Federation architecture refers to the architectural style of Australian homes built around the decades before and after 1900 AD. This site is a backup to Federation-House.wikispaces.com, which closed down in 2018. The new Federation-House.com site links to these blogs, but many old links to the Wikispaces site are unfortunately still present.
Federation Architects D. T. Morrow and William de Putron
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Useful, pure (architectural) design with a strictly modern feeling
The journal, Building, described the work of Morrow and De Putron as having ‘a personality … which stamps it as emanating from the one office, particularly in the purity of design, with its strictly modern feeling in being useful, as well as decorative’
It was this type of contemporary appreciation of the work of the firm Morrow & De Putron that led to their popularity and success.
However, an added attraction could have been the fact that one of their major clients was (the) Hordern retail family.
William De Putron
De Putron was born in Darlington, Sydney in 1872. He was articled to R. Clarence Backhouse in 1891 before working at J. Wildridge & Sinclair, Engineers and then Robertson & Marks, Architects. In 1909, he entered into a partnership with David Thomas Morrow.
In 1908 De Putron had filled a ‘vacancy on Darlington Council’, becoming Mayor in 1912.
In 1911 De Putron married Alice Humphries, moved to Mosman where lived until his death in 1946. He opened his own practice in 1927 and served as an Alderman on Mosman Council from 1919-1928.
David Thomas Morrow
Morrow was born in 1871 and articled in 1891 to Morrell & Kemp, Architects. In 1896 he married Caroline Horn and served as Mayor of Redfern Council. In 1897 he opened his own firm, D. T. Morrow and from 1909 to 1927 was in partnership with De Putron, Percy James Gordon accepted as a third partner in 1921.
After De Putron left, Morrow and Gordon continued to practice and were responsible for two famous Sydney landmarks, the Grace Building in 1930 and in 1939 the AWA Building in York Street.
Popular, successful architecture
By 1910, a year after they entered into partnership, De Putron and Morrow were able to put their names to a number of new buildings.
Morrow & Gordon – Commercial organisation
Architectural practice which designed for many large commercial clients.
Names ; Morrow & De Putron 1909 – 1925; Morrow, de Putron & Gordon 1921 – 1925. Closed 1992
Nationally significant Heritage buildings by Morrow and de Putron
1. Babworth House
103 Darling Point Rd, Darling Point, NSW (Registered) Register of the National Estate
Probably the grandest Art Nouveau house in Sydney, built for Anthony Horden.
Built 1905 to the designs of Morrow and de Peutron in the Art Nouveau style.
2. Coles Fosseys 1915 Building (former)
350 Pitt St, Sydney, NSW
(Indicative Place) Register of the National Estate
Erected in 1915 as a department store for Sydney Snow Stores Ltd, this building, replaces the original 1912 three storey building on the site which was destroyed by fire in January 1914.
3. Grace Brothers Store (former)
Eastern block, 185-213 Broadway NSW
(Registered) Register of the National Estate
A pair of department store buildings which are of architectural and townscape significance. They are good examples of the Free Classical style influenced by Beaux Arts principles of design, which is rare in Australia. The twin clocktowers, which originally both had illuminated glass and steel globes, formed a familiar landmark in the streetscape of Sydney’s Broadway.
Two buildings of an Edwardian department store each side of Bay Street,
4. Milton Park Homestead, Gardens and Outbuildings
Horderns Rd, Bowral, NSW
(Registered) Register of the National Estate
Milton Park is an early twentieth century homestead complex with a significant large homestead of the Federation Arts and Crafts style
constructed in 1910, a significant large garden of an Edwardian style, primarily established in the 1930s, and outbuildings.
Milton Park Garden and Homestead exhibit a design style of exceptional interest: the homestead demonstrates the Federation Arts and Crafts style, with rendered and shingled walls, hipped and gabled roofs, tall chimneys and Art Noveau detailing; while the gardens demonstrate the Edwardian style with both Arts and Crafts and
English Flower Garden characteristics demonstrated by the herbaceous border, the compartmentalised areas, sunken garden, walled areas, stone steps and topiary.
Milton Park gardens and homestead demonstrate exceptional design in the unusual large homestead with its well integrated Porte Cochere, verandahs and period detailing; the garden layout with distinct areas and garden themes linked by curving paths; the contrived vistas from the garden and house; and the complementing stylistic interpretation of house and garden also display creative achievement..
Selected NSW Heritage buildings by Morrow and de Putron
1. Retford Park Mansion(1887-1907)
Old South Road, Bowral
A large Victorian mansion built of sandstone and plastered, with a slate roof and an exterior colour scheme of Portuguese pink with white trimmings, it is of Italianate design which followed the general style of Retford Hall at Darling Point (built by E.Blacket for Samuel Horden).
Retford Park was the home of James Fairfax AC, a former Chairman and Director of the publicly listed media group John Fairfax Limited.
The property remained in the Riley family until the 1880’s when it was acquired by Samuel Hordern, second son of Anthony Hordern, who renamed it “Retford Park” in recognition of family links to Retford in Nottinghamshire, England.
BEQUEATHED: Philanthropist James Fairfax (inset) will leave Retford Park at Bowral in trust for the benefit of the public. Photo by Bob Lewis
JAMES FAIRFAX, the philanthropic former chairman of the publishing company that bears his family name, will bequeath Retford Park, his imposing Highlands mansion, for the benefit of the public.
Retford Park, with an Italianate revival-style mansion, dates back to the 1880s when it was the summer retreat of the retailing Hordern family.
It sits in lush gardens that include the recent planting of three Wollemi pines.
Listed on the register of the national estate since 1980, Retford Park takes its name from the village in Nottinghamshire, the northern England town from where Anthony and Ann Hordern immigrated in 1825.
Mr Fairfax, the eldest son of the late Sir Warwick Fairfax and his first wife, Betty Wilson, has regularly bought adjoining land, making Retford Park one of the district’s prized properties. Mr Fairfax also has homes in Woollahra, Bilgola and Dorset, England.
2. Bay House, Broadway (1915)
76-82 Bay Street Ultimo Sydney
MORROW & DE PUTRON 1915, former home of the University Co-op Bookshop
A fine example of a four storey facebrick Federation Free Classical style Commercial Building, which makes an important contribution to the streetscape of Bay Street. It is designed by the prominent architectural practice of Morrow and Deputron and provides evidence of the development of the Grace Bros Retail Empire in the early 20th century.
3. Ballarat House (1915)
68-72 Wentworth Avenue, Surry Hills
Ballarat House is an early example of the Inter-War Chicagoesque style designed by an eminent firm of Sydney architects, Morrow & DePutron, as spacious, flexible rental accommodation with minimum structural obstructions.
4. The Vanderbilt (1925)
Including Interior and Central Patio, 13 Springfield Avenue, Potts Point, Sydney
The Vanderbilt has historical significance as it dates from one of the key period of layers for the development of Potts Point as a direct result of the subdivision of the Springfield Estate.
A three storey Inter-war Free Classical style residential flat building. It features a terracotta tiled pitched roof with an eyelid dormer which comprises a band of square windows. The façade is symmetrical with the two central bays projecting which originally featured balconies which have been enclosed. The outer bays feature double hung sash windows.
5. (Etham) House and Grounds (1926)
2 Sutherland Crescent, Darling Point, Woollahra
The building at 14 Etham Avenue was designed by Morrow and De Putron, architects of the nearby mansion building Babworth House for Samuel Hordern, brother of the well known Sydney storekeeper, Anthony Hordern.
The site of 14 Etham Avenue, Darling Point has some historic significance as part of the earlier estate of Etham House.
The building has social significance as part of the evolutionary development of the district and as an example of the more compact residence which was designed for the minimum of household assistance.
Other Notable Buildings
Hopewood House, Darling Point (demolished)
13-15 Thornton Street, Darling Point, N.S.W.
Originally a house built for Lebbeus Hordern by Morrow & Deputron, Hopewood House was a finishing school in the 1930’s and later a hospital.
Photos by Harold Cazneaux (1878–1953) of Hopewood House, 1930s
In February 1915 they made their first building application to Mosman Council.
Major works in Mosman included
A weathered sandstone plaque in the modern boundary wall facing the road at 71 Bay Street is one of the few reminders that the block – labelled Lot 43 in Mosman Council’s 1917 Building Register – was home to six weatherboard cottages built by the Mosman branch of the Voluntary Workers Association for disabled servicemen and war widows.
Mosman Library’s Local Studies Librarian Donna Braye has researched the stone plaque, and the cottages, which were designed by a local architect, William De Putron of Clifford Street. Today the cottages would be numbers 67 to 77 Bay Street.