Johnston, John L.

JOHNSTON, John L. ( -1833) of Halifax, N.S., advertised himself as both architect and builder who, in 1822, undertook a survey of the proposed Bay Verte Canal with Mr. Minnette, Surveyor (Acadian Recorder [Halifax] 21 Sept. 1822, 3). He may be the mason 'John Johnson' [sic] listed in the partnership dissolution notice of Thompson & Johnson, Halifax, in 1827 (Acadian Recorder [Halifax], 15 Dec. 1827, 3). In early 1831 he submitted a design in the competition for the new Penitentiary & House of Correction at Quebec City, and was awarded Second Premium of £54, but none of the solicited schemes were built, and the commission eventually was given to Thomas Baillairge (Lower Canada, House of Assembly Journals, xl, 1831, 78; Acadian Recorder [Halifax], 5 March 1831, 3). He had ambitions to open a School of Architecture in Halifax, following the model that had commenced in Quebec City early in 1832, but his untimely death on 14 January 1833 at Halifax brought an end to his plan (death notice in the Nova Scotian, 24 Jan. 1833, 30). He was 'a native of Ireland' and his Last Will filed in Nova Scotia stated that he was the son of Lloyd Johnston, perhaps the architect of the same name who was active in Saint John, N.B. from 1824 until 1842 (biography in M. Rosinski, Architects of Nova Scotia: A Biographical Dictionary, 1994, 66)