Detroit Museum of Art, Detroit Photographic Company (0435)

James Balfour (1854–1917) was a Canadian

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

. Son of Peter Balfour, Hamilton

alderman An alderman is a member of a Municipal government, municipal assembly or council in many Jurisdiction, jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council membe ...

and

carpenter Carpentry is a skilled trade and a craft in which the primary work performed is the cutting, shaping and installation of building materials during the construction of buildings, Shipbuilding, ships, timber bridges, concrete formwork, etc. ...

. Educated in Hamilton. Studied architecture with the famous firm of ''Peddie and Kniver'' in

Edinburgh, Scotland Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

. Before returning to Hamilton he worked in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

for several years. First professional mention of Balfour in Hamilton is in the 1876-7

city directory A city directory is a listing of residents, streets, businesses, organizations or institutions, giving their location in a city. It may be arranged alphabetically or geographically or in other ways. Antedating telephone directories, they were i ...

. The house still standing at 250 James Street South was one of his early designs. His larger buildings were of the

Romanesque style Romanesque architecture is an architectural style of medieval Europe characterized by semi-circular arches. There is no consensus for the beginning date of the Romanesque style, with proposals ranging from the 6th to the 11th century, this later ...

, revived around 1870 by

Henry Hobson Richardson Henry Hobson Richardson, FAIA (September 29, 1838 – April 27, 1886) was an American architect, best known for his work in a style that became known as Richardsonian Romanesque. Along with Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright, Richardson is one ...

of the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. Tuckett Mansion, on corner of King & Queen, now forms a portion of the complex known as the Scottish Rite. Completed in 1896 for George Elias Tuckett, founder of Tuckett Tobacco and the 27th mayor of Hamilton, City Hall on corner of James &

York Boulevard York Boulevard is a Lower City arterial road in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Formerly known as Highway 2 and Highway 6, it starts in Burlington, Ontario at Plains Road West as a two-way arterial road that wraps around and over Hamilton Harbour, ...

(1888, demolished), both in

Hamilton, Ontario Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Hamilton has a population of 569,353, and its census metropolitan area, which includes Burlington and Grimsby, has a population of 785,184. The city is approximately southwest of T ...

. Balfour was also successful outside of Hamilton. In 1878-1882 designed and oversaw construction of an all-girl school,

Alma College (St. Thomas, Ontario) Alma College was a girls' private school in St. Thomas, Ontario in Canada. Built in 1878, the school was in operation between 1881 and 1988. The college closed in 1988 in part due to a teacher's strike. Primary school and music classes were sti ...

(1878–81) and the additions (1888–89), which were destroyed by a fire on May 28, 2008. In March 1887 he won the design competition for the Detroit Museum of Art. His entry was entitled "Wisdom, Strength, and Beauty", a Romanesque style structure that was dedicated September 1, 1888.''.''

References

* MapArt

Golden Horseshoe The Golden Horseshoe is a secondary region of Southern Ontario, Canada, which lies at the western end of Lake Ontario, with outer boundaries stretching south to Lake Erie and north to Lake Scugog, Lake Simcoe and Georgian Bay of Lake Huron. The r ...

Atlas - Page 657 - Grids A12 2. Jean Rosenfeld. ''James Balfour a Victorian architect from Hamilton, Canada.'' Thesis(M.A.)--York University, 1991. , 3. Heritage Matters. Ontario Heritage Foundation. Volume 6 Issue 3 200

{{DEFAULTSORT:Balfour, James 1854 births 1917 deaths Artists from Hamilton, Ontario Canadian architects Canadian people of Scottish descent People associated with the Detroit Institute of Arts Members of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts