Keywords Architects Born in 1854

In 1886 Lennox won the competition to build what is now known as Toronto's Old City Hall (1887-99). To satisfy the City Building Committee that "their" building would be as good as if not better than its American counterparts, Lennox travelled to a number of principal cities in the eastern United States. He did not refer in name to H.H. Richardson's (1838-86) Allegheny County Courthouse in Pittsburgh, Penn (1884-88), but indicated that Pittsburgh was the only city that had a building somewhat similar in appointments to his. Old City Hall, clearly Richardsonian Romanesque, took more than 11 years to complete and resulted in not one but two legal disputes.

By the early 1900s Lennox's flamboyance and able self-promotion was at its zenith. He managed to capture the imagination of such venture capitalists as George Gooderham and Sir Henry PELLATT. For Gooderham and confederates, Lennox modified and augmented the design for the King Edward Hotel (1900-02), originally prepared by prominent Chicago architect Henry Ives Cobb (1859-1931). For Pellatt, Lennox designed the Neo-Renaissance Powerhouse, Niagara Falls (1904-12), and the well-known and much-visited Casa Loma (1909-13). Both are characteristic of Lennox's free-wheeling approach to architecture.

Of the 40 or so known works by Lennox that have not been mentioned, the following extant examples should be noted: the Massey Manufacturing Company Office Building, 710 King Street West. (1883); 37 Madison Avenue (1886); the Milburn Building, 47-55 Colborne Street (1886); The Toronto Athletic Club, 147 College Street (1890); Massey Mausoleum, Mount Pleasant Cemetery (1892); Bank of Toronto, 205 Yonge Street (1905); the west wing of Ontario's Legislative Building, Queen's Park (1909); St. Paul's Anglican Church, Bloor Street East (1909-13); Excelsior Life Insurance Company, 36 Toronto Street (1914); and Lenwil, residence of E.J. Lennox, 5 Austin Terrace (1913).

Toronto City Hall (Old)
Old Toronto City Hall, 1917 (courtesy City of Toronto Archives/DPW 55-96)

Ontario Legislature
Ontario legislative buildings, Toronto, are a prime example of the Romanesque Revival style of the 1890s (courtesy Environment Canada, Parks/Heritage Recording Services).

Author MARILYN M. LITVAK

Suggested Reading
Marilyn Litvak, Edward James Lennox: Builder of Toronto (1995).

Links to Other Sites
Old City Hall
Take a virtual tour of Toronto’s historic Old City Hall. A City of Toronto website.