The Architects of Oshawa

Albert Asa Post was born in 1850 in Pickering, Ontario.

Post studied architecture at St. Michaels College and was an apprentice to Mr. Henry Langley, the architect of the Simcoe Street United Church in Oshawa. In 1879, Post opened his own practice and in 1891 he joined together with A. W. Holmes to form the company Post and Holmes.

Post designed a number of buildings in Whitby over the course of his career, including the residence of John Fothergill on Dundas Street, the Barnes Arena on Ontario Street, and the renovations to the Ontario County Courthouse in 1882. Post also designed the Bowmanville High School in 1888, the gymnasium for Whitby Collegiate in 1889, and the Dunbarton United Church in 1886.

Post was known as a leading church architect. He was a devote Catholic and designed a number of Roman Catholic churches in Ontario and in Buffalo, New York. He designed St. Gregory's Church in Oshawa in 1893, St. Peters Church in Goderich in 1896, and St. Theresa's Church in Buffalo in 1897.

St. Gregory's Church, built in the French Romanesque style, replaced a much smaller church built in 1841 on the site. The cornerstone was laid in June 1893 and the building was dedicated in 1895. The design for St. Gregory's Church was illustrated in the journal of Canadian Architects and Builders in 1896.

Arthur Erickson was born in 1924 in Vancouver, British Columbia. He graduated from the School of Architecture at McGill University in 1950 and went on to teach architecture, first at the University of Oregon and then at the University of British Columbia. Recognized for his early, award winning domestic architecture, he achieved national fame with the competition winning design for Simon Fraser University completed with his partner Geoffrey Massey in 1963. Many notable commissions followed, including the second Gordon Smith House, the Canadian Pavilion at the Osaka World Fair, the Sikh Temple in Vancouver, the B.C. Provincial Law Courts and Government Offices in downtown Vancouver, Roy Thomson Concert Hall in Toronto, the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia and the Museum of Glass in Tacoma among many others around the world.

Acknowledgement of the value of Erickson's work has included six Massey medals, three Governor General's Awards, the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada Gold Medal, the American Institute of Architects Gold Medal, the French Academy of Architecture Gold Medal, and the Order of Canada.

The Robert McLaughlin Gallery located in Oshawa was built in 1969 and expanded in 1987 using an Arthur Erickson design. Erickson takes mundane materials (concrete, glass, and steel) and makes them into more than the sum of their parts. He curves the glass, he bends the steel, and he uses bands of thick and thin blocks of concrete in this exceptional Gallery design.

Arthur Hunter Eadie was born in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1897. He came to Canada with his family in 1903 and settled in Toronto. He started his architectural career with the firm Chadwick and Beckett from 1912 to 1916. He eventually formed a partnership with John J. Beck, an associate he met and together they practiced as Beck and Eadie until Beck retired in December of 1953. Eadie continued to practice under his own name until his death in 1956.

In 1947 Beck and Eadie designed the McLaughlin Mausoleum in Union Cemetery for Colonel Sam McLaughlin. The McLaughlin Mausoleum was built with gray pearl granite and features bas-reliefs in the style of John Lyle using stylized pinecones, needles and maple leaves.

In 1954 Eadie designed the McLaughlin Library in Oshawa. The library was designed using a mix of Prairie and International styles.

For his distinguished architecture and for his services to the profession, Eadie was named a Fellow of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada in 1954.

C. C. Stenhouse was born as Charles Corner Stenhouse in 1884 in Burma. In April 1905 Stenhouse moved to Canada, settling in Hamilton, Ontario where he opened an architectural and engineering office. Eventually he and his brother moved to Toronto.

In 1917 Stenhouse moved to Oshawa and established himself as an architect and engineer. Stenhouse became involved in curling, bowling and the Rotary Club in Oshawa. He was a mason and became the Worthy Master of the Mason Temple. In 1930 he was elected Grand Superintendent of the Ontario District Number 10.

One of the first buildings that Stenhouse designed was the Alger Building on King Street East in Oshawa for the brothers Ewart and Stewart Alger. After a fire in 1927 this building was replaced by the present day Alger building.

Stenhouse designed a long list of commercial buildings and homes in Oshawa including the Masonic Temple in 1928, the Albert Street United Church in 1929, the Children Shelter on Centre Street in 1929 and the offices for PUCK in 1931. In 1932 he received the Signal Honour from the Architectural Institute of Canada for his design of the Masonic Temple. His design came second to the Montreal Masonic Temple.

Frank Darling and John A. Pearson began working together in Toronto in 1889 when Pearson joined the staff of the well-established, nine-year old firm of Darling and Currie. Within three years Pearson had become a full partner and in 1897 these two men embarked upon a successful career spanning more than a quarter of a century. Darling and Pearson was one of Canada's leading commercial architectural firms at the turn of the century. Frank Darling, the senior partner of the firm, was considered one of the greatest architects of the British Empire.

Darling was born in Scarborough, Ontario in 1850 and trained with Henry Langley, the architect of the Simcoe Street United Church, after his graduation from Upper Canada and Trinity Colleges. He practiced for three years in London, England before returning to Toronto. He was awarded the Royal Gold Medal for Architecture in 1915, the first architect in the British Commonwealth to receive this honour.

Pearson was born in Chesterfield, England in 1867 and studied at Wesley College and the University of Sheffield. He eventually came to Toronto in 1888 and in 1908 created the firm Darling and Pearson. He became President of the Ontario Association of Architects and was elected as a Fellow to the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1925. He was conferred a Honorary Doctorate of Architect by the University of Toronto in 1932 for his contribution to Canadian architecture and was the first person in Canada to receive such a degree. Colonel R. S. McLaughlin commissioned Darling and Pearson to co-ordinate the design of Parkwood Estate including the main house, stable/garage, gatehouse and greenhouses. The main house design is a blend of Beaux Arts style incorporating Georgian Revival and Mediterranean elements. It was designed as a self-contained residential complex and reflected both the wealth and social stature of Colonel R. S. McLaughlin. Site construction began in March 1916 and was finished in 1917.

The firm continued its work on Parkwood Estate into the 1930s even after Darling's death in 1923. They were responsible for the design of the summer house and the alterations and additions to the main house in the early 1930s.

In 1911 Howard Grubb, known as the father of landscape architecture married Lorrie Dunington, an English landscape architect. They emigrated to Canada and opened a firm in Toronto as Dunington-Grubb, Landscape Architects. The Dunington-Grubb office in Toronto produced hundreds of designs and master plans over the years. Approximately two-thirds of the work was private residential gardens for wealthy clients. The rest covered an extremely wide range of business and government projects, including town planning and civic beautification.

The Italian Garden at Parkwood Estate was designed by Dunington-Grubb in 1925, replacing an earlier less elaborate rose garden. The Italian Garden provided seclusion and tranquillity for the McLaughlin family living there.

The garden is characterized by a framework of clipped hedges, wooden lattice, a large lily pool with a fountain of the Three Graces, flagstone paving punctuated by symmetrical garden beds and is adorned by white marble urns and benches. These elements are interpretive borrowings from the formal gardens of Italy.

Eden Smith was born in Birmingham, England in 1859. He studied drawing and architecture throughout Europe as a young man. He immigrated to Canada in 1876 with his family and ended up in Toronto. He started working for the architectural firm Strickland and Symons and then he eventually worked on his own.

Smith's style was called "English Cottage", which was developed from late-Medieval and vernacular English forms by such English architects as Sir Edwin Lutyens and M.H. Baillie-Scott.

When the congregation of St. George's Memorial Church in Oshawa needed to build a larger church, Smith was chosen as the architect. Built in 1922, St. George's was considered by Eden Smith to be his finest church.

Henry Langley was born in Toronto in 1836 and is known as one of the most productive and creative architects in 19th-century Ontario. After studying at the Toronto Academy, Langley spent seven years with William Hay from whom he was said to have "obtained a good training in Gothic architecture." In 1862 Langley went into business with Thomas Gundry, an English architect.

The firm's strong reputation for design therefore was largely the result of Langley's work. Langley undertook commissions for residential, commercial and public structures, but soon began to specialize in the design of church buildings. Working with a variety of partners and apprentices, he developed an extensive practice, shaping approximately 70 churches throughout Ontario and altering or enlarging many more. Langley was considered to be a leading professional among architects at a time when that occupation was only vaguely defined.

He had received his architectural education by the ideal means, serving a period of apprenticeship with a recognized architect, rather than practicing architecture after training in surveying or civil engineering as many did. In 1867 Gundry and Langley were commissioned to design the Simcoe Street Methodist Church, now called the Simcoe Street United Church.

Hiram Barber was born in Ontario in 1843. In December 1865, an ad in an Oshawa paper announced that Hiram Barber was prepared to draw designs for public buildings, cottages and bridges with considerable experience.

Shortly after the ad was posted, Hiram Barber was hired as the architect for a new schoolhouse in Oshawa in 1867. This schoolhouse is now known as the Thornton-Dundee Community Centre. Barber was also hired as the architect for a three storey structure containing stores and a large hall along King St. E. in Oshawa, titled "The Wilson Block."

The Wilson Block was finished in 1872, at a cost of $8,000. The Wilson Music Hall opened in 1873 in the Wilson Block and continued to serve the community as a hall, opera house and a theatre until it was converted to offices in 1926. When the Machine Made Hat Company chose to build a factory in Oshawa in 1872, Barber partnered with Henry Langley to design the building on Centre St. S. Barber also designed a house for John Gibson at 170 Simcoe St. S. in 1873.

James Augustus Ellis was born in 1856 in St. Vincent, Ontario. He started his career as a carpenter but in 1887 he began to work an architect.

Ellis initially worked in Meaford designing the Meaford Fire Hall in 1887. Two years later he joined the Ontario Association of Architects and in March 1890 he opened an office in Toronto.

He partnered with William Connery in 1906 to form the firm Ellis and Connery. They became known for their work on area schools and they also continued to design factories and houses in the Toronto area.

In 1909, Ellis and Connery designed the Oshawa High School, which became the centre core for O'Neill Collegiate. They went on to design the King Street and North Simcoe School and the homes for Frank Robson and Charles Robson on Simcoe St. in 1912.

In 1915 Ellis formed a partnership with his son Howard and together they designed the Cedardale School, the South Simcoe School and Dr. Finnegan's house at 142 Simcoe St. N. in Oshawa. They continued to design many buildings, homes and schools in communities around Ontario.

John McIntosh Lyle was one of the Canada's leading architects of his time. Born in Belfast in 1872, he was raised in Hamilton, Ontario, where he trained at the Hamilton Art School and went on to study at the Yale Art School. He practiced architecture in New York for fourteen years before returning to Canada in 1907.

Upon his return to Canada, Lyle was instrumental in disseminating the beaux-arts ideals to the architectural profession. His early works reflect the beaux-arts style of Royal Alexandra Theatre (1906) and Union Station (1913-27) in Toronto.

In the 1920s, Lyle went on to develop a distinctively Canadian style. He integrated Canadian floral and faunal motifs into the design of his buildings and in 1926, Lyle was awarded a gold medal by the Ontario Association of Architects.

Colonel R.S. McLaughlin hired Lyle to design a formal garden at Parkwood Estate in 1936, which remains a monumental achievement in Canadian design. Lyle's design for the formal garden won the Bronze Medal of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada in 1939, and it remains his only surviving residential landscape. This garden blends English and North American traditions in a design unique in Canada, through its use of water, space, vegetation and Art Deco forms and motifs. Lyle retired in 1943, but continued as a consulting architect for his successor firm started by his assistants John J. Beck and Arthur Eadie until his death in 1945.

John McNee Jeffrey was born in 1883 in Lanarkshire, Glasgow. He graduated from the Glasgow School of Art with a Bachelor's Degree in Art. By 1908 he was working in the offices of Emmanuel Vincent Harris in London, from where he passed the qualifying exam in June of 1908 to become a registered architect of the Royal Institute of British Architects. While in London he attended and received a degree from London College.

Jeffrey moved to Toronto in 1911 with his family. During his time in Canada he designed a total of 12 theatres for the Paramount Theatre chain using the latest and most approved methods of stage design, such as a revolving stage and new lighting methods.

As a theatre designer, he designed some of the finest theatres in Canada. He designed the Capital Theatre in Victoria B.C., theatres in Sault St. Marie and Peterborough, and the Regent Theatre in Oshawa in 1920. The Regent Theatre was described as being the most impressive theatre between Toronto and Kingston at the time of its construction.

John Siddall was born in Westwoodside, Lincolnshire in 1861. He was educated and worked in London, England before coming to Canada in 1891. He joined the architectural firm of Knox and Elliott in Toronto and then eventually branched out on his own.

In 1898, Siddall partnered with George King to design the Stratford City Hall. They went on to design the Orillia High School and in 1899 designed the St. Andrew Presbyterian Church in Oshawa, now known as the Oshawa Community Church on Simcoe Street South.

Siddall went on to design the Bowmanville Town Hall, as well as many other homes, churches and factories throughout Ontario.

Norman Alexander Armstrong was born in 1882 in Queenston, Ontario. He worked as a draftsman in the office of John Siddall for three years, moved to the United States for a few years, and then moved back to Toronto in 1918 to establish his own practice.

In his 37 years of practice, Armstrong designed and built many homes and buildings in Toronto and the surrounding area. Armstrong was on the forefront of the latest designs and was known as an architect who was not timid in using new materials.

When the Alger building on King Street East in Oshawa was destroyed by a fire in 1927, Armstrong was hired to design the new building. The four story building was described as a modern adaptation of an Italian design. The ground floor and basement were designed for the Traymore Savarin Restaurant and furnished with the latest equipment. The upper stories were designed for offices, serviced by automatic high speed elevators and had the latest in lighting, heating and plumbing.

Roy H. Bishop was born in 1887 and graduated from the Toronto School of Architecture in 1912. He worked for the firms Darling and Pearson and Chapman and McGiffen before he served as Lieutenant-Colonel with the Royal Canadian Engineers from 1914 to 1918. 

In 1924, Bishop opened his own firm with a branch office at the corner of Bond St. and Mary St. in Oshawa. Roy designed the General Motors Administration Offices on William Street in Oshawa in 1927. He also designed the original building for the Skinner Company and partnered with Charles Dolphin to design the garage for Ontario Motor Sales at Mary Street and King Street, which eventually turned into the Oshawa Daily Times building. He worked for General Motors to develop 6 house designs for employees as part of the General Motors' home building plan in the Mary St. N. area. Bishop also designed many other homes in Oshawa, the most notable being the Davis residence and the Ewart McLaughlin house on Simcoe St. N.Bishop was a member of the Ontario Association of Architects and the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada.