Ernest William

1/01/1869

E.W. Senior traveled across Australia to oversee the design of public halls and district hospitals but found most success in the domestic field in Adelaide during a brief period
post-1910.

It is thought that E.W. Senior was born in New South Wales in 1869 and that Frank Senior (1821-95) (DT 1895; WT 1929) who ran a reputable pharmacy in George Street, Sydney, was an uncle. Membership of the Sydney Rowing Club brings him to notice as a 19 year-old, by which time he claims to have received some training in Chicago, U.S.A., under an architect named Charles Harris (M 1915). After looking for openings in Hobart and Melbourne, Senior opens an office in Sydney while, it seems, studying a course of civil engineering.

Between 1890 and 1892 he completes a set of municipal buildings to complement the Cootamundra Town Hall of 1900-01, also to be his work (CH 1890). Subsequently, 'E.W. Senior C.E., Architect' executes the Elizabeth Street branch of the London Mortgage, Loan & Deposit Bank (DT 1891), marries a Miss Annie Jane of unknown maiden name, spends a honeymoon in New Zealand, and takes up residence in Neutral Bay (SAR 1892). On the coat-tails of E.A. Clifton C.E., with whom he forms a partnership for the purpose, Senior next builds the fairly grand Narrabri Town Hall for £3509 in 'French Renaissance' style (SM 1893; SMH 1892, 1893) but fails in competitions to secure commissions for a number of other regional halls. A daughter arrives but no siblings follow as work becomes scarce in the later 1890s (SMH 1894). It is likely that a legacy left by Uncle Frank keeps the family afloat until the Cootamundra Hall proceeds and acceptance of a fall-back position on the staff of the Auburn Borough Council can be abjured (CA 1897). But the occasional cottage and terraced house emanating from a telling succession of office addresses more and more remote from the city centre cannot sustain an existence on the near North Shore.

In 1903, the Seniors transfer to Perth, W.A., where a draftsman's post in the Lands Department is offered (WA 1903). The placid Swan River tempts Ernest to ply the oars again and he joins a cricket club. Minor private architectural work inveigled from letting agents and collaborations with rural practices (WA 1905) prove, however, insufficient with which to foresee a future in the West, so another fresh start is made in Victoria. An added incentive to move is a winning entry in a competition to extend the Wangaratta District Hospital (CFP 1906). From a base in, firstly, North Carlton and, secondly, Collins Street, Senior wins or gains second prizes in further competitions to build small halls in country towns (PT 5.1908). By June 1908, he is engaged in the conversion of a Bourke Street boxing arena into a fancy coffee palace, a substantial undertaking which precedes the remodeling, worth £1000, of the Williamstown and Footscray District Hospital - once more a competitive design (PT 6.1908; Age 1908).

Despite these signs of an ascendant career, the Senior is next found in Brisbane, perhaps the origin of Mrs Senior (BC 1909; QT 1907). Idling, Mr Senior redons the creams for the Oxley Cricket Club early in the summer of 1909-10 before heading to Adelaide via Carrieton, S.A., where he finds a distant relative: a son of soon-to-be Federal Senator William Senior (1850-1926) of North Croydon (QM 1910; R 1926).

For the better part of 1910, the architect attracts attention only for his involvement in the Wayville Cricket Club. Several months of 1911 are spent in Sydney and in Inverell, N.S.W., where he oversees the construction by a separate relative, William Senior, of the Delungra Post Office (IT 1911). And, although tenders are called for a timber-framed cottage (said to be for Mrs Senior)(A 1911), cricket and, soon, baseball become ruling passions. Without deserting Wayville, Senior sidles, perhaps strategically, onto the committee of the Semaphore Club of veteran willow-wafters led by the engineer, Fred Assheton (licensee of the local Federal Hotel), a brother of both Rowland Assheton, architect, and Arthur Assheton, builder (A 1912).

From May 1913 onwards, Senior sets about developing a series of domestic projects, mostly situated on the eastern side of Adelaide. Working from A.M.P. Chambers, also the address of H.E. Sibley, Architect (d. 1917) and Albert Dawe, Land Agent, he makes up for lost time, inviting tenders for no fewer than 27 jobs - from a brick and stone residence in Alberton East to a lightweight bungalow in Paradise. There are indications that most of these contracts will have been redrafts of standard plans negotiated on behalf of builders, estate agents and modest speculators (ACC 1913). Nonetheless, the 'First Class Residence at Toorak' of September 1913 could well be the diverting 136 Watson Avenue, built to order for John Deane, a Norwood plumbing contractor (A 1913). 1914 brought only one commission per month but more variety, including an Anglican Mission Hall at Forest Range (for which Senior inexplicably waives his fee) and the Prospect Presbyterian Church. On the latter, he oversees a design provided by Adolph Hanson, an active builder-architect and land trader (A 1914; M 1914). Advent Hall, also of 1914, is a rare survivor which perhaps typifies Senior's winning approach to community buildings; it stands, renamed, at 116 Grote Street (ACC 1914).

When the horror of the Gallipoli campaign strikes home in 1915, architectural work begins to dry up. Senior, tempted by big prizes, consequently enters a competition to expand the facilities of the University of Melbourne. As it turns out, it was not worth reconnoitring interstate or drawing brilliantly; even the winning scheme was to be scandalously abandoned by the Victorian government in order to substitute its own; Senior had justifiably complained about this practice 15 years before (M 1915; Age 1916; EN 1900). A house for a doctor, one of only two commissions obtained in that year, appears to be the last on public record until 1920 when an undertaker comes forward for a bungalow on the Millswood Estate (R 1920).

But Senior struggles on during the lean, immediate post-war years, renting a mean, shopfront office beneath the Plough & Harrow Hotel in Rundle Street (CT). Late in 1921, he buys a single-fronted cottage in Angas Street - his first property purchase. This he improves a few years later, remaining there with his wife until, with a view to 'remove to America', he sells in 1927 (A 1924, 1927). Yet, in the interim, he cannot settle and, either for obscure business or open pleasure, travels widely by motor car - from Wilcannia to Meekatharra to Naracoorte, and by ship from Tasmania to New Zealand to Kangaroo Island. It is evident that Senior comes into money (possibly a windfall from the senator's estate) to the extent that he dabbles in horse-racing and even plays the mortgagee (A 1927). But the move to America does not eventuate; Ernest and Annie instead end up in South Melbourne. When Ernest dies in 1929 at the age of 60, not fully recovering from being run over at a tramstop, he is given to be a 'contractor and builder' (SMH 1929; WT 1929) - clearly still trying from another angle.

Office Addresses

106 King St, Sydney (with E A Clifton, C.E.) 1889
163 King St, Sydney 1892
P.O. Box 280, GPO, Sydney 1894
Bank Chbrs, Pitt St, Sydney 1900
Central Chbrs, 173 Pitt St, Sydney 1901
49 Hunter St, Sydney 1903
16 Lombard Chbrs, St George's Tce, Perth 1903
Austral Chbrs, Barrack St, Perth 1905
17 Amess St, N. Carlton, Victoria 1907
Ludstone Chbrs, Collins St, Melbourne 1908
A.M.P. Chbrs, King William St, Adelaide 1913
P.O. Box 286, GPO, Adelaide 1915
PTA 40, Rundle St, Adelaide 1919
360 Angas St, Adelaide 1925
23 Coventry St, S. Melbourne 1928-9

Giles Walkley

Citation details
Walkley, Giles ‘Senior, Ernest William’, Architecture Museum, University of South Australia, 2019, Architects of South Australia: [http://www.architectsdatabase.unisa.edu.au/arch_full.asp?Arch_ID=160]

Giles Walkley