Carlyle Greenwell

Newington College, Stanmore.

Sydney Technical College, Ultimo.

University of Sydney, Camperdown

65 Woodside Avenue, Strathfield.

Greenwell was born in Windsor and was educated at Newington College (1897–1901).[1][2]

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”.[3] 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, New South Wales and Killara, New South Wales. His design for domestic dwelling in Woodside Avenue, Strathfield, is characteristic of his houses of this period. Another notable design showing his distinctive rough-cast stucco columns is 'Terhyn Worthle' which was featured in "Domestic architecture in Australia" edited by William Hardy Wilson (Sydney : Angus and Robertson, 1919). These homes had elements of the Federation Arts and Crafts and Federation Bungalow styles.

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.[4] In 1931, while in partnership as 'Greenwell & Shirley', Greenwell designed the 'Norman House' in Vaucluse.

At the age of 53, Greenwell married Sibyl Enid Vera Munro Morrison, a divorcee who was the first female practising barrister in New South Wales, at St Stephen's Presbyterian Church on 16 March 1937.[5]

Greenwell served as an Army Officer in both World War I[6] and World War II.

Greenwell died at Collaroy, New South Wales, on 7 February 1961. His estate funded the 'Carlyle Greenwell Research Fund' at Sydney University for student research, field work and original literary work in Anthropology.[7] A substantial bequest to the Art Gallery of NSW included works by George Lambert, Sydney Long, Kenneth McQueen and John Passmore. Over many years he was also a major donor to the Australian Museum.