Born in England in 1863, he was educated in Wolverhampton and Birmingham before attending the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. He commenced practice as an architect in Edinburgh in 1888. In 1912 he won a competition against 64 other architects for the design of the Manitoba Legislative Building, and he moved to Winnipeg to supervise its construction, leaving shortly after their completion in 1920 for Mentone, France, where he died in 1933. Simon also designed the Edinburgh International Exhibition Building, Liverpool Cotton Exchange, and buildings at Liverpool University. He was the author of Etchings of Old Edinburgh.
Some of his architectural works in Manitoba included:
Building
Location
Year
Status
450 Broadway, Winnipeg
1912-1920
George-Étienne Cartier Statue (pedestal)
450 Broadway, Winnipeg
1919
First Avenue SE, Minnedosa
1921
See also:
Carrying the Torch: Optimistic Themes in the Classical Vocabulary of the Manitoba Legislative Building by Gavin Wiens
Manitoba History, Number 64, Fall 2010
“Designer of Legislative Buildings dies,” Winnipeg Tribune, 5 June 1933.
Dictionary of Manitoba Biography by John M. “Jack” Bumsted, Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 1999.
We thank Glen Toews for providing additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 2 January 2024
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