Leeton District Hospital

Leeton is a purpose built town designed by Walter Burley Griffin in the early part of the Twentieth Century in the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area of New South Wales.
The town features many Art Deco buildings and the district hospital is no exception. A mostly plain brick building but with a lovely entrance.

The grounds include what looks like nurses' quarters which is even plainer but again has some decoration around the entrance.

I particularly like the small balcony above the doorway.

Plaques inside the porch indicate the foundation stone for this building was laid on 9th February 1938 by H P Fitzsimons MLA, NSW Minister for Health and he then opened the building on 23 April 1941.

Spruce, Leeton

Great Deco tile work and amazing geometric windows at Spruce in Leeton.

119-121 Pine Avenue, Leeton

I see the rural NSW town of Leeton are billing themselves as "The Art Deco Capital of Australia". Perhaps that is taking it a bit far but they do host an Art Deco festival in 2011 and 2013 so I assume they'll do it again in 2015 and they do have some nice Art Deco buildings. Here's some details from 119-121 Pine Avenue.

Historic Hydro Motor Inn, Leeton

Greetings if you are in Leeton (or on your way there) for their second Art Deco festival. Perhaps your are staying in in Historic Hydro Motor Inn in Chelmsford Place, right in the centre of town. The "Hydro Accommodation House", designed by the Department of Works, was opened in August 1919 and its design reflects this immediate post-war period rather than a more Deco style. Even if you're not staying there, make sure you pop in and have a look around, especially the stained glass window on the second floor.

Reference:
Leeton - Yango - Whitton Heritage Trails Booklet, Leeton Shire Council

Fire Station, Leeton

Fire Station, Chelmsford Place, Leeton

Centrepoint Shopping Mall, Leeton

The Centrepoint Shopping Mall in Leeton in rural New South Wales has an interesting history. It has only been a shopping arcade from the 1970s. Prior to that it was a the premises of S Richards & Co and goes back to before the Art Deco period. In 1936, local architect G W A Welch designed a new building to be built over the existing building without requiring the business to close. T J Ashton, a local builder, was charged with completing the works.

Reference:
Leeton - Yanco - Whitton Heritage Trail Booklet, Leeton Shire Council 2011

By the way, Leeton are planning another Art Deco Festival for March 2013. Visit the Leeton Shire Council website for more details.

40a Pine Avenue, Leeton

Typical shop in a rural Australian town. This is 40a Pine Avenue in Leeton, NSW.

22 Wade Avenue South, Leeton

A bit arty?

Amcal Chemist, Leeton

Amcal Chemist, Leeton, NSW

da Goodfellows, Leeton

da Goodfellows Restaurant in Leeton has three wonderful stepped Art Deco elements on the façade above the main entrance. They really stand out with the current colouring of the building. In fact they look brand new. Maybe there are. Perhaps they 'fell' off another building and been added here or hopefully they are original. It's hard to tell. Nice little building though.

former Wade Chambers, Leeton

Yesterday I wrote about the Wade Hotel and Leslie Augustus Burton Wade (1864-1915), the man who the pub is named after.

Next door to the Wade Hotel is the former Wade Chambers. Like the pub, the chambers also date from 1937 and were designed by the same architects, Rudder & Grant of Sydney in conjunction with local architect, G W A Welch.

Unfortunately some of the shopfronts have been modified but the one occupied by Don Brown Financial Services Group is exquisite and looks original to me.

References:
Leslie Augustus Burton Wade (1864-1915), Australian Dictionary of Biography
Leeton ~ Yango ~ Whitton - Heritage Trails Booklet, Leeton Shire Council, 2011

Wade Hotel, Leeton

The Wade Hotel in Leeton is named after Leslie Augustus Burton Wade (1864-1915), a career engineer and public servant in the state of New South Wales.

By 1913, Wade was responsible for all irrigation programs in NSW and was based in Leeton overseeing the settlement and development of the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area (MIA).

The pub that bears his name was built in 1937, designed by Sydney architects Rudder & Grant in conjunction with G W A Welch of Leeton. The main Deco detailing can be seen in the panels above the balcony overlooking Pine Avenue and on the Church Street side.

Wade died unexpectedly in 1915 and is also remembered through the building next door to the Hotel, the former Wade Chambers, also from 1937 and designed by the same team of architects. There is also Wade Avenue one of the main streets in the centre of Leeton.

References:
Leslie Augustus Burton Wade (1864-1915), Australian Dictionary of Biography
Leeton ~ Yango ~ Whitton - Heritage Trails Booklet, Leeton Shire Council, 2011

Ambulance Station, Leeton

The Ambulance Station in Leeton, located in the New South Wales irrigation area near the Murrumbidgee River, was designed by architect, S J O'Halloran of Wagga Wagga, and was constructed by contractor, C Churchill of Newcastle. The date above the ambulance bay reads 1952.

A interesting aspect of the property is the concrete barrels that serve as gate posts and the metal gates composed of large interlocking circles, but more on that tomorrow.

Reference:
Leeton ~ Yango ~ Whitton - Heritage Trails Booklet, Leeton Shire Council, 2011

Commonwealth Bank, Leeton

In New South Wales, during the Depression, the Government Savings Bank was amalgamated with the Commonwealth Bank.

For Leeton, in rural NSW, this meant that their 1921 Government Savings Bank by Sydney architects Ross & Rowe became a branch of the Commonwealth Bank. That was in December 1931 and by the end of the decade the new owners had made some alterations in Art Deco style. There have been more changes since then it remains a very stylish building.

Reference:
Leeton ~ Yanco ~ Whitton - Heritage Trails booklet, Leeton Shire Council, 2011
(Available for free download from www.leetontourism.com.au/art-deco.html)

Salvation Army Family Store, Leeton

Wednesday's post on the wonderfully named Leeton local newspaper, the Murrumbidgee Irrigator, drew some interest from Jason at Leeton Tourism so, since I'm on a roll, I decided to feature another building from this surprising NSW Riverina town.

This is 33 Pine Avenue. It was designed by George W A Welch, who seems to have designed a lot of the Art Deco buildings in Leeton. It was built 1935-36.

Obviously the main feature is the stepped roofline and the fin in the centre of the building but the stepping of the verandah at the entrance is unusual. I haven't seen it anywhere else.

Here is Robin Grow from the Art Deco & Modernist Society making that exact point. You can make out the people on the Art Deco walk reflected in the windows. At least I think that is what he was telling them. I was in the middle of the road taking photos.

Reference:
Art Deco Walking Tour Booklet, Leeton Art Deco Festival, April 1-3 2011, Prepared by Robin Grow, President, Art Deco and Modernism Society

The Murrumbidgee Irrigator, Leeton

A series of leadlight window just like this one are tucked in under the verandah 103-107 Pine Avenue, Leeton.

Leeton was first developed as part of the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area or the MIA in the early part of the 20th Century so many of the buildings date from that period and many have Art Deco features.

103-107 Pine Avenue was built in 1928 for the local newspaper and it still occupies No 107.

And I think it has one of the best names for a newspaper that I have ever heard ... The Murrumbidgee Irrigator.

Reference:
Art Deco Walking Tour Booklet, Leeton Art Deco Festival, April 1-3 2011, Prepared by Robin Grow, President, Art Deco and Modernism Society

88-92 Pine Avenue, Leeton

This series of shops in the main street of Leeton are the result of a 1930s makeover of an earlier building. You can see the dark brick wall of the 1918 building down the lane running alongside the nearest shop, Dee's.

A high parapet has been added decorated with a stepped deco element in the centre and a series of three speedlines running the length of the building, turning the corner and following the curve at the end.

Reference:
Art Deco Walking Tour Booklet, Leeton Art Deco Festival, April 1-3 2011, Prepared by Robin Grow, President, Art Deco and Modernism Society

St Francis de Sales Regional College, Leeton

A glimpse of a certain shade of cream coloured bricks and a flat roofline always has me wanting to stop the car for a bit of further investigation.

On Yanco Avenue, on the way into Leeton, I caught sight of that certain shade of brick colour and was greeted with this substantial brick sign when the car pulled into the first available side road.

It was a Saturday morning so I was able to duck into the grounds for a better look and was reward with this magnificent school.

Two simple rectangular blocks perpendicular to each other joined by a curved section with a open balcony. The entrances are identified by towers climbing just above the roofline. The main entrance tower taller and more elaborate than the side entrance tower. Both are topped, not quite by flagpoles, but by crosses befitting the nature of the college.

The lower floor windows on this side wing are shaded by a concrete ledge, an eyebrow and I find it a bit perplexing that the upper windows have not been given similar protection. Perhaps the trajectory of the sun in this part of New South Wales makes it unnecessary yet the design of the building includes a concrete strip above the windows where the eyebrow would sit.

St Francis College proved to be a great welcome to Leeton and far from the only stunning building in town.

Eurell's of Leeton

Eurell's of Leeton

Water Towers, Leeton

Over the weekend I visited Leeton in the Riverina region of New South Wales for their first Art Deco Festival.

The Leeton Shire website says 'Leeton was the first town built as part of the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area (MIA) and was designed with the assistance of noted American architect Walter Burley Griffin'.

So on that basis I've taken the liberty to post something that is not really Art Deco but is strongly associated with Leeton, Griffin and water.

There are three water towers in the centre of Leeton (two are pictured above). The Irrigation Commissioner's fortnightly official report published in the Sydney Morning Herald 19 December 1913, included that the water tower was 'being rapidly proceeded with'.

Griffin designed included two towers in his initial design for Leeton to serve as portals to the town. Alasdair McGregor, in his book of the Griffins, Grand Obsessions, quotes Marion Mahony Griffin from her memoires recounting 'Griffin had made the drawings for the crowns of the towers on shipboard and sent them back when he landed in America'. While one tower was the first Griffin designed structure built in Australia, the second tower was not completed until 1937.

The third tower which is shorter but with a larger overall capacity, was completed in 1973. It bears a similar crown without the pierced elements of Griffin's design.

On Saturday night an outdoor cinema was created for the Art Deco Festival when Fritz Lang's Metropolis was projected onto the side of the 1973 water tower.

References:
Leeton Shire: Birthplace of the MIA. Retrieved April 4, 2011, from http://www.leetontourism.com.au

IRRIGATION AREAS. (1913, December 19). The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842-1954), p. 6. Retrieved April 4, 2011, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article15490245

Grand Obsessions: The Life and Work of Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin, Alasdair McGregor, Penguin Group (Australia), 2009

Leeton ~ Yango ~ Whitton Heritage Trails Booklet, Leeton Shire Council, 2011