OTIS, Calvin Nicholas (1814-1883), a prominent architect of Buffalo, N.Y. opened an office there in 1846 and worked under his own name until 1861 when he joined the Union Army in the American Civil War. He returned to Buffalo in 1864 and formed a partnership with Frederick Hampel (as Otis & Hampel, 1864-67), and later as a sole practitioner until 1869. In 1849 he was one of eleven architects from the United States and Canada to submit an entry in the competition for St. James Anglican Cathedral, Toronto. His design, styled in "...the First and Second Periods of Gothic Architecture (with) the exterior finely proportioned" was not one of the finalists (Globe [Toronto], 13 Oct. 1849, 2, jury report). The first premium was awarded to Frederic Cumberland.
In 1855 he was one of eleven architects from the United States and Canada to submit a design for the new Rossin House Hotel, King Street West at York Street, TORONTO, ONT., designed 1855; built 1856-57; burned 1862, rebuilt, and later demol. in 1969 (Globe [Toronto], 21 Aug. 1855, 2; 15 Sept. 1855, 2; 5 May 1857, 2, descrip.; W. Dendy, Lost Toronto, 1993, 114-15, illus.). Designed in an Italiante style in collaboration with William Kauffman of Toronto, it was among the first public buildings in Canada to make extensive use of cast iron for the structural frame.
In 1859 Otis was one of several competitors who submitted a design for the Departmental Buildings in OTTAWA, ONT. His drawings, signed 'Omnia vincit labour' were in a 'Plain Modern' style, but his submission was not premiated (NAC, RG11, Letter Books, Vol 131, Letter 29194; Carolyn Young, The Glory of Ottawa: Canada's First Parliament Buildings, 1995, 117). In the United States he was best known for his Gothic Revival designs for churches including Grace Episcopal Church, Galena, Ill. ,1847, the Mariner's Church, Detroit, 1849, St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Detroit, 1852 (W.H. Ferry, The Buildings of Detroit, 1968, 46-7, descrip.), and St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Jackson, Mich. (K.B. Eckert, Buildings of Michigan, 1993, 186-7). He was the author of a book on ecclesiastical art entitled Sacred and Constructive Art: Its Origin and Progress, 1869. Otis died in Cuba, N.Y. on 21 January 1883 and left an estate valued at over $100,000 (obituary in the Commercial Advertiser [Buffalo], 26 Jan. 1883, 3; biography in The History of Alleghany County [New York], 1879, 269-70)