Darling and Pearson was an architectural firm based in Toronto 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, and John A. Pearson. 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 in 1898, grand Edwardian buildings 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 and Sir Arthur Blomfield 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 of New York), and the largest single building in the British Commonwealth (the Sun Life Building, Montreal, 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 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, 500 Main Street, Winnipeg, with the George A. Fuller Co., 1904
- 197 Yonge Street, Toronto, 1905 - renovated former banking building
- Canadian Bank of Commerce, 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 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, 1906-1908
- Toronto General Hospital, College Wing, now the MaRS Discovery District building, 1911
- Canadian Pacific Building, Toronto, for a time the tallest building in Canada, 1913
- One King Street West, Toronto, 1914
- Royal Ontario Museum original building (west wing - Italianate-Neo-Romanesque), 1914
- Parkwood Estate, 1916
- North Toronto railway station of the Canadian Pacific Railway 1916
- Art Gallery of Ontario original building, 1916
- MaRS Discovery District - old Toronto General Hospital College Street wing - 101 College Street, Toronto, 1919
- Varsity Arena, Toronto, 1926
- Private Patients Pavilion (Thomas J. Bell Wing), Toronto General Hospital, 1930
- Canadian Bank of Commerce Building in Toronto; now Commerce Court North, 1930
- Canadian General Electric Building, 212 King Street West, Toronto, 1908
Darling, Pearson and Cleveland
- Sun Life Building, Montreal, 1931
- expansions to the Art Gallery of Ontario, 1935
Images
197 Yonge Street, Toronto
Summerhill-North Toronto CPR Station, its 140-foot clock tower modelled on the Campanile di San Marco in Venice
Convocation Hall, Toronto
Sun Life Building, Montreal
Toronto General Hospital, College Wing
Canadian Bank of Commerce
Watson, Saskatchewan
Flavelle House, home of the University of Toronto's Faculty of Law, Toronto
The 1914 Italianate-Neo-Romanesque Royal Ontario Museum original building in 1922
AGO original wing, Toronto
Varsity Arena roof behind Varsity Centre seating, Toronto
Complexe Desjardins, Montreal
One King Street West, Toronto
Parkwood Estate, Oshawa
