WRIGHT, Bruce Haken (1898-1971), active in Toronto as a partner in the firm of Wright & Noxon from 1926 to 1932, and later active in that city under his own name. Born in Toronto, Ont. on 27 May 1898, he attended St. Andrew’s College, and later studied architecture at the School of Practical Science at the Univ. of Toronto in 1915-17, and in 1920-21. He trained in local architectural offices including Eden Smith & Son (in 1919-21), and with S.B. Coon & Son (in 1921), then moved to New York City where he worked for leading American architectural firms including McKim, Mead & White (in 1922), for York & Sawyer (in 1923), for Warren & Wetmore (in 1924), and for George & Edward Blum. All of this American experience gave Wright an excellent grounding in the Beaux-Arts tradition of refined and sumptuous residential architecture which he applied to many of his Toronto commissions for wealthy clients in Forest Hill, Rosedale and in the York Mills area of North York Township, as well as in Oakville.
After returning to Toronto in 1925, he formed a partnership with Kenneth F. Noxon and collaborated with him until 1932, then opened an office under his own name in Toronto. From 1941 to 1945 he served as Chief Architect of the Wartime Housing Ltd, a federal agency, then moved to Montreal in 1945 where he received the appointment of Chief Architect of the Bank of Montreal. There, he was responsible for overseeing the design and construction of all of their post-war bank branch designs for the Bank until after 1960. This included branches designed by his own architectural department, as well as bank designs commissioned from individual architects in several Canadian cities. He retired as Chief Architect for the Bank in 1963. Wright served as President of the Ontario Association of Architects in 1941, and was nominated as a Fellow of the Royal Architectural Inst. of Canada in 1943. He died in Vienna, Austria on 25 June 1971 (death notice Globe & Mail [Toronto], 26 June 1971, 47; biog. R.A.I.C. Journal, xxiii, March 1946, 72; and xxvii, Oct. 1950, 364; inf. Ontario Assoc. of Architects; inf. Province of Quebec Assoc. of Architects).
WRIGHT & NOXON (works in Toronto unless noted)
VALLEY VIEW ROAD, residence for James W. Rush, 1927 (C.R., xli, 6 July 1927, 57; C.H.G., vi, March 1929, 28, illus.; and xi, Dec. 1934, 15, illus.)
AVENUE ROAD, at St. Clair Avenue West, residence for Premier George H. Ferguson (later occupied by the Music Library of Toronto Public Library), 1928-29 (Toronto Daily Star, 20 July 1928, 4, illus. & descrip.; Toronto b.p. B57, 17 July 1928; C.H.G., viii, Jan. 1931, 21-5, illus.; and March 1931, 94, illus.; Const., xxiv, Feb. 1931, 64, 68, illus.)
DUNVEGAN ROAD, residence for Charles T. Pearce, 1928 (Const., xxi, July 1928, 233-5, 237-8, illus. & descrip.; C.H.G., v, Aug. 1928, 24, illus.)
ORILLIA, ONT., residence for Mrs. Sidney Small, 1928 (Toronto Daily Star, 14 Sept. 1928, 8)
ORILLIA, ONT., residence for Prof. Stephen Leacock, on Old Brewery Bay at south end of Lake Couchiching, 1928 (Toronto Daily Star, 14 Sept. 1928, 8; Owen Sound Daily Sun-Times, 5 Nov. 1928, 1; C.H.G., vii, May 1930, 34, illus.)
ORILLIA, ONT., Champlain Hotel, for Anthony Miller, Front Street at Mississauga Street, 1929-30 (C.R., xliii, 16 Jan. 1929, 59, illus.; and xlvi, 27 April 1932, 59)
BATHURST STREET, near Ardmore Road, residence for William S. Morlock, in Forest Hill overlooking the Bathurst ravine, 1929-30 (Toronto Daily Star, 2 Nov. 1928, 8, descrip.; Const., xxiii, Sept. 1930, 299-300, 308-12, illus. & descrip.; C.H.G., viii, March 1931, 94, illus.; and ix, Oct. 1932, 20-3, illus.)
OAKVILLE, ONT., a 14 room mansion for William Stone, of Rolph, Clark & Stone Ltd., facing the Toronto-Hamilton Highway, '.....about 2 miles east of Oakville', 1929 (Toronto Daily Star, 22 Jan. 1929, 2, illus. & descrip.; Owen Sound Daily-Sun Times, 25 Jan. 1929, 1, descrip.; C.R., xliii, 30 Jan. 1929, 50)
WOOLNOUGH CORSET CO., Yonge Street near Gould Street, a row of three stores, 1929 (Toronto Daily Star, 25 Oct. 1929, 8)
HILLHOLME ROAD, at Russell Hill Road, residence for Harry B. Hanwood, 1930 (Toronto Daily Star, 6 June 1930, 28)
GLOBE TOURS LTD., Adelaide Street West near Bay Street, for H. Gregory Merritt, 1930 (Toronto Daily Star, 8 Aug. 1930, 23; Const., xxiv, Sept. 1931, 291-94, and 297-300, illus.)
PRINCE ARTHUR AVENUE, residence for William B. Somerset, 1930 (C.H.G., viii, March 1931, 27, illus.)
HAMILTON, ONT., residence for J.B. Byrnes, Ravenscliffe Avenue, 1931 (C.R., xlv, 3 June 1931, 60, t.c.; C.H.G., x, March 1933, 12-19, illus.)
HAMILTON, ONT., Recreation Hall for the Ontario Hospital, 1930-31 (Const., xxiv, Dec. 1931, 377-80, 385, illus. & descrip.)
B.H. WRIGHT (works in Toronto)
BURTON ROAD, residence for Edward S. Gallagher, 1933 (C.R., xlvii, 20 Sept. 1933, 106)
NORTH YORK, residence for W. Gordon Firstbrook, Strathallan Boulevard, 1933-34 (C.H.G., xii, April 1935, 22; R.A.I.C. Journal, xii, June 1935, 90, illus.; and xiv, July 1937, 120, illus.; Globe & Mail [Toronto], 5 August 2016, Real Estate Section, G2 & G3, illus. & descrip.)
ALEXANDRA WOOD, residence for Newman R. Firstbrook, 1936 (C.H.G., xiv, March 1937, 32, illus.; and July/Aug. 1937, 34, illus.; R.A.I.C. Journal, xiv, June 1937, 111, illus.)
LYTTON BOULEVARD, residence for Harold S. Conrad, 1936 (C.H.G., xiv, July/Aug. 1937, 35, illus.; and xv, Jan./Feb. 1938, 34, illus.)
DUNLOE ROAD, residence for Douglas W. Ferrier, 1936 (C.H.G., xiv, July/Aug. 1937, 35, illus.; and xv, Jan./Feb. 1938, 34, illus.)
PARK LANE, residence for John J. Wickett, 1937 (C.R., vol. 50, 2 June 1937, 29)