Hardy, George Fiske

HARDY, George Fiske ( 1865-1947), active in New York City as both an architect and engineer, was one of the most sought-after experts in the design of pulp and paper mills in both the United States and Canada. Born in Poquonock, Conn., USA on 12 February 1865 he was educated at Dartmouth College and graduated with a degree in engineering in 1888. He gained valuable experience with A.B. Tower & Co. of Holyoke, Mass., specialists in pulp and paper mills, from 1888 to 1893, then worked as partner in the firm from 1893 to 1896. It was there that he designed his first large mill complex for the Hudson River Pulp & Paper Co. at Corinth, N.Y. (1896), and the following year he received his first Canadian commission, that for a newsprint paper mill for the Laurentide Paper Co. at Grand Mere, Que. Hardy was appointed Chief Engineer of the International Paper Co. and held that post from 1898, but he resigned in 1901 and moved to New York City. There, his new firm, George F. Hardy & Son, expanded to offer services as both construction engineers and architects, and he can be credited with the design of paper mills, pulp mills and power plants in Florida, Georgia, Louisiana and in Maine. Much of his work after 1930 was devoted to kraft pulp and paper mills in the southern USA, including the first mill to make newsprint from Southern pine, located at Lufkin, Texas. Hardy died in New York City on 2 October 1947 (obit. New York Times, 3 Oct. 1947, 26; biog. in Who's Who in Engineering [New York], 1941, 752; biog. in Who Was Who in America 1943-1950, 234; office listings in J. Ward, Architects in Practice in New York City 1900-1940, 1989, 32)

(works in Canada)

GRAND MERE, QUE., paper mill for the Laurentide Paper Co., 1897; major addition 1903 (Le Prix Courant, xxxv, 22 May 1903, 46; list of works in Who's Who in Engineering [New York], 1941, 75)
STURGEON FALLS, ONT., paper mill and electric power plant for The Sturgeon Falls Pulp & Paper Co., 1902 (Gazette [Montreal], 22 April 1902, 10, descrip.)
POWELL RIVER, B.C., paper mill and hydro electric building for the Powell River Paper Co.[now called Catalyst Paper Co.], Ash Avenue near Walnut Street, including paper machine building, finishing building, grinder building, beater building, sulphite pulp building, boiler building, and power generating building, 1910-11 (drawings in the possession of Catalyst Paper Co.; inf. Dwayne Nyhus, Catalyst Paper Co., Powell River)
JONQUIERE, QUE., an extensive complex of twenty buildings for the pulp and paper mills for Price Brothers & Co., 1911 (C.R., xxv, 15 March 1911, 55-56)
IROQUOIS FALLS, ONT., paper mills for the Abitibi Pulp & Paper Co., 1914 (C.R., xxviii, 15 April 1914, 79)
GRAND MERE, QUE., a hydro electric dam and other works for the Laurentide Pulp & Paper Co., 1914 (P. Trepanier, "Grand Mere", in Continuite [Quebec City], No. 49, Winter/Spring 1991, 51-52)
OCEAN FALLS, B.C., a large pulp & paper mill complex for Pacific Mills Ltd., 1916 (Province [Vancouver], 22 Feb. 1916, 16, descrip.)
LIMOILOU, QUE., an extensive complex of buildings at the pulp and paper mills for the Anglo-Canadian Pulp & Paper Mill Co., 1925 (C.R., xxxix, 9 Sept. 1925, 47)
QUEBEC CITY, QUE., large paper mill complex for the Anglo-Canadian Pulp & Paper Co., Boulevard des Capucins, 1927 (City of Quebec b.p. 987, 21 April 1927; Luc Noppen et al, Quebec Monumental 1890-1990, 88, illus.; Tim Morawetz, Art Deco Architecture Across Canada, 2017, 33, illus. & descrip.)