MARTIN, Arthur Norman (1889-1961), an architect, artist, and a talented architectural delineator and draftsman active in Toronto, Ont. for the duration of his career. Born in Toronto on 31 August 1889, he was the son of Henry Martin (1832-1902), a prominent artist and member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. He attended Jarvis Collegiate, but did not obtain a formal university education in architecture. Instead, he articled as an apprentice with the firm of Wickson & Gregg (1906 to 1912), during which time he attended classes at the Atelier Lyle, organized by John M. Lyle. By 1910 he had distinguished himself in that Atelier as a skilled delineator, receiving prizes for his drawings (Const., iii, April 1910, 48, 53).
He moved to Niagara Falls to work as a draftsman for Charles Borter (1914-16), then returned to Toronto after serving in France with Canadian Forces during WW1. He joined the office of S.B. Coon & Son as a draftsman (1920-28). In late 1928 he took a new position with J. Gibb Morton, the well-know ecclesiastical architect, assisting him with designs and drawings for Church of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, St. Clair Avenue East (1929-30), with the rebuilding of Metropolitan Methodist Church, Queen Street East (1928-29), and with St. Joseph’s Church in Ottawa (1931). Martin worked on a free-lance basis in the 1930’s, and during WWII he joined T. Pringle & Son, overseeing their design of the Canadian Vickers Co. industrial factory and office. In 1945 he joined the Dept. of Buildings at City Hall in Toronto where his skills as a delineator and renderer were called upon by his supervisor, Kenneth Gillies, the City Architect, to prepare elaborate drawings of proposed city-owned buildings.
Martin died in Toronto on 30 November 1961 (obit. Globe & Mail [Toronto], 1 Dec. 1961, 12; inf. Ontario Assoc. of Architects). The City of Toronto Archives holds a collection of original perspective drawings prepared by Martin while he was employed by the Buildings Dept. of the City of Toronto after 1945. Many of these drawings illustrate buildings designed by Kenneth Gillies, the City Architect of Toronto, and built during the period from 1945 to 1954. The Archives of Ontario, at York University in Toronto, holds a small collection of architectural drawings and photographs by Arthur N. Martin (OA, Fonds C 53).
A.N. MARTIN (works in Toronto)
NORMANDY VILLAGE, a replica of a French village, to celebrate the 20th Anniversary ending of the Great War in France during WW1, built 1938 (Star-Phoenix [Saskatoon], 26 July 1938, 8, descrip.)
Selected List of Presentation Drawings by A.N. Martin for the City of Toronto (all drawings now held at the City of Toronto Archives)
DETENTION HOME, for the City of Toronto, November 1945
CITY OF TORONTO WORKS DEPT., King Street West opposite Fraser Avenue, office building and works yard for the Street Cleaning Dept., 1945
NEW CITY HALL AND PUBLIC SQUARE, Queen Street West at Bay Street, November 1945 (not built)
MAGISTRATE’S COURT BUILDING & POLICE ADMINISTRATION BUILDING, Queen Street West at Bay Street, March 1946 (not built)
WAR MEMORIAL, on the staircase leading from the Lobby of Old City Hall, Queen Street West, Sept. 1947
UNIVERSITY AVENUE, from Queen Street to College Street, proposal for fountains and architectural treatment of the central boulevard, March-April 1947
WAR MEMORIAL MALL, adjacent to the Registry Office, Queen Street West, n.d. (not built)
TORONTO EAST GENERAL HOSPITAL, Coxwell Avenue at Sammon Avenue, January 1949
CITY OF TORONTO INCINERATOR BUILDING, Commissioner Street, March 1952
TOURIST INFORMATION BUREAU BUILDING, east side of the Queen Elizabeth Way on the property of the Fort Motor Co., 1958