ABSTRACT
Robert Findlay and the Macaulay Family
Architecture
Hazel Power
1993
The thesis discusses the key factors sustaining the
success and longevity of a specific example of architectural patronage in Montreal at the
turn of the century, a period during which, one of the pleasures and opportunities
afforded by affluence was to build. Two generations of the Macaulay family, Robertson
(1833-1915) and his son, Thomas Bassett (1860-1942), second and third Presidents of Sun
Life Assurance Company of Canada, had embraced the idea with enthusiasm. Under their
patronage, the apprentice trained Scottish-born architect, Robert Findlay (1859-1951)
designed a series of prestigious buildings for the family, several of which survive to the
present. Of the commissions, the styles of the new head office building (1891) on Nôtre
Dame Street, the Calvary Congregational Church (1911 (Greene and Dorchester, now
demolished) and the several domestic commissions in Westmount designed between 1891 and
1914, looked to the past and to European precedent for inspiration. Robert Findlay's
interpretation of the mid-century Domestic Revival style promoted by the English
architect, R. Norman Shaw and his followers exactly suited the Macaulay's preference for
moderation in their commercial and domestic architectural undertakings.
Findlay became the family's architect of choice after
winning the design competition for the Nôtre Dame Street head office for Sun Life in
1889. It was an association that spanned three decades. His modern steel-framed building
conceived in the Tudor Gothic style was the neophyte architect's first major architectural
project and established his reputation in the city. A maturing style, characterised by the
practical and personalised synthesis of revivalist form, attention to detail and standards
of excellence made Robert Findlay's practice one of the most respected in Montreal.
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