Van Egmond, William Gysbert

VAN EGMOND, William Gysbert(1883-1949), son of William David and Jessie Van Egmond, was born at Egmondville near Seaforth, Ont. on 16 September 1883. He was the grandson of Col. Anthony William Van Egmond who emigrated to Pennsylvania in 1819 and was a pioneer in the development of the Canada Company’s Huron Tract in western Ontario. Although lacking a formal university education in architecture Van Egmond was a precocious and energetic student who began his architectural apprenticeship at the age of sixteen in Toronto with the firm of Gouinlock & Baker in 1899. He studied architecture through courses offered by the International Correspondence School and after working in New York City for two years he returned to Toronto in 1903 to continue his training under E. Beaumont Jarvis, with whom he remained until early 1905 when he entered the office of James A. Harvey to work as a draftsman. It was during this formative period that his skill as a delineator became evident, and many of his designs submitted in student competitions were given awards and published in the Canadian Architect & Builder. He was asked by Walter La Chance to become manager of his Regina office in early 1906, and by the end of that year he had severed his connection with that architect and formed a partnership with Edgar M. Storey of Regina (C.A.B., xx, Jan 1907, x).
The firm was remarkably prolific and successful during the next six years, producing classically inspired designs for institutional, commercial, industrial and residential buildings in many Saskatchewan towns and cities (see list of works under Storey & Van Egmond). Storey died suddenly in August 1913 and his son Stanley E. Storey, who was completing his education in Boston, returned to Regina and worked with Van Egmond until late 1914 . After serving with Canadian Forces overseas during World War I Storey entered a formal partnership with Van Egmond in 1919 which was to continue until 1949.
Van Egmond was one of the founding members of the Regina Association of Architects in 1908 and the Saskatchewan Association of Architects in 1912. He served as President of the latter from 1913 to 1916 and was reelected to that post in 1922. The Royal Architectural Institute of Canada nominated him as a Fellow in 1930, and he remained active in the profession until his death near Regina on October 9, 1949. A lengthy illustrated essay by him on the ‘Public Buildings of Regina’ appeared in Construction, viii, Jan 1915, 13-22. His portrait can be found in the Photographic Collection of the Saskatchewan Archives Board, Regina, RA-3573a, and an extensive collection of architectural drawings from the office of Storey & Van Egmond covering the period from 1907 to 1949 has been donated to the Regina office of the Saskatchewan Archives Board by Alan Vanstone, Architect.
(obituary in the Regina Leader-Post, 11 Oct. 1949, 1, 5; R.A.I.C. Journal, xxvi, Nov. 1949, 39; biography in Who’s Who in Western Canada, 1911, 369; biography, portrait and list of works in Who’s Who in Canada, 1923-24, 130; J. Hawkes, The Story of Saskatchewan and Its People, 1924, iii, 1795-96; Early Domestic Architecture in Regina, 1982, 35).

COMPETITIONS

‘Public Library in a Small Town’, Honourable Mention, 1904 (C.A.B., xvii, Feb. 1904, 26)

‘Design for a Farm House’, c. 1904, a design prepared while working in the office of E.B. Jarvis, Toronto (Early Domestic Architecture in Regina, 1982, 51, illus.)

‘A House in a Country Town’, 1905, First Prize (C.A.B., xviii, Feb. 1905, 23, illus. & descrip.)

‘A Six Roomed Cottage’, 1906, Second Prize (C.A.B., xix, March 1906, 36, illus. & descrip.)

‘A Village Cross’ (a civic monument), 1906, First Mention (C.A.B., xix, March 1906, 37, illus. & descrip.)