THE THIRD DECADE (1911 - 1920)

Hanover Baptist (1913)    St Jude's Anglican, West    Toronto (1911)

The practice during this period is seriously set back by the First World War, the first of four significant events during the life of the practice; the others being the Great Depression World War II and the recession in the early 1990's. The teen's started well with a steady flow of residential work in 1910 and 1911 and churches in Hanover; in West Toronto - St. Jude's; in East Toronto - Bethany and First Avenue, and YMCA's on Pembroke Street and Dufferin Street. Light industrial work continued with further work for Firstbrook Bros. and the paper box factory for A.E. Long & Co., at Sackville Street and Gerrard Avenue East. Also of note are the summer residence of Sir James Woods in Grafton (1912) and his town residence on Rosedale Road in 1914. Work dropped off as the war intensified and the years 1914-1920 were lean indeed with the only bright spot being the York Knitting Mills commission of 1916.

THE FOURTH DECADE (1921 - 1930)

Central Baptist (later Park    Road Baptist), Toronto    (1926)    Central Baptist (1926)

The 1920's started off in promising fashion with a further series of Baptist Churches: Mimico, First Avenue, Indian Road, Brantford and Mount Dennis but the practise was slow in the mid-twenties and F. Bruce Brown, who had graduated in 1923 and added a Masters Degree in 1924, seriously considered a move to the U.S.A. 1925 brought the Great Baptist Debate and Division and the commission to design Central Baptist Church (the breakaway congregation from Jarvis Street Baptist Church) kept Bruce Brown in Canada. Central Baptist, later known as Park Road Baptist, the J.F. Hartz Building on Grenville St., and a number of houses were enough to generate optimism as the decade came to an end, but the respite was short lived and the Great Depression was at hand.

 

THE FIFTH DECADE (1931 - 1940)

St George's United (Sunday    School addition), Toronto     (1932)    St Olave's Anglican (1936)    Kingsway Lampton United    (1936)    St. Andrew's Presbyterian,    Cobourg (1937)    Forest Hill United Church,    Toronto (1939)

Survival was the order of the day for this decade. The fact that everyone seemed to suffer equally seems to have brought some comfort. 1930 brought work at McMaster University, residences, and the shared project of the Administration Building with W.L. Sommerville. Fortunately there was considerable carryover from 1928 and 1929. By 1932 St. George's United Church Sunday School and two houses on Bennington Heights appear to have been the total workload. 1932 brought the arrival of Douglas Brown, destined to become the third generation to carry on the practice. The mid-thirties continued as a slow period with more houses in the Bennington Heights area. Then in 1936 came the commissions for St. Olave's Anglican Church on Windermere Avenue and Kingsway Lampton United Church on Prince Edward Drive in The Kingsway. The firm had by this time built many rubble stone houses but most of the churches to this time had been brick. Kingsway Lampton built in the style of the English parish church was to initiate a series of Gothic revival stone churches destined to last into the early fifties. Kingsway Lampton was followed by St. Andrew's Presbyterian (1937) in Cobourg and Forest Hill United Church (1939) in Toronto. The stonework through the late 1920's, 1930's and 1940's was usually the work of Thomas Isbister, a Scottish mason transplanted to Toronto. Other trades who appeared regularly in the certificate books of this period are: J. Robert Page and B.A. Robinson, general contractors; Young and Apperly Carpentry; Evans and Evans and Venn & Sons, masonry contractors; W.E. Dillon & Co. and Heather & Little & Canadian Rogers, roofing contractors; Tumbull Elevator Co.; Black - MacDonald, electrical contractors; Bennett & Wright, mechanical contractors, and Aikenhead's Hardware. Significant contributors to the church buildings were Valley City Seating Company for church furniture, and the glass studios of Robert McCausland, Luxfer Studios and Excelsior Glass.

 

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