HALL, John, Junior (1839-1886), son of John Hall (c. 1815-1878) a builder and contractor of Guelph, Ont. Born in Hamilton, Ont. in 1839, he came with his family to Guelph in 1862 and worked at his trade of carpenter and builder. He almost certainly trained under his father, and he worked briefly in Petrolia and Oil Springs as a contractor and builder during the oil boom in those towns (1867-68), but by 1871 he had returned to Guelph to pursue his trade. In 1874 he was described for the first time as “the architect”, for a new residence in Guelph, and during the next decade he designed nearly thirty commercial, ecclesiastical, residential and institutional buildings in Guelph and in the nearby towns of Listowel, Galt and Alliston.
Many of his early designs for residential buildings were executed in an exuberant Italianate style, but by 1880 he had adopted the fashionable Second Empire style for his commercial buildings (such as the Tovell Block, 1881), and his designs made extensive use of yellow, biscuit-coloured brick, as well as locally quarried Guelph limestone. In 1877 he was one of thirty-four architects who submitted designs in the competition for the new High School in Stratford, Ont. (Stratford Beacon, 3 Oct. 1877, 2). His design was not among the three finalists, and the commission was awarded to McCaw & Lennox of Toronto. Hall later became an alderman on Guelph City Council, and Chairman of the Buildings and Sites Committee of the local School Board, and his name is linked to four commissions for school buildings in Guelph during this period. He died unexpectedly on 22 February 1886 at the age of 46 years (obit. Guelph Daily Mercury, 22 Feb. 1886, 1; obituary Hamilton Weekly Spectator, 25 Feb. 1886, 5; inf. Gordon Couling, Guelph, Ont.). A lengthy essay on Hall Jr., with a dated list of works, has been written by Prof. Gilbert A. Stelter, entitled “The Carpenter/Architect and the Ontario Townscape: John Hall Jr. of Guelph“, and published in Historic Guelph, xxx, Sept. 1991, 4-21, illus.
John HALL Jr. (works in Guelph)
WOOLWICH STREET, residence for William Sunley, 1874 (Guelph Daily Mercury, 25 Nov. 1874, 1)
LIVERPOOL STREET, at Glasgow Street, residence for Thomas Gowdy, 1876 (Guelph Daily Mercury, 30 Jan. 1876, 1, descrip.; and 1 Nov. 1876, 1, descrip.)
UPPER WYNDHAM STREET, commercial store for James Mays, 1876 (Guelph Daily Mercury, 25 Feb. 1876, 1, descrip.; and 1 Nov. 1876, 1 and 2, descrip.)
NORFOLK STREET METHODIST CHURCH, new tower and addition for classroom and store room, 1876 (Guelph Daily Mercury, 1 Nov. 1876, 1, descrip.)
WOOLWICH STREET, store for James Rafferty, 1876 (Guelph Daily Mercury, 1 Nov. 1876, 1, descrip.)
WOOLWICH STREET, pair of houses for Samuel Wicks, 1876 (Guelph Daily Mercury, 1 Nov. 1876, 1, descrip.)
QUEBEC STREET, near St. George's Square, pair of buildings 'with stone archway between' for John Kay and the Guelph Club Room, 1876 (Guelph Daily Mercury, 2 Nov. 1876, 1, descrip.)
WYNDHAM STREET, new facade on the old Post Office to create stores for R. Crawford and Mrs. Wright, 1876 (Guelph Daily Mercury, 2 Nov. 1876, 1)
AMERICAN HOTEL, Wyndham Street, additions for Thomas Ellis, 1876 (Guelph Daily Mercury, 2 Nov. 1876, 1)
ST. JOSEPH'S ROMAN CATHOLIC HOSPITAL, Hospital Street at Division Street, major addition, with alterations to existing building, 1876-77 (Guelph Daily Mercury, 2 Nov. 1876, 1; and 14 Nov. 1877, 1, descrip.)
WATERLOO AVENUE, residence for J. Watson Hall, 1876 (Guelph Daily Mercury, 1 Nov. 1876, 1, descrip.)
WOOLWICH STREET, villa for John Crowe 'adjoining the Baptist Church', 1877 (Guelph Daily Mercury, 14 Nov. 1877, 2 and 4, descrip.)
WELLINGTON COUNTY JAIL, additions and alterations, 1878 (The Sun (Orangeville) 31 Jan. 1878, 2; dwgs. at Wellington County Archives, Fergus, Ont., Map Dwg. 426)
ROYAL HOTEL, Carden Street, alterations and improvements, 1878 (Guelph Daily Mercury, 27 Nov. 1878, 2)
WOOLWICH STREET, residence for George Hurst, 1878 (Guelph Daily Mercury, 27 Nov. 1878, 1)
EAST WARD SCHOOL, Ontario Street at Wood Street, 1878 (Guelph Daily Mercury, 27 Nov. 1878, 1, descrip.)
HIGH SCHOOL, Paisley Street at Yorkshire Street, 1878 (Guelph Daily Mercury, 27 Nov. 1878, 1, descrip.)
WYNDHAM STREET, at Macdonnell Street, dismantling and reconstruction of facades of the old Western Hotel to create new commercial block, with new hotel on Macdonell Street for R. Coulson, 1881 (Guelph Daily Mercury, 3 Feb. 1881, 1, descrip.)
HOMEWOOD SANITARIUM, Delhi Street, conversion of 'The Homestead' owned by D. Guthrie to create a private Asylum for the Insane, with major addition, 1882-83 (Guelph Daily Mercury, 27 Nov. 1882, 1; and 24 Oct. 1883, 1, descrip.)
ROMAN CATHOLIC BOY'S SCHOOL, Northumberland Street, 1883 (Guelph Daily Mercury, 24 Oct. 1883, 1)
ROMAN CATHOLIC GIRL'S SCHOOL, Cork Street, 1883 (Guelph Daily Mercury, 24 Oct. 1883, 1)
LOWER WYNDHAM STREET, studio and additions for William Burgess, 1883 (Guelph Daily Mercury, 24 Oct. 1883, 1)
J.M. BOND & CO., new facade, roof and rear addition to warehouse, Cork Street, 1883 (Guelph Daily Mercury, 24 Oct. 1883, 1)
KING STREET, residence for E.F.B. Johnston, 1884 (Guelph Daily Mercury, 15 Dec. 1884, 1)
John HALL Jr. (works elsewhere in Ontario)
LISTOWEL, ONT., High School, Penelope Street, 1877 (Listowel Banner, 11 Jan. 1878, 8)
LISTOWEL, ONT., Victoria Block & Masonic Hall, for J.C. McLagan, 1878 (Guelph Daily Mercury, 16 July 1878, 1, descrip.)
(with William H. Mallory) GALT, ONT., Central Presbyterian Church, Queen Square at Melville Street North, 1880-82; still standing in 2023 (Galt Reformer, 28 July 1880, 4-5, descrip.; Dumfries Reformer [Galt], 9 March 1882, 2, descrip.; J. Dickson, History of Central Presbyterian Church, Galt, 1904, 132, illus.)
ROCKWOOD, ONT., St. John's Anglican Church, Guelph Street at Church Street, 1880-81; still standing in 2023 (Guelph Daily Mercury, 15 Dec. 1880, 1, t.c.)
ALLISTON, ONT., School House, 1884 (Globe [Toronto], 5 April 1884, 10, t.c.)