Foundations of Construction – Darling’s blend of ‘Canadian-style’ architecture

Susanna McLeod

Special to Ontario Construction News

Developing an architectural style that effused stability, authority, and creativity, Frank Darling (1850-1923) was one of Canada’s most productive designers. While he did not leave much written work, the revered architect’s more than 350 designs speak volumes about the professional’s accomplishments in Toronto and across Canada.

The son of Anglican Reverend W.S. Darling and his wife, Jane Parsons, Frank Darling was born in Scarborough Township, York County on February 17, 1850. Attending Upper Canada College and Trinity College School, young Darling chose architecture as his vocation. “When he was 16 his father arranged for him to train with the Toronto architect Henry Langley,” said Ontario Association of Architects. (OAA) Sailing for England, Darling spent three years apprenticing with Sir G.E. Street and then Sir A.W. Blomfield, immersed in Gothic Revival style.

On return, the ambitious Darling partnered in 1874 with Henry Macdougall to launch his career. Over their short time together, the architects designed churches in Toronto and Edwardsburg (Cardinal); a Toronto warehouse; a school in Lennoxville, Quebec; plus buildings for Trinity College School at Port Hope. (Macdougall died in 1877 at age 43.) Much of Darling’s and Macdougall’s designs were brick constructions, and the young man was acquiring his own particular architectural style.

In the next decade, Darling partnered with Samuel George Curry (1854-1942), and the practice evolved through several associates. “The firm that began as Darling and Curry … ended as Darling and Pearson” said OAA. (By 1895, both Curry and Henry Sproatt had left the partnership.) Curry and Darling won the provincial competition for the Gothic-designed Ontario Parliament Buildings, but delays meant that the Toronto construction was dropped. Instead, the architects’ immense talent brought new commissions in a field that became part of Darling’s enduring tradition—bank architecture.

Commissioned to design the Bank of Montreal in 1885, Darling and Curry brought cultural weight and elegance to what was then the country’s finest bank branch. Constructed in stone, the exterior featured intricate ornamentation and massive windows. The interior was enhanced by a dramatic 45-foot-high rotunda (13.7 metres) with an exquisite stained-glass dome. Contractors McCausland and Sons brought Darling’s drawings to life, creating 24 fanned panels with dragons guarding gold, edged by colourful flowers and fruit. “In the centre, eight circles bear emblems representing what were then the seven provinces and Canada,” described the building’s present inhabitant, the Hockey Hall of Fame.

The magnificent bank put Darling at the forefront of the majestic public architecture trend taking the young nation by storm in the late 1800s. Accepting commissions such as the Romanesque Revival-styled Victoria Hospital for Sick Children (1889-1892), Darling and Curry also designed the Toronto Club in Italian Renaissance style. However, bank architecture continued to inspire Darling. By 1892, the active architect partnered with John Pearson (1867-1940), and they remained a successful team for nearly three decades.

Throughout the country, Darling’s designs surfaced in bank head offices in larger towns and cities, and in smaller, local bank branches. Over one hundred bank buildings were constructed following his plans, allowing the architect to express his fine balance between British and Canadian approaches.

Darling also drew plans for “a series of pre-fabricated wooden branch banks designed for the Western provinces,” said OAA. The designer’s capability with monumental architecture spilled over into many substantial office buildings, such as Winnipeg’s Post Office (1904-1906) and Grain Exchange (1906-1907), the Canadian Pacific Building in Toronto (1911-1912), plus Sun Life Assurance’s office building in Montreal (1914-1918).

Darling’s “accomplished, thoughtful approach to design, artistic confidence, and high standard of execution won him the admiration of his peers,” wrote Kelly Crossman in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, Vol. 15, 2005. The Royal Academy of Arts made Darling a member in 1886, and he was president of the Ontario Association of Architects in 1895. Darling was a director of the Toronto Guild of Civic Art in 1907—it was a comfortable fit, with both Guild and designer desiring to beautify the city.

Wealthy Toronto residents commissioned Darling to design mansions in the early 1900s, including influential meat packer Sir Joseph Flavelle, and businessman Sir William Osler. In 1915, Darling received the Royal Institute of British Architects Gold Medal, a celebrated honour that only one other Canadian has received. (Robert S. Morris, 1958) Honorary degrees were presented to the distinguished Darling, from University of Toronto in 1916, and Dalhousie University in 1922.

Success did not spoil Darling. The architect was pleasant, “with a quiet charm and refined tastes,” according to Crossman. He was a good listener, and a man of honesty and integrity. Darling never married, but was devoted to his nephews and nieces, and cared for his mother in her last years. At age 73, Frank Darling died in Toronto on May 19, 1923.

Contributing immensely to the country’s budding identity, Darling left a legacy of architectural grandeur… Canadian-style.

Susanna McLeod is a Kingston-based writer specializing in Canadian history.

Sources:

Crossman, Kelly. “Darling, Frank,” Dictionary of Canadian Biography, Vol. 15, 2005, University of Toronto/Universite Laval. Retrieved from

“Darling, Frank,” Ontario Association of Architects. Retrieved from

“Esso Great Hall History & Architecture,” Hockey Hall of Fame. Retrieved from