THE SIXTH DECADE (1941 - 1950)

Cosburn Avenue United    Church (1941)    Kingsway Lampton United    (1948)    Leaside United (1941)    Islington United (1947)    Kingsway Baptist (1948)    St. Augustine of Canterbury    Anglican (1950)    Armour Heights United    (1950)

Just as the practice was beginning to regain momentum after the depression World War II broke out and church building was sacrificed as scarce building materials were redirected to structures related to the war effort. These shortages gave birth to a special phenomenon, the church basement, as a temporary worship space. This arrangement provided that the church structure be designed and then only the basements and the entrance porches were built. Worship and all other activities were carried on in this space until the end of the war when the main floor was added. Some projects where this practice had been followed were the Church of Christ, Cosburn Avenue United Church, Weston Baptist Church, Royal York Road and Forest Hill United Churches and St. Olave Anglican Church. As the church projects were becoming larger and more complex, the buildings were more likely to be built in several stages. So we have building programmes like St. Olave (1936-48-52-63), Kingsway Lampton United (1936-48-54) and Leaside United (1941-50-56-66-90). The close of the war brought an explosion of church building as Toronto's suburbs pushed outward. Churches delayed during the war were completed and new communities restarted the cycle. Bruce Brown was now practising alone as his father, J. Francis Brown, had passed away in 1942. Swamped with work and needing help, he turned to E.F. Ross Brisley, a colleague who had worked in the firm in the late 1920's and early 1930's but had since moved to New Liskard where he had worked with Hill Clark Francis, the large Northern Ontario contractor. Ross agreed to return to Toronto to join Bruce in a partnership known as Bruce Brown & Brisley Architects. The practice flourished and the boom that started at the close of the war was to continue through the fifties. Work undertaken in the late 1940's included Haldimand County Hospital, Kirkland Lake High School; and A.E. Long Co. Factory, in East York In the church field projects included Islington United, Kingsway Baptist, St. Augustine of Canterbury Anglican, and Armour Heights United, all in Toronto, and Olivet United in Hamilton.

 

THE SEVENTH DECADE (1951 - 1960)

Calvary Baptist (1952)    Humbercrest United (1950)    Marshall Memorial United,    Ancaster (1956)    Trinity United, Grimsby    (1958)    First Baptist Church,    Oshawa (1957)    Newtonbrook United Church,    Toronto (1958)    St. Stephen's Anglican    Church, Hamilton (1957)    First Baptist, Niagara Falls    (1955)    McMaster Divinity College   and Chapel (1958)

The busy years of the early 1950's brought into the firm young architects trained at a different time and anxious to bring a more contemporary design influence to the firm. Although the Gothic Revival buildings continued to be built well into the fifties, this was more likely to be occasioned by the fact that they had been started in the thirties or forties and their design characteristics had been set at an earlier time. However, we do see some changes. St. Augustine of Canterbury on Bayview Avenue, while retaining the rubble stone walls and cut stone trim of its Gothic Revival predecessors, is free of the Gothic windows and tracery of earlier examples. One of the first churches of contemporary design was First Baptist Church in Lethbridge, Alberta. Designed in 1953, it displays, simplicity of detail, avoiding earlier eclectic characteristics. While the churches designed in this period were quite free of traditional detail, the plan arrangements remained traditional and displayed characteristically a linear narrow nave and deep chancel, usually with a divided choir. Traditional buildings of the early fifties included additions to All Saints (Kingsway) and Islington United in Etobicoke and St. Timothy Anglican in Toronto. New church buildings were designed for Calvary Baptist, Main St. and Humbercrest United in Etobicoke. In addition there was the colonial design of First United Church in Campbellton, New Brunswick, this style being much favoured on the east coast. More contemporary designs of this period included, in addition to First Baptist in Lethbridge, Marshall Memorial United Church in Ancaster; St. Hilary Anglican Church (Dixie), Mississauga; Trinity United Church, Grimsby; First Baptist Church, Oshawa; Newtonbrook United Church on Cummer Avenue, Toronto; St. Stephen's On-the-Mount Anglican Church, Hamilton; and First Baptist Church, Niagara Falls. In the mid-1950's, the sculptor William McElcheran joined the firm as Liturgical Designer. As an artist of remarkable inventiveness, his influence bears heavily on the work of this period in both the building and furniture design. McElcheran's influence continued into the early sixties when he left the -firm to devote himself full-time to sculpture. In addition to the many churches, McElcheran's influence was quite evident in the McMaster Divinity College and Chapel (1958). His work there is generally highly regarded and may have been instrumental in bringing the firm work at Mount Allison University in the sixties. The 1950's also brought the third generation of Browns into the firm. While Douglas was a student at this time and was not officially a partner until 1962, he maintained a "board" at the office through this period, and was exposed to and participated in some degree in the exciting period of growth and change.

 

BACK  NEXT