John Grainger, Frank Naish the architects for Adelaide Zoo directors' home: used by Minchin family for 61 years
Minchin House was Adelaide Zoo directors' home until the 1970s and then became the Zoos SA administration offices.
What became Minchin House at Adelaide Zoo was designed by architects John Grainger and Frank Naish.
The house was built in 1887-88 while the Adelaide Zoo first director R.E. (Richard) Minchin was in Europe collecting animals. He moved into the residence, built for £1,230, in 1889. The "costly" two-storey bluestone was funded by a £1,000 intrest-free loan from philanthropist and zoo society vice president John Angas.
It remained the zoo directors’ home until the 1970s and now houses the zoo society’s administration.
The first three directors, spanning 61 years, were from the Minchin family: Richard Minchin (1883-93), his son Alfred Corker Minchin (1893-1934) and then his grandson Ronald Richard Minchin (1935-40).
The house had a private garden for the director and its family. Part of the garden was included in the zoo grounds and developed in 1943. It was named Minchin House in 2003.
The house’s architects, Grainger and Naish, were associated in a practice from 1881-86. Grainger, the more prominent of the pair, also designed the Albert bridge over the River Torrens near the zoo on Frome Road, Adelaide. He would go on to create another more prominent bridge in Melbourne: the Princes, linking the city and St Kilda Road. But Grainger is also remembered as the musical and artistic father, with his Adelaide wife Rose (Aldridge), of Percy Grainger, the famous international composer, arranger and pianist.
Although a founding member of the South Australian Institute of Architects in 1886, Naish’s contribution has been overlooked even though he was commissioned by Adelaide University to do one of its most significant buildings: Elder Hall – attributed incorrectly to Grainger in some sources. He also designed the university’s first medical school building (since demolished). Naish also had worked in the office of McMinn, designer of the university’s Mitchell building, next to Elder Hall.