Kenneth Milne employs Georgian design for many homes; creates famous scoreboard at Adelaide Oval in 1911
The revered Adelaide Oval scoreboard by F. Kenneth Milne, built in 1911.
F. Kenneth Milne was another of the 20th Century Adelaide architects who resisted modernism in favour of the Georgian style.
Born in 1885 in the Adelaide suburb of Tusmore, Milne was the grandson of the wine and spirit merchant and South Australian colonial pioneer William Milne.
Milne was articled to well-known Adelaide architect Alfred Wells around 1900. After setting up his own practice, Milne’s earliest commissions included the Hampstead Hotel in Grote Street , Adelaide city (1910), and his iconic Adelaide Oval scoreboard (1911). The South Australian Cricket Association became one of his longstanding clients, as did the South Australian Brewing Company. Many of Milne’s early works were hotels.
He later designed many large homes for members of the Adelaide establishment; his family’s connections proving invaluable. In 1912, Milne’s articled pupil, John Richard Schomburgk Evans, became the first in a line of partners discomforted by Milne’s forthright approach.
Milne was the president of the South Australian Institute of Architects 1937-39 and a founder of the Architects’ Board of South Australia, He helped set up the chair of architecture at Adelaide University.
Milne’s designed many significant Adelaide city buildings including Lister House on North Terrace (1927), and the Norwich Union Fire Insurance Society building on Waymouth Street (1928). His Georgian influence was seen in his designs for Alexander Downer’s residence at Aldgate, known as Arbury Park and his own house, Sunnyside on Stanley Street, North Adelaide (c.1936).
Other important buildings include Goldsbrough House on North Terrace (1935) and the H.C. Sleigh building on Pirie Street (1950s), Adelaide city.
