Hedley Allen Dunn

Hedley Allen Dunn (27 October 1865 – 5 June 1942) was a South Australian architect, a member of the prominent Dunn family of Mount Barker. His work included the flour mill at Port Adelaide for his father and grandfather in 1886, and the Stock Exchange Building (now the Science Exchange) on McHenry Street, off Grenfell Street, Adelaide, in 1900.

Early life and education Hedley Allen Dunn was born in North Adelaide on 27 October 1865. with his brother Frederick.

He returned to Australia in 1881 and studied architecture with fellow students Frank Counsell and Alfred M. Bonython; examiners included E. Davies and E. J. Woods.

Career Dunn first found employment with Ellerker and Kilburn of Melbourne, then Oakden, Addison and Kemp for whom he travelled to Auckland, New Zealand to design a health retreat at the hot springs in Waiwera. brother Alfred Calvert Dunn was engineer. This superseded an earlier mill designed and executed by Wright, Woods & Hamilton.

In September 1887 he was taken on as partner by Edward Davies in Flinders Street, Adelaide, dissolved 1888. They produced a prize-winning design for the new Commercial Bank at 25 King William Street. Dunn designed the elaborate blackwood case for the new organ at the Kent Town Methodist Church in 1898.

His design for a building for the Royal Bank of Queensland was rejected, but they nevertheless opened a practice in Queen Street, Brisbane in 1890.

After marriage in Queensland in 1893, Dunn returned to Adelaide and opened his own offices in King William Street, working mainly on residences but was also brought in to design extensions to the Dunn Memorial Church in Mount Barker in 1899. and which was built in 1901. He was responsible for the new grandstand at Prince Alfred College in 1904.

Hedley at some stage joined John Alexander Dowie's Christian Catholic Apostolic Church, and in 1903 traveled to Zion, Illinois, headquarters of the sect. If he had hoped for a professional appointment he was disappointed, but impressed with what he saw.

From 1919 Dunn practised from his home at 55 East Terrace, Kensington Gardens, and retired around 1934. and for many years served as the society's auditor. He gave several lectures to the society on the subject of domestic architecture.

His involvement with the Christian Catholic Apostolic Church extended to giving public lectures in the Federation Hall, Grote Street in the early 20th century. and a sister of author Harry Hall Jordan (1866–1930). They had at least one son: Cedric Leighton Dunn (2 February 1896 – 1962) was born in Albion, Queensland; worked for the Queensland Public Works Department from 1914. in contrast to the grandiosity of "The Laurels" of his grandfather.