MAGEE, John Gentles (1899-1956), active in London, Ont. from 1950 until his death in 1958. Born in Chatham, Ont. on 19 May 1899, he was educated at Appleby College in Oakville, then studied architecture at the University of Toronto where he graduated in 1923. He joined the leading Toronto firm of Darling & Pearson and articled there in 1923-24, and the following year moved to New York City where he worked as assistant to some of the well-known and established architects there including Alfred Bossom (in 1924), for Warren & Wetmore (in 1925), for Charles A. Platt (in 1925-27), for James W. O’Connor (in 1927-31), and for John Russell Pope (in 1931-32). With these impeccable credentials, he opened his own office in Scarsdale, N.Y. at the height of the Depression in 1933, but no references to his work there have been found. By 1934 he had moved to Washington, D.C. to work as a staff architect with the Treasury Dept., overseeing the W.P.A. programme to build federal Post Offices in several American cities.
In 1950 he decided to move back to Canada, opening an office on Wellington Street in London, Ont. There, his works completed after 1950 include the Church of the Redeemer, CFPL Television Station, Campbell Memorial Park, and the United Church in nearby Lambeth, Ont. Magee died in London on 29 September 1958, and his office was taken over by Nolan & Glover, Architects (inf. Ontario Assoc. of Architects; biog. and port in London, Canada: Coronation Souvenir, June 1953, 36; biog. American Inst. Of Architects, American Architects Directory, 1956, 360).