DURNFORD, Alexander Tilloch Galt (1898-1973) was an exceptionally gifted architect and delineator who lived and worked in Montreal. Born there on 25 July 1898, he was named after his grandfather Sir Alex Tilloch Galt, one of the Fathers of Confederation in 1867. He attended the School of Architecture at McGill University and studied under Percy Nobbs and Ramsay Traquair. After graduating in 1922, he moved to New York City, spending one year in the office of George B. Post, and then joined Delano & Aldrich (in 1922-24) where he cultivated his fastidious taste for exquisite detailing and refined Beaux Arts composition. He returned to Montreal in 1924 and opened an office under his own name, and in 1934 formed a partnership with Harold L. Featherstonhaugh (see list of works under Featherstonhaugh & Durnford). With the outbreak of WWII, Durnford became a Lieutenant with the Royal Canadian Navy and served for four years, returning to private practice in mid-1945. The firm was then joined by two new partners, Richard E. Bolton (1907-1997) and Richard Vaux Chadwick (1916-2004), and after 1950 it was renamed Durnford, Bolton, Chadwick & Ellwood.
Durnford skilfully reinterpreted the Quebec vernacular style using a palette of traditional materials including fieldstone and timber, creating robust compositions that were invariably symmetrical in both plan and elevation. Few Canadian architects could rival the level of perfection he brought to his domestic designs, best seen in his exquisite interiors for the Lexington Avenue House in Westmount (1931-32). His scholarly knowledge of Georgian precedent gave his work an originality that was never arid or overwrought. He was sought after by leading business families in Montreal, and respected by his professional colleagues who elected him to the R.A.I.C. College of Fellows where he served as Dean, and then as Chancellor of the College in 1955-57. Durnford died in Montreal on 22 March 1973 (obit. Gazette [Montreal], 24 March 1973, 42; Montreal Star, 26 March 1973, B5; Architecture Canada, May 1973, 7; biog. and port. Who's Who in Canada; 1934-35, 810; biog. and port. Montreal Daily Star, 27 July 1945, 24; biog. and port. R.A.I.C. Journal, xxxv, Sept. 1958, 353; inf. Royal Canadian Academy, Ottawa). A collection of student drawings prepared by Durnford while attending McGill University now forms part of the Canadian Architecture Collection held in the Nobbs Room, Blackader-Lauterman Library, McGill Univ.
A.T.G. DURNFORD (works in Montreal)
ZETA PSI MEMORIAL CHAPTER HOUSE, University Avenue, 1924 (Const., xvii, Nov. 1924, 342)
WESTMOUNT, residence for Gerald E.F. Aylmer, Forden Avenue, 1926 (C.H.G., iii, Nov. 1926, 33, illus.)
WESTMOUNT, residence for John H. Molson, Clarke Avenue, 1927 (Daily Journal of Commerce [Toronto], 25 May 1927, 3; C.H.G, viii, June 1931, 43, illus.; and July 1931, 30-31, illus.)
WESTMOUNT, residence for Theodore G. Morgan, Sunnyside Avenue, 1928 (C.R., xlii, 18 April 1928, 73)
ST. GEORGE'S ANGLICAN CHURCH, Stanley Street at La Gauchetiere Street, major addition, 1928 (Montreal, Les Eglises, 1981, 204-13, illus.)
WESTMOUNT, residence for D.A. Wanklyn, Atwater Avenue, near Sherbrooke Street West, 1928 (C.H.G., iv, Jan. 1928, 29, illus.; and v, July 1929, 31-33, illus.; R.A.I.C. Journal, v, May 1928, 175; June 1928, 214, descrip.)
WESTMOUNT, residence for L. Mackay Smith, Belvedere Road, 1929 (C.R., xliii, 5 June 1929, 66; C.H.G., ix, Aug. 1932, 32, illus.)
REDPATH CRESCENT, residence for J.R. McDougall, 1928 (R.A.I.C., viii, Dec. 1931, 420, illus.; C.H.G., ix, June 1932, 19-21, illus.)
WESTMOUNT, residence for Dr. Campbell P. Howard, Clarke Avenue, 1931 (E. McMann, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts Spring Exhibitions 1880-1970, 1988, 110)
WESTMOUNT, residence for H.S. Berliner, Lexington Avenue, 1931 (C.H.G., ix, May 1932, 5, illus. in advert.)
McGILL UNIVERSITY, Laboratory and Research Building (now The James Administration Building), 1931 (R.A.I.C. Journal, viii, Dec. 1931, 411)
WESTMOUNT, unidentified residence on Lexington Avenue (perhaps for H.S. Berliner?), 1932-33 (R.A.I.C. Journal, xi, Feb. 1934, 20, 26-7, illus.; and xii, Aug. 1935, 135, illus.)
A.T.G. DURNFORD (works elsewhere)
SARAGUAY, QUE., 'Goodwood', a country residence at Cartierville for H.C. Macdougall and his wife Dorothy Molson, Gouin Boulevard West opposite Joseph Saucier Avenue, 1930-31; addition of east wing, with greenhouse at west end, 1936 by Fetherstonhaugh & Durnford (C.R, xliv, 2 July 1930, 64; R.A.I.C. Journal, viii, Dec. 1931, 422, illus.; and ix, Dec. 1932, 264-5, illus. & descrip.; C.H.G., xi, March 1934, 16, illus.; and Dec. 1934, 18, illus.; inf. Scott Edwards)
SHEDIAC, N.B., 'Younglands', a mansion for J.W.Y. Smith, 1927 (C.R., xli, 24 Aug. 1927, 81; R.A.I.C. Journal, ix, April 1932, 98, 103, illus. & descrip.; John Leroux, Building New Brunswick-An Architectural History, 2008, 144, illus.)
VAL DAVID, QUE., residence for Dr. E.M. Eberts, 1932 (E. McMann, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts Spring Exhibitions 1880-1970, 1988, 110)
PIEDMONT, QUE., ski lodge for John H. Molson, 1933-34 (C.H.G., xi, March 1934, 23-9, illus.; R.A.I.C. Journal, xiii, Sept. 1936, 176-7, illus.)
ST. SAVEUR DES MONTS, QUE., country residence for Mrs. G. Ross H. Sims, 1935 (C.H.G., xii, March 1935, 44, illus.; R.A.I.C. Journal, xii, Nov. 1935, 191; and Dec. 1935, 201, illus.)
HILL 70, QUE., (in the Laurentian Mountains) The Penguin Club, a ski club for girls, 1938 (R.A.I.C. Journal, xv, Nov. 1938, 257, descrip.)