New South Wales
Armidale is a city in the Northern Tablelands, New South Wales, Australia. Armidale Dumaresq Shire had a population of 19,485 people according to the 2006 census. It is the administrative centre for the Northern Tablelands region...
, he designed St Peter's Anglican Cathedral and Booloominbah
Booloominbah
Booloominbah is a late Victorian mansion situated at the University of New England in Armidale, New South Wales, Australia.It was designed for Frederick Robert White in about 1882 by John Horbury Hunt and built by local building contractors William Seabrook and John Brown in 1888. The White family...
and Trevenna
Trevenna
Trevenna is the residence of the Vice-Chancellor of the University of New England, in Armidale, New South Wales, Australia. The house was built in 1892 and is located off Trevenna Road on the western side of the main campus in Armidale...
which are now both part of the University of New England
University of New England, Australia
The University of New England is an Australian public university with approximately 18,000 higher education students. Its original and main campus is located in the city of Armidale in northern New South Wales....
.
Hunt's distinctive, radical architecture was considered to be twenty years in advance of his peers, some of it unequalled in the world at that time, and sowed the seeds of some aspects of modern architecture in Australia. It has been said that "Undoubtedly men such as Hunt... have, through their buildings and their ideas, stiffened the intellectual backbone of Australian architecture."He was instrumental in bringing the North American Shingle Style to Australia. The outstanding example of this style was Highlands, a two-storey home designed by Hunt and built for Alfred Hordern in 1891. Situated in Highlands Avenue, Wahroonga, Sydney, Highlands is listed on the Register of the National Estate
Register of the National Estate
The Register of the National Estate is a listing of natural and cultural heritage places in Australia. The listing was initially compiled between 1976 and 2003 by the Australian Heritage Commission. The register is now maintained by the Australian Heritage Council...
. Another notable example is Pibrac, designed by Hunt for Frederick Ecclestone du Faur. Pibrac is also on the Register of the National Estate.
Hunt died in Royal Prince Alfred Hospital,Camperdown, eleven days after admission suffering from Bright's Disease. His personal effects, recorded in the hospital Admission book consisted of a metal box, three gold rings, a silver pencil and a pair of spectacles. He is buried at South Head Cemetery, in the tomb he designed for his wife. Several of his pets are also interred there including his pet pony.
He was close to destitute at the time of his death. His own house, Cranbrook Cottage had been repossessed by the Mortgagor and was subsequently demolished in 1925, to make room for the widening of New South Head Road. The site is marked by a small garden, named for him.
Partial List of Works
The following Hunt buildings are listed on the Register of the National EstateRegister of the National Estate
The Register of the National Estate is a listing of natural and cultural heritage places in Australia. The listing was initially compiled between 1976 and 2003 by the Australian Heritage Commission. The register is now maintained by the Australian Heritage Council...
.
- Camelot, Narellan (1888)
- Highlands, Wahroonga, Sydney (1891)
- All Saints Church, Hunters Hill, Sydney (1885)
- Pibrac, Warrawee, Sydney (1888)
- Public School, Rozelle, Sydney (1877)
- Catherine Hayes Building, Prince of Wales Hospital, Randwick, Sydney (1867)
- Superintendent's Cottage, Prince of Wales Hospital, Randwick, Sydney (1863)
- Sir John Robertson Memorial, South Head Cemetery, Sydney
- Additions to Cranbrook School, Bellevue Hill, Sydney (1874-75)
- CloncorrickCloncorrick, Darling Point, SydneyCloncorrick is an historic house of Victorian Free Gothic style in Darling Point, Sydney. It was built in 1884 for Sir George Bowen Simpson by John Horbury Hunt the famous Sydney architect. Simpson named the house after Cloncorrick Castle in Ireland where his grandfather once lived...
, Darling Point, Sydney (1884) - Fairwater, Point Piper, Sydney (1881)
- Sacred Heart Convent, Vaucluse, Sydney (1888)
- Church of the Good Shepherd and Rectory, Kangaroo Valley (church 1870, rectory 1879)
- Osborne Memorial Church of St Luke, Dapto (1882)
- St Matthias Church, Denman (1871)
- St Paul's Church of England, Murrurundi (1872)
- Christ Church Cathedral, Newcastle (1869)
- Belltrees, Scone (shearing shed) (1907)
- Church of St James, Jerrys Plains (1875)
- Christ Church Cathedral, Grafton (1881)
- Christ Church Cathedral Church Hall, Grafton (1890)
- Public School and Headmaster's Residence, Frederickton (1880)
- Booloominbah, University of New England, Armidale (1883)
- Saint Bartholomew's Church of England, Ollera Station, Guyra (1876)
- Extensions to Havilah Property, Mudgee Area (1890)
Other buildings by Hunt:
- St Peter's Anglican Cathedral Church, Armidale, NSW (1871)
- St James's Church, Morpeth (partly designed by Hunt), has Local Government Heritage listing.