was to be one of the last buildings E.J. worked on.
In 1977 Edith May “Maisie” Eckardt, Lennox’s youngest daughter, spoke with Colin Vaughan for an article about Lenwil and her father;8 she was eighty-five at the time. She talked about how exciting it was to move from Sherbourne Street to Lenwil: “There was no other house in Canada like it.” When the Lennoxes moved to their grand house on the brow of Wells Hill, Maisie was the only one of the children still home, but by 1916 she was married and gone. Edith May remembered her father and mother’s delight in their home and how, as her father grew older, he would walk about the grounds of Lenwil with a parrot on his shoulder.9
The picture his daughter Edith May painted of him is rather romantic: a remote figure walking lonely on the brow of Wells Hill – the artist contemplating his life. Lennox was not the contemplative sort. He was action oriented and demanding, and he expected his children to do his bidding. Edgar Edward, interviewed in 1966, recalled that his father “was not what you might call a heart-to-heart man, but he was a good man who believed in the virtues of honesty and integrity, and practised them.”10 His grandchildren do not remember him very well. They have sharper memories of their grandmother. Peter Eckardt, Edith May’s son, has fond recollections of outings in his grandparents’ chauffeured car, a “1928 Pierce Arrow, 7 passenger Sedan,” and remembers his grandmother as a strong woman who made certain that his grandfather was left alone so that he could tend to matters of architecture and business.11
Lennox pursued his career vigorously and as early as 1885 he had one of the largest architectural practices of its kind in Canada. What Lennox lacked in eduction, he more than made up for in shrewdness and salesmanship. An able promoter, E.J. was receptive to the press and was most accommodating when it came to having his photo taken (Illus. 4). He was also politically astute. His active membership in such notable organizations as the Masons, the Board of Trade, and Cameron Loyal Orange Lodge was to prove mutually beneficial.12
His professional success was such that in 1901 he was able to purchase a building on Bay Street to house his firm (Illus. 133). Lennox’s career continued to flourish until 1915, when for some as yet undiscovered reason, he turned away from his practice. By 1917, the firm of E.J. Lennox, Architect was officially closed.13 Though no longer practising, Lennox continued to consider himself an architect first and foremost. And when legislation was passed in 1931 to provide architects with certification, Lennox applied for and became an accredited architect. The date was 29 September of that same year. At the time, Lennox was seventy-seven years old; his application lists no date of birth and his handwriting was not steady.
E.J. Lennox died on 15 April 1933. His passing was noted in many newspapers (Illus. 3), including the New York Times, as well as important architectural journals. His contributions to the City of Toronto, and to his profession, were praised and remembered. In his obituary in the Telegram, M. Forsey Page, president of the Ontario Architectural Association, commended Lennox not only for his buildings and his knowledge of modern architectural technologies but also for his willingness to share this knowledge with younger architects.14 His funeral took place in one of his last great works, St. Paul’s Anglican Church on Bloor Street East. E.J.’s good friend of more than forty years, Canon Henry John Cody, rector of St. Paul’s, officiated.
E.J. Lennox was an impressive talent who was arrogant, combative, and fearless when it came to speaking his mind. Despite his eccentricities, he was commissioned to design many of Toronto’s more notable structures and ultimately became known as the “builder of Toronto.” Lennox believed that he was destined to be a great architect. The quantity and quality of his work speak to that conviction.
Illus. 1: Ontario Bank, northeast corner of Wellington and Scott streets, 1862, William Irving and Joseph Sheard (demolished).
Metropolitan Toronto Reference Library
Illus. 2: Ontario Bank. Detail.
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Illus. 3: Lennox’s obituary in the Toronto Star, 17 April 1933.
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Illus. 4: E.J. in 1892 in front of one of his more important works, the Freehold Loan Building, Adelaide Street East, 1889.
Metropolitan Toronto Reference Library
1 Early Practice
OCCIDENT HALL
The first known record of E.J. Lennox as a practising architect is an advertisement in the Globe, 15 May 1876 (Illus. 5). At that time he was in partnership with a William Frederick McCaw, and their firm asked for contractors to bid on the erection of Occident Hall, at the southeast corner of Queen and Bathurst streets.1 McCaw & Lennox developed a successful practice, though they faced stiff competition from a growing number of architectural firms practising in Toronto.2 The number of advertisements for contracting bids in the Globe and Toronto Telegram between 1876 and 1881 confirms that McCaw & Lennox were popular and sought after.3 Their commissions ranged from large churches to school houses in Stratford and Owen Sound; from “commodious” brick villas to commercial properties; from a “first class” hotel on the Island, Toronto Bay, to a summer cottage and the design and construction of 2,000 lineal feet of esplanade and terracing at the lakefront in Parkdale. Only a few of the buildings McCaw & Lennox contracted for have been documented. Occident Hall was a major commission and no mean building in its time. C.P. Mulvany, in his Toronto, Past and Present until 1882 (published 1884), praised the building as handsome and “unique in its design and furniture.”4 Completed in 1878 (Illus. 6), Occident Hall was a tentative exercise in Second Empire style. The original roof is gone and the building, now called the Big Bop, no longer witnesses the secret meetings of Masons; it now vibrates to the sound of hard rock music.
While building Occident Hall, McCaw & Lennox entered a competition for the laying out and beautifying of “the City Parks, viz, the Queen’s Park, High Park, and the Eastern Park,” which offered $300 to the winners.5 Their proposal to the Public Walks and Gardens Committee, dated 17 May 1876, was highly detailed, including a grand promenade, ornamental lamps, a large oval-shaped pond, rockeries, and a great deal more. By 19 June 1876 the committee had chosen the winning plans: “For the Queen’s Park: – 1st Prize Plan, bearing the motto ‘Manu Forti,’ by Messrs. McCaw & Lennox, Toronto.”6 Despite the judges’ glowing tributes to their design, the city did not go ahead with the Queens Park beautiflcation program, and months later McCaw and Lennox had to chase City Hall for their $300 prize.7
BOND STREET CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH
The original Bond Street Congregational Church burned to the ground in 1878, and McCaw & Lennox were called on to design a new building.8 They designed a large, “modern” Gothic building that was 24 metres (80 feet) wide and 27 metres (90 feet) deep and could accommodate some fourteen hundred worshippers (Illus. 7). Its main tower on the southwest corner was about 40 metres (130 feet) high (about thirteen storeys), while the tower to the north side was 20 metres (65 feet) high, exactly half the height of the main tower. The roof of the church was octagonal in shape, and was topped by a similarly shaped ornate monitor (Illus. 8) to allow for ventilation.
