Thomas Rowe

Thomas Rowe (20 July, 1829 - 7 March, 1899), wasone of Australia's leading architects of the Victorian era.

Biography

Thomas Rowe was born in Penzance, Cornwall, England, the eldest son of Richard Rowe and attended Barnes Academy. At 15 he became a draftsman in his father's building business before the family emigrated to Australia in 1848. From 1857 until 1895 he practised as an architect in Sydney, Bathurst, Orange, Newcastle and Goulburn. He was often successful in competitions and his firms built commercial premises, large houses and many Methodist churches. Rowe Street in Sydney is named after him.

Key works

*Presbyterian Church, Bathurst (1871)
*Great Synagogue, Elizabeth Street, Sydney (1874)
*Sydney Hospital, Macquarie Street, Sydney (1879)
*Newington College, Stanmore (1878)
*Sydney Arcade, Pitt Street, Sydney (1874)
*Vickery's Building, Pitt Street, Sydney (1874)

Architectural Partners

*W B Field
*Sydney Green
*Alfred Spain

References

*M Berry, A History of Colonel Thomas Rowe (B Arch thesis, UNSW, 1969)
*J M Freeland, Architect Extraordinary (Melb, 1970)
*J M Freeland, The Making of a Profession (Syd, 1971)
*J M Freeland, Thomas Rowe, pp 68-69, Volume 6, Australian Dictionary of Biography (MUP, 1976)