MOORHOUSE, Walter Norwood (1884-1977), partner in the successful Toronto firm of George, Moorhouse & King, was born in Toronto on 23 September 1884 and was educated as a civil engineer, not as an architect, and graduated at the head of his class from the Engineering Dept. of the School of Practical Science at the Univ. of Toronto in 1904. In 1907 he obtained a position as a draftsman with Curry, Sproatt & Rolph, and was later employed as a draftsman, engineer and inspector with Sproatt & Rolph, a leading firm in Toronto, where he was said to have been '......in charge of engineering work for that firm' from 1908 to 1913. As the staff engineer on the design of the Southam Press Building, Adelaide Street West at Duncan Street, TORONTO, ONT. (1908) he wrote a lengthy paper on the construction of the building in 1912 (Proceedings of the Ontario Association of Architects, xi, 1912, 29-35).
In early 1913 he was invited by Allan George, a talented young architect from England, to form a new partnership (see list of works under George & Moorhouse). Their business was interrupted by WWI, and after returning to Canada from service with the Canadian Army during WWI, Moorhouse was nominated in 1919 to succeed W.W. Pearse as City Architect for Toronto, but despite support from the O.A.A., and from his former employers Sproatt & Rolph, his name was passed over in favour of G.F.W. Price, who was another applicant for that post (C.R., xxiv, 28 Jan. 1920, 95). Moorhouse persuaded his business partner to invite Cecil C. King to join them in the partnership in late 1919. Both Moorhouse and King had already collaborated on the design of Glenmount Church in 1914, and their new firm of George, Moorhouse & King was remarkably prolific, remaining active until 1935. After the departure of King in 1935 the firm of George & Moorhouse continued to carry out major projects until 1943. Moorhouse retired and later died at Oakville, Ont. on 25 January 1977 (death notice Globe & Mail, 28 Jan. 1977, 38; inf. Ontario Association of Architects; inf. NAC, MG28, I277, Box 10, Canadian Society of Civil Engineers, Application dated July 1911). A portrait of Moorhouse, painted by Adrian Dingle, is held at the Ontario Archives (OA, Acc. 9239, S 13933). A photographic portrait of Moorhouse appeared in the Toronto Daily Star, 19 Dec. 1929, 9, and in the R.A.I.C. Journal, xiii, Feb. 1936, 33.
MOORHOUSE & KING (works in Toronto)
GLENMOUNT METHODIST CHURCH, Gerrard Street East at Golfview Avenue, 1914; still standing in 2023 (inf. United Church Archives, Toronto, file for Glenmount Church, illus. and dwgs. at City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 200, Series 410, File 2574)