Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720 - 1940

Architect, of Cork. Kearns Deane was born on 6 April 1804, the fourth son of ALEXANDER DEANE  ALEXANDER DEANE of Cork and younger brother of THOMAS DEANE  THOMAS DEANE and ALEXANDER SHARPE DEANE ALEXANDER SHARPE DEANE . After attending Mr Callaghan's Academy in Cork, he matriculated at Trinity College, Dublin, in 1821, but there is no record of his having taken a degree. In 1823 his brother Thomas sent him to London to join their brother Alexander as a pupil of the drawing master Alfred Nicholson. He had returned to Cork by 5 October 1824, the date of his marriage to his cousin Jane Kearns Tanner, eldest daughter of Boyle Tanner.(1) At the Mechanic's Institute Exhibition, in Cork in 1828 he exhibited a drawing of the Pantheon in Rome, a model of the front of the Agora at Athens 'proposed as a front for the Cork Markets' and a design for the new chapel in Patrick Street.(2) At around the same time he was placed second to JAMES PAIN  JAMES PAIN in the competition for a design for Blackrock Castle.(3) In December 1831 he was awarded the prize for the best architectural drawing in the Cork Society for Promoting the Fine Arts exhibition, held earlier the same year; originally a first prize had been awarded to WILLIAM ATKINS  WILLIAM ATKINS and a second prize to GEORGE H. BUCKLEY GEORGE H. BUCKLEY , but the premiums were withheld and a single prize given to Deane instead.(4) Kearns Deane practised as an architect both independently and in association with his brother Thomas.

Deane's health collapsed, probably as a result of tuberculosis. A visit to London with his wife and daughter in order to have medical treatment failed to halt his decline and he died at his house on South Mall, Cork, on 30 January 1847 still relatively young. The notice of his death in the Cork Examiner attributed his death to 'that spirit of zeal and unwearying devotion with which he toiled at his profession - wasting those precious hours that exhausted nature requires for her restoration, in incessant toil'.(6)

See WORKS.



References

All information in this entry not otherwise accounted for is from Frederick O'Dwyer, The Architecture of Deane & Woodward, (Cork University Press, 1997), 8,10,11,18,21,22,24,25,27,28,59,128.

(1) The Constitution, 6 Oct 1824 (IAA, Edward McParland files, Acc. 2008/44).
(2) Nos. 51,104 & 105; the model of the Agora was exhibited again at the National Exhibition of the Arts, Manufactures & Products, Cork, in 1852. For catalogue of 1828 exhibition, see RIA Haliday pamphlets 1434/11 (information from Kenneth Severns).
(3) Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society 44, .
(4) Cork Constitution, 20 Sep 1831, 29 Dec 1831 (information from Kenneth Severens, who suggests that the episode might have been a symptom of rivalry between Deane and Pain factions in the Cork architectural community).
(5) Quoted in B 5, 1847, 79.


10 work entries listed in chronological order for DEANE, KEARNS


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Building: CO. CORK, CORK, WASHINGTON STREET, COURT HOUSE
Date: 1830
Nature: Thomas Deane and KD shared lst premium with Pains.
Refs: The Constitution, 6 Apr 1830 (IAA, Edward McParland files, Acc.2008/44); drawing and model exh. Cork Society for Promoting the Fine Arts, 1831 (Cork Constitution, 6 Apr 1830,7 Aug 1831 (references from Kenneth Severens); model of 'premium design' by KD & Thomas Deane exh. National Exhibition of the Arts, Manufactures & Products, Cork, 1852 (IALE, I, 179); B 5, 15 Mar 1863, says front of building is by Thomas Deane; Patrick Holohan, 'Cork Courthouse: the Pains, the Deanes, the Stonecutters', JCHAS 111 (2006), 77-106

Building: CO. KERRY, DROMORE CASTLE
Date: 1831-1839
Nature: By Thomas and Kearns Deane with Notter, for Rev. Denis Mahony.
Refs: Model (Acc. 95/66) and building accounts (Acc. ?) in IAA; J. Binns,Miseries and Beauties of Ireland(1837), II, 340; J.P. Lawson, Gazetteer of Ireland (1842), 175; Frederick O'Dwyer, The Architecture of Deane and Woodward (Cork University Press, 1997), 21-22(illus.)

Building: CO. CORK, CORK, POPE'S QUAY, CHURCH OF ST MARY (RC, DOMINICAN)
Date: 1832-39
Nature: New church, for Rev. Fr. Russel. Dedicated 14 or 22 Oct 1839. Hexastyle portico, though mentioned by Lawson in 1842 as 'very fine' not completed until 1861. Flanking towers never executed.
Refs: Inscription in porch; building accounts, Tallaght MSS. (IAA, Edward McParland files, Acc.2008/44); Southern Reporter, 10 Oct 1839; Cartholic Directory (1839), 359; ?design exh. by Thomas & Kearns Deane at Mechanic's Institute Exh., Cork, 1828, as 'Design for a new Catholic Chapel'?; model exh. Nat. Exh. of Arts, Manufactures & Products, Cork, 1852 (no. 4); J.P. Lawson, Gazetteer of Ireland (1842), 210; J. Windele, Historical and Descriptive Notices of the City of Cork (1849), ?; APSD, C, 147; M. MacAuliffe, Dominicans in Cork (1939), 38; T.F. McNamara, Portrait of Cork (1981), 84-85(illus.); Frederick O'Dwyer, The Architecture of Deane and Woodward (Cork University Press, 1997), 10(illus.),11,23,128

Building: CO. CORK, CORK, LAPP'S QUAY (& PARNELL PLACE), CORK SAVINGS BANK
Date: 1835-1842
Nature: With Thomas Deane. Builder: Thomas Fitzgerald.
Refs: Tablet on building, 1842; APSD; J. Windele, Historical and descriptive notices of the city of Cork (1849), ?; T.F. McNamara, Portrait of Cork (1981), 112

Building: CO. CORK, PASSAGE WEST, HORSEHEAD
Date: 1836-37
Nature: New Tudor Gothic house, for John Craig, by Thomas & Kearns Deane.
Refs: Frederick O'Dwyer, The Architecture of Deane and Woodward (Corm University Press, 1997), 22,23(illus.)

Building: CO. CORK, FRANKFIELD (DOUGLAS), CHURCH OF THE HOLY TRINITY (CI)
Date: 1839
Nature: New Gothic church, with Thomas Deane. Opened 1 Jul 1838. Erected and endowed as chapel-of-ease to St Barry's parish 'at the sole expense of Samuel Lane, Esq., of Frankfield, 'who, with a munificence which has but few parallels in the present day, is also engaged in erecting a Parsonage in the Elizabethan style for the use of the Curate' (Limerick Chronicle, quoted in Cork Constitution).
Refs: Cork Constitution, 3 Jul 1838, 28,29 May 1839 (information from Roger Herlihy, Cork, Sep 2011).

Building: CO. CORK, CORK, SOUTH MALL, NO. 032 (BANK OF IRELAND)
Date: 1839
Nature: Builder of same, with Thomas Deane and Richard Notter (Thomas Deane & Co.).
Refs: Articles of agreement between Thomas Deane, Kearns Deane and Richard Notter (Thomas Deane & Co.) to build same, 1 Jan 1839, in IAA, Acc. 81/050.3.

Building: CO. CORK, CORK, FRENCH CHURCH STREET, METHODIST CHURCH
Date: 1843-1845
Nature: New church replacing former Huguenot church (used by Methodists since 1819). With Thomas Deane. Opened Aug 1845.
Refs: Cork Constitution, 23 Aug 1845 (information from Roger Herlihy, Cork, Jun 2011).

Building: CO. CORK, COBH, ESPLANADE & IMPROVEMENTS
Date: 1843-1850
Nature: With Thomas Deane executed design of Decimus Burton, for Lord Midleton.
Refs: Cork Examiner, 26 Mar 1845

Building: CO. CORK, CORK, COLLEGE ROAD, UNIVERSITY COLLEGE
Date: 1846-49
Nature: New college. With Thomas Deane (q.v.).
Refs: APSD II, C, 147