HARPER, George Robinson (1843-1910), son of John Harper, was active in Toronto for the duration of his professional career. Born in Toronto in 1843, he was educated at Upper Canada College and served a three year apprenticeship in the office of William Irving from 1861 until early 1864. He then moved to New York City and spent five years working in various architectural offices, and returned to Toronto in 1868. In October of that year, his father suggested that he join in a formal partnership of Harper & Son, Architects (see list of works under John Harper). Their practise thrived over the next 13 years, and their partnership was dissolved after January 1881 when G.R. Harper decided to leave the city to travel. He returned in early 1882 and opened an office under his own name, and began to advertise for tenders for his own projects in March 1882.
During the next thirty years G.R. Harper produced designs for more than forty ecclesiastical, institutional, industrial, commercial and residential projects in the city, including the famous Oak Hall Department Store, King Street East (1893), cited by Eric Arthur as a notable work because of “…the lightness of its structure, and the breadth of glass at all levels” (Eric Arthur, Toronto: No Mean City, 1964, 211-12, illus. & descrip.). Although Arthur provided no information on the name of the architect, recent research has now linked the name of G.R. Harper with this remarkable work. He was also the designer of a distinctive row of 27 brick houses on the west side of Niagara Street, between Tecumseth Street and Wellington Street West. These dwellings, with their curved, semi-circular projecting bay windows, form one of the largest contiguous rows of 19th C. houses in the city, and most of these residences still stand today as of 2016. Many of his later institutional projects such as Lord Lansdowne School (1886) and the Deer Park Sanatorium (1892) were an eclectic mix of the Second Empire or the Romanesque Revival styles, and reveal him to be a competent though conservative architect, and his designs seem to lack many of the refinements of scholarship evident in the work of other Toronto architects such as Frank Darling or Henry Langley.
Harper continued to work right up until the time of his unexpected death in Toronto on 7 September 1910 (obituary articles in The Globe [Toronto], 8 Sept. 1910, 4; Toronto Telegram, 8 Sept. 1910, 10 and photographic portrait p. 20; Mail & Empire [Toronto], 8 Sept. 1910, 4; biog. inf. on G.R. Harper is contained within the biography of his father in C. Blackett Robinson, History of Toronto & County of York, 1885, Vol. ii, 60; biog. and a list of his works can be found in Illustrated Toronto: The Queen City of Canada, 1890, 154)
George R. HARPER (Residential works in Toronto)
SHERBOURNE STREET, at Isabella Street, for Edwin P. Pearson, 1883 (Toronto b.p., 227, 27 Feb. 1883)
QUEEN'S PARK CRESENT, north of St. Joseph Street, for Francis J. Phillips, c. 1885; demol. (list of works in Illustrated Toronto, 1890, 154)
NIAGARA STREET, west side, between Tecumseth Street and Wellington Street West, a row of 27 brick-cased houses for an unnamed client, 1886; still standing in 2016 (Globe [Toronto], 7 Sept. 1886, 2, t.c.)
TODMORDEN, EAST YORK, "Bellehaven", a residence for William T. Taylor, Broadview Avenue near Pottery Road, c. 1887; demol. c. 1960 (list of works by Harper in Illustrated Toronto, 1890, 154; Charles Sauriol, Pioneers of the Don, 1995, 199)
SHERBOURNE STREET, near Howard Street, pair of houses for George and Henry MacFarlane, 1890 (list of works in Illustrated Toronto, 1890, 154)
MAYNARD AVENUE, for Ernest G. Orme, 1895 (Toronto b.p. 2113, 14 Aug. 1895)
YONGE STREET, at Asquith Avenue, store and residence for J.A. Johnston, 1898 (Toronto b.p. 75, 30 Sept. 1898)
PARLIAMENT STREET, at Richmond Street, two pairs of houses for Frank B. Poucher, 1899 (Toronto b.p. 54, 12 May 1899; 105, 2 Jan. 1900)
CAWTHRA SQUARE, pair of houses for Kain Brothers, 1899 (Toronto b.p. 134, 20 June 1899)
SPRINGHURST AVENUE, near Tyndall Avenue, pair of houses for Frank B. Poucher, 1900 (Toronto b.p. 138, 20 Aug. 1900)
TORONTO ISLAND, large addition to residence for Dr. Charles Sheard, at Hanlan's Point, 1901 (Toronto b.p. 81, 25 Feb. 1901)
TRANBY AVENUE, residence for James Crang, 1901 (Toronto b.p. 11, 25 May 1901)
WELLS STREET, near Bathurst Street, for Thomas Holmes, 1902 (Toronto b.p. 1, 17 March 1902)
ALBANY AVENUE, near Bloor Street West, pair of houses for William Apps, 1902 (C.R., xiii, 14 May 1902, 6)
McMASTER AVENUE, for George A. Oram, 1902 (Toronto b.p. 488, 19 June 1902)
SHAW STREET, near Harrison Street, for James Wilkie, 1902 (C.R., xiii, 6 Aug. 1902, 3)
PRESTON AVENUE, at Bloor Street West, row of twelve houses, 1902 (Toronto b.p. 318, 3 Sept. 1902)
PEMBROKE STREET, at Gerrard Street East, pair of houses for Thomas E. Essery, 1905 (Toronto b.p. 671, 19 April 1905)
GLADSTONE AVENUE, near Hepbourne Street, for Thomas Hogg, 1905 (C.R., xvi, 22 Nov. 1905, 5)
BARTLETT AVENUE, near Hallam Street, three houses for H.E. Bell, 1909 (C.R., xxiii, 10 Feb. 1909, 21)
MAJOR STREET, near Lowther Avenue, two houses for Edgar M. Shildrick, 1909 (C.R., xxiii, 10 Feb. 1909, 21)
EDGAR APARTMENTS, Howard Park Avenue at Indian Road, 1910 (Toronto b.p. 19685, 9 April 1910)
HARBORD STREET, at Givens Avenue, three houses for George Martin, 1910 (Toronto b.p. 20232, 2 May 1910)
George R. HARPER (other works in Toronto)
RIVERSIDE UNION HALL, Broadview Avenue, south of Queen Street East, 1883 (Telegram [Toronto], 1 Dec. 1883, 6, t.c.)
WIGGINS & HARRIS, Queen Street West at Dovercourt Road, store, 1884 (Globe [Toronto], 15 March 1884, 7, t.c.)
LANSDOWNE PUBLIC SCHOOL, Spadina Crescent, north of College Street, 1886; demol. c. 1960 (Globe [Toronto], 29 July 1886, 5, t.c.; Sanitary Engineer [New York], xiv, 12 Aug. 1886, 264)
McCARRON HOTEL, Queen Street East at Victoria Street, 1886; demol. (list of works in Illustrated Toronto, 1890, 154)
ROBERT DARLING CO., Front Street West at Bay Street, warehouse, 1886; burned 1904 (Telegram [Toronto], 8 June 1886, 3, t.c.)
DAVID W. THOMPSON & CO., Buchanan Street at Terauley Street, 1886 (Telegram [Toronto], 26 July 1886, 2)
TODMORDEN, EAST YORK, The York Paper Mill, a large three storey brick warehouse or factory for John F. Taylor, Don Mills Road (now Broadview Avenue), near Pottery Road, 1888 (Engineering & Building Record [New York], xviii, 24 Nov. 1888, list of building contracts, page x)
WOODGREEN METHODIST CHURCH, Queen Street East at Strange Avenue, 1889; demol. (list of works in Illustrated Toronto, 1890, 154)
TORONTO COLLEGE OF MUSIC, Pembroke Street near Shuter Street, for F.N. Torrington, 1890; additions 1901 (list of works in Toronto Illustrated, 1890, 154; C.R., xii, 21 Aug. 1901, 3, t.c.)
BONAR PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, Lansdowne Avenue at College Street, 1890 (Globe [Toronto], 18 Oct. 1890, 10, illus. & descrip.)
DEER PARK SANATORIUM, Heath Street West, 1891-92 (Deer Park Recorder, 2 July 1891, 4, illus. & descrip.; Globe [Toronto], 13 Feb. 1892, 3-4)
MERCHANTS BUILDING, Bay Street near Front Street West, 1892-93; burned 1904 (Toronto Daily Mail, 15 April 1893, 14, illus. & descrip.)
OAK HALL CLOTHING HOUSE, King Street East near Church Street, 1893; demol. c. 1950 (C.R., iv, 11 May 1893, 2; and 13 July 1893, 2; Globe [Toronto], 2 June 1894, 12, detailed descrip.; Toronto Daily Mail, 2 June 1894, 12, descrip.; Eric Arthur, Toronto: No Mean City, 1964, 211-12, illus. & descrip., but lacking attribution to the architect)
CARLAW BUILDING, Wellington Street West near Bay Street, for John A. Carlaw, 1897; demol. c. 1965 (Toronto b.p. 57, 15 Sept. 1897)
SWISS COTTAGE ISOLATION HOSPITAL, Winchester Street near Don River, 1901; addition 1903; a new Laundry Building, 1905; all demol. (Toronto b.p. 82, 28 Feb. 1901; 1529, 14 Aug. 1903; Toronto Daily Star, 14 Aug. 1903, 3; and 7 May 1904, 20, descrip.; and 13 June 1905, 6, t.c.; Richard Longley, "From Magdalen Asylum to Bridgepoint Active Healthcare" in ACORN [Toronto], Vol. 46 No. 1, Spring 2021, 9-10, illus.)
AMERICAN ABELL ENGINE CO., Abell Street, factory, 1902 (Toronto b.p. 455, 3 Oct. 1902)
WILLSON & WARDEN CO., Richmond Street East near George Street, factory, 1908 (Toronto b.p. 13054, 23 Oct. 1908)
TORONTO SHOW CASE CO., Carlaw Avenue at Queen Street East, factory, 1910 (Toronto b.p. 19072, 28 Feb. 1910)
GEORGE WESTON BISCUIT CO., Peter Street at Richmond Street West, a large 4 storey factory, 1910; renovated and restored 2015, and now part of the Queen-Richmond Office Complex; still standing in 2023 (Toronto b.p. 23871, 20 Oct. 1910)