busy practice. The second is that he was not afraid of the threat of increasing wage demands and/or labour reprisal.
Two of Lennox’s commissions highlighted in the article were offices for the Massey Manufacturing Company as well as a residence and coach-house on Jarvis Street for Charles H. Massey. Lennox started the office structure in 1883, and by 1885 the building was completed (Illus. 17).28 A foursquare, red-brick building, very much in keeping with Queen Anne Revival style. It boasted bay windows, dormers, and a wonderful belvedere. Charles died in 1884 and did not live to see it completed. Nor did he live to see the completion of his house at 519 Jarvis Street.
The gabled, red-brick Queen Anne Revival—style house on Jarvis Street stayed in the family (it was bought by Charles’s brother, H.A. Massey, for his son, Chester Daniel Massey)29 and is still standing. It has suffered from inept and unsympathetic additions, but Lennox’s signature use of intricate brickwork and terracotta is still evident on the west elevation. A curved, leaded-glass stair-hall window, original to the house and exceptional in its execution, remains undamaged (Illus. 18). As with most of Lennox’s residential designs, the main staircase starts at the south, rises to a landing, and is lit by an intricate window placed to receive light from the north.
LAILEY RESIDENCE AND 664–682 YONGE STREET
Lennox was also working on 280 Bloor Street West for William Lailey (Illus. 19).30 His interpretation of the Queen Anne style was changing, and the structure was not as appealing as the Massey residence. The combination of a number of elements combined to create a less than coherent design. Corbelling like that featured in the turret of the Bloor Street Baptist Church bell tower was used here as a support for a window on the west side of the house. A polygonal tower with shingles, terracotta panelling, and sharply pointed roof completed the east side of the façade. Above the oriels and breaking the roof line was a balcony, resting on prominent brackets, the whole being surmounted by a weighty projecting gable. Another of his 1883 designs, the Scottish Ontario & Manitoba Land Company, at 664–682 Yonge Street,31 shows that Lennox had not abandoned the Second Empire style (Illus. 20 and 21). This row of stores is much more forceful in appearance than any of its immediate neighbours.
THE MANNING ARCADE
By 1884 Alexander Manning, a Toronto real estate baron, had become one of Lennox’s clients. For a number of years, Lennox had been one of Manning’s tenants. In 1881, after having set up his practice, he had moved his offices to the Manning Block; now he became Manning’s architect, and the first structure designed by Lennox for his new client was suitably called the “Manning Arcade”32 (Illus. 22). Without question, it was inspired by another property owned by Manning, the Grand Opera House, 1879 (architect unknown; Illus. 23). The Arcade entrance was heavily ornamented, with caryatids holding up a pediment that announced the name of the building and an Atlas-like figure carrying an ornate balcony on his shoulders. Above the entrance, a deep recess was filled by a two-tiered oriel. The building sported all manner of decoration. Though an exercise in ostentation, it was regarded as a handsome and imposing structure in its time. Mayor of Toronto in 1885 and an important ratepayer,33 Manning was to prove an important client and friend to Lennox, especially with regard to the competition for and the building of Toronto’s municipal and county buildings.
VICTORIA HALL
From the ornate to the subtle: Lennox’s next known building was the Victoria Hall on Queen Street East, for the Orange Association (Illus. 24).34 When Eric Arthur, in his 1964 edition of Toronto: No Mean City, wrote, “We are only beginning to appreciate Lennox as an architect,”35 it was this building that prompted the observation. Arthur admired the hall for its “charm” and its wonderful brickwork. In this work, Lennox managed to tie the elements together in a very neat package. The building was thought of as a piece of sculpture, with brickwork creating light and shade. Elegance and distinction were created by the crisp design of arcading and drop pilaster-strips.
THE BEATTY BUILDING
An office building constructed for William Henry Beatty circa 1885—86 was completely unlike the Victoria Hall.36 Lennox looked to Europe for inspiration in creating the design for this rather small building at 3 King Street West (Illus. 25). He had many folio volumes on architecture, modern and old, publications from both sides of the Atlantic, to draw on for this exercise. It resembles the Manning Arcade in its excess if not in specific detail. Nearly every surface of the facade was embellished. If nothing else it was a conspicuous testimonial to the wealth of its owner, Beatty, whose bust surveyed the street from the apex of the building.
Three levels of pilasters defined the horizontal limits of the façade; each level was treated differently. The first set of pilasters was stylized and geometric. The second set was rusticated, fluted and topped by Ionic capitals. The third set was flat, but shouldered caryatids which in turn carried a heavy attic storey. Beatty’s building was very much in keeping with contemporary European commercial buildings. By the time the Beatty Building was finished, Lennox was already at work competing for one of his most important commissions, and one of his most admired buildings, Toronto’s “Old City Hall.”
Illus. 5: Advertisement in the ‘Tenders Wanted” column, the Globe, 15 May 1876, for the Masonic building, Occident Hall.
Metropolitan Toronto Reference Library
Illus. 6: Occident Hall, 175 Bathurst Street, southeast corner of Queen and Bathurst streets, 1876, McCaw & Lennox.
City of Toronto Archives
Illus. 7: Bond Street Congregational Church, northeast corner of Bond and Dundas streets, 1878, McCaw & Lennox (demolished).
Metropolitan Toronto Reference Library
Illus. 8: Bond Street Congregational Church. Monitor.
Toronto Historical Board
Illus. 9: Bond Street Congregational Church. Interior.
City of Toronto Archives
Illus. 10: Erskine Presbyterian Church, Simcoe Street, 1878, McCaw & Lennox (demolished).
City of Toronto Archives
Illus. 11: Sketch of Hotel Hanlan, 1879, McCaw & Lennox (demolished), from C.P. Mulvany’s Toronto Past and Present until 1882.
Illus. 12: Hotel Hanlan, Toronto Island, 1879, as it looked in the 1890s.
City of Toronto Archives
Illus. 13: The first known record — advertisement in the “Tenders Wanted” column of the Globe, 12 November 1881 – showing that the firm of McCaw & Lennox had dissolved and E.J. Lennox was practising
