John Horbury Hunt

John Horbury Hunt and his wife outside 'Cranbrook Cottage', Bellevue Hill, Sydney.

Hunt's grave at South Head Cemetery, Vaucluse, Sydney

John Horbury Hunt (1838 – 30 December 1904), often referred to as Horbury Hunt, was a Canadian-born Australian architect who worked in Sydney and rural New South Wales from 1863.

Life and career

Born in Saint John, New Brunswick, 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 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, 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. Hunt's other works include the Convent of the Sacred Heart, now Kincoppal School, in the Sydney suburb of Vaucluse; and Tivoli, now part of Kambala, in the suburb of Rose Bay. In Armidale, he designed St Peter's Anglican Cathedral and Booloominbah and Trevenna which are now both part of the University of New England.

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. Another notable example is Pibrac, designed by Hunt for Frederick Ecclestone du Faur. Pibrac is also on the Register of the National Estate.

Hunt was ruined by the Depression of the 1890s. He died in Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Camperdown, eleven days after admission suffering from Bright's disease (a kidney 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 was buried at South Head Cemetery, Vaucluse (the story that he was buried in a tomb with his wife and pet pony is a popular myth).

He was close to destitute at the time of his death. His home, Cranbrook Cottage, had been repossessed by the mortgagor; it was demolished in 1925 to make room for the widening of New South Head Road. The site of the cottage is marked by a small rock garden, named Horbury Hunt Place. Riversdale House in Burradoo, now part of Chevalier College, still survives and is thought to be similar in design to Cranbrook Cottage, having been commissioned by Henry Osborne around the same period (c1875).

Partial list of works

The following buildings designed either in part or in full by Hunt are listed on various national, state and local government heritage registers:

Buildings designed either in part or in full by John Horbury Hunt

Building name	Location	Year completed	Australian National Heritage List	NSW State Heritage Register	Local government register	Notes
All Saints Church	Hunters Hill, Sydney	1885
Belltrees (shearing shed)	Scone	1907
Booloominbah	University of New England, Armidale	1883		Yes
Camelot	Kirkham	1888
Catherine Hayes Building	Prince of Wales Hospital, Randwick	1867				completed by Thomas Rowe
Cloncorrick	Darling Point, Sydney	1884
Christ Church Cathedral and Church Hall	Grafton	1881 (cathedral) 1890 (church hall)
Christ Church Cathedral	Newcastle	1869
Church of St James	Jerrys Plains	1875
Church of the Good Shepherd and Rectory	Kangaroo Valley	1870 (church) 1879 (rectory)
Cranbrook School, Sydney additions	Bellevue Hill, Sydney	1874–75
Fairwater	Double Bay, Sydney	1881		Yes
Havilah homestead	Hunter Valley
Havilah property extensions	Mudgee area	1890
Highlands	Wahroonga, Sydney	1891
Osborne Memorial Church of St Luke	Dapto	1882
Pibrac	Warrawee, Sydney	1888
Public School	Rozelle, Sydney	1877
Public School and Headmaster's Residence	Frederickton	1880
Riversdale House at Chevalier College	Burradoo					designed by Hunt.
Sacred Heart Convent, (now part of Kincoppal School)	Vaucluse, Sydney	1888
Sir John Robertson Memorial	South Head Cemetery, Sydney
St Alban's Anglican Church	Muswellbrook	1869		Yes
St Bartholomew's Church of England, Ollera Station	Guyra	1876
St James' Anglican Church	Morpeth					partly designed by Hunt.
St Matthias Church	Denman	1871
St Paul's Church of England	Murrurundi	1872
St Peter's Anglican Cathedral Church	Armidale	1871
Superintendent's Cottage, Prince of Wales Hospital	Randwick, Sydney	1863

Gallery

• 
  Sacred Heart Convent, c. 1930s, Vaucluse
• 
  Cloncorrick, Darling Point
• 
  Highlands, Wahroonga
• 
  All Saints’ Church, Hunters Hill
• 
  Christ Church Cathedral, Newcastle
• 
  Pibrac, Warrawee
• 
  Public School, Rozelle
• 
  Superintendent's Cottage, Prince of Wales Hospital, Randwick
• 
  Catherine Hayes Building, Prince of Wales Hospital, Randwick
• 
  Sir John Robertson Memorial, South Head Cemetery, Vaucluse
• 
  Church of the Good Shepherd, Kangaroo Valley

See also

• Architecture of Australia
• Francis Greenway
• Edmund Blacket
• John H. Buckeridge

References

• John Horbury Hunt: Radical Architect 1838–1904, author: Peter Reynolds, Historic Houses Trust Of New Sou, 2008. Paperback.
• Architect Extraordinary – the Life and Work of John Horbury Hunt: 1838–1904, author: J. M. Freeland, Cassell, Melbourne, 1970. Hard Cover.

External links

• Historic Houses Trust of NSW – John Horbury Hunt – Radical Architect
• St Peter's Cathedral, Armidale – History
• Australian Dictionary of Biography
• Booloominbah and other buildings