TAYLOR, Lawrence Fennings (1864-1947), active in Ottawa, Ont. where he was in partnership with Edgar L. Horwood from 1907 to 1912 (see list of works under Horwood & Taylor). Born in Quebec City on 9 March 1864 he was brought to Ottawa by his family and educated at Ottawa Collegiate Institute. By 1882 he was recorded in London, Ont., but had returned to Ottawa to accept a position as an architectural draftsman with the federal Dept. of Public Works before 1886 (Margaret Archibald, By Federal Design: The Chief Architect’s Branch of the Dept. of Public Works 1881-1914, 1983, 14, 24). He was one of a group of four assistants to Thomas Fuller, helping him prepare the drawings and contract documents for dozens of post offices and armoury buildings across Canada. Under the leadership of David Ewart, the newly appointed Chief Architect of the DPW, it was Taylor who was asked to prepare the design for the Canadian Pavilion at the St. Louis World's Fair, at St. Louis, Missouri in 1903 (Owen Sound Sun, 8 Sept. 1903, 1, descrip.; Edmonton Bulletin, 10 Sept. 1903, 4, descrip.). The building was completed in December 1903, and was executed in an elaborate "Henry VI Gothic style", surrounded on all four sides with a deep arcade supporting a promenade and walkway for exhibition visitors.
In 1906, he was placed in charge of the construction of the Laurier Tower on the West Block on Parliament Hill, and a watercolour perspective of his proposal for construction of an additional storey to the West Block, signed “L. Fennings Taylor, delt.” has survived, and is now part of the Picture Collection of the National Archives of Canada (NAC, Picture Coll. C 111270). The sudden collapse of the Laurier tower on 5 April 1906 while under construction must have shaken the confidence of Taylor, and he promptly resigned his position with the Dept. of Public Works in May 1906 (London Free Press, 26 May 1906, 4; and 30 May 1906, 1).
He then accepted an offer to work in the office of E.L. Horwood, and in 1907 he was invited to form a partnership with him (see list of works under Horwood & Taylor). When Horwood was later appointed as Chief Architect of the DPW in October 1914, their partnership was dissolved, and after WWI Taylor continued to practise under his own name, but only a few major commissions by him has been located, including a modern Gothic design for Trinity Anglican Church in Ottawa (1925-26). In late 1925 Taylor submitted an entry under his own name in the international competition for the National War Memorial in Ottawa (Ottawa Journal, 1 Feb. 1926, 3). His proposal was among over one hundred designs sent in, but he was not one of the seven finalists. Taylor died in Ottawa on 30 November 1947 (obituary Ottawa Journal, 1 Dec. 1947, 31; Ottawa Citizen, 1 Dec. 1947, 8; biog. and port. Who’s Who and Why in Canada, 1915-16, 541; inf. from Ontario Assoc. of Architects).
OTTAWA, ONT., additions and alterations to Adath Jeshurun Synagogue, King Edward Avenue, 1919 (Ottawa Journal, 16 June 1919, 19, t.c.)
OTTAWA EAST, ONT., Holy Trinity Anglican Church, Echo Drive near Graham Avenue, south of the Pretoria Bridge, 1919-20, and later renamed Church of the Ascension (Ottawa Journal, 24 July 1919, 15; 26 March 1920, 15)
HULL, QUE., residence for J.P. Ashworth, on the Aylmer Road out from Ottawa, 1923 (Daily Standard [Kingston], 26 March 1923, 6)
MOREWOOD, ONT., United Church, 1925-26; church closed in 2013 (Ottawa Journal, 30 Sept. 1925, 4; 9 June 1926, 8, descrip.)
OTTAWA, ONT., Trinity Anglican Church, Cameron Avenue at Bank Street, 1925-26; burned March 1947 (Ottawa Journal, 5 Aug. 1925, 14; C.R., xxxviii, 27 Feb. 1924, 52; xl, 2 June 1926, 556-57, illus. & descrip.; N. Frerichs, History of Trinity Church Ottawa 1876-1956, 9-11, illus.)