John W. Bowser (1892–1956) was a Canadian construction engineer, most notably the project construction superintendent for the

Empire State Building The Empire State Building is a 102-story Art Deco skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The building was designed by Shreve, Lamb & Harmon and built from 1930 to 1931. Its name is derived from "Empire State", the nickname of the st ...

. Bowser was born in

Whitchurch township Whitchurch-Stouffville ( 2021 population 49,864) is a town in the Greater Toronto Area of Ontario, Canada, approximately north of downtown Toronto, and north-east of Toronto Pearson International Airport. It is in area, and located in the m ...

, Ontario, Canada, present-day Aurora in 1892. He left home at age 11, returning to the Toronto area at age 15, then working on several construction jobs including a tunnel to connect

Eaton's The T. Eaton Company Limited, later known as Eaton's, was a Canadian department store chain that was once the largest in the country. It was founded in 1869 in Toronto by Timothy Eaton, an immigrant from what is now Northern Ireland. Eaton's grew ...

store with the Annex, the

Royal Ontario Museum The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) is a museum of art, world culture and natural history in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is one of the largest museums in North America and the largest in Canada. It attracts more than one million visitors every year ...

, and the Bank of Toronto building. Hired by an American firm, he was sent to Tokyo. Later, he was responsible for the demolition of old Madison Square Gardens, and the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Bowser returned to Canada after completing the Empire State Building ahead of schedule, thereafter remaining active in construction, and overseeing ship building during World War II. The construction of Eaton Hall, today part of Seneca College was one project. He also built much of the Canadian Army camp in Newmarket during World War II. The camp was pulled down at war's end but the PMQs (married quarters), drill hall and the officers mess still stand. The PMQs are private homes on Arthur St. and surrounding streets, the drill hall is the Newmarket Curling Club and the officers mess is the Royal Canadian Legion on Srigley St. 'Jack' had a construction company in Aurora called ABC, Aurora Building Corp. which he ran until his death in 1956. Buried in Aurora, Ontario his grave notably has a replica of the Empire State Building as a marker. John Bowser Crescent in Newmarket, Ontario is named for him.

References

External links

Eaton Hall

Google map

Google Books extract, Toronto Sketches: The Way We Were
By

Mike Filey Mike Filey (October 11, 1941 – July 30, 2022) was a Canadian historian, radio host, journalist and author. He was awarded the Jean Hibbert Memorial Award in 2009 for promoting the city of Toronto and its history. Early life Born in 1941 in ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bowser, John W. 1892 births 1956 deaths People from Whitchurch-Stouffville People from Aurora, Ontario