Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720 - 1940

Architect, of Dublin. Cecil Orr was a pupil in the office of MILLAR & MILLAR & amp; SYMES  SYMES from April 1876 until March 1880. From April to July 1880 he worked in London as assistant draughtsman to Frederick Beeston, returning to Dublin to spend the rest of the year as chief assistant to Millar & Symes. In January 1881 he became managing assistant to JOHN HENRY FULLERTON  JOHN HENRY FULLERTON of Armagh. He remained with Fullerton until May 1885, when he opened his own office in Dublin. No works by him are recorded in the Irish Builder at this period, and in 1888 he moved to London to work in the Willesden Local Board Office. He remained in London until at least 1893 - he does not appear in the English census of 1891 however - but had returned to Dublin by 1895. After his return he appears to have been better known as a lecturer on architectural history than as an architect.(1) He delivered a series of twelve lectures on architecture at the Metropolitan School of Art, Kildare Street, in 1896(2) and a further series in 1899.(3) When Professor George Aitchison delivered a lecture on Renaissance architecture to the AAI in December 1897, Orr was responsible for the 'numerous limelight views' which accompanied it;(4) he himself lectured on the history of architecture to the AAI in 1898.(5) He disappears from the membership lists of both the RIAI and RIBA after 1901, but apparently applied - unsuccessfully - for the post of Dublin City Architect in 1905.(6)

RIAI: elected member, March 1885, having been proposed by WILLIAM MANSFIELD MITCHELL  WILLIAM MANSFIELD MITCHELL and seconded by John Henry Fullerton;(7) disappears from list of members, 1902.
RIBA: passed qualifying exam, 1888; elected associate, 25 June 1888, having been proposed by W.F. Lyon, WILLIAM HENRY LYNN WILLIAM HENRY LYNN , ALBERT EDWARD MURRAY  ALBERT EDWARD MURRAY and William Mansfield Mitchell; membership lapsed, 1902.
RSA: elected member, 6 August 1884.(8)

Addresses:(9) Work: 3 Westmoreland Street, Dublin, 1887; Willesden Local Board Office, Kilburn, London, <=1889->=1893 and 57 Sackville Street Upper, 1888-1894; 186 Great Brunswick Street, 1895-96; 1 Suffolk Street, 1897-1901; 186 Great Brunswick Street, 1905.(10)
Home: Woodford, Armagh, 1884-85;(11) Blackrock, Co. Dublin, 1886-1887; 11 Sydney Avenue, Blackrock, 1894;(12) Brookville, Enniskerry, <=1896->=1900

See WORKS.



References

All information in this entry not otherwise accounted for is from Directory of British Architects 1834-1914 (RIBA 2001), II, 290-91, and RIAI lists of members.

(1) Only one work - the rebuilding of the Powerscourt Arms Hotel at Enniskerry - is recorded in IB.
(2) IB 38, 15 Jan 1896, 23.
(3) IB 41, 1 Jan 1899, 2.
(4) IB 39, 15 Dec 1897, 236.
(5) IB 40, 15 Feb 1898, 26.
(6)   Irish Times, 5 Dec 1893.
(7) RIAI council meeting minutes, 2,23 Mar 1885, 242.
(8) JRSAI 16 (1883-4), 317.
(9) From Thom's directories and RIAI lists of members unless otherwise stated.
(10) See note 6, above.
(11) See notes 5 and 7, above.
(11) JRSAI 24 (1894), list of members.


3 work entries listed in chronological order for ORR, CECIL


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Building: CO. WICKLOW, ENNISKERRY, POWERSCOURT ARMS HOTEL
Date: 1895
Nature: Rebuilding. Tenders invited, Mar 1895. Contractor: Sutton & Doyle, Enniskerry. Estimated cost: £1,083.18s.10d.
Refs: Irish Times, 22,23,25 Mar 1895; IB 37, 1 Jun 1895, 134.

Building: CO. WICKLOW, POWERSCOURT, RECTORY
Date: 1897
Nature: Tenders invited for carrying out 'certain repairs and Cement Plaster Works', Feb 1897.
Refs: Irish Times, 11 Feb 1897.

Building: CO. DUBLIN, GLENAGEARY, GLENAGEARY ROAD LOWER, TRAVERSLEA
Date: 1898ca
Nature: Two-storey brick house, for Nathaniel Hone.
Refs: Elevation and plans repr. In Hamilton, Osborne King sale brochure, 2003; Peter Pearson, Between the Mountains and the Sea (Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, 1998), 144(illus.),145