Great Scot September 2018 Gt Scot_154_September_online | Page 95

Archives
School Archivist – Mr Paul Mishura
Shooting Star —
THE DISCOVERY OF
UNKNOWN OLD BOY ARCHITECT EDWARD GEORGE KILBURN
MR PAUL MISHURA
SCHOOL ARCHIVIST
ABOVE: THE FEDERAL COFFEE PALACE.
BELOW: TARA HALL’S ENTRANCE HALL.
BOTTOM: TARA HALL’S SITTING ROOM.
More than 36,000 boys and 91 girls have
attended Scotch since 1851. The fates of many of
them are unknown. For many others, it is known
when they died, and often what their occupation
was, but less often is it known what they achieved.
A recent surprise discovery was that Edward
George Kilburn was an architect, and one who had
a short but spectacular career before his untimely
death of typhoid fever at home at Woodlands, Yarra
Street, Hawthorn, on 23 April 1894.
Born at Hobart, Tasmania, on 6 February 1859,
Kilburn entered Scotch on 8 February 1872 from
2 Clarendon Terrace, East Melbourne. He was the
youngest of four brothers at Scotch, and the only
one not to become a bank manager. As Kilburn was
at Scotch during a period for which there are no
surviving records that confirm when he left, we only
know that he won first prize in Class 1 Arithmetic
and Algebra in 1872, and is probably the Kilburn
who came second in Class 2 for the same subject
in 1873. Nothing survives to confirm his attendance
after 1873.
From 1882 to 1885, Kilburn was Henry Hunter’s
chief draughtsman at his Hobart architectural
practice. Kilburn entered a partnership with William
Henry Ellerker in 1885. Until the practice’s end
in 1890, it worked on at least 48 projects. It won
the competition to design the Federal Hotel and
Coffee Palace in 1885. Completed in 1888, it was a
massive, ornate and magnificent landmark building
at 555 Collins Street, Melbourne. With nearly 500
rooms, it was a focal point for Melbourne society
gatherings and conventions. At the top of its
four-storey tower was a blue star light that ships
entering Port Phillip Bay used as a guide. Attempts
to save it were unsuccessful, and it was demolished
in 1973. As often occurs, the modern building that
replaced it, Enterprise House, outlived its usefulness
in less than 40 years.
A greater lost treasure was Byram, designed by
Kilburn in 1888 for Old Boy George Ramsden (born
1 March 1846, SC 1859-61, died 14 September
1896). A rare Australian example of the Elizabethan
Revival style, it was a brick and red-tiled mansion
built on Studley Park Road, Kew, and took several
years to complete. Subsequently called Coonoor
and also Goathland and Tara Hall, it featured an
ornate central hall with a magnificent staircase.
The floor was oak parquetry, with blackwood wall
panels that were often inset with stained glass. The
29-year-old Kilburn’s design impressed architectural
colleagues, as it also does those who lament its
demolition in 1960.
The partnership designed the City of Melbourne
Buildings on the corner of Elizabeth and Little
Collins Streets. Built in 1888 in the Queen Anne
style, it survives today in its ornate majesty. With its
flamboyant boom classical style, it is considered
a building of historical architectural significance to
Victoria, and has been on the Victorian Heritage
Register since 1979.
Kilburn’s work also survives in Hawthorn
with Cestria, the three-storey red brick American
Romanesque house still dominating Scotch Hill at
521 Glenferrie Road. Its current owners brought to
Scotch’s attention details of Kilburn’s architectural
career, as they sought to learn more about him.
Built in 1891 for biscuit manufacturer, Thomas Bibby
Guest, it was undoubtedly inspired by Kilburn’s 1889
tour of the United States (which also resulted in the
heritage-listed 1890 former Priory Ladies’ School at
61 Alma Road, St Kilda).
In 2001 it was added to the Victorian Heritage
Register as being of historical and architectural
significance to Victoria, as it is a rare example of
American Romanesque, which bucked the Italianate
style in which cast iron heavily featured. Another
Hawthorn survivor is the former Commercial Bank
of Australia on the corner of Burwood and Glenferrie
Roads, built in 1892, and now renamed The Kilburn
in honour of its architect.
Edward George Kilburn was an architect who
was known for a wide range of styles, and his quick
mastery of them. Only 35 when he died, he left a
legacy of several notable buildings that show why
his work was lauded in his lifetime, as well as several
masterpieces destroyed during an unappreciative
period that it must be hoped has passed.
www.scotch.vic.edu.au Great Scot
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