Henry Budden

Henry Budden is the last name I added on June 10.

I wonder what he could be. Maybe he's another architect?

Yes. Lord Wiki says I'm right. He's an architect. He did his thing in the first half of the twentieth century.

He was born on 11 August 1871, in Rockley New South Wales. Lord Wiki says that's near Bathurst. I'm going to Google Maps to check it out for myself.

Bathurst is about thirty minutes north from Rockley.

Rockley has a small population. Lord Wiki says there are only about 174 people. Well, that's from the 2006 census. Maybe more people arrived since then. Although other people may have moved out...or died.

Back to Budden. His mother's family were flour millers. His dad was a British-born bank manager and storekeeper. Lord Wiki says that both Budden's mother's and father's family were active in the Congregational Church. Maybe that's how they met.

I guess there weren't adequate schools in Rockley. Budden traveled to Bathurst to go to the school there. Then when he was fourteen, he moved to Sydney for boarding school. I'm guessing with the dad in the bank business, they had a fair amount of money. The school that Budden attended was Newington College. I don't think I've heard of that one before.

Lord Wiki says it's a boys school located in Stanmore, which is in the western suburbs. I think one of my friends might live there. I've kind of forgotten. Well, she lives near Glebe. If Stanmore is near Glebe, this is probably where she lives.

It's nine minutes from Glebe. That's probably where she lives.

I didn't realize Glebe is so close to the University of Sydney.

Lord Wiki says that, after Budden's time at Newington, he was articled. I didn't know what that meant, but now I just learned something. It means he was an apprentice. He was articled in architecture to a guy named Harry Kent. Lord Wiki writes Kent's name in red instead of blue. That means he has nothing to say about this Kent guy. If Lord Wiki doesn't care about you, he writes your name in red. If he writes your name in plain black ink, he cares even less for you. But at least he wrote your name. That's something.

Anyway....while being an apprentice, Budden also did some studying at the University of Sydney and Sydney Technical College.

When Budden was about twenty-three, he won a scholarship that allowed him to travel. That's really cool. For part of that time, he did more schooling. He went to the Royal Academy of Arts in London, and became a member of the Royal Institute of British Architects. Did having a British father allow Budden that honor, or did they allow International students? Maybe since Australia is part of the Commonwealth.....

Budden did some traveling around Europe. Lord Wiki doesn't specify where he went. Maybe I'll find that information later. Then he returned to England and worked for an architect named Aston Webb.

Next he went to America. He worked in Boston, at an architectural firm called Peabody and Stearns. Then he traveled back to Australia via San Francisco. That means he traveled across the whole United States continent. I wonder which states he passed, and whether he had any crazy adventures.

We're leaving on our road trip soon (although by the time I post this, we'll be on our way home) I'm excited, and a little nervous. I haven't been on a long road trip since I was a child. We're going to be visiting Louisiana, Alabama, and Florida. In the past, I'd have little interest in visiting the southern United States. But now I'm all into that because my current favorite book series takes place there. Although if I had my choice, I'd probably want to do the southwest...New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, etc. And then Australia trumps all that. I would love to have a year to just travel around Australia. We just need to win the lottery. I should probably PLAY the lottery. We do every so often.....

Back to Budden. Now we're in Sydney again. Budden's parents lived in Hunters Hill. That's a suburb in the lower North Shore. With Henry Budden as architect, and Daddy Budden as developer....they built a bunch of homes in the area. Well, maybe there was just four. I'm not sure. Two of them were on Woolwich road....41 and 43 Woolwich Road. I can look at the street on Google Maps Street View. It's hard to look at individual houses though.

They also had houses on Prince Edward Parade, which is right near Woolwich.

Henry and his parents themselves lived on 65 Alexandra Street. There, Budden fell in love with the girl next door. He married her, and they moved to Woolwich Road.

Basically, the idea I'm getting is that if you want to see Budden's architecture....head to Hunters Hill. Although I'm not sure if all the homes are still there. Maybe?

Lord Wiki says the house in Hunters Hill that's the most distinctive of Budden's projects is on 16 Vernon Street.

Thanks to Google Maps, I'm traveling down the street right now. This is too cool. Right now, I'm on 12 Vernon Street. I'm almost there....

Okay. I'm there! I'm not sure which is the house. But it's a BEAUTIFUL area. It has a very nice water view. Plus, there's a ton of greenery. I wonder who lives there now.

During World War I, Budden was given the job of being 1st War Chest Commissioner. What he did in this job was help distribute comfort items to troops, items that had been donated by various charities. To do this, Budden traveled to Egypt, England, and France. It looks like he did well with the task. He was honored by the Order of the British Empire.

Lord Wiki says that Budden was active in his church community, and school alumni. He became an honorary architect for Newington.

In 1910, Budden, his wife, and their children all moved to Powell Street in Killara. That's about thirty minutes north of Hunters Hill. I wonder why they left Hunters Hill. Was it a financial issue? Were they downsized? Killara is farther from the water, and farther from the CBD. I'm guessing, therefore, real estate would be cheaper there.

Lord Wiki is not being very chronological right now. The move would have been before World War I.

What else....

Budden and his wife ended up with five daughters and two sons.

Budden died in 1944.

Lord Wiki lists all his business partnerships. I think I'll skip over that.

Instead I'll look at the list of his works.

In 1908, he built something at Emu Creek in Walcha. That's six hours north of Sydney. It's near Tamworth, but Google Maps won't calculate the distance for me. I have no idea why.

I'm not sure what he built at Emu Creek. Lord Wiki just says he built Emu Creek on Emu Creek Road. Maybe it's a house?

Well, Jack wants to eat. I'm going to take a break. Then I'll come back and look at more of Budden's work.

I'm back. For lunch, I started to make myself some nachos. But once I got the chips on the plate, I realized we had no cheese. Oops. Well, I guess I saved myself some cholesterol. Plus, it's more cow-friendly that way. I ended up sprinkling the chips with turmeric. I was inspired by a recent post by Daisy Dead Air, in which she praised the health benefits of this Indian-food spice. I suppose I sort of made myself Indian-Mexican fusion food. It actually didn't taste too bad.

Back to Budden. I'm guessing this post might be boring to some people. It's not really full of exciting controversy. But I'm enjoying the research. I like looking at the maps.

In 1912, Budden built a place called Griffith Teas on Wentworth Avenue. That's near where we stayed, I think.

It looks like the place is closed, but the Sydney Morning Herald has an article about it. Well, it's really less of an article, and more photo with caption. They say it was built in 1915, and not 1912. I'm not sure if it was a store, or a factory. They did tea, but also coffee and cocoa. I just used Google Map directions. The tea place is VERY close to where we stayed. The logo is still there on the building, I believe. It does look kind of familar. I'm betting we passed it at some point.

The next Budden project was done in 1922. It was in Woolloomooloo. It was a war memorial called Mothers and Wives Memorial to Soldiers. This war memorial website has a photograph of it.

Okay. Here is something BIG. I was waiting to see an important well-known building that Budden had been involved with.

He did the David Jones Building on Elizabeth Street. We've been there several times. We love the little food court.

Oh wait. There are multiple David Jones in Sydney. Maybe we didn't go to the one on Elizabeth Street. I'm pretty sure it was at least NEAR Elizabeth Street. Let me look at the map again.....

I think we may have gone to the one on Market Street.

Oh....this is bothering me. I can't figure out which one we went to. The one we went to was right near Hyde Park. And Elizabeth street is right near Hyde Park. Where is Market Street? Shit. That's near Hyde Park as well. Why would they have two David Jones so close to each other? Do both have a food court?

Okay. It looks like Market Street has the food court.

Here we go. I just read further down on Lord Wiki's explanation of it all. The Market Street and Elizabeth Street ones are connected. So it's kind of like one and the same. I wonder if Budden built both buildings. Lord Wiki says the Elizabeth Street building was opened in 1927. The Market Street one didn't open until 1938.

Budden had another project in 1927. This one was in Canberra. It's called the Brassey. It looks like it's a hotel. It's still around.....

In 1937, Budden did the Railway House on York Street in Sydney. This architecture website has a photo of it, along with photos of many other buildings. Wait, this other architecture site has even more photos of the building. They say it was used in the 2006 film, Superman Returns. I don't really remember that movie. Who was in it? I'll go talk to IMDb. Brandon Routh played Superman. I don't think I've heard of him. Kevin Spacey played Lex Luther. I HAVE heard of him. The movie had filming locations in both New South Wales and NYC...awesome. I love both those places.

In 1938, Budden did the Transport House on Macquarie Street.

That same awesome Sydney architecture site has photographs of it. They say it used to be the department of motor transport. Now it's an office building. I wonder who has their offices there.

It looks like Budden's last project was the Metropolitan Water Sewerage and Drainage Board Building on Pitt Street. From the architecture website, I can see that the monorail goes right past it.

Anyway, I think I'm going to end this here..... I was going to use the biographical dictionary, but it looks like Budden isn't in there. Well, he's in there a little bit. But he doesn't have his own entry.


Read my novel: The Dead are Online 


4 comments:

  1. Fantastic - never heard of him but you certainly made him real. Love David Jones it will always be the most beautiful store in the city! I worked on DJs swithcboard in the Market Street store in the 1970s. Mem - ries ... Happy New Year to Your and Yours Dina. xo

    ReplyDelete
  2. Redness,

    Hi! Yes, we love David Jones too! Awesome that you worked there. I miss that place.

    Happy New Year to you. I forgot that was tonight for you guys!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I am thrilled to read your comments about Henry Budden....I've just written a book about Peabody & Stearns--they were a Boston architectural firm (1870-1917--and I am interested in more information about any of their draftsmen and trainees.
    My website is www.peabodyandstearns.com
    My book is available at www.wwnorton.com in architecture, or on amazon.com.
    I would love more info on Budden!
    best for 2010,
    Annie Robinson

    ReplyDelete
  4. Annie Robinson,

    Hi! Congratulations on your book! I'll check out your website.

    I wish I could give you more information about Budden. Perhaps someone who knows more will see this post and your comment, and then they might reply with more information.

    ReplyDelete