Darling and Pearson was an

architectural Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing buildings o ...

firm based in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

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 Henry Sproatt (June 14, 1866 – October 4, 1934) was a Canadian architect who was prominent during the early 20th century. Born in Toronto, he trained in Europe and in New York City. He formed a partnership in 1890 with another celebrated arch ...

, and

John A. Pearson John Andrew Pearson (June 22, 1867 – June 11, 1940) was an early 20th-century British-born Canadian architect and partner to the Toronto-based firm of Darling and Pearson. Early life and education Pearson was born in Chesterfield, UK. His fat ...

. 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 The Canadian Bank of Commerce was a Canadian bank which was founded in 1867, and had hundreds of branches throughout Canada. It merged in 1961 with the Imperial Bank of Canada to form the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce. History In 1866 a ...

in 1898, grand

Edwardian buildings Edwardian architecture is a Neo-Baroque architectural style that was popular in the British Empire during the Edwardian era (1901–1910). Architecture up to the year 1914 may also be included in this style. Description Edwardian architecture is ...

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 George Edmund Street (20 June 1824 – 18 December 1881), also known as G. E. Street, was an English architect, born at Woodford in Essex. Stylistically, Street was a leading practitioner of the Victorian Gothic Revival. Though mainly an eccle ...

and

Sir Arthur Blomfield Sir Arthur William Blomfield (6 March 182930 October 1899) was an English architect. He became president of the Architectural Association in 1861; a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1867 and vice-president of the RIBA in ...

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 York and Sawyer was an American architectural firm active between 1898 and 1949. The firms' work is exemplary of Beaux-Arts architecture as it was practiced in the United States. The partners Edward York (July 23, 1863– December 30, 1928) and ...

of New York), and the largest single building in the British Commonwealth (the

Sun Life Building The Sun Life Building (french: Édifice Sun Life) is a historic , 24-storey office building at 1155 Metcalfe Street on Dorchester Square in the city's downtown core of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The building was completed in 1931 after three stag ...

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple- ...

, Started in 1914 and tower added by1931).

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.

Darling and Pearson

Alpha Delta Phi Alpha Delta Phi (), commonly known as Alpha Delt, ADPhi, A-Delt, or ADP, is a North American Greek-letter social college fraternity. Alpha Delta Phi was originally founded as a literary society by Samuel Eells in 1832 at Hamilton College in C ...

Toronto Chapter House, 1894. Originally known as the Ince house * Masaryk-Cowan Community Recreation Centre, 1898. Originally a curling rink * University of Toronto Faculty of Law, Flavelle House, 1901 *

Union Bank Building The Union Bank Building ( the Union Bank Tower or Former Union Bank Building and Annex), located in the Exchange District of Winnipeg, Manitoba, is the first skyscraper in Canada, once forming the northern end of Main Street's prestigious Bank ...

, 500 Main Street, Winnipeg, with the

George A. Fuller George A. Fuller (1851 – December 14, 1900) was an American architect often credited as being the "inventor" of modern skyscrapers and the modern contracting system. Early life and career Fuller was born in Templeton, Massachusetts, near Wo ...

Co., 1904 *

197 Yonge Street The historic building at 197–199 Yonge Street was formerly a four-floor Canadian Bank of Commerce building built in 1905 by architects Darling and Pearson and declared as a historical property by the City of Toronto, Ontario, Canada in 1974. Th ...

, Toronto, 1905 - renovated former banking building *

, 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 The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...

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 Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749 ...

, 1906-1908 *

Toronto General Hospital The Toronto General Hospital (TGH) is a major teaching hospital in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and the flagship campus of University Health Network (UHN). It is located in the Discovery District of Downtown Toronto along University Avenue's Hospi ...

, College Wing, now the

MaRS Discovery District MaRS Discovery District is a not-for-profit corporation founded in Toronto, Ontario, Canada in 2000. Its stated goal is to commercialize publicly funded medical research and other technologies with the help of local private enterprises and as such ...

building, 1911 * Canadian Pacific Building, Toronto, for a time the tallest building in Canada, 1913 * One King Street West, Toronto, 1914 *

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 ...

original building (west wing - Italianate-Neo-Romanesque), 1914 *

Parkwood Estate The Parkwood Estate, located in Oshawa, Ontario, was the residence of Samuel McLaughlin (founder of General Motors of Canada) and was home to the McLaughlin family from 1917 until 1972. The residence was designed by Darling and Pearson, a not ...

, 1916 * North Toronto railway station of the Canadian Pacific Railway 1916 *

Art Gallery of Ontario The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO; french: Musée des beaux-arts de l'Ontario) is an art museum in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The museum is located in the Grange Park neighbourhood of downtown Toronto, on Dundas Street West between McCaul and Bev ...

original building, 1916 *

- old

College Street wing - 101 College Street,

, 1919 *

Varsity Arena Varsity Arena, located at 299 Bloor Street West, Toronto, Ontarioretrieved from http://rrs.osm.utoronto.ca 2007-10-22 is an indoor arena that opened on December 17, 1926, and is primarily home to the ice hockey teams of the University of Toronto, ...

, Toronto, 1926 * Private Patients Pavilion (Thomas J. Bell Wing),

, 1930 * Canadian Bank of Commerce Building in

; now Commerce Court North, 1930 * Canadian General Electric Building, 212 King Street West, Toronto, 1908

Darling, Pearson and Cleveland

, 1931 * expansions to the

, 1935

Images

File:197 Yonge Street Toronto.jpg, 197 Yonge Street, Toronto File:Summerhill_Tower.JPG, Summerhill-North Toronto CPR Station, its 140-foot clock tower modelled on the Campanile di San Marco in Venice File:Convocation Hall in UofT.jpg, Convocation Hall, Toronto File:Sun-Life-Building-June-2007.jpg, Sun Life Building, Montreal File:MaRSfromCollege.jpg, Toronto General Hospital, College Wing File:Cdn Bank of Commerce Watson Saskatchewan.jpg, Canadian Bank of Commerce
Watson, Saskatchewan File:Flavellelaw.JPG, Flavelle House, home of the University of Toronto's Faculty of Law, Toronto File:Royal Ontario Museum, south facade, 1922.jpg, The 1914 Italianate-Neo-Romanesque Royal Ontario Museum original building in 1922 File:Art Gallery of Ontario 1922.jpg, AGO original wing, Toronto File:Varsity Centre.JPG, Varsity Arena roof behind Varsity Centre seating, Toronto File:Tower of Complexe Desjardins 2005-10-22.JPG, Complexe Desjardins, Montreal File:One King Street West.JPG, One King Street West, Toronto File:Parkwood Estate National Historic Site of Canada 2007.jpg,

, Oshawa File:Union Bank of Canada, Leland Hotel, Volunteer Monument and City Hall, Winnipeg, Man. ..jpg, Union Bank of Canada on the left, in

Manitoba Manitoba ( ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada at the Centre of Canada, longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's Population of Canada by province and territory, fifth-most populous province, with a population o ...

References

{{reflist

External links

Bell Wing (TGH)

emporis list of commissions
* Architecture firms of Canada Companies based in Toronto Defunct companies of Ontario