JOHNSTON, James Porter (1841-1893) was an American architect who lived and worked in Ogdensburg, N.Y. and contributed several significant works to the towns and villages of the St. Lawrence River valley in eastern Ontario. Born at Hainesburg, Vermont on 21 August 1841 his family moved to Lawrence, N.Y. while Johnston was still young. It was here that he learned the trade of carpenter but '....his labours gradually changed until he became recognized far and wide as an architect of unusual ability'. He moved to Ogdensburg in 1870 and was married there to Emma E. Burt on 3 October 1871. During the next twenty-two years he maintained a successful practise both in upper New York State and in Ontario, and completed important civic, institutional and residential works on both sides of the border. However, it was his ecclesiastical designs which earned him a deserved reputation as a Gothic Revival stylist, and among these his plan for First Presbyterian Church in Brockville must certainly rank as a pivotal work in Johnston's career. Richly ornate without being vulgar, and eclectic but not merely imitative, this design compares favourably with other Revivalist designs by talented Canadian architects such as Henry Langley of Toronto, George P. Durand of London, and William T. Thomas of Montreal, and shows a sensitivity to imaginative siting uncommon in Canada. He appears to have been a remarkably prolific architect; his obituary published in 1893 states that during his career "....the number of churches alone reaches sixty-five", and this was in addition to his many institutional, commercial and residential commissions.
In Ogdensburg, N.Y. his best know works include the Academy, the Congregational Church, and the Ogdensburg Club House; in nearby towns he designed the Franklin County Court House, the State Deaf Institute at Malone, the Court House at Canton, and the Cox Block, the Episcopal Church and Ives Block at Potsdam, N.Y. Many references to his designs listed below have been extracted from disparate Canadian sources, but a particularly informative list of his completed work in this country can be found in the Prescott Journal, 16 March 1893, 8, which records the City Council debate over the selection of an architect for the new High School at Prescott. Although this commission was awarded to Thomas Hanley of Belleville, Johnston was defended as 'a reliable man, and a first class architect, second to none in the Dominion'. Johnston died in Ogdensburg, N.Y. on 20 September 1893 and was buried in that town (obituary Ogdensburg Advance, 21 Sept. 1893, 6; obituary and list of works in the St. Lawrence Plaindealer [Canton, N.Y.], 27 Sept. 1893, 4; biography in G. Curtis, Memorial Record of St. Lawrence County, New York, 1894, 323; obituary in St. Lawrence Republican [Ogdensburg], 27 Sept. 1893; inf. from Mrs. P.E. Boyesen, Ogdensburg; D. Grant, Brockville)
James P. JOHNSTON (works in Brockville, Ont.)
FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH, Court House Avenue at Pine Street, 1877-78 (Canadian Baptist [Toronto], 3 Jan. 1878, 5, descrip.)
FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, William Street at Church Street, facing Court House Square, 1878-79; galleries, 1893 (Canadian Illustrated News, xix, 3 May 1879, 276, 279, illus. & descrip.; C.R., iv, 2 March 1893, 1; 150th Anniversary of First Presbyterian Church, Brockville 1816-1966, 5, illus.)
VICTORIA AVENUE, residence for Vincent H. Moore, 1880 (Scientific Canadian, April 1880, 100-01, illus.)
WALL STREET, residence for Newton Cossitt, 1881 (Ogdensburg Journal, 12 April 1881, 3)
HARTLEY STREET, 'Idlewild', residence for Henry A. Field 'on the Sherwood property', 1881 (Evening Recorder (Brockville), 12 July 1881, 4, descrip.)
BETHUNE STREET, residence for James Alexander, 1886 (Ogdensburg Journal, 14 May 1886, 4)
PINE STREET, at Garden Street, residence for George McLean, 1886 (Ogdensburg Journal, 14 May 1886, 4)
MAIN STREET EAST, residence for James Gilmour, 1886 (Ogdensburg Journal, 14 May 1886, 4)
ORCHARD STREET, near Pine Street, residence for Charles H. Buell, 1886 (Ogdensburg Journal, 14 May 1886, 4)
HIGH SCHOOL, Pearl Street at Ormond Street, 1888 (list of works in Prescott Journal, 16 March 1893, 8)
unnamed street, residence for Robert Gill, 1892 (Architecture & Building [New York], xvi, 9 Jan. 1892, illus.)
KING STREET, opposite North Augusta Road, residence for James H. Gilmour, 1892 (Architecture & Building [New York], xvi, 9 Jan. 1892, illus.)
James P. JOHNSTON (works elsewhere in Ontario and Quebec)
PRESCOTT, ONT., Roman Catholic Separate School, 1875 (Prescott Telegraph, 26 May 1875, 3; Canadian Illustrated News, xvii, 22 June 1878, 393, 395, illus.)
PRESCOTT, ONT., Market Building & Fire Hall, 1875 (Canadian Illustrated News, xvii, 4 May 1878, 278, 280, illus.)
CORNWALL, ONT., High School, 1877 (Canadian Illustrated News, xvii, 26 Jan. 1878, 54)
PRESCOTT, ONT., residence for John P. Wiser, King Street, c. 1878; demol. 1960 (list of works in Prescott Journal, 16 March 1893, 8)
PRESCOTT, ONT., St. Marks Roman Catholic Church, 1878 (Canadian Illustrated News, xvii, 1 June 1878, 347, descrip.)
PRESCOTT, ONT., 'Thorn Hedge Place', a mansion for James Quinn, 1878 (Canadian Illustrated News, xvii, 22 June 1878, 393, 395, illus.; Jacob Drung, "Victorian Inspiration", in ACORN [journal of the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario], Vol. xlii, No. 1, Spring 2017, 10-11, illlus. & descrip.)
MORRISBURG, ONT., Methodist Episcopal Church, 1880-81 (Christian Guardian [Toronto], 12 Jan. 1881, 14, descrip.; 26 Oct. 1881, 342, descrip.)
WINCHESTER, ONT., Methodist Episcopal Church, 1882-83 (Free Press [Ottawa], 19 July 1882, 3; Gazette [Montreal], 20 July 1882, 8, descrip.)
RENFREW, ONT., St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, 1883-84 (Rev. H. Mick, History of Trinity-St. Andrew's, Renfrew, Ont. 1828-1928, 41, descrip.)
CORNWALL, ONT., Knox Presbyterian Church, Second Street at Sydney Street, 1884-85; steeple burned 1945 (B. Cameron, History of Knox United Church 1846-1975, 6, illus.)
CORNWALL, ONT., a brick hotel for George Ross, 1886-87 (Sanitary Engineer & Construction Record [New York], xv, 4 Dec. 1886, Contract Supplement, iv)
PRESCOTT, ONT., residence for Harlow Wiser, 1887 (Ogdensburg Journal, 20 July 1887, 4, descrip.; St. Lawrence Republican [Ogdensburg], 27 July 1887)
BUCKINGHAM, QUE., Presbyterian Church, 1890 (Ottawa Free Press, 24 Dec. 1890, 5, descrip.)
PRESCOTT, ONT., Ferguson Block, for A.W. Ferguson, 1892 (Prescott Journal, 28 April 1892, 4)
PRESCOTT, ONT., St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church and manse, Dibble Street at Centre Street, 1892-93 (Prescott Journal, 16 March 1893, 8; Architecture & Building [New York], xvi, 7 May 1892, illus. with double page plate showing perspective)
PRESCOTT, ONT., Wesleyan Methodist Church, enlargement and alterations, 1893 (Ogdensburg Advance & St. Lawrence County Democrat, 18 May 1893, 5; Ogdensburg Daily Journal, 8 July 1893, 4; Prescott Journal, 30 Nov. 1893, 1, descrip.; Christian Guardian [Toronto], 13 Dec. 1893, 788, descrip.)