| Biography | From 1939 Ernest Alfred Keal developed a successful architecture practice in Adelaide. His designs and resultant built works show he was notable exponent of modernism.
Keal was born to Alfred Richard and Minnie Annie (née Glenn) Keal in 1905. He had two siblings, Richard Glenn (1900) and Thalma Toleen (1911). The family lived at 8 Torrens Road, Yatala (Alberton). His grandparents, William Hurst and Mary Ann Keal, had a long association with the Port Adelaide area through the Rosewater District Council and Methodist Church and various Lodges (‘Obituary’, 1926). His father was, for 35 years, the Port Adelaide manager of McGlew and Co., grain and general merchants, and at the time of his death in 1945, was also chairman of the Victory Starr-Bowkett Society (‘Obituary’, 1945). Naval, possibly cadet, records of 1919-1920 describe Ernest as having a ‘fresh’ complexion with black hair and brown eyes and being 5 feet 6½ inches tall. His occupation at that stage was ‘School’ (Discovering Anzacs).
Keal studied violin at the Elder Conservatorium from 1918 to 1926 (University of Adelaide Archives). He played with the South Australian Symphony Orchestra for 15 years ‘before it became a full time job’, appearing with the First Violins on the South Australian Orchestra players list for the 1925 season (‘Death of S.A. Architect’, 1968; ASO Heritage). He also performed violin solos and collaborated with other musicians for various fund raising events for the Methodist Church: for example, Alberton, 1926 and 1930; Glenelg, 1930; Magill Institute, 1932. In 1931 he married Evelyn Merle Williams at St James Church, Torrensville. As Merle Keal, she sang soprano solos at the 1932 Magill Institute concert. They had two sons, Philip and Paul (Theatre programs, State Library of South Australia; ‘Weddings’, 1931; ‘Death of S.A. Architect’, 1968).
It appears that Ernest Keal began his working life as a clerk, but one who also entered the property market at a relatively young age whilst still living at home. In July 1928 he bought Allotment 26 (Leslie Street) ‘of the subdivision of Blocks 55 to 70 of Section 405 laid out as Woodville’. The Certificate of Title shows Keal having a mortgage on the property with The Port District Starr-Bowkett Building Society one month before selling it to George Waterman of Semaphore on 9 October 1933. In June 1929 Keal purchased a property on the corner of Gower and Glenloth Streets, Dunleath. Now known as Glenelg East, Dunleath was set out in 1925 and comprise[d] ‘some of the most desirable building land in the rapidly expanding seaside resort of Glenelg’ (SAILIS; Manning, 2008: 134).
Keal then appears as a draughtsman living at 27 Avenue Road, Frewville in 1932 and 1933. A February 1933 newspaper report about wooden houses quotes a Mr. E.A. Keal of Reid Brothers, Timber Merchants (City Office, Flinders Street; Head Office, Port Adelaide) as saying, ‘I do not think it is possible to build a brick house as cheaply as one of wood and iron …’ (‘Wooden houses not prohibited’, 1933). He moved to or built a house on the Dunleath land as that was his address in 1934 when he and Dr Leon Opit of Henley Beach Road, Torrensville, bought a property as ‘Tenants in Common’ on Asylum Road, Dulwich on 8 December 1934. They are shown as having a mortgage with The South Australian Ancient Order of Foresters Friendly Society in February 1935 prior to selling in July 1935. Keal was later commissioned in 1940 to design a home in the International Style by Dr Opit’s wife, Bertha (Jolly, 2012: 97). It is not known how they initially met.
It is also not clear how or with whom Keal undertook his architectural training. One possibility is that it was with the architectural firm of McMichael & Harris. Alfred Harris was also quoted in the newspaper article on wooden houses, the firm was one of the largest at that time and employed at least seven draughtsmen, and he moved to their offices during World War Two (Sands & McDougall Directories; Collins, 2008).
Keal conducted a sole private practice from 1939 to 1957 except for the war years when he worked for the Works Department (Cheesman S347/11/1). He was initially located at 8 Gawler Place, then Oxford Chambers on North Terrace before moving to Tattersalls Chambers, 14 Grenfell Street in 1942. He was registered in 1941. In 1943 he was located at 99 King William Street, Adelaide, the same address as McMichael & Harris. In 1946 Keal practised from his home at 177 Anzac Highway, Grassmere, and was elected an Associate of the South Australian Institute of Architects. He was later a member of the Parliamentary and Laws Committee of the South Australian Chapter of the Royal Australian Institute of Architects. From 1947 to 1949 he had an office in the Epworth Building, 33 Pirie Street, Adelaide before moving to the Savings Bank Building, 97-105 King William Street. From 1959 until his untimely death on his way to work in 1968, his practice was at 315 South Terrace, Adelaide (Sands & McDougall Directories; ‘South Australian Chapter’: 158). In late 1957, Lynton Douglas Jury joined Keal to form Keal & Jury, which by all accounts was ‘a very happy association’. Following Keal’s death, Jury took on Robert M. Burden to form Jury Burden Pty Ltd. (Quarterly Bulletin, 1957; ‘Church Architect’s lasting legacy’, 2012).
The majority of Keal’s commissions, both before and after World War Two, were in the commercial and residential sectors. He undertook alterations and additions to hotels in both suburban Adelaide – for example, Glynde Hotel, Payneham, Mile End, Sussex Hotel, Walkerville and Freeway Hotel, Pooraka – and country South Australia – for example, Uraidla, Port Augusta, Wuddina, Coburn, Melrose, Wolsely (Research Notes; McDougall and Vines, S426). He also designed shops for Messrs Karavas in Whyalla in 1941. A number of Keal’s works show that he ‘embraced principles of the European modernism of the 1920s and 1930s’ (Jolly, 2012: 98). Two examples from 1940 are the extensive alterations and additions to the Woodville Hotel on Port Road and the new Opit House on Victoria Avenue, Unley Park. Contemporary accounts of the former refer to the ‘cohesive architectural composition in the modern manner’, with the external focal point being ‘a huge fin … built above the balcony in such a manner as to project beyond the wall alignment, thus projecting the building … into the line of vision of approaching traffic’ (‘Remodelling of Woodville Hotel gives many new features’, 1940) .
The design of the Opit house on Victoria Drive, Unley Park, was at odds with its neighbouring houses. Built on the former gardens of a ‘Gentlemen’s Residence’, the designs and their realisation show ‘concrete cantilever window shades, smooth surfaces, and fulsome curved walls and ironwork, which have a repeated geometric basis’. There were also extensive built-in features and furniture (Jolly, 2012: 36-39; Hurren, Langman and James Collection, S247/34).
Residential commissions continued after the war. Tenders were called in 1948 for a new house for Dr M.V. Rosenberg, McLaren Vale, and alterations to a home at Willunga; and for residences at Leabrook, Largs Bay, Linden Park, Royston Park, Woodville, Flinders Park, Mitcham Park (two), and Torrens Park. Keal designed and built a new two storey home for his family on a three acre block on Picadilly Road, Crafers in 1951. When it went to auction in 1953 it was described as ‘an excellent example of contemporary planning’. Again he had included a wide range of built-in furniture (‘Shuttleworth and Letchford Ltd’, 1953).
In 1946, upon the request of Mr. H.H. Handby, Mayor of Glenelg, Keal prepared plans, ‘adapted from American styles’, for the proposed Hotel Statler on the corner of Pulteney Street and North Terrace. This was to be an eight-storey cement and steel building of some 96 guest rooms with private facilities. Despite a change of location along North Terrace and the granting of a licence in 1949, this venture did not proceed, possibly due to post-war material shortages (‘Proposed new hotel for city’, 1946; ‘New site for Hotel Statler’, 1948; ‘Hotel Statler project approved’, 1949). Keal, however, was then commissioned in 1952 to design a six-storey building for professional offices on the second site, next to the Electricity Trust building (now Security House). Known as Elizabeth House, Mr F. Fricker, a director of Elizabeth House Ltd. and managing director of the construction firm of the same name, said ‘as far as he knew, it was the first project of its type for some years’. The windows were designed to specifically counter glare and were a notable feature of this building. The University of Adelaide purchased Elizabeth House in 2007 and demolished it and the adjoining former Red Cross House in September 2016 (‘North Terrace Offices’, 1952; ‘Building and Real Estate: North Tce. plan will relieve shortage’, 1953; Research Notes; Urbanest Student Accommodation, n.d.).
Another six-storey project designed by Keal was Murray House at 79 Grenfell Street, Adelaide. Commissioned by the Murray River Wholesale Co-operative Ltd., it featured ‘extensive use of glass to give maximum light’ both front and back and in a central court because of the building’s narrow frontage. Contemporary reports claimed it to be ‘Adelaide’s first steel-framed office buildings since the war’ (‘Glass for new city building’, 1954).
Over his career, Keal also had design commissions in other areas. Among these were a new Catholic Church at Frances in the South East of the state (1953), Assisi Hall for the Capuchin Mission at Paradise (1953), the new Marist Catholic School to replace the Star of the Sea Convent, Semaphore (1954) and the conversion of a residence into a chapel for the Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul on Hutt Street, Adelaide (1954). Others were the Nurses Home for Ashford Community Hospital (1952) and a sound shell at Naracoorte for the family of the late Albert Schinckel (1953).
Keal and Jury’s new library for the West Torrens Council at Hilton in 1964 is on the Australian Institute of Architects Nationally Significant 20th-Century Architecture for South Australia. A house designed by Keal at Glen Osmond had been given a Timber Development Award just prior to his death in 1968.
Alison McDougall
Citation details
McDougall, Alison, 'Keal, Ernest Alfred', Architecture Museum, University of South Australia, 2015, Architects of South Australia: [http://www.architectsdatabase.unisa.edu.au/arch_full.asp?Arch_ID=140] |
Architects of South Australia, Copyright 2008, Updated regularly