BROWN, Francis Bruce (1899-1983), son of J. Francis Brown, was born in Toronto and attended school there before joining the Canadian Forces during WWI, serving with them in Siberia during the final year of the war. In 1919 he returned to Toronto and studied architecture at the University of Toronto, graduating with honors in 1923. Throughout his studies he earned a reputation as a talented delineator; many of his student drawings survive and are now held at the University of Calgary (J. Weir, Lost Craft of Ornamented Architecture: Canadian Architectural Drawings 1850-1930, 1983, 87, illus.). He was awarded a scholarship that enabled him to study at the Fontainebleau School of Fine Arts in France in 1923-24, and he then took additional training under his father in Toronto where he was made a full partner in his father's firm in 1926 (see list of works under J.F. Brown & Son).
After his father died in 1942, Brown formed a new partnership with E.F. Ross Brisley (the firm was then called Bruce Brown & Brisley, consisting of two partners, not three). Both were joined by Douglas Brown in 1962 and the new firm of Brown, Brisley & Brown remained active until 1972. Together they were credited with designs for more than one hundred churches across Canada from Nova Scotia to Alberta for Anglican, Presbyterian, Baptist and Protestant congregations. While many of his peers had adopted classical revival or modern styles for the ecclesiastical commissions, Brown remained faithful to the modern Gothic, and executed his designs with a convincing scholarly knowledge of the appropriate form and range of detail required by his Canadian ecclesiastical clients.
Brown devoted much of his early career to the design of Protestant churches, and succeeded his father as Architectural Consultant to the Home Mission and Church Edifice Boards of the Baptist Convention in Ontario and Quebec. Among his outstanding achievements after 1950 was the completion of the Divinity College and Chapel at McMaster University in Hamilton, for which the University awarded him an honorary doctorate in 1958. He served as President of the R.A.I.C. in 1964-65 and remained active until 1972 when he retired and handed over his practice to his son Douglas Brown (the firm was later called Brown, Beck & Ross, active 1981-95). F. Bruce Brown died in Toronto on 30 July 1983 (obit. Toronto Star, 3 Aug. 1983, A12; biog. and port R.A.I.C. Journal, xxii, May 1945, 110; biog. Globe & Mail, 30 June 1964, B3). The Canadian Architectural Archives at the University of Calgary in Alberta holds a collection of original drawings executed by F. Bruce Brown while a student at the University of Toronto, as well an extensive slide collection illustrating built works by Brown, and by the successor firms of Brown & Brisley, and by Brown, Brisley & Brown, from 1946 to 1972 (C.A.A. 19A/77.68)
F.B. BROWN (works in Toronto unless noted)
LISTOWEL, ONT., United Church, Inkerman Street at Division Street, 1941 (Listowel United Church Centennial Anniversary 1858-1958, 6)
COSBURN AVENUE UNITED CHURCH, Greenwood Avenue at Cosburn Avenue, 1942 (inf. from United Church Archives, Toronto)
CHURCH OF CHRIST, Bayview Avenue at Soudan Avenue, 1942 (inf. from Douglas Brown, Toronto)
GLENCAIRN BAPTIST CHURCH, Glencairn Avenue at Shermount Street, 1943 (Canadian Baptist [Toronto], 15 Oct. 1943, 4, illus. & descrip.)
HUMBERCREST UNITED CHURCH, Baby Point Road at Thornhill Avenue, 1945 (inf. from United Church Archives, Toronto)
BROWN & BRISLEY (works in Toronto unless noted)
KIRKLAND LAKE, ONT., major addition to High School, 2nd Street, 1946 (C.R., lix, Aug. 1946, 156)
SAULT STE. MARIE, Coulson Avenue Baptist Church, 1946-47 (inf. from Canadian Baptist Archives, Hamilton)
ROYAL YORK ROAD UNITED CHURCH, Royal York Road at Glenroy Avenue, 1946 (C.A.A. Coll., Univ. of Calgary)
ALL SAINTS ANGLICAN CHURCH, Bloor Street West at Prince Edward Drive, 1946 (C.A.A. Coll., Univ. of Calgary)
HAMILTON, ONT., Westdale United Church, Paisley Street North at the North Oval, 1946 (inf. from Douglas Brown, Toronto)
SCARBOROUGH, ONT., St. John's United Church, Norbert Road near Victoria Park Avenue, 1946 (inf. from Douglas Brown, Toronto)
BANFIELD MEMORIAL MISSIONARY CHURCH, Vaughan Road at Winnett Avenue, 1947 (inf. from Douglas Brown, Toronto)
HALIFAX, N.S., First Baptist Church, Oxford Street, 1947 (Canadian Baptist [Toronto], 15 Sept. 1947, 9, illus.)
ISLINGTON UNITED CHURCH, Burnamthorpe Road near Dundas Street West, 1947-49 (inf. from United Church Archives, Toronto)
SIMCOE, ONT., Elgin Avenue Public School, 1948 (C.R., lxi, April 1948, 144)
WESTON BAPTIST CHURCH, Weston Road near Lawrence Avenue West, 1948 (Canadian Baptist [Toronto], 15 Dec. 1948, 5)
BETHEL BAPTIST CHURCH, Millwood Road, extensive remodelling and new Sunday School, 1948 (Canadian Baptist [Toronto], 1 Oct. 1948, 3, 8, illus.)
HALIFAX, N.S., First Baptist Church, Oxford Street near Coburg Road, 1948 (inf. from Douglas Brown, Toronto)
ST. THOMAS, ONT., First United Church, St. George Street, 1948-49 (C.R., xli, Oct. 1948, 184; R.A.I.C. Journal, xxviii, Jan. 1951, 13, illus.)
KINGSWAY BAPTIST CHURCH, Birchview Boulevard at Montgomery Road, 1948-49 (Canadian Baptist [Toronto], 15 April 1949, 4, illus.; Globe & Mail [Toronto], 1 April 1950, 17, illus.)
TIMMINS, ONT. Ontario Northland Railway, communications building, 1949 (C.R., xlii, Aug. 1949, 226)
NORTH YORK, Armour Heights United Church, Dunblaine Avenue, 1949 (inf. from Douglas Brown, Toronto)
HAMILTON, ONT., Olivet United Church, Empress Avenue at Prince George Avenue, 1949 (inf. from Douglas Brown, Toronto)
WAINFLEET, ONT., Baptist Church, 1949 (inf. from Canadian Baptist Archives, Hamilton)
NEW LISKEARD, ONT., major addition to Public School, 1949 (R.A.I.C. Journal, xxiv, Oct. 1947, 365, illus.; C.R., lxii, Feb. 1949, 148)
DUNNVILLE, ONT., Haldimand Memorial Hospital, 1949-50 (C.R., xlii, Dec. 1949, 89; Canadian Hospital [Toronto], xxvii, Aug. 1950, 29, illus. & descrip.)
(with W.L. Somerville) HAMILTON, ONT., Mills Memorial Library, McMaster University, 1949-50 (C.R., xlii, Dec. 1949, 89)
ST. AUGUSTIN'S ANGLICAN CHURCH, Bayview Avenue at Broadway Avenue, 1949-54 (Church of St. Augustine of Canterbury - 25th Anniversary, 1971, illus.)
WOODSTOCK, ONT., addition of a Sunday School for Chalmers United Church, Vansittart Avenue, 1950 (dwgs. at United Church Archives, Toronto; inf. Ian Mason, Sarnia)
RUNNYMEDE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, Annette Street, 1950 (inf. from Douglas Brown, Toronto)
DON MILLS UNITED CHURCH, O'Connor Drive at Pape Avenue, 1950 (inf. from Douglas Brown, Toronto)
CALVARY BAPTIST CHURCH, Main Street at Benlamond Avenue, additions and alterations, 1950; still standing in 2023 (inf. from Douglas Brown, Toronto)
CAMPBELLTON, N.B., First United Church, 1950 (inf. from Douglas Brown, Toronto)
LEASIDE UNITED CHURCH, McRae Drive at Field Avenue, major addition, 1950 (Globe & Mail [Toronto], 15 April 1950, 11, illus.)
ST. TIMOTHY'S ANGLICAN CHURCH, Ridley Boulevard at Old Orchard Grove, 1950 (C.R., lxiii, May 1950, 144)
ST. ELIZABETH'S ANGLICAN CHURCH, The Queensway near Islington Avenue South, 1950-51 (C.R., lxiii, Oct. 1950, 154)
SARNIA, ONT., Central Baptist Church, London Road, 1950-52 (inf. from Sarnia Public Library)
ISLINGTON UNITED CHURCH, Burnhamthorpe Road near Dundas Street West, 1952 (R.A.I.C. Journal, xxix, July 1952, 225, illus.)
HAMILTON, ONT., St. John's United Church, East 38th Street at Queensdale Avenue East, 1956 (R.A.I.C. Journal, xxxiii, Dec. 1956, 472, illus.)
GRIMSBY, ONT., Trinity United Church, Main Street West near Livingston Avenue, 1958 (R.A.I.C. Journal, xxxvi, Aug. 1959, 272-73, illus.; Globe & Mail [Toronto], 30 Sept. 2022, p H 4)
ANCASTER, ONT., Marshall Memorial United Church, 1959 (R.A.I.C. Journal, xxxvi, Aug. 1959, 274, illus.)
NIAGARA FALLS, ONT., St. Andrew's United Church, Morrison Street near Stanley Avenue, 1961 (Globe & Mail [Toronto], 30 Sept. 2022, p H 4, illus.)