McDONNELL, Reginald Edwardes (1887-1963), a talented architect who can be credited with the design of over thirty branches of the Merchants Bank of Canada located in six provinces across Canada. Born in Liverpool, England on 8 February 1887 he was educated at King's College, Rock Ferry, Cheshire and at the age of sixteen he began an apprenticeship in the Liverpool office of Matear & Simon, a leading firm of architects there, and during his training there from 1903 to 1908 he attended classes at the Technical School at nearby Birkenhead. He also was employed briefly in the Liverpool office of Gilbert W. Fraser, FRIBA, and for R. Hermon Crook, an architect in nearby Bolton, England. From 1908 to 1911 he served as chief assistant to his mentor Frank W. Simon, FRIBA, who later won the international competition for the Provincial Parliament Building in Winnipeg, Man. It is likely that F.W. Simon played a role in encouraging McDonnell to move to Canada, and he emigrated there in early 1911, settling in Montreal where worked in the office of Brown & Vallance, an important architectural firm who were then engaged in designing nearly a dozen buildings on the new campus of the Univ. of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, as well as the two significant landmarks in Calgary, the Canada Life Assurance Co. (1911-12) and the Calgary Herald Building (1912-14). Posted to western Canada to supervise these works, McDonnell was attracted by the opportunities there, and he moved to Calgary in 1912 and opened his own office. Within a year, he entered the competition for the Ranchmen's Club there and won First Premium for his sophisticated brick and terra cotta composition, now a landmark and still in use today.
In 1914 or 1915 he formed a partnership with John E. Burrell in Calgary (see list of works under Burrell & McDonnell) and 1919 he received the appointment of staff architect for the Merchant's Bank of Canada (later amalgamated with the Bank of Montreal in 1922). For the Merchant's Bank, he devised a series of prototypes for new bank buildings in small and medium-sized towns, each configured to fit specific locations at street-corner or mid-block sites. These banks were erected in 5 different provinces, including Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec.
By 1923 he had relocated to Hamilton, Ont., perhaps at the invitation of Frederick W. Warren, with whom he formed a partnership that same year (see list of works under Warren & McDonnell). He opened his own office there in 1928, and practised under his own name until 1942 when he formed a new partnership with Charles Lenz, and their firm remained active until after 1950. McDonnell died at Muskoka, Ont. on 8 September 1963 (obit. Spectator [Hamilton], 9 Sept. 1963, 7; inf. Ontario Association of Architects; inf. Robert Hamilton, Hamilton, Ont.). The Ontario Archives in Toronto holds an extensive collection of original drawings and photographs of buildings designed by McDonnell, and by the firm of McDonnell & Lenz (OA, Acc. 13834).
R.E. McDONNELL (works in Hamilton, Ont. unless noted)
CALGARY, ALTA., The Ranchmen's Club., 13th Avenue at 6th Street, 1914 (dwgs. at the Glenbow Museum Archives, M6192; photographs at OA, McDonnell Coll.; Ranchmen's Club - A Historical Sketch, 1953)
MERCHANTS BANK BRANCHES, a series of prototypical plans for bank buildings erected between 1919 and 1921 (copies of plans held at the Premises Div., Bank of Montreal, Toronto)
Merchant's Bank, July 1919 Plan, erected at Winnipeg, Man., West Kildonan, Man., Arlington, Sask., and Selkirk, Man.;
Merchant's Bank, Type 'A' Plan, March 1920, banks erected at Carstairs, Lamont, Tofield and Three Hills, Alta.;
Merchant's Bank, Type 'A2' Plan, June 1919, banks erected at Oakville, Man. (still standing in 2022, but facade altered); Bowsman River, Man., and Griswold, Man.; and at Flaxcombe, Sask.; and at Westlock and Kerriemuir, Alta.;
Merchant's Bank, Type 'B' Plan, March 1920, banks erected at Carbon, Alta. and Delia, Alta.;
Merchant's Bank, Type 'B1' Plan, May 1919, bank erected at Chauvin, Alta.;
Merchant's Bank, Type 'B2' Plan, June 1919, banks erected at Kinistino, Sask., Main Street at Kinistino Avenue, (still standing in 2023), and at Bashaw, Alta.;
Merchant's Bank, Type 'B3' Plan, July 1919, bank erected at Tisdale, Sask., 100 Street near 100 Avenue, (still standing in 2023)
Merchant's Bank, Type 'C' Plan, June 1919, bank erected at Drumheller, Alta.;
Merchant's Bank, Type 'C2' Plan, June 1919, banks erected at Grand Prairie and Leduc, Alta.;
Merchant's Bank, Type 'C3' Plan, June 1919, bank erected at Lansdown, Ont.;
Merchant's Bank, Type 'C4' Plan, June 1919, bank erected at Tara, Ont.;
Merchant's Bank, Type 'F' Plan, April 1920, banks erected at Stoney Plain, Alta., and at Campbell's Bay, Que.;
Merchant's Bank, Type 'H' Plan, c. 1920, bank erected at Humboldt, Sask., Main Street at 6th Avenue, (still standing in 2023);
Merchant's Bank, Type 'I' Plan, c. 1920, banks erected at Chapeau, Que. and Gainsborough, Sask., Railway Avenue at Young Street (still standing in 2023);
TORONTO, ONT., residence for George W. Ritchie, Baby Point Crescent, 1929, 1931 (dwgs. at OA)
MUNICIPAL SWIMMING POOL, for the British Empire Games, Scott Park, 1928-29 (Spectator [Hamilton], 14 Dec. 1929, 3, illus. & descrip.; Canadian Engineer, lviii, 11 March 1930, 311-15, illus. & descrip.; inf. Robert Hamilton, Hamilton, Ont.)
ST. JAMES COURT, residence for John J. Hunt, 1930 (dwgs. at OA)
ST. JAMES COURT, residence for Stuart S. Du Moulin, c. 1930 (dwgs. and photos at OA)
ST. JAMES COURT, residence for Edwin M. Dalley, 1932 (dwgs. at OA)
BAY STREET SOUTH, near Inglewood Drive, residence for Fred R. Niblett, 1933 (dwgs. and photos at OA)
TURNER AVENUE, residence for George Allan, 1933 (C.R., xlvii, 12 July 1933, 41)
REID PRESS LTD., Burlington Street, printing plant, 1936 (dwgs. at OA)
FORSYTHE AVENUE NORTH, residence for H. Stuart Merrall, Westdale, 1936 (dwgs. at OA)
OAK KNOLL DRIVE, near Dalewood Crescent, large residence for Samuel F. Pollock, Westdale, 1936, still standing in 2024 at No. 8 Oak Knoll Drive (Spectator [Hamilton], 27 Feb. 1937, 7, illus. & descrip.; C.H.G., xv, Dec. 1938, 30-2, illus.; and xvi, Jan.-Feb. 1939, 38, illus.)
QUEENSTON, ONT., Refectory for the Niagara Parks Commission, River Road, Queenston Heights Park, 1939-40 (C.R., lii, 15 Nov. 1939, 33; R.A.I.C. Journal, xx, Dec. 1943, 209, 217, illus. & descrip.)
SANFORD AVENUE, residence for Harry Minden, 1940 (dwgs. at OA)
BLAKE STREET, residence for Abraham E. Walters, 1941 (dwgs. at OA)
MOUNTAIN BOULEVARD, residence for Eugene M. Whitby, 1941 (dwgs. at OA)
ST. CLAIR AVENUE, residence for Morley B. Goldblatt, 1941 (dwgs. at OA)
HAMILTON GENERAL HOSPITAL, Barton Street East at Wellington Street North, new Nurse's Residence, 1941-42 (C.R., liv, 12 Nov. 1941, 28)
McDONNELL & LENZ (works in Hamilton unless noted)
FORT ERIE, ONT., Mather Memorial Building, Queen Elizabeth Way at the Peace Bridge, 1943 (dwgs. at OA)
PELLER BREWING CO., Burlington Street East, a large 3 storey brewing plant, 1945-46 (Financial Post [Toronto], 12 May 1945, 7; C.R., lix, Jan. 1946, 96)
PEACE MEMORIAL SCHOOL, East 36th Street, 1946; addition 1948 (inf. from Hamilton Public School Board)
SHERMAN AVENUE NORTH, near Biggar Avenue, Substation for the Hamilton Hydro Electric Co., 1946 (photographs at OA)
BINKLEY CRESCENT, residence for H.W. Clarkson, Westdale, 1948 (dwgs. at OA)
ST. JAMES PLACE, residence for Louis Mack, 1948 (dwgs. at OA)
BURLINGTON, ONT., residence for Mrs. William E. Vallance, Lake Shore Highway, 1949 (dwgs. at OA)
NEW WESTMINSTER PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, King Street East at Melrose Avenue, 1950 (C.R., lxiii, May 1950, 142)
WENTWORTH MOTORS CO., Main Street East, office and garage, 1950 (C.R., lxiii, Aug. 1950, 241)