CURTIS, Richard (1884-1975) was active in Vernon, B.C. from 1920, at first in partnership with Robert B. Bell, and later as a sole practitioner. Born in South Russia on 22 July 1884 of English parentage, he received his architectural training in Egypt where he worked under the supervision of several government architects in the national Department of Buildings. He arrived in Canada in 1908 and settled in Vernon, B.C. where he was employed as assistant in the office of Bell & Constant for several years. He was briefly in partnership with Bell in 1920-21 (see Bell & Curtis), but maintained his own office in Vernon after 1925. His name is absent from the rolls of the Architectural Inst. of British Columbia after 1944. Curtis died in North Vancouver on 30 June 1975 (D. Luxton, Building The West: The Early Architects of British Columbia, 2003, 496)
OKANAGAN LANDING, B.C., Presbyterian Church, 1911, a commission completed by Richard Curtis while employed with Bell & Constant (Vernon News, 4 May 1911, 8)
VERNON, B.C., City Memorial Cenotaph, 1930 (Vernon News, 7 Aug. 1930, 1)
VERNON, B.C., Masonic Temple, 1932 (Vernon News, 20 Oct. 1932, 1 & 7, descrip.)
VERNON, B.C., Elementary School, and Junior-Senior High School, 1937, demol. c. 1997 (C.R., vol. 50, 21 April 1937, 35; Province [Vancouver], 21 May 1937, 33)
VERNON, B.C., rebuilding of the Empress Theatre, 1938 (Canadian Moving Picture Digest, 5 Feb. 1938, 10, descrip.)
KELOWNA, B.C., movie theatre for the Kelowna Syndicate, 1939 (Vancouver Sun, 30 Jan. 1939, 8; C.R., lii, 22 March 1939, 41)
VERNON, B.C., residence for Charles D. Gaddes, Maple Street near Lake Street, 1939 (Parks Canada, Canada's Historic Places, heritage designation granted 20 March 2000)