About the building
"Merrivale" by Edwin (Ted) Roy Orchard (1891-1963)
The brick structure is a 3 level residential Inter-War Flat building with an excavated basement level car park for 4 of the 6 flats, and is clad in roughcast and shingles with timber double hung sash windows and timber doors throughout. The roof contains a main hip with projecting front and rear gables with roughcast finishes to the underside of the eaves.
Its features are characteristic of the Federation Arts and Crafts movement, which was heavily influenced by the Victorian Englishman, William Morris, and was a call to return to the ideals of craftsmanship and the honest use of materials that characterised past eras.
Woollahra Municipal Council DA 492/1928 identifies the original architect as Edwin Orchard who was a noted practicing architect in Sydney during the twentieth century. The following history was provided by The Encyclopedia of Australian Architecture:
Edwin (Ted) Roy Orchard (1891-1963) was born at Mosman Bay, Sydney, NSW. After school at Sydney Boys' High School and later training at Sydney Technical College, he commenced his articles under John Burcham Clamp in 1907. His name appears frequently at this time winning IA NSW student prizes. By 1909,Orchard was a gifted delineator and his name can be found on drawings published by Clamp in architectural periodicals. The confident style of his drawings suggests a considerable talent.In 1912, he began his own practice at 68 1/2 Pitt Street, Sydney. One of his earliest know works is the extant house at 35 Muston Street, Mosman, NSW (1912).
Front doors of Units 1 and 2 in "Merrivale" in 1950
Soon after, he designed houses for Francis Bell in Bennett Street, Neutral Bay, NSW (c1913), for E.M.Sheedy in Strickland Avenue, Lindfiled, NSW (c1913), for C.D.Whitty and Arthur Copeland in Prince Albert and Queen Streets, Mosman, NSW (c1913), as well as in Bondi Junction, Manly, Cremorne, Mosman and Clifton Gardens. These houses were erected by 1915 and "Building" magazine, edited by George and Florence Taylor, featured the work in an article ambitiously titled "Australian domestic architecture, how type is evolved", suggesting that Sydney architects were, due to the city's topography, developing a characteristic Australian style. By that time at least 20 more houses were under construction.
In July 1920, Orchard was again featured in "Building" in an article about home building at Clifton Gardens where Orchard houses, including his own at 7 David Street (1913), had (and still do) monopolised that street. By that time, in spite of WWI, another 25 houses and flat buildings were constructed on the Lower North Shore and Woollahra areas. Clients, including James Elliot, industrial chemist and businessman, for whom Orchard designed a double-storey four-bedroom house, "Strathmore", overlooking Mosman Bay. Another client was Edward Sheedy, cattle breeder and later Chiarman of Directors of the "Newcastle Morning Herald". For Michael Louis and R.F.Higgs, graziers, Orchard designed houses overlooking Sydney's Chowder Bay.
Most of the early houses are in an accomplished Arts and Crafts style with a shingled, gabled form; two-storey buildings where the bedroom floor sits within a steeply pitched gable roof, clad in roughcast and shingles with a variety of projecting bay windows and dormers. Good surviving examples are at 3 David Street, Clifton Gardens, 14 Tivoli Street, Balmoral and 15 Wolseley Road, Mosman. At this time, Orchard designed with a signature chimney top: a smooth rendered bellcast corbel supported by brick-size dentils. In some designs he experimented with half timbering and jerkin-head gables, such as at 24 David Street, Clifton Gardens. Now and then the gable form was displaced by a more substantial two-storey hipped roof composition in the manner of M.H. Baillie Scott, as seen in "Myola", 6 David Street, Clifton Gardens and "Strathmore", 57 Cremorne Road, Cremorne Point. Here, vertical two-storey roughcast walls are relieved by projecting shingled bays, external chimney stacks and heavy roughcats piers supporting deep "living" verandahs.
From about 1920, Orchard's architectural style changed to Californian bungalow. Between 1920 and 1930, a further 20 commissions have been identified. A good extant example of this work is "Lanreath", 51 Middle Head Road, Mosman (1924). In the same year the "Commonwealth House" published the the design for the very substantial country bungalow "Bidura" in Bowral, NSW.
Interior of Unit 1 in "Merrivale" in 1950
Perhaps because of the lack of work during the Depression or perhaps for family reasons, Orchard and a friend, George Innes, moved in 1931 to Queensland and tried tobacco farming at Dimbulah near Mareeba until 1933. According to his later partner Jack McElroy, he met R.F.Fogarty, who was associated with the Carlton United Brewery, and obtained work on breweries and hotels. By 1937 he was calling tenders for hotels and hotel alterations as well as private residences and by 1939 his name and location in Cairns appeared on a relatively short list of practising architects in Queensland. A paragraph in the "Architecture and Building Journal of Queensland" in December 1939 noted that the Courthouse Hotel at Cairns had been entirely remodelled by Orchard. In 1940, he designed the Australia Hotel in Mackay, and outstanding Art Deco style composition.
During WWII, Orchard spent his time, as many architects did, making designs for imaginary commissions. In January 1945, a Sydney publisher launched his book, edited by Lorence Taylor, entitled "36 Distinctive Homes". This contains accomplished plans and perspectives of large homes, suitable for every location and taste.
Southern side of "Merrivale" in 1950
In the late 1940s and 1950s, Orchard practised alone in Cairns producing both commercial and domestic work; hotels, warehouses, flats, breweries, offices, showrooms and large houses. Among his work in Cairns is the "Railway Hotel", Alpin and Spence Streets (c1940); offices for the Cane Growers' Executive, Alpin and Grafton Streets (1946-50); a warehouse for Drug Houses of Australia, Alpin and Grafton Streets (c1950); Floriana Flats, 185 Esplanade (c1946); Peter's Ice Cream Building, Draper Street; the Melleck residence, Florence and Lake streets (c1954); the Williams residence, 14 Bellevue Crescent (c1957); and the Imperial Hotel (1960). Other work in Cairns included the Conroy residence, 261 Esplanade; his own house, Bellevue Crescent; the main building and tower of R.F.Fogarty Brewhouse, 101-113 Spence street, and the H.R.Kennedy showroom, Alpin and Abbott Streets. He also designed the Anglican Church of Mosman, Queensland, motor show rooms and a hotel at Atherton, Queensland, and the Great Nrothern Hotel at Mareeba, Queensland.