Born in Scotland on 15 August 1854, he emigrated to Canada in 1879. Coming to Winnipeg, he apprenticed as an architect with James Chisholm then worked as a draftsman for Willmot and Stewart. In late 1882, he formed a partnership with H. F. Slater then moved to Brandon in late 1887 or early 1888. He and Walter Shillinglaw were the dominant architects in Brandon during the next ten years, during the construction boom of the 1890s. By 1898, he had moved to Victoria Island, British Columbia. He returned to Brandon in 1903 and worked there until at least 1906, later moving back to Victoria where he died on 27 December 1909.
Some of his architectural works in Manitoba included:
Building
Location
Year
Status
Hughes House (Joseph Henry Hughes)
Princess Avenue, Brandon
1888
?
Kelly House (Andrew Kelly)
Sixth Street, Brandon
1888
?
Nation House (Frederick Nation)
Lorne Avenue, Brandon
1888
?
1000 Rosser Avenue, Brandon
1890
Destroyed by fire (1953)
Brandon Electric Light Company
243 Tenth Street, Brandon
1890
Demolished (?)
McTavish Avenue and Russell Street, Brandon
1891-1892
Demolished (1962)
818 Princess Avenue, Brandon
1891-1892
Demolished (1971)
RM of Elton
1892-1893
Beaubier Hotel
Eighth Street (southeast corner Princess Avenue), Brandon
1893
Demolished (2008)
1031 Rosser Avenue, Brandon
1898
158 Eleventh Street, Brandon
1904
Arlington Hotel
541 Rosser Avenue, Brandon
1904
Demolished (?)
1901 Canada census, Automated Genealogy.
Death registration, British Columbia Vital Statistics.
Obituary, Vancouver Daily World, 29 December 1909, page 18.
If Walls Could Talk: Manitoba’s Best Buildings Explored & Explained by David Butterfield and Maureen Devanik Butterfield, Great Plains Publications, 2000, 128 pages.
Biographical Dictionary of Architects in Canada, 1800-1950 by Robert G. Hill, Toronto.
We thank Robert Hill for providing additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 14 September 2023
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