David

31/05/1856

David Williams (1856-1940) was one of the first generation of architects to be born and train in South Australia. He was amongst the group who resolved to form the South Australian Institute of Architects on 20 September 1886 and he undertook a two-year term as president between 1911 and 1913 (Page 1986, Freeland 1971). During his presidency the institute revived its previous calls for the South Australian Government to hold design competitions for large public buildings and it also applied successfully for ‘allied society’ membership of the Royal Institute of British Architects (‘Institute of Architects’ 1912, 1913). For the majority of his professional career Williams was in partnership with his brother-in-law, Charles Thomas Good (1864-1926), as Williams & Good. Their practice designed a considerable number of well-known South Australian buildings.

Born on 31 May 1856, David Williams was the elder of the two sons and six daughters of early South Australian colonist and well-known builder David Williams snr and his wife Elizabeth (nee Davies) of Brown Street, Adelaide (‘Personal’ 1913; SA Births 1997: 3283). He married Annie Good (1859-1942), third daughter of Thomas Good, a prominent merchant, at the bride’s parents’ home in Brougham Place, North Adelaide, on 26 March 1884 (‘Marriages’ 1884; Biographical Index 1986: 1715). They made their family home at ‘Erwood’ in High Street, Unley Park, where they brought up two sons, Leslie Good Williams (1889-1952) and Francis Edgar Williams (1893-1943). Leslie and Francis were educated at Kyre College, a Baptist School in Unley (‘Out Among the People’ 1941). Leslie followed his father into architecture while Francis pursued studies in the Arts at the University of Adelaide and was named Rhodes Scholar for 1915 (‘The Rhodes Scholarship’ 1914). The brothers both served in World War 1. After the war Francis went on to study Anthropology at Oxford University, England, and worked from the early 1920s in the British colony of Papua where he was highly regarded as Government Anthropologist from 1928 until his untimely death in 1943 (‘Private Casualty Advices’ 1943; Young 2006). After a short period in practice with his father in 1927, Leslie Williams moved to Quorn, in the Flinders Ranges and later to Victor Harbor (‘Family Notices’ 1952).

David Williams opened a solo practice in c.1880 in Furze Chambers, King William Street, Adelaide (Boothby’s Directory 1880). The 1880s was a time of boom and growth in South Australia and he received a number of commissions including for new churches for the Baptist and Wesleyan communities at Norton Summit and Wayville (‘Baptist Church’, ‘Wesleyan Church’, 1882, 1885). In 1889, when South Australia was facing a depression, he formed a partnership with his wife’s brother Charles. Charles was born in South Australia but trained in architecture in England; he gained his early experience there and in Melbourne and moved into partnership soon after he returned to Adelaide from the Victorian capital (‘Obituary’ 1926; Page 1986). By 1915 both David Williams and Charles Good had travelled to Europe on study trips (‘The Art of Architects’ 1915). The successful and prolific practice of Williams & Good lasted until Charles’ sudden death in March 1926. The following year Williams and his son Leslie had a brief partnership as Williams & Son (Willis 1998).

The practice of Williams & Good was based initially in King William Street but thereafter at 14 Waymouth Street, Adelaide. Through the 1890s, the partners designed new houses and alterations to existing dwellings in Adelaide (Page 1986; Willis 1998). They also gained the commission for the substantial North Bundaleer homestead near Jamestown in the Mid-North of the state for pastoralist George Maslin. Tenders were called for Maslin’s homestead in 1897 and it was completed c.1901 The homestead was placed on the State Heritage Register in 1983.(‘North Bundaleer’).

Williams & Good’s other early commissions included the Baptist Church, Wayville (opened 1895), a church and institute for the Adult Deaf and Dumb Mission (1897) in Wright Street, Adelaide, a five-storey warehouse in Grenfell Street for Goode, Durant & Co. (1905, additions 1910), a new home for Minda at Aldgate (1904) (with Garlick and Jackman). They designed Kalyra (1895, additional wing 1905) and Nunyara (1902) Consumptive Homes at Belair; both were in keeping with contemporary principles of patient care and rehabilitation. Subsequent works included a major addition to James Marshall & Co’s (1908) department store on the corner of Rundle Street and Stephens Place, a warehouse (1913), and later an office building (1920), for A.E. & F. Tolley Ltd both on Waymouth Street, and a warehouse for wholesale grocers and general merchants Henry Berry & Co. (1915) on Franklin Street. The practice was responsible for several theatres, including the 1800-seat Tivoli on Grote Street, described as ‘the most luxuriously-appointed theatre in Australasia’ (‘Tivoli’ 1913: 19). The Majestic Theatre, on the site of White’s Rooms and the Old Tivoli on King William Street, followed in 1916 and was acclaimed as ‘the only place in Australia built without inside posts’ (‘Majestic Theatre’ 1916: 7).

Williams & Good’s educational and ecclesiastical commissions in the suburbs included a lecture hall (1903) and a new church (1917) for the Baptist congregation on Northgate Street, Unley Park, St Columba’s parish hall (1905), Hawthorn, and a new building that housed a science laboratory at Kyre College (1909), Unley. The practice carried out additions and alterations to accommodation and other facilities for the Adult Deaf and Dumb Mission at Parafield (1889, 1919). In its final year, 1926, Williams & Good contributed to ‘the remarkable progress’ of Birkenhead, Port Adelaide, designing a two-storey brick building for General Motors Limited on Rann Street (‘Another large motor works’ 1926: 15).

David Williams appears to have retired by c.1928. He died at home in Unley Park in 1940 and was buried at the Mitcham cemetery.

Christine Garnaut

Citation Details
Garnaut, Christine, 'Williams, David', Architecture Museum, University of South Australia, 2013, Architects of South Australia: [http://www.architectsdatabase.unisa.edu.au/arch_full.asp?Arch_ID=104]