JOHNSON, Richard Arthur (1871-1949) was active in Halifax and Sydney from 1902 until after 1926. According to his obituary he was born in England and educated there and 'came to Canada as a small child'. He appears to have left Canada after 1890 and was '.....engaged as draughtsman in some of the best Boston offices and as a chief draughtsman of William G. Preston, well known Boston architect' (Sydney Record, 20 Oct. 1902, 8). By 1902 he had returned to Halifax and was admitted into partnership with the Hopson Brothers where he was assigned to operate the Sydney N.S. branch of the firm. In late June 1903 this office was closed and Johnson formed a new but short-lived partnership with R.B. Whitten as 'successors to Hopson Brothers' (Sydney Record, 24 June 1903). By 1904 he had returned to Halifax where he prepared an innovative though not particularly adventurous design for the A.M. Bell & Co. Store, one of the first commercial buildings in the Maritimes constructed entirely of concrete. A small collection of his drawings survive at the Public Archives of Nova Scotia and reveal him to be a competent architectural draftsman but his career is often overshadowed by more talented and successful Halifax designers such as William C. Harris and Herbert Gates. Johnson's architectural career ended before 1930, and he died at Bedford, N.S. on 5 July 1949 (obituary in the Halifax Herald, 5 July 1949, 7; biography in M. Rosinski, Architects of Nova Scotia: A Biographical Dictionary, 1994, 244-5; inf. from Garry Shutlak, Halifax).
HALIFAX
A.M. BELL & CO., Granville Street, commercial block, 1904 (C.A.B., xvii, Sept. 1904, 159, descrip. & illus.)
ST. PAUL'S ANGLICAN CHURCH, Argyle Street, a new Communion Table, and Communion Desk in the nave, 1905 (Evening Mail [Halifax], 24 April 1905, 1, descrip.)
FIRE HALL NO. 4, Bedford Row at Prince Street, 1905 (Halifax, Annual Report of the City Engineer of Halifax, 1905-06, 23; dwgs. at PANS)
ROBIE STREET, near Coburg Road, residence for W.E. Hebb, 1907 (inf. G. Shutlak)
YOUNG WOMEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION, Hollis Street, addition, 1907 (PANS, MG3, Vol. 2069, 27-8)
SOUTH STREET, near Queen Street, residence for John F. Taylor, 1908 (inf. G. Shutlak)
ALEXANDRA BLOCK TENEMENTS, Brunswick Street at Albemarle Street, with 106 tenement blocks providing 353 rooms, designed 1906; proposed in 1909 (Evening Mail [Halifax], 17 July 1906, 10, descrip. and critique; and 19 Jan. 1909, 1 & 2, descrip.)
BRUNSWICK STREET METHODIST CHURCH, major addition, 1908-09 (Evening Mail [Halifax], 16 Nov. 1908, 6)
YOUNG AVENUE, residences for J.A. MacInnes and W.A. Black, 1909 (dwgs. at PANS)
BIRCHDALE HOTEL, facing the Northwest Arm, 1909 (dwgs. at PANS)
BARRINGTON STREET, at Blowers Street, commercial building for William M. Brown, 1910 (E. Pacey, Historic Halifax, 1988, 102-3, illus.)
TRINITY ANGLICAN CHURCH, a new Parish Hall for the church, Brunswick Street at Cogswell Street, 1912; burned March 1928 (Evening Mail [Halifax], 9 April 1912, 6)
WESTERN UNION & CABLE TELEGRAPH CO., on the Old City Wharf site, a large new 2 storey concrete factory for overseas cable fabrication, officer's quarters, offices and machinery rooms, 1913 (Evening Mail [Halifax], 3 July 1913, 11, descrip.)
ROBIE STREET, near College Street, stores and apartments for George A. Burbidge, 1914 (dwgs. at PANS)
SPRING GARDEN ROAD, at Brenton Street, extensive alterations and remodeling of residence for Dr. Chisholm, 1917 (Evening Mail [Halifax], 20 July 1917, 12, descrip.)
ST. JOSEPH'S YOUNG MEN'S SOCIETY HALL, Macara Street at Gottingen Street, 1920 (Evening Mail [Halifax], 14 April 1920, 12, detailed descrip.)
HENRY STREET, near Watt Street, residence for R.P. Frennan, 1920 (inf. G. Shutlak)
ELSEWHERE
SYDNEY MINES, N.S., St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, Main Street at Queen Street, 1905-06; still standing in 2022 (Record [Sydney], 4 Oct. 1905, 8; 4 Nov. 1905, 8)
DARTMOUTH, N.S., Parish Hall for Christ Church (Anglican), Ochterloney Street, 1905-06; reconstruction and enlargement of the Church after the Halifax Explosion, 1917 (C.W. Bayer, Christ Church, Dartmouth, 1817-1959, 47, 61-2)
LUNENBURG, N.S., addition and alterations to St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, Townsend Street at King Street, 1907 (Halifax Herald, 1 May 1907, 6, t.c.)
SEAFORTH, N.S., a church, 1911 (Evening Mail [Halifax], 9 May 1911, 12, t.c.)
NORTH DARTMOUTH, N.S., Emmanuel Anglican Church, Windmill Road at Dawson Street, 1920 (Evening Mail [Halifax], 20 Aug. 1920, 9, illus. & descrip.; C.W. Bayer, Christ Church, Dartmouth 1817-1959, 61, illus.)
WOODSIDE, N.S., Christ Church [Anglican], 1920 (Evening Mail [Halifax], 17 May 1920, 2; Anglican Diocese Archives, Halifax, MG3, Series 16, Vol. 1)
WOODSIDE, N.S., Immaculate Conception Roman Catholic Church, with Glebe House, Pleasant Street, 1921-22 (Evening Mail [Halifax], 28 Jan 1922, 14-15, illus. & detailed descrip.)