MOUNTAIN, Francis [Frank] (1882-1943) was born in Braunton, Co. Devon, England on 24 June 1882 but he appears to have received no formal university education. He attended Oxford City Technical School [Evening School] from 1897 to 1900, and took classes in building construction, drawing and estimating. By 1901 he was recorded as an architect's assistant in the town of Taunton, Somerset, and may have worked for one of six different architectural offices who were active there as listed in the Architects & Surveyors Directory & Referendum [London] in 1907, page 164. By 1904 or 1905 he had moved to Oxford, England to continue his training, and opened his own office there in 1905. His clients there included Brasenose College, the North Oxford Golf Club, the Oxford Co-Operative Society, and the Duke of Marlborough, who hired Mountain to design a series of small residences on his Blenheim Estate north of Oxford. In 1915 Mountain decided to emigrate to Canada, leaving his office in the hands of William Austin Daft, ARIBA, a young architect in Oxford who became the successor to his practise in Oxford.
Mountain arrived in Canada in 1916 and settled in Vancouver, and opened an office under his own name in 1919. He devoted much of his practise to residential commissions, but in 1928 he appears to have closed his office when he took a full-time position with the Vancouver Parks Board. Mountain died in Vancouver on 24 December 1943 (obit. Province [Vancouver], 27 Dec. 1943, 17; biog. D. Luxton, Building the West: The Early Architects of British Columbia, 2003, 478, 513; inf. Architectural Institute of British Columbia; inf. James Edgar, Oxford, England)
Frank MOUNTAIN (works in England)
OXFORD, ENGL., "Mountville", a residence for Ernest W. Twining, 76 Lonsdale Road at King's Cross Road, Summertown, 1908; still standing in 2018 (Oxford City Council, Heritage Designation Report, 17 Dec. 2012)
OXFORD, ENGL., Oxford Co-Operative Society Headquarters Building, George Street, opposite Chain Alley, 1908-09 (Oxford Times [Oxford], 18 July 1908, tender call; A.I.B.C. Application Form No. 56, 1920, list of works; Oxford City Council, Heritage Asset Register, 2012; inf. Mr. James Edgar, Oxford)
NORTH OXFORD, ENGL., clubhouse for the North Oxford Golf Club, c. 1908 (A.I.B.C. Application Form No. 56, 1920, list of works)
OXFORD, ENGL., residence for Rt. Rev. Bishop Ulric Vernon Herford, 190 Iffley Road opposite Henley Street, 1909-10; still standing in 2018 (A.I.B.C. Application Form No. 56, 1920, list of works; dwgs. with City Engineer's Dept., City of Oxford; inf. Mr. James Edgar, Oxford)
NORTH OXFORD, ENGL., residence at No. 11 Chadlington Road, at Linton Road, for George Inness, builder, 1910 (Oxford City Council, North Oxford Victorian Suburb Conservation Area Appraisal, n.d., pp. 15-16; Tanis Hinchcliffe, North Oxford, 1992, 129, 221)
NORTH OXFORD, ENGL., a pair of semi-detached houses at 14-16 Northmoor Road for George Inness, builder, 1910 (dwgs. No. 1645, City Engineer's Dept., City of Oxford; Tanis Hinchcliffe, North Oxford, 1992, 234)
OXFORD, ENGL, Brasenose College Cricket Pavilion and Clubhouse, Abingdon Road, c. 1910 (A.I.B.C. Application Form No. 56, 1920, list of works)
OXFORD, ENGL., Archer, Cowley & Co., commercial premises, c. 1910 (A.I.B.C. Application Form No. 56, 1920, list of works)
BICESTER, OXFORDSHIRE., ENGL., Baptist Church, c. 1910 (A.I.B.C. Application Form No. 56, 1920, list of works)
WEST COWES, ISLE OF WIGHT, residence for William Mountain, c. 1911-12 (A.I.B.C. Application Form No. 56, 1920, list of works)
Frank MOUNTAIN (works in Vancouver, B.C.)
ELKS LODGE BUILDING, Burrard Street near West Georgia Street, an 8 storey tower, 1921 (Vancouver Sun, 13 March 1921, 11, illus. & detailed descrip.)
WEST 10th AVENUE, at Spruce Street, large residence for Mrs. May Allan, 1922 (Vancouver Daily World, 11 Oct. 1922, 9, descrip.)
ROYAL VANCOUVER YACHT CLUB, a new Assembly Hall for the Club, on the Stanley Park foreshore, 1922 (Vancouver Daily World, 28 Oct. 1922, 24 & 26, descrip.)
THE AMPUTATION CLUB, Richards Street near Dunsmuir Street, 1925 (dwgs. Vancouver City Archives)
BUNGALOW COURT APARTMENTS (also called Tatlow Park Court), Bayswater Street near West 2nd Street, 1926 (H. Kalman, Exploring Vancouver, 1978, 200, illus.; dwgs. Vancouver City Archives)
COMPETITIONS
LONDON, ENGLAND, The London Daily Mail Small Cottages Competition, 1922. A total of 382 designs were sent in by architects from the British Commonwealth, including nearly 100 designs from Canadian architects (Vancouver Sun, 20 Feb. 1922, 3). Frank Mountain, from the Vancouver firm of Gillam & Mountain was the only Canadian to receive an Honorable Mention for his submission.