HORTON, Samuel Hoult (1864-1933), was active in Victoria, B.C. from 1911, at first under his own name, and later in partnership with Paul Phipps. Their best known work was the Belmont Building, Victoria (1911-12), a substantial Edwardian commercial block constructed using the Hennebique System of ferro-concrete, a patented construction method invented by Louis G. Mouchel in 1897. A detailed description of this building process, with a photographic view of the completed Belmont Building, appeared in the Contract Record [Toronto], xxvii, 25 Nov. 1914, 1435-6, illus. A watercolour perspective rendering of the proposed Belmont House, signed 'Horton & Phipps, Architects, Victoria and Vancouver' can be found in the Photograph Collection of the British Columbia Public Archives (BCPA Acc. 70148).
Born in West Bromwich, Co. Staffordshire, England on 8 March 1864, he was educated and trained there and later moved to London where he was in partnership with the architect George Henry Graham, as Horton & Graham, 'Architects, Surveyors, Auctioneers & Estate Agents', fl. 1890-91. Their business was later dissolved by mutual consent (London Gazette, 10 Feb. 1891, 770). Horton then continued to work as an architect in London under the title 'Horton & Co., Architects', but his name is absent from membership records of the Royal Institute of British Architects. He arrived in Victoria, B.C. in 1911 and in January 1912 was elected President of the local chapter of the B.C. Society of Architects. After the dissolution of the partnership of Horton & Phipps in 1912, Horton continued to work under his own name and in partnership with his brother Robert J. Horton (1880-1916), who was later killed in action during WWI on 7 October 1916. S. Hoult Horton was last recorded in London in 1919 when he received an Army appointment as 'Temp. Major.' within the British Army (London Gazette, 17 Oct. 1919, Supplement, 12852). No information on his activity as an architect after WWI has been found. He died in Eastbourne, Co. Sussex in March 1933 (biog. and port. D. Luxton, Building the West: Early Architects of British Columbia, 2003, 400, 506; inf. Robert Moen, Vancouver).
H. HORTON
VICTORIA, B.C., Willows Hotel, Cadboro Bay Road at Willows Road, 1911 (Colonist [Victoria], 29 Sept. 1911, 10, descrip.; C.R., xxv, 18 Oct. 1911, 59)
VICTORIA, B.C., residence for Duncan G. McBeath, Seaforth Street, 1911 (D. Luxton, Building the West: Early Architects of British Columbia, 2003, 400, illus.; Victoria Heritage Foundation, This Old House: Victoria's Heritage Neighbourhoods, Vol. 1, 2013, 215-16, illus. & descrip.)
HORTON & PHIPPS
VICTORIA, B.C., Belmont Building, Government Street at Humboldt Street, 1911-12 (Colonist [Victoria], 22 July 1911, 10; 19 Nov. 1911, 2, illus. & descrip.; C.R., xxvi, 10 April 1912, 63; xxvii, 25 Nov. 1914, 1435-36, illus. & descrip.; M. Segger & D. Franklin, Exploring Victoria's Architecture, 1996, 67-8, illus.)
VANCOUVER, B.C., apartment block, West Pender Street at Thurlow Street, for an unnamed client, 1912 (C.R., xxvi, 17 Jan. 1912, 73)
VANCOUVER, B.C., rooming house for Mrs. E.T. Tuthill, Powell Street near Dunlevy Avenue, 1912 (Province [Vancouver], 12 Oct. 1912, 23, descrip.)
H. HORTON
VICTORIA, B.C., residence at Oak Bay for John D. Hallam, Newport Road at McNeill Street, 1913 (S. Stark, Oak Bay's Heritage Buildings, 1986, 74, illus.)
CENTRAL SAANICH, B.C., The Brentwood Hotel, Brentwood Bay, overlooking Saanich Inlet, 1913 (Saturday Sunset [Vancouver], 13 June 1914, 8, descrip.; Victoria Daily Times, 14 June 1913, 10, descrip.; C.R., xxvii, 13 Aug. 1913, 69)