MARGISON, Oswald (1882-1973), active in Toronto where he was in partnership with Harold A. Babcock, in the firm of Margison & Babcock, Engineers & Architects., from 1928 until after 1970. The name of the firm can be directly linked to the design of several significant early modernist works in Toronto and in towns in southern Ontario during the period from 1940 to 1950 and beyond. Although both Margison and Babcock were educated and trained as engineers, they employed several registered architects on their staff in their two Toronto offices. One of these designers was Herbert Horner, who is recorded as a staff architect with the firm in 1949 and 1950, and it was Horner who likely contributed to the design of the modernist additions to the Granite Club, St. Clair Ave. West (additions built 1950; now demol.), as well as several important contemporary designs for industrial buildings in the Leaside neighbourhood of Toronto.
Margison was born in Hull, Co. Yorkshire, England in 1882 and emigrated to California with his family at the age of 6 years. The family then moved to Victoria, B.C. in 1892 where Margison became an apprentice in the printing industry. He and his brothers started Margison Brothers Printers in Victoria in 1904. Oswald M. later moved to Toronto, and enrolled in Civil Engineering courses at the School of Practical Science at the Univ. of Toronto. He graduated with honours, and was appointed to a teaching position, then opened his own office in Toronto in 1920. He was joined by Harold A. Babcock in 1928, and focussed primarily on engineering projects such as the structural design of the Woodbine Avenue Bridge, East York, spanning Taylor Bush Park at O’Connor Drive and completed in 1929. By 1940, the firm had expanded their services to include architectural design, where the influence of the Art Deco style was evident in several of their commercial projects such as the façade treatment of the Drug Trading Co. Office Building, Ontario Street (1941). By 1945 the firm had adopted a stripped-down modernist idiom best seen in their York County Office Building, Adelaide Street East (1948), and in the adjacent London & Lancashire Assurance Building (1948).
Arthur D. Margison (1918-2013), the son of Oswald M., joined his father’s firm in 1946 and was later appointed as vice-president of the company in 1950. When Margison & Babcock was dissolved in 1954, it was renamed A.D. Margison & Associates Ltd. and continued to be active until after 1970. One of the last architectural projects completed by the firm (in collaboration with Raymond Moriyama) was the Research & Laboratory Block (1971) on the site of Erindale College, a satellite campus of the University of Toronto located in Mississauga (Prof. Larry W. Richards, University of Toronto: The Campus Guide, 2009, 214-18, illus. & descrip.). The firm later designed Phase Two of this project, The Library, Lecture and Theatre Complex, on that same campus, in 1973. Oswald Margison died in Toronto on 27 January 1973 (inf. John E. Margison, Toronto). Arthur D. Margison died at Cobourg, Ont. on 11 November 2013 (obit. Globe & Mail [Toronto], 16 Nov. 2013, S9).
MARGISON & BABCOCK
(works in Toronto unless noted)
YORK STREET BUILDINGS LTD., York Street at Adelaide Street West, major addition to office building, 1928 (City of Toronto b.p. A 6190, 23 March 1928)
DRUG TRADING CO., Princess Street (now Adelaide Street East), warehouse and parking garage, 1937 (City of Toronto b.p. 55746, 17 Sept. 1937)
DRUG TRADING CO., Ontario Street at Adelaide Street East, office building, 1941-42; addition of a second storey, 1946; demol. 2019-20, but facade left standing and incorporated into new office block (Daily Commercial News [Toronto], 8 April 1941, 3; inf. Toronto Historical Board)
ROBERT SIMPSON LTD., Dalhousie Street at Gould Street, two garages adjacent to the existing Robert Simpson Ltd. Warehouse, 1941 (City of Toronto b.p. 71382, 1 April 1941)
E.S. & A. ROBINSON CANADA LTD., Laird Drive, Leaside, including the North Plant, and the South Plant with Administration Building, c. 1941 (inf. Margison, Babcock & Assoc., Corporate Brochure, c. 1950, illus.)
THE YORK COUNTY BUILDING, for the York County Council, s.w corner of Adelaide Street East at Church Street, office building, 1948 (C.R., lxi, May 1948, 175)
LONDON & LANCASHIRE GUARANTEE & ACCIDENT CO. OF CANADA, Adelaide Street East near Church Street, located immediately to the west of The York County Building (see above), c. 1948 (inf. Margison, Babcock & Assoc., Corporate Brochure, c. 1950, illus.)
SHERIDAN CONSTRUCTION EQUIPMENT LTD., Laird Drive at Canvarco Road, Leaside, c. 1948 (inf. Margison, Babcock & Assoc., Corporate Brochure, c. 1950, illus.)
PORT CREDIT, ONT., Dixie Grower’s Co-Operative Ltd., offices and cold storage warehouse, c. 1948 (inf. Margison, Babcock & Assoc., Corporate Brochure, c. 1950, illus.)
SERVICE GARMENT CO. LTD., Adelaide Street West at Brant Street, large warehouse, c. 1948 (inf. Margison, Babcock & Assoc., Corporate Brochure, c. 1950, illus.)
NEWMARKET, ONT., addition of the Maternity Wing to the York County Hospital, c. 1948 (inf. Margison, Babcock & Assoc., Corporate Brochure, c. 1950, illus.)
BELLEVILLE, ONT., Ontario Cheese Marketing Board, addition of a large storage warehouse, 1950 (C.R., lxiii, July 1950, 123; Sept. 1950, 130)
GRANITE CLUB LTD., St. Clair Avenue West at Deer Park Avenue, major addition with new curling rinks and club house, 1950; demol. c. 1988 (City of Toronto b.p. 9217, 3 Aug. 1950; Margison, Babcock & Assoc., Corporate Brochure, c. 1950, illus.)