WASTE, Adolphus D. (1855-1936), active in Toronto in partnership with Wilbur Webb from 1921 to 1925. He first appears in the Toronto City Directory of 1889 as 'draughtsman & copyist'. By 1892 he had joined the Toronto Public School Board as a draughtsman, and continued to work for the Board until 1899. According to the annual editions of the Toronto Board of Education Handbook, Waste is recorded as an assistant to Charles H. Bishop, Chief Architect to the Board, from 1900 to 1911. The head draftsman in their office was Wilbur Webb, with whom Waste was to later form a partnership. By 1913 they were joined by Franklin E. Belfry who was appointed as a staff architect, but by 1915 Belfry had been demoted to Chief Clerk of Works for the Board, and when Belfry resigned (or was dismissed) in February 1918, Waste became the defacto Architect to the Board.
A judicial investigation of the Building Dept. at the Board of Education in 1919 may have hastened the departure of Waste, and he was working in Toronto under his own name by 1920, and then in partnership with his former colleague W. Webb. Only a few works by their firm have been located; by 1925 their partnership had been dissolved, and Waste, then aged 70 years, appears to have retired from practise. He died in Toronto on 28 October 1936 (obit. Contract Record [Toronto], Vol. 50, 11 Nov. 1936, 1029; inf. Toronto Board of Education Archives).
WASTE & WEBB
(works in Toronto)
THE DONLANDS APARTMENTS, for S.H. Lumb, Donlands Avenue at Danforth Avenue, 1924 (Toronto b.p. 72526, 7 July 1924)
THE SHERBOURNE APARTMENTS, for Pugh & White, Sherbourne Street near Carlton Street, 1924 (Toronto b.p. 73008, 25 July 1924)