Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720 - 1940

Builder, of Stillorgan and Blackrock, Co. Dublin, active from the 1890s or earlier. Christopher Thomas Jolley was, according to the 1911 census, born in Co. Dublin in 1851 or 1852. Nothing is known of his early career; according to Pearson, he made alterations, including a billiard room, to Windsor House, Monkstown, in the 1880s.(1) He is described a builder of Orchard Lane, Stillorgan, Co. Dublin, on the birth certificate of his second son in 1892. No buildings erected by him are recorded in the Irish Builder or the Builder until 1903, following his appointment as contractor for the Knox Memorial Hall in Blackrock, designed by RICHARD CHAYTOR MILLAR. RICHARD CHAYTOR MILLAR. (2) Then, in 1905, he was awarded the important contract for building the Carnegie Library and Technical Institute adjacent to Blackrock Town Hall, designed by GEORGE LUKE O'CONNOR. GEORGE LUKE O'CONNOR. (3) He had retired by the time of the 1911 census.

Jolley died on 24 January 1941 in his ninety-first year and was buried in Deansgrange Cemetery, where his son, William, who pre-deceased him, had also been buried. By his second wife, Mary (née Jolly[sic]) he had two sons, Christopher Thomas, who went into the dairy business and Edmond Robert, who farmed at Kilcandra and Ballyfree, Co. Wicklow, and at least one daughter, Harriott.

Addresses: Orchard Lane, Stillorgan, 1892; Abilene, Newtown Park Avenue, Blackrock, <=1907 until death.(4)




References

All information in this entry not otherwise accounted for is in a letter of 14 Jun 2005 from Christopher Jolley's great-grandson Edmond R. Jolley of Inverness to the Irish Architectural Archive.

(1) Peter Pearson, Between the Mountains and the Sea: Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County (1998), ?.
(2) B 87, 16 Jul 1904, 71. The contract was signed on 19 Dec 1902, see Étain Murphy, A Glorious Extravaganza: the history of Monkstown Parish Church(2003), 131.
(3) IB 45, 3 Dec 1903, 3022; 46, 16 Jul 1904, 437(&/or 458?); Brendan Grimes, Irish Carnegie Libraries: a catalogue and architectural history (1998), 96-99(illus.).
(4) Information from Thom's directories.