BROOKES, Robert Thom (1824-1910), a native of Hingdownty, Ireland, was born there on 26 September 1824. He was living and working as a carpenter and joiner in Southport, England in 1851, but he appears to have emigrated to Canada after 1855. He was one of the first professional architects to live and work in Victoria County, Ontario where he maintained offices in Lindsay and in Peterborough (Directory of the United Counties of Peterborough and Victoria, 1858). He designed the Union School, Kent Street, LINDSAY, ONT. 1860; demol. 1921 (Globe [Toronto] 27 July 1860, 3, t.c.) and in 1862 prepared an undistinguished design for St. Mark's Anglican Church, OTONABEE, ONT. (Brief History of St. Mark's Church, Otonabee, 1963).
He moved to the United States about 1870, and he opened an office in Detroit, Mich where he lived and worked for nearly thirty years (Detroit City Directory, 1873, 172). From his office there, he submitted a design in the competition for the Oxford County Court House, Hunter Street, WOODSTOCK, ONT. (Evening Sentinel-Review [Woodstock], 18 July 1889, 1; 23 July 1889, 1; M. Carter, Early Canadian Court Houses, 1983, 118, 222, illus.). A complete set of original watercolour drawings for this building, inscribed with Brookes signature is now in the possession of the County Engineer at Woodstock, and illustrate the work as completed in 1892. Brookes was not permitted to supervise the construction of his design however; the poor quality of workmanship on the foundations brought about his dismissal from the job on 18 August 1890, and the local architects Cuthbertson & Fowler of Woodstock were hired to complete the work (Globe [Toronto] 19 Aug. 1890, 4; M. Macrae & A. Adamson, Cornerstones of Order, 1983, 242-3, illus.). This robust and forceful Romanesque Revival design for the Court House bears marked similarities in its detail to a set of drawings submitted in 1889 by a 'Mr. Brooks' for the Quebec City Hall competition. In this instance, however, his entry, presented under the pseudonym 'Alma', was passed over in favour of the scheme by Elzear Charest (drawings by Brookes at the City Archives of Quebec, Quebec City). Brookes died in Detroit on 6 October 1910.