STEVENS, Edward Fletcher (1860-1946), active in Boston, Mass. and an expert on the architectural design of hospital and medical facilities in both the United States and Canada. Born at Dunstable, Mass. on 22 October 1860, he studied architecture at the Massachusetts Inst. of Technology and articled with the Boston firm of Allen & Kenway, and with the leading New York firm of McKim, Mead & White. In late 1890 he was invited by Henry H. Kendall of Boston to form a new partnership, which evolved into a succession of firms including:
Kendall & Stevens 1891-95, Boston, Mass. (with Henry H. Kendall)
Rand & Taylor, Kendall & Stevens 1896-1897, Boston, Mass. (with J.G. Rand, Bertrand E. Taylor and Henry H. Kendall)
Kendall, Taylor & Stevens 1898-1907, Boston, Mass. (with Henry H. Kendall and Bertrand E. Taylor)
E.F. Stevens 1908-1912, Boston, Mass.
Stevens & Lee 1912-1933, Boston, Mass. and Toronto, Ont. (with Frederick C. Lee)
Stevens, Curtin, Mason & Riley 1933-43, Boston, Mass.
In 1912 Stevens invited a young Toronto architect Frederick C. Lee to form a partnership with him. Lee had already gained valuable experience in hospital design by serving as project architect to Darling & Pearson on their major commission for the Toronto General Hospital (1910-12). The firm of Stevens & Lee maintained two offices, one in Boston, headed by Stevens, and the other in Toronto, headed by Lee, who supervised all of the Canadian hospital commissions executed by the firm in Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, Manitoba and in Alberta. Within a few years, the office established itself as a leading authority in the design of medical facilities in North America, and they can be credited with over 100 hospital buildings in the United States, Canada, Mexico and as far away as Peru. Unlike the plain and austere appearance of many early hospital buildings in Canada, the façade treatment employed by Stevens & Lee was inspired by classical precedent. Elements such as a colonnaded entrance portico, decorative brickwork, and projecting bays with stone quoining combined to present the appearance of a building resembling a Renaissance palazzo instead of a medical institution.
The collaboration between Stevens and Lee ended in 1933, but Stevens continued to advise on hospital projects until 1943 when he retired from the profession. He was the author of a standard book on hospital architecture entitled The American Hospital of the Twentieth Century (pub. 1918; with revised editions published successively through 1928). Stevens died at Newton, Mass. on 28 February 1946 (obit. New York Times, 1 March 1946, 22; biog. H. Withey, Biographical Dictionary of American Architects, 1956, 572; biog. National Cyclopedia of American Biography, xlvi, 456-7; biog. A.I.A. Journal [Washington], iv, Oct. 1945, 198). An extensive essay on the Canadian projects of Stevens & Lee, written by Prof. Annmarie Adams of McGill University, was published in The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians [Philadelphia], lviii, March 1999, 42-61, illus. Additional details of Stevens career appear in a recent book by the same author, entitled Medicine by Design: The Architect and the Modern Hospital 1893-1943, 2008, 89-108, illus.
STEVENS & LEE (works in Canada)
TORONTO, ONT., Victoria Sick Children's Hospital, addition of the Isolation Pavilion, College Street near Elizabeth Street, 1912 (Toronto b.p. 36438, 2 Aug. 1912; Const., vii, Oct. 1914, 378-81, illus. & descrip.; dwgs. at OA, Sproatt & Rolph Coll.; Annmarie Adams, Medicine by Design: The Architect and the Modern Hospital 1893-1943, 2008, 56-60, illus.)
HAMILTON, ONT., addition to St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Hospital, John Street South, 1914; and Nurse's Home, 1921 (C.R., xxviii, 8 July 1914, 77, t.c.; and xxxv, 14 Sept. 1921, 50; Const., x, June 1917, 206-09, illus. & descrip.)
MONTREAL, QUE., Royal Victoria Hospital, Pine Avenue West, addition for Ross Memorial Pavilion, 1915-16; and Nurse's Home, 1917; and Maternity Hospital, 1925-26 (Const., x, June 1917, 188-91, illus. & descrip.; xix, Aug. 1926, 238-49, illus. & descrip.; C.R., xxxi, 14 Feb. 1917, 42; Modern Hospital [Chicago], xii, May 1919, 311-15, illus. & descrip.; R.A.I.C. Journal, iii, March/April 1926, 51, illus.; Annmarie Adams, Medicine by Design: The Architect and the Modern Hospital 1893-1943, 2008, 42-52, 90-102, 116-18, illus., 142, with list of works)
NORTH YORK, ONT., Connaught Laboratories, Steeles Avenue West at Davey Street, 1917 (C.R., xxxi, 24 Oct. 1917, 881-83, illus. & descrip.; Const., xi, May 1918, 153-56, illus. & descrip.; Annmarie Adams, Medicine by Design: The Architect and the Modern Hospital 1893-1943, 2008, 99-102, illus.)
HALIFAX, N.S., major addition to Children's Hospital, 1918 (Evening Mail [Halifax], 20 March 1918, 10, descrip.)
TORONTO, ONT., Daughters of the Empire Preventorium, Sheldrake Boulevard near Yonge Street, infants pavilion, 1918-19 (Toronto b.p. 19182, 7 Oct. 1918)
MONCTON, N.B., additions to Moncton General Hospital, King Street, 1919; addition, 1927; addition, 1929 (C.R., xxxiii, 2 April 1919, 48; and xli, 28 Sept. 1927, 51; and xliii, 26 June 1929, 60)
MONTREAL, QUE., Notre Dame Hospital, Sherbrooke Street East, 1922-24; Nurse's Home, 1931 (Const., xv, April 1922, 104-07, 109, illus. & descrip.; and xvii, Dec. 1924, 360-3, illus. & descrip.; C.R., xxxviii, 21 May 1924, 485-6, illus. & descrip.; and xlvi, 24 Feb. 1932, 127, illus. in advert.; Annmarie Adams, Medicine by Design: The Architect and the Modern Hospital 1893-1943, 2008, 110-11, illus.)
OTTAWA, ONT., Civic Hospital, addition of a Nurse's Home, and a Power House and Service Building, Carling Avenue at Melrose Avenue, 1920-24 (Ottawa Journal, 24 Nov. 1919, 4, descrip.; and 24 Feb. 1920, 2, descrip.; and 18 Oct. 1924, 1 and 3, illus. & descrip.; Const., xv, April 1922, 108-09, illus. & descrip.; and xvii, Dec. 1924, 364-9, illus. & descrip.; C.R., xxxviii, 31 Dec. 1924, 1317-19, illus. & descrip.; Modern Hospital [Chicago], xxvi, Jan. 1926, 69-72, illus. & descrip.; Annmarie Adams, Medicine by Design: The Architect and the Modern Hospital 1893-1943, 2008, 107-8, 119, 124, illus.; Andrew Waldron, Exploring the Capital: An Architectural Guide to the Ottawa-Gatineau Region, 2017, 179, illus. & descrip.)
BRANDON, MAN., General Hospital, 1920-22 (Const., xiii, Dec. 1920, 370-6, illus.; and xvii, Dec. 1924, 377-8, illus. & descrip.; Architectural Forum (New York), xxxvii, Dec. 1922, plate 95, illus.; Modern Hospital [Chicago], xxii, March 1924, 274, illus.)
HALIFAX, N.S., Private Patient's Pavilion, at Victoria General Hospital, 1923-24 (Modern Hospital [Chicago], xxii, March 1924, 259, illus.)
QUEBEC CITY, QUE., St. Sacrement Roman Catholic Hospital, 1923 (C.R., xxxvii, 27 June 1923, 61; L. Noppen et al, Quebec Monumental 1890-1990, 47, illus. & descrip.)
KINGSTON, ONT., new works at the General Hospital, designed 1920; built 1921-27; including
Electric Power House, 1921-22 (Daily Standard [Kingston], 30 July 1920, 1, descrip.), and
Service Building, with kitchens and dining rooms for staff, 1921 (Daily Standard [Kingston], 17 May 1921, 1, descrip.), and
Empire Wing Extension, 1921-22 (Daily Standard [Kingston], 8 Dec. 1921, 11, t.c.), and
Isolation Building at the General Hospital, designed 1922; built 1923-1924; (Daily Standard [Kingston], 8 March 1922, 1; Const., xvii, Dec. 1924, 376-7, illus. & descrip.), and
new Clinic Building, 1925; (Daily Standard [Kingston], 30 March 1925, 1, descrip.; and 19 Sept. 1925, 5, detailed descrip.; and 17 Oct. 1925, 16, descrip.), and
Empire Wing and Nickle Wing, major additions and alterations for new Maternity Wing, 1925-26 (Daily Standard [Kingston], 22 Aug. 1925, 15, t.c.; and Whig-Standard (Kingston), 10 Jan. 1927, 2, descrip.),
and
addition to Nurse's Home, 1926-27 (Daily Standard [Kingston], 26 Nov. 1926, 13, t.c.; C.R., xli, 6 July 1927, 55), and
with general descrip. of all new buildings by Stevens & Lee at this hospital site, in the R.A.I.C. Journal, viii, Jan. 1931, 26, 31-2, illus. & descrip.
TORONTO, ONT., maternity wing for Wellesley Hospital, Wellesley Street East at Sherbourne Street, 1926 (Toronto b.p. 87864, 6 April 1926)
WOODSTOCK, ONT., major additions and alterations to the General Hospital, Riddell Street, 1927 (C.R., xli, 22 June 1927, 54)
WALKERVILLE, ONT., Metropolitan General Hospital, Lens Avenue at Byng Road, 1927-28 (Metropolitan General Hospital: The First Fifty Years, 1978, illus.)
BRANTFORD, ONT., additions to General Hospital, 1928 (Brantford Expositor, 11 July 1928, 7)
CALGARY, ALTA., Calgary General Hospital, Murdock Road, new Ward Building and Nurse's Residence, 1928 (R.A.I.C. Journal, viii, Jan. 1931, 25-6, 28, 31, illus. & descrip.; dwgs. at Canadian Architectural Archives, Univ. of Calgary, Ste. hc/28C34)
TORONTO, ONT., Women's College Hospital, Grosvenor Street at Surrey Place, designed 1926, built 1928-29 (Toronto Daily Star, 3 July 1926, 3, descrip.; C.R., xlii, 30 May 1928, 546, illus.; Toronto Daily Star, 9 Jan. 1928, 25, illus. & descrip.; and 9 Oct. 1931, 34, illus. & descrip.)
TORONTO, ONT., St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Hospital, Queen Street West at Sunnyside Avenue, new hospital block, heating plant and power house, 1928-30 (Toronto Daily Star, 2 March 1928, 9, descrip., and 4 Oct. 1929, 8, illus.; Const., xxi, March 1928, 109; R.A.I.C. Journal, vii, Sept. 1930, xii, illus. in advert.)
BELLEVILLE, ONT., Nurse's Residence for the General Hospital, Pearl Street East, 1930 (C.R., xliv, 26 Feb. 1930, 144)