Alexander Stewart Jolly

Biography

Alexander Stewart Jolly built houses around the stone and timber of the northern bushland of Sydney, in New South Wales, Australia. At Hy Brasil, completed in 1936, local sandstone walls enclose a central fireplace beneath exposed timber beams. Its broad stone mantel and low roof make the materials themselves part of the design.

Born at Wardell, on the far north coast of New South Wales, on July 18, 1887, Alexander was a son of James Jolly and Jessie Spence Stewart. He learned practical building skills in his father's firm before training with Wardell & Denning in Sydney around 1908. He married Kathleen Wilhelmina Dill Macky in 1912.

Back in Lismore, in the same northern New South Wales region, Alexander designed St Bartholomew's Church at Alstonville. A newspaper account of its foundation ceremony names him as architect and Brown & Jolly as contractors. By November 1913, Board & Jolly occupied new offices in Woodlark Street, where Alexander was expected to supervise construction work.

After moving to Sydney in 1918, he designed Cremorne House, an early California bungalow. Ill health interrupted his practice. Selling land at Avalon, he camped on properties and later stayed on building sites to direct and help with construction.

He also wrote children's books, including Spirit of the Bush and Adrift at Sea, both published in 1932. During the Second World War he served with the 7th Garrison Battalion. He did not resume architectural practice afterward. Alexander died at Wollstonecraft, a suburb of Sydney, on April 17, 1957, survived by Kathleen, a son and three daughters.