POTTER, William Appleton (1842-1909) and Robert Henderson ROBERSTON (1849-1919), active in New York City in 1876-80, were invited to submit an entry in the competition for Trinity Anglican Church & Sunday School in Saint John, N.B. after the Great Fire in that city in June 1877. Their firm was one of three to prepare designs, and the refined High Victorian Gothic proposal by Potter & Robertson was declared the winner. Detailed drawings were then prepared, tenders were called in March 1878, but it appears that bids were much higher than anticipated, and Building Committee set aside the plans. By September 1878 another competitor, William T. Thomas of Montreal, was engaged to carry out his own scheme.
Potter was a great admirer of H.H. Richardson and a highly skilled and talented designer in his own right. He began his career in New York in 1869 under his own name, and later formed a partnership with R.H. Robertson in 1876, and continued to work under his own name from 1880 until after 1900. He can be credited with more than 30 major ecclesiastical and college buildings in the United States, but only one completed work in Canada has been located, that for Trinity Anglican Church, BEAUHARNOIS, QUE., a modest wood frame chapel opened in December 1897. Potter died in Rome, Italy on 19 February 1909. Robertson died in New York City on 5 June 1919 (obit. W.A. Potter in New York Times [N.Y.], 22 Feb. 1909, 9; biog. H. Withey, Biographical Dictionary of American Architects, 1956, 485; MacMillan Encyclopedia of Architects, 1982, iii, 467-8, illus; obit. R.H. Robertson in New York Times [N.Y.], 5 June 1919, 13; biog. H. Withey, Biographical Dictionary of American Architects, 1956, 516; MacMillan Encyclopedia of Architects, 1982, iii, 591. A lengthy essay and analysis of the work of W.A. Potter, written by Lawrence Wodehouse, appeared in the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, xxxii, May 1973, 175-92, illus.
POTTER & ROBERSTON
SAINT JOHN, N.B., Trinity Anglican Church & Sunday School, Germain Street, 1877-78, but plans later set aside (MorningFreeman [Saint John], 30 Nov. 1877, 3; Evangelical Churchman [Toronto], ii, 13 Dec. 1877, 483-4, descrip.; American Architect & Building News [Boston], v, 3 May 1879, 140, descrip. and plate illus.; Gary Hughes, Music of the Eye, 1992, 81-5)
W.A. POTTER
BEAUHARNOIS, QUE., Trinity Anglican Church, 1897 (History of Trinity Church Beauharnois, 1953, 3; H. Bergevin, Eglises Protestants, 1981, 94, illus.)