DOMVILLE, Paul Compton Kellock (1893-1977), an influential architect, artist and educator who brought a refined American Beaux-Arts sensibility to the Hamilton area in the period from 1919 to 1922, when he was an assistant in the office of Gordon Hutton. Born in Hamilton, Ont. on 16 June 1893 he graduated from Hamilton Collegiate, and studied at the Hamilton Art School. From 1911 to 1915 he articled in the office of Gordon Hutton, then enrolled in the Dept. of Architecture at the Univ. of Pennsylvania in September 1915 where he studied for two years. After serving overseas with the Royal Canadian Navy in 1917-18, he returned to Hamilton in May 1919 to work as assistant and collaborator with Hutton, and is credited there with the design of several residences and banks executed in a finely proportioned classical revival style.
Domville moved to Philadelphia in late 1922 and joined the Faculty of the Univ. of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Fine Arts, devoting forty years to a distinguished teaching career, and later serving as Chairman of the Dept. of Fine Arts from 1957 to 1961. He also became a well-known artist and mural painter, executing dozens of historical and allegorical murals in theatres, churches, banks and private homes in the Philadelphia area. He retired in 1961 and died at Raleigh, N.C. on 2 September 1977 (obituary Philadelphia Inquirer, 8 Sept. 1977; biog. Spectator [Hamilton], 28 May 1919, 21; Woodstock Townsman [Woodstock, N.Y.], 4 Feb. 1971; biog. Who Was Who in American Art, 1999, Vol. i, 936; inf. Mark F. Lloyd, Archives & Records Centre, Univ. of Pennsylvania).
(with Mills & Hutton) HAMILTON, ONT., residence for Harry L. Frost, Markland Street at James Street South, c. 1915 (Const., ix, June 1916, 174, 179-81, illus. & descrip.; inf. Arthur Wallace, Hamilton)
(with Gordon Hutton) WABASSA PARK, Bathing Pavilion, 1917 (dwgs. OA, Souter & Lenz Coll.)
(with Gordon Hutton) HAMILTON, ONT., residence for Frederick T. Smye, Aberdeen Avenue at Undercliffe Avenue, 1917 (Const., xii, June 1919, 178-81, 184, illus. & descript.)
(with Gordon Hutton) HAMILTON, ONT., Bank of Hamilton, Locke Street at Herkimer Street, 1919 (dwgs. OA, Souter & Lenz Coll.)
(with Gordon Hutton) DUNNVILLE, ONT., Bank of Hamilton, 1920 (dwgs. OA, Souter & Lenz Coll.)
COMPETITIONS
HAMILTON, ONT., Carnegie Library, 1910. Domville was one of 20 architects from Canada and the United States who submitted a design in this important competition. He was not one of three finalists, and the winners were Stuart Pavey of London, Ont. with Harold E. Shorey and Atwell J. King of Montreal. However, their winning design was rejected because it was mistakenly assumed they were Americans who had submitted their entry from a New York City address. The commission was later awarded to A.W. Peene of Hamilton (inf. Robert Hamilton).
FRANCE & BELGIUM, Canadian Battlefields Memorials, 1921. Domville, together with Lester Husband, another Hamilton architect, were among more than 100 Canadian architects and artists who submitted plans in this national competition. They were one of 17 finalists who were selected for the second stage of the competition (Winnipeg Daily Tribune, 25 April 1921, 3, list of finalists). The First Premium was eventually awarded to F.C. Clemesha of Regina, and to the sculptor Walter Allward of Toronto.