BIRD, Sherman Godfrey (1837-1873), father of Eustace G. Bird, was born on 29 November 1837 at Great Wigborough, Essex, England. Educated at Winchester, he entered the British Army in 1856 to train with the Royal Engineers at Woolwich before departing for China in 1859 to serve with British forces during the occupation of Peking. He married Amy Laura Amoi, a Chinese woman, in 1861, and moved to Hong Kong to work in the Surveyor General's office of H.M. Public Works Dept until 1867 when his poor health necessitated his return to England. Emigrating to Canada in May 1869, he settled at Barrie, Ont. where he worked as an architect and surveyor. In 1870 he prepared a commendable Gothic design for St Mary's Roman Catholic Church, Mulcaster Street which he described as being '..built in the decorative style of English architecture of the thirteenth century'. He is almost certainly the designer of his own residence 'San Souci', Peel Street, built 1871, a villa with distinctive Chinese decorative patterns and motifs. Bird died suddenly in Barrie from pneumonia on 27 January 1873 at the age of 34 years, leaving an estate of $3650 to his family, and was buried at the Anglican Cemetery there (obituary in the Northern Advance [Barrie] 30 Jan. 1873, 2; biography and port. in Ontario Land Surveyors Annual Reports, 1929, 110-11; OA, Wills for Simcoe Co., No. 763)
(works in Barrie, Ontario)
ST. MARY'S ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH, Mulcaster Street, 1870-72; demol. 1971 (Northern Advance [Barrie], 19 Dec. 1872, 2, descrip.)
TRINITY ANGLICAN CHURCH, Collier Street, a Sunday School for the church, 1870 (History of Trinity Church, Barrie, 1835-1935)
(attributed) PEEL STREET, 'San Souci', a residence for Sherman G. Bird architect, 1871 (inf. from Ms. Amoi Bird, Toronto)
CENTRAL PUBLIC SCHOOL, Collier Street at Owen Street, 1871, a modification of the plans prepared in 1862 by William T. Thomas of Montreal (Northern Advance [Barrie], 19 Jan. 1871, 2; Mail [Toronto], 2 May 1872, 1, descrip.; Journal of Education for Ontario, xxv, April 1872, 52-3, descrip.)
OWEN STREET, a three storey commercial block for William D. Ardagh, 1872 (Northern Advance [Barrie], 28 March 1872, 2, t.c.)