Memorable Manitobans: Donald Aynsley Ross (1877-1956)

Civil engineer, architect.

Born in Winnipeg on 26 September 1877, the son of lawyer Arthur W. Ross and Jessie Flora Ross, he attended Upper Canada College and the University of Toronto from which he graduated with a BA in 1898. He received his engineering degree from the School of Practical Science in Toronto and then became a mining engineer in British Columbia. He worked as rodman with the Canadian Pacific Railway in an 1897 survey of the Crow’s Nest Pass. From 1900 to 1906, he was a locating engineer for the Canadian Northern Railway. It was at this position that Ross oversaw the construction of the Pinawa Channel Dam on the Winnipeg River. In 1906, he formed a partnership with Ralph Benjamin Pratt. Together they were responsible for numerous buildings as Pratt & Ross, including Winnipeg’s Union Station, the Winnipeg Civic Auditorium, and the 11-storey Electric Railway Building, home of the Winnipeg Electric Railway Company. In 1912, he built a large, brick home on Wellington Crescent. He supervised several stations for the RCAF in the Second World War.

In 1906, he married Maude Elizabeth Dwight of Toronto. They had one son. He was a member of the AF & AM. Presbyterian.

Ross died at Winnipeg on 1 April 1956 and was buried in Old Kildonan Cemetery. He is commemorated by Aynsley Street in Winnipeg.

Some of his buildings in Manitoba:

• Garry Block (290 Garry Street, Winnipeg), 1911
• Prince Edward Hotel (Princess Avenue, Brandon), 1912
• Electric Railway Chambers (213 Notre Dame Avenue, Winnipeg), 1912
• Northern Electric Building (65 Rorie Street, Winnipeg), 1928
• Sherbrook Pool (381 Sherbrook Street, Winnipeg), 1931
• Winnipeg Civic Auditorium (200 Vaughan Street, Winnipeg), 1932

Sources:

Who’s Who in Western Canada: A Biographical Dictionary of Notable Living Men and Women of Western Canada, Volume 1, edited by C. W. Parker, Vancouver: Canadian Press Association, 1911.

“Winnipeg architect dies at 78”, Winnipeg Free Press, 2 April 1956, page 5.

This profile was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.

Profile revised: 14 August 2011

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