Joseph Alexander Kethel

Kethel was the son of Scottish-born Australian politician and timber merchant Alexander Kethel (1832–1916) and his wife Mary. He had a brother and three sisters. He grew up in the inner city suburbs of Sydney around Millers Point and The Glebe. In 1888 his father built a grand Victorian Italianate mansion on the corner of Glebe Point and Wigram Roads Glebe known as Ben Ledi. It was named after the mountain Ben Ledi in Scotland.[2] The design of the family home is attributed to the Sydney architect Thomas Rowe who Kethel was articled to when he studied architecture at Sydney Technical College.

The Kethel family were communicant members of the Presbyterian Church and Kethel designed a number of Presbyterian church buildings in New South Wales.

Works attributed to Kethel include:

Fullerton Presbyterian Church (1905) Surry Hills

The Sun Building (1929) Sydney

• Stevens Terrace (1900)
  73 Windmill Street Millers Point[3]

• Fullerton Presbyterian Church (1904)
  Corner of Crown and Albion Streets Surry Hills[4]

• Cavan Homestead (1905)
  40 kilometres southwest of Yass[5]

• Dunkeld (now Edensor) (1906)
  19-21 Meredith Street Homebush[6]

• Yambah (1907)
  28 Coventry Street Srathfield[7]

• Coliseum Theatre (1911)
  271 Miller Street, North Sydney[8]

• Rocomble (1915)
  29 Karranga Avenue Killara[9]

• Youbri (now Glanworth) (1916)
  5 Lindsay Avenue Darling Point[10]

• Alliance Assurance Building (1925)
  20 Grenfell Street Adelaide[11]

• The Sun Building (1929)
  60-70 Elizabeth Street, Sydney[12]