Darling and Pearson was an architectural firm based in Toronto from 1895 through 1937. The firm was prolific and produced consistently fine work though the patronage of notable figures of the Canadian establishment, and is responsible for enhancing the architectural character and quality of the city, and indeed the rest of Canada, in the first quarter of the 20th century.
Formation The firm was organized first as Darling, Curry, Sproatt, & Pearson in 1892, with partners Frank Darling, S. George Curry, Henry Sproatt, and John A. Pearson. From 1893 through 1896 it evolved into Darling, Sproatt & Pearson, then finally Darling and Pearson was founded as such in 1897.
Its heyday began with Darling's commissions from the Canadian Bank of Commerce in 1898, grand Edwardian buildings in Toronto, Winnipeg, Montreal, and Vancouver, and dozens of smaller branches in smaller Canadian cities and towns. Darling's training with the English architect George Edmund Street and Sir Arthur Blomfield in the early 1870s brought a serious, substantial, Victorian influence, well-suited to large civic and institutional projects in the years of the nation's development.
Their subsequent projects included the first tall steel-frame building in Canada (the Royal Tower in Winnipeg, 1904), the tallest building in Canada for three decades (the 1930 Canadian Bank of Commerce Building in Toronto, with York and Sawyer of New York), and the largest single building in the British Commonwealth (the Sun Life Building, Montreal, Started in 1914 and tower added by 1931).
Legacy
After the deaths of Frank Darling in 1923 and Pearson in 1940, the firm was renamed Darling, Pearson and Cleveland with Darling's nephew as a partner.
Notable buildings
Darling and Pearson
Alpha Delta Phi Toronto Chapter House, 1894. Originally known as the Ince house Masaryk-Cowan Community Recreation Centre, 1898. Originally a curling rink Flavelle House, University of Toronto Faculty of Law, 1901 Union Bank Building, 500 Main Street, Winnipeg, with the George A. Fuller Co., 1904 197 Yonge Street, Toronto, 1905 - renovated former banking building Canadian Bank of Commerce, Watson, Saskatchewan, 1906 Convocation Hall, University of Toronto, 1906 Moose Jaw Court House, Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan 1908 Old Canadian Bank of Commerce Building, Montreal, 1906–09 University of Toronto Sanford Fleming Building and Sigmund Samuel Building, 1907, and additions to the latter in 1912 The Church of St. Mary Magdalene, 1908 Grain Exchange Building - 167 Lombard Street, Winnipeg, 1906-1908 Toronto General Hospital, College Wing, now the MaRS Discovery District building, 1911 Canadian Pacific Building, Toronto, for a time the tallest building in Canada, 1913 One King Street West, Toronto, 1914 Royal Ontario Museum original building (west wing - Italianate-Neo-Romanesque), 1914 Parkwood Estate, 1916 North Toronto railway station of the Canadian Pacific Railway 1916 Art Gallery of Ontario original building, 1916 MaRS Discovery District - old Toronto General Hospital College Street wing - 101 College Street, Toronto, 1919 Simcoe Hall, University of Toronto, 1924 South Wing, Trinity College, Toronto, 1925 Varsity Arena, Toronto, 1926 Private Patients Pavilion (Thomas J. Bell Wing), Toronto General Hospital, 1930 – Demolished Canadian Bank of Commerce Building in Toronto; now Commerce Court North, 1930 Canadian General Electric Building, 212 King Street West, Toronto, 1908 Banting Institute, 100 College Street, 1930
Darling, Pearson and Cleveland Sun Life Building, Montreal, 1931 expansions to the Art Gallery of Ontario, 1935
Images
References
External links Bell Wing (TGH)