Carlyle Greenwell

Carlyle Greenwell (16 March 1884 – 7 February 1961) was an Australian architect whose houses, designed in the first half of the 20th century, are often heritage-listed. He was also a philanthropist who made bequests to the University of Sydney funding research in Anthropology and Archaeology.

Early life

Greenwell was born in Windsor and was educated at Newington College (1897–1901).

Architectural career

Greenwell studied architecture at Sydney Technical College before there was a university architecture course available in Sydney but also attended architecture lectures in the Engineering Faculty at University of Sydney. In the 1910s Australian and North American architecture became more aligned when the English-born architect and designer James Peddle arrived in Pasadena. He was determined to learn all he could in California by working there. Several Australian architects had already made study trips to the United States before this time and, as John Horbury Hunt’s houses demonstrate, North American architectural trends had had an impact on Australian practice as early as the 1870s. In the 1890s Richardsonian Romanesque, based on an Australian interpretation of Henry Hobson Richardson’s Stick Style and Richardsonian commercial building, had also made a brief splash in Sydney and Melbourne. In the early 1900s, some Australians gained scholarships to attend the School of Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania, then considered “the greatest one of them all” by John Francis Hennessy who attended in 1909 and 1910. Greenwell attended this Philadelphia program at the University of Pennsylvania and was awarded a B.Sc.(Arch) in 1911. Beaux-Arts training was still the main focus of the department’s program. The minutes of the meeting of The Institute of Architects of New South Wales for 1912 records that “We are pleased that Mr. Jack Hennessy and Mr. Carlyle Greenwell have returned and intend to remain among us”.
Before studying abroad, Greenwell had been articled to the firm of Kent & Budden, and in 1912 he joined them in partnership as Kent Budden & Greenwell. During this time, Greenwell designed a number of substantial homes for family and friends in Strathfield and Killara. Designs for domestic dwellings in this era are 'Milverton' in The Boulevarde and a home at 65 Woodside Avenue, Strathfield. They are characteristic of his work in this period and still largely intact. 'Milverton' Is now part of the campus of Trinity Prep. Another notable design showing his distinctive rough-cast stucco columns was 'Terhyn Worthle' at 1 Locksley Street, Killara. In 2012 the house was substantially demolished. One of the local council’s requirements of the new dwelling was to retain the six large columns at the front. After the heritage delisting by Ku-ring-gai Council of 'Wintergarden', a five-bedroom home built in 1913 at 21 Lorne Avenue Killara for his brother, this building was demolished in 2015. Other houses by Greenwell at 8 Nyora Street and 5 Locksley Street Killara still stand in 2022. After the departure of Harry Kent, the firm became known as Budden & Greenwell. In this period, Greenwell designed the Inter-War Gothic-styled Killara Congregational Church, which later became the Killara Uniting Church; the Woolloomooloo 'Bay Mothers and Wives Memorial to Soldiers

and the 'Harrison House' (now Weis Restaurant) in Toowoomba, Queensland, Toowoomba.
In 1931, while in partnership as 'Greenwell & Shirley', Greenwell designed the 'Norman House' in Vaucluse

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