O'LEARY, Frederick James (1887-1959), son of John P. O'Leary, a prominent builder and superintendent of hotel construction in Western Canada for the Canadian Pacific Railway, was born in San Antonio, Texas on 17 September 1887 and educated in Montreal. He attended Cote des Neiges Commercial Academy, St. Laurent College, the Mount St. Louis Military Academy, and graduated from McGill University in 1911 with a degree in Applied Engineering. Between 1903 and 1910 he obtained practical experience during the summer periods by working as an axeman, topographical engineer and trail superintendent for the C.P.R. and then joined his father's company, the Standard Construction Co., in Saskatoon. It was there that O'Leary gained considerable knowledge of architecture and construction by overseeing several buildings designed by Brown & Vallance then underway in that city. In 1911 he opened his own office as consulting engineer and architect in August 1912; his assistants included the talented French designer Emile Delay, and Henri Koch, a graduate of Heidelberg University in Germany (Saskatoon Daily Star, 24 Aug. 1912, 3). In 1913 he formed a full partnership with Emile Delay. At the outbreak of WW1 O'Leary went overseas to serve with Canadian Forces and returned to Regina in 1919 to find very little construction activity in the city. .
He moved to Coral Gables, Florida and started a real estate development company called the F.J. O'Leary Realty Corporation [Miami Herald, 20 June 1926, 10). By 1927 he had returned to Saskatchewan, this time settling in Regina where he formed a partnership in 1929 with James Puntin and Charles Coxall (see list of works under Puntin, O'Leary & Coxall). He left Regina in late 1931 then moved to California but it is uncertain if he continued to practise there. He died in Detroit, Mich. on 7 June 1959 and was buried at Woodstock, Ont. (death notice in the Gazette [Montreal], 8 June 1959, 41; biography and port. in The Saturday Press [Saskatoon], Development Supplement, 1912, 21; biographies in Who's Who & Why in Canada, 1913, 629; E.J. Gilbert, Up the Years with the Saskatchewan Assoc. of Architects, c. 1969, 12; B. Silversides, 'Saskatoon Architects 1905-1920' in Saskatoon History, No. 3, 1985, 30-1). A detailed biography and photographic portrait of O'Leary was published in the Saskatoon Daily Star, 7 December 1916, 3.
F.J. O'LEARY (works in Saskatoon unless noted)
BOGGS BUILDING, also called Saskatchewan Investment & Trust Co., 2nd Avenue North near 23rd Street, for N. Gardner Boggs, c. 1911 (list of works in Saturday Press [Saskatoon], Development Supplement, 1912, 21; C.R., xxv, 11 Oct. 1911, 58)
COBBOLD BLOCK, 2nd Avenue South, addition, c. 1911 (list of works in Saturday Press [Saskatoon], Development Supplement, 1912, 21)
PHOENIX PUB. CO., 2nd Avenue North at 22nd Street, addition, c. 1911 (list of works in Saturday Press [Saskatoon], Development Supplement, 1912, 21)
HOESCHEN-WENTZLER BREWING CO., Saskatchewan Crescent at 8th Street East, an apartment house for the brewery, c. 1911 (list of works in Saturday Press [Saskatoon], Development Supplement, 1912, 21)
SASKATCHEWAN CRESCENT EAST, 'Idylwyld', a residence for Frederick Wentzler, 1912 (Saskatoon Daily Star, 23 May 1912, 3, descrip.; list of works in Saturday Press [Saskatoon], Development Supplement, 1912, 21)
PRINCE ALBERT, SASK., Davis Block, 10th Street East near 2nd Avenue, for R.W. Davis, c. 1911 (list of works in Saturday Press [Saskatoon], Development Supplement, 1912, 21)
QUEEN STREET, at Spadina Crescent, residence for N. Gardner Boggs, c. 1911 (list of works in Saturday Press [Saskatoon], Development Supplement, 1912, 21)
PRINCE ALBERT, SASK., a hotel for an unnamed client, 1912 (Saskatoon Daily Star, 25 March 1912, 8)
HANSON BROS. LAUNDRY, near the C.P.R. Station, for Frederick Morris, 1912 (Saskatoon Daily Star, 26 July 1912, 3, illus. & descrip.)
CENTRAL CHAMBERS, 22nd Street East near 2nd Avenue, for Dr. G.E. Holmes, 1913 (C.R., xxvii, 9 July 1913, 68)
O'LEARY & DELAY (works in Saskatoon)
SASKATOON, SASK., design for large store and office block at 23rd Street at First Avenue, for N. Gardner Boggs, designed 1914 but not built (Saskatoon Phoenix, 26 May 1915, 3, lawsuit and court case)
SASKATOON, SASK., residence for N. Gardner Boggs, Lots 27, 28 & 29, Block 15, City Park, 1914 (Saskatoon Phoenix, 26 May 1915, 3)
F.J. O'LEARY (works in Saskatchewan)
COURVAL, SASK., St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church, 1928 (Historical Sketches of the Parishes of the Diocese of Gravelbourg Saskatchewan - Silver Jubilee 1930-1955, 22-3; M. Hryniuk & F. Korvemaker, Legacy of Worship: Sacred Places in Rural Saskatchewan, 2014, 76, illus.)
REGINA, SASK., St. Mary's Roman Catholic School, Scarth Street at Victoria Avenue, 1928 (C.R., xlii, 19 Sept. 1928, 51)
REGINA, SASK., Sacred Heart Roman Catholic School, 1928 (inf. from Minute Books of the Regina Separate School Division)
ROSETOWN, SASK., Roman Catholic Convent, for the Sisters of the Adoration, 1928 (Saskatoon Daily Star, 29 June 1928, 13, descrip.)
MOOSE JAW, SASK., Fourth Avenue Viaduct, 1929-30, including balustrades, light fixtures, terra cotta inset medallions and supporting columns in Egyptian Revival motif, 1929-30 (Canadian Engineer, lviii, 24 June 1930, 691-92, illus. & descrip.)
BIGGAR, SASK., a new 3 storey Roman Catholic Hospital, for the Grey Nuns, 1931 (Leader [Regina], 28 July 1931, 3; inf. Robert Hamilton, of Hamilton, Ont.)