Moncrieff, Robert

MONCRIEFF, Robert (1863-1944), active in the Yukon and later in Vancouver, B.C. where he is listed variously as architect and/or building contractor. Born in Tingwall, Shetland Islands, Scotland on 28 September 1863 he was brought to Canada by his parents in 1875 or 1876. He appears to have worked as an architect and builder in or near Selkirk, Manitoba for nearly twenty years; he was credited with the design of the Public School in SELKIRK, MAN. in 1896 (Proceedings of the Grand Lodge of Manitoba (Masons), 1896-97, 279).
By 1897 he had moved to the Yukon, and there he built (and may have designed) the Canadian Bank of Commerce, DAWSON, YUKON (1901). In 1903 he submitted a design in the competition for the new Carnegie Library, Queen Street at Fourth Avenue, DAWSON, YUKON, and he received First Prize (Yukon Sun [Dawson], 24 July 1903, 1, illus. & descrip.). This unique Beaux-Arts landmark was clad entirely in pressed metal components from the Metallic Roofing Co. of Toronto. The building is now used as the Yukon Masonic Lodge No. 45.
Moncrieff and others won the contract to build the new Hudson's Bay Store in Vancouver in 1913, and he appears to have continued to work there as a contractor and owner of Moncrieff Construction Ltd. until his death in Vancouver on 6 June 1944 (obit. The Province [Vancouver], 8 June 1944, 17; inf. Dr. Hal Kalman, Vancouver)