MAJOR, William Paul (1881-1974), active in Calgary, Alberta for more than twenty years, either under his own name, or in the following partnerships:
Lang & Major (1911-1914)
W.P. Major (1915-17)
Major & Mitchell (1919)
Major & Stacy-Judd (1920-1922)
W.P. Major, Los Angeles, Calif. (1922-c.1950)
Born in Bridgewater, Co. Somerset, England on 14 February 1881, he articled with the local firm of Sansom & Cottam, Architects, from 1898 to 1903, then moved to Bristol to become chief assistant to Sir Frank W. Wills (1852-1932), FRIBA, a prominent designer of ecclesiastical works, and Major took a interest in local church architecture of the West County, helping Wills carry out several churches in Somerset during the period from 1903 to 1910 including the chapel at Taunton School (1907). Major was also said to have studied architecture in his spare time with Prof. Banister Fletcher and with E. Godfrey Page by correspondence courses, in preparation for his Nomination as a member of the Royal Inst. of British Architects in 1908. He arrived in Canada in 1910 and was drawn to Alberta where he obtained a position as a draftsman in the firm of Lang & Dowler. The following year, he was invited to form a new partnership by George M. Lang (see list of works under Lang & Major). Their collaboration was a successful one, and during the next three years they produced designs for over 25 buildings in Calgary, many of them still standing and now granted landmark status.
Major worked under his own name in 1915-17, and in 1919 formed a partnership with Benjamin F. Mitchell, but this was dissolved within a year, and in March 1920 he had formed a new partnership with the British-born architect Robert Stacy-Judd. During the next two years, their firm designed buildings in Alberta and Saskatchewan, but by 1922 Stacy-Judd had departed for California, and Major followed shortly after, establishing his own office in that city. Major died in Santa Monica on 15 April 1974 (biog. Daily Herald [Calgary], 13 Jan. 1912, 19; biog. and port. Who’s Who & Why in Canada, 1912, 494; biog. and port. Calgary Daily Herald, 6 March 1920, 21; biog. Who’s Who in Canada, 1923-23, 674; biog. Royal Institute of British Architects, Directory of British Architects 1834-1914, 2001, Vol. ii, 124; inf. Hilda Judd, Calgary)
MAJOR & STACY-JUDD
CALGARY, ALTA., apartment block for an unnamed client, 1920 (C.R., xxxiv, 14 April 1920, 65, t.c.)
REGINA, SASK., large theatre for the Trans-Canada Theatres Ltd., 1920 (C.R., xxxiv, 7 July 1920, 60)
CALGARY, ALTA., Universal Motor Cars Ltd., 9th Avenue at 2nd Street West, 1920 (Calgary Herald, 28 Aug. 1920, 27, illus. & descrip.)
CALGARY, ALTA., a tract of 25 houses for the Alberta Home Builders Co., 1920 (C.R., xxxiv, 27 Oct. 1920, 53)
EDMONTON, ALTA., Empire Theatre, 103rd Street near Jasper Avenue, 1920 (Calgary Herald, 28 Aug. 1920, 27, list of works; Edmonton Bulletin, 21 Dec. 1920, 14 & 15, illus. & descrip.; Calgary Herald, 3 Jan. 1921, 8, descrip.; Western Architect [Minneapolis], xxx, Dec. 1921, illus. plates)
CALGARY, ALTA., Empire Hotel, 9th Avenue East, 1920 (C.R., xxxiv, 24 March 1920, 57-8, t.c.; Calgary Herald, 20 March 1920, 7, t.c.; 28 Aug. 1920, 27, list of works)
CALGARY, ALTA., ranch buildings for Harry H. Honens, President of the Western Stock Ranches Ltd., 1920 (Calgary Herald, 28 Aug. 1920, 27, list of works)
BANFF, ALTA., Government House, 1920 (Calgary Herald, 28 Aug. 1920, 27, list of works)
CALGARY, ALTA., The Waines Block, 1920 (Calgary Herald, 28 Aug. 1920, 27, list of works)
CAYLEY, ALTA., public school, 1920 (Calgary Herald, 28 Aug. 1920, 27, list of works)
CALGARY, ALTA., Christ Church [Anglican], Elbow Park, 34th Avenue at 8th Street West, major alterations and additions, 1921 (Calgary Herald, 24 Dec. 1921, 4, illus. & descrip.; dwgs. at Univ. of Calgary, Canadian Architectural Archives, Acc. 37A 7825)
DRUMHELLER, ALTA., Presbyterian Church, 1921-22 (Calgary Herald, 3 June 1922, 10, illus. & descrip.; dwgs. at Univ. of Calgary, Canadian Architectural Archives, Ste He/21D77; inf. Robert Hamilton, of Hamilton, Ont.)
CALGARY, ALTA., apartment block for an unnamed client, 1922 (C.R., xxxvi, 5 April 1922, 59)
W.P. MAJOR
VENICE, CALIF., large addition to the Twentieth Church of Christ Scientist, Brooks Avenue, 1935 (Los Angeles Times, 23 June 1935, Section One, 21, descrip.)