George Browne Jr

George Browne Jr, architect (b at Montréal, Canada East 1852 or 1853; d at South Nyack, NY 12 Mar 1919). After study with his father, a prominent Montréal architect, Browne travelled in Europe and went to South Kensington School of Art, London. He returned to Montréal in 1877 and in 1879 went to Manitoba where he attempted to be a gentleman farmer near Holland. Soon however he was back in the practice of architecture in Winnipeg.

His design of the Massey Block (1885) in Winnipeg for the implement company of that name established a unique Manitoba style of commercial buildings by its use of local materials (sand-coloured brick and Tyndall limestone) and a primitive Romanesque classical style. He also designed (with S.F. Peters) Wesley College (University of Winnipeg) in 1895, the finest Richardsonian Romanesque building extant in Winnipeg. His last great work was the Strathcona Block (1901, destroyed 1974), another innovative building that was for years a prestige apartment address. Browne left for New York City in 1910.