DREVER, Colin Glass Croy (1887-1975), a native of Edinburgh, Scotland who lived and worked in Kingston, Ontario from 1912 until 1966. He was active in the following firms:
Power & Son & Drever, Architects, Kingston 1919-23 (with Joseph Power and Thomas R.P. Power)
Colin Drever, Architect, 1923-1945
Drever & Smith, Architects, 1945- 1966 (with Harry P. Smith)
Drever was born 28 December 1887 and studied architecture and engineering at the George Heriot School in Edinburgh where he graduated in 1908. While attending school, he articled in the Edinburgh office of James Jerdan, Architect from 1905 to 1910, and then became an assistant in the office James B. Dunn, another local Edinburgh architect. Drever emigrated to Canada in March 1911 and settled in Toronto where he was hired by another Scotsman, Victor D. Horsburgh, Chief Architect of the Canadian Bank of Commerce, to assist him with preparation of drawings for bank branches across Canada.
In late 1912 Drever moved to Kingston, Ont. to join the long-established office of Power & Son, a leading firm in that city. The two sons, Joseph Power and Thomas R.P. Power, employed Drever as a draftsman in 1912 until 1915 when he left Canada to serve overseas during WWI. Upon his return in 1918, he was invited to become a full partner in the new firm of Power & Son & Drever (1918-22). He opened his own office in Kingston in 1922, and practised under his own name until 1945 when he was joined by Harry P. Smith, and they practised together until December 1966 when Drever retired from the profession. Drever was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Architectural Inst. of Canada in 1957. Much of the early work by Drever was devoted to institutional and educational commissions, and he employed a restrained Collegiate Gothic style for the Geology & Minerology Building at Queen’s University (1930), and a more reserved and conservative Georgian Revival style for Craine Hall on the same university campus (1937). However, with the arrival of Harry P. Smith in 1945, the design work by the firm took a dramatic shift towards a post-war modernist style, and Drever & Smith developed a reputation for their progressive and contemporary design of school buildings throughout eastern Ontario.
Drever died in Kingston on 13 June 1975 (obituary with port. Whig-Standard [Kingston], 16 June 1975, 2; inf. Ontario Association of Architects). The National Archives of Canada in Ottawa holds a substantial collection of drawings by Power & Son & Drever, by Colin Drever, and by Drever & Smith, from 1918 until after 1950. A brief biography of Drever was published in the 1986 catalogue from the Public Archives of Canada entitled "100 Years of Architecture in Kingston: John Power to Drever & Smith", pp. 8-9, by Joan Mattie (biog. and port. Jennifer McKendry, Architects Working in the Kingston Region 1820-1920, 2019, 36. illus.)
C. DREVER (works in Kingston unless noted)
NEW RANDOLPH HOTEL, Bagot Street, a 6 storey extension to existing hotel, 1925-26 (Daily Standard [Kingston], 2 April 1925, 1, descrip.; and 3 April 1925, 1, descrip.; and 18 May 1925, 1, descrip.; and 22 April 1926, 14, detailed descrip.)
HOTEL DIEU, Brock Street at Sydenham Street, addition of 2 new storeys above the existing Nurses Home, 1926; addition to the Hotel Dieu, 1929-30 (Daily Standard [Kingston], 24 April 1926, 2, descrip.; and p. 19, t.c.; C.R., xliii, 14 Aug. 1929, 64)
GANANOQUE, ONT., Stone Street Public School, major addition of a new floor of classrooms above the existing building, 1925 (Daily British Whig [Kingston], 11 June 1925, 7, descrip.)
RIDEAU PUBLIC SCHOOL, MacDonnell Street at Dundas Street, 1925-26 (Daily British Whig [Kingston], 23 June 1925, 1; C.R., xxxix, 1 July 1925, 50; Daily Standard [Kingston], 28 May 1925, 10; and 15 July 1925, 14, detailed descrip.; and 12 Feb. 1926, 7; J. McKendry, Modern Architecture in Kingston, 2014, 15, illus. & descrip.)
HEMLOCK PARK, residence for Alfred H. Fair, R.R. 5, near Kingston, 1926 (dwgs. at NAC, Power Coll.)
KINGSTON GENERAL HOSPITAL, George Street at O'Kill Street, Doran Building for tuberculosis patients, 1926; and reconstruction of the George Street Home, 1929 (Kingston Daily Standard, 1 Sept. 1926, 5, descrip.; Canadian Hotel Review, vii, June 1929, 37)
ANNANDALE APARTMENTS, Sydenham Street, a 5 storey apartment block, 1926-27 (J. McKendry, Modern Architecture in Kingston, 2014, 35-36, illus. & descrip.)
HOTEL LA SALLE, Princess Street at Bagot Street, major addition, 1927 (C.R., xli, 13 July 1927, 53; dwgs. at NAC, Power Coll.; J. McKendry, Modern Architecture in Kingston, 2014, 30, illus. & descrip.)
QUEEN'S UNIVERSITY, a new Student Union Building, University Avenue at Union Street, extensive renovations and remodelling of the old Orphan's Home for a Student Union, to include a new Memorial Hall, 1928 (Kingston Whig-Standard, 18 Jan. 1928, 1, descrip.)
CORNWALL, ONT., major addition to the Hotel Dieu Hospital, 1928 (Montreal Daily Star, 28 Feb. 1928, 20, t.c.)
STRAND THEATRE, reconstruction of the existing building, 1930 (Kingston Whig-Standard, 9 Jan. 1930, 13, t.c.)
QUEEN'S UNIVERSITY, extension to Nichol Hall, Union Street, 1930 (C.R., xliv, 29 Jan. 1930, 61, t.c.)
SEELEY'S BAY, ONT., a 5 room Continuation School or High School, 1930 (Kingston Whig-Standard, 14 March 1930, 16; and 5 April 1930, 19, t.c.; and 1 May 1930, 12, descrip.)
QUEEN'S UNIVERSITY, Miller Hall School of Mines, Geology & Mineralogy, 1930 (Kingston Whig-Standard, 3 April 1930, 2, illus. & signed drawing; C.R., xliv, 16 July 1930, 60; R.A.I.C. Journal, viii, Sept. 1931, vi, illus. in advert.)
KINGSTON TECHNICAL HIGH SCHOOL, Frontenac Street at Earl Street, 1931-32 (Kingston Whig-Standard, 3 Jan. 1930, 3, descrip.; C.R., 1 July 1931, 797; J. McKendry, Modern Architecture in Kingston, 2014, 26, illus. & descrip.)
ST. PAUL'S ANGLICAN CHURCH, Queen Street, a new Memorial Pulpit in the nave, 1930 (Kingston Whig-Standard, 22 April 1930, 3)
PRINCESS STREET, near Hillendale Avenue, Mother House and Chapel for the Sisters of Providence of St. Vincent de Paul, 1931-32 (C.R., xlv, 8 July 1931, 57)
PRINCESS STREET UNITED CHURCH, 1931-32 (Century of Service 1850-1950: A Historical Record of Princess Street United Church, 9, illus.)
EMPIRE LIFE ASSURANCE CO., King Street, addition, 1931 (Kingston, Buildings of Architectural and Historic Significance, ii, 1973, 40-4, illus.)
QUEEN'S UNIVERSITY, addition and alterations to the Arts Building, University Avenue, 1931-32 (C.R., xlv, 3 June 1931, 55)
QUEEN'S UNIVERSITY, reconstruction of Fleming Hall, 1933 (C.R., xlvii, 21 June 1933, 35, t.c.)
KING STREET WEST, at Ellerbeck Street, residence for John McGall, 1935 (J. McKendry, Modern Architecture in Kingston, 2014, 27, illus. & descrip.)
NAPANEE, ONT., residence for E.J. Roy, 1936 (C.H.G., xiv, Jan-Feb. 1937, 46, illus.)
QUEEN'S UNIVERSITY, Craine Hall, Arch Street, 1937 (C.R., vol. 50, 5 May 1937, 31; lii, 24 May 1939, 11, illus. in advert.)
KING STREET WEST, residence for Mr. Trotter, 1941 (J. McKendry, Modern Architecture in Kingston, 2014, 39, illus. & descrip.)
DREVER & SMITH (works in Kingston unless noted)
GRENVILLE SOCIETY HOUSES, a tract of 50 modernist houses, Bath Road at Portsmouth Avenue, including a residence for Mr. Hay, Elmwood Avenue, 1946 (J. McKendry, Modern Architecture in Kingston, 2014, 40, illus. & descrip.)
KINGSTON GENERAL HOSPITAL, addition of the Victory Memorial Wing, George Street at Stuart Street, 1945-46 (R.A.I.C. Journal, xxv, Sept. 1948, 328-9, illus.)
CORNWALL, ONT., Roman Catholic Separate School, 8th Street, 1946-47 (C.R., lix, Dec. 1946, 76)
SMITHS FALLS, ONT., major addition to public hospital, and construction of new Nurses' Residence, 1947 (Ottawa Journal, 30 Jan. 1947, 17, descrip.)
FRONTENAC PUBLIC SCHOOL, Cowdy Street, addition, 1947 (C.R., lx, Feb. 1947, 144)
WINSTON CHURCHILL PUBLIC SCHOOL, Earl Street at MacDonnell Street, 1947-48 (R.A.I.C. Journal, xxv, June 1948, 208-9, illus.; J. McKendry, Modern Architecture in Kingston, 2014, 50, illus. & descrip.)
GANANOQUE, ONT., High School, 1948-49 (R.A.I.C. Journal, xxvii, May 1950, 173, illus.)
BROCKVILLE, ONT., summer residence and boat house for E.C. Cossitt, 1949 (R.A.I.C. Journal, xxvi, July 1949, 217, illus.)
CORNWALL, ONT., Hotel Dieu Hospital, McConnell Avenue, 1950-51 (C.R., lxiii, Jan. 1950, 144)
BROCKVILLE, ONT., Memorial Arena, 1950 (C.R., lxiii, June 1950, 128)
PORTSMOUTH, St. Michael's Roman Catholic Separate School, Baiden Street, 1950 (C.R., lxiii, Sept. 1950, 128)