Who would say Vernon Brown was an Architect of the Deco idiom, or for that matter a commercial Architect… when most of what we see is his skill of the New Zealand timber house. But he was. Shortly before becoming registered as an Architect in New Zealand he carried out and was party to bringing modern Deco to Auckland City.

His career began, like many instructed in the Beaux Arts course of Architectural training. He attended the London Northern Polytechnic School of Architecture, afterwards finding work in London as a draughtsman to complete his required internship. Leaving England, Brown stepped ashore in Auckland late in 1927, finding his first employ in the offices of Grierson, Aimer and Draffin. There he was set to work on the Auckland War Memorial Museum.

Brown's given tasks on the museum were varied. He had said to friends that he was responsible for the drawing of the battle scenes high above the entry to the Metopes, or Frieze in the Entablature. He also claimed responsibility for the detailing of the main stairs either side of the main entrance. His main job on the project was the drawing and detailing of the carved lettering to the Portland Stone façade. It was a task well suited to the young Brown, particularly due to his fascination in typography and Chinese Calligraphy. He was later to amass a fine collection of books on both subjects. One anecdote involving Brown and the Museum was of the inscribed stone blocks, in which a spelling error was noticed after the stone had been incised. The mistake was not his fault, but necessitated the removal of the stone block and the lettering re-done. The building was awarded a New Zealand Institute of Architects (N.Z.I.A.) Gold Medal in 1929.