MAWSON, Thomas Hayton (1861-1933), Honorary Member of the R.I.B.A., architect, landscape architect and city planner and an articulate spokesman for the “City Beautiful” movement in Canada in the early 20th C. Born in Nether Wyersdale, Co. Lancashire, England on 5 May 1861, he was trained with a local builder from the age of 12 years, and later helped his father establish a plant nursery. His family moved to London, and Mawson found work there with Hale Farm Nurseries. He appears to have never received any formal education in architecture or landscape design, and to have been entirely self-taught. With his two brothers he set up a family business called Mawson Brothers in Windermere, operating a nursery and contracting firm which designed local private gardens. Their landscaping business grew rapidly, and by 1900 he left his brothers and started his own business of Thomas H. Mawson & Sons. In that year he wrote an influential book entitled The Art & Craft of Garden Making (1900) which was reprinted in five later editions, and he was the author of Civic Art: Studies in Town Planning, Parks, Boulevards and Open Spaces (1911).
The latter book brought him to the attention of architects, planners and city officials in Canada, and he was invited to the University of Toronto to deliver a series of six public lectures at Convocation Hall in October 1911 on the subject of city planning. Coverage in the local and national press led to commissions for work in Toronto, Halifax, Banff, Vancouver, Victoria, Saskatoon and Regina, but his greatest contribution was his remarkable City Plan for Calgary, for which he was paid a fee of $6,000 by the City. The plans were breathtaking and grandiose; many of the original colour perspective drawings have survived, and are now held in the Mawson Collection at the Canadian Architectural Archives at the Univ. of Calgary. With the printing and publication of one hundred copies of the Calgary Plan in 1913, it can be rightfully claimed that Mawson had become one of the most influential visionary city planners active in Canada in the pre-WW1 era (E.G. Vandermeulen, “Mawson - A Landscape Architect at the Turn of the Century” in Architecture Canada, xliii, Sept. 1966, 36-8, illus. & descrip.). A full interview with Mawson, describing his vision for downtown Vancouver and the Coal Harbour area, was published in The Sun [Vancouver], 28 March 1912, 16, with photographic portrait of Mawson.
Mawson was also credited with significant landscape commissions in England and Europe, including the gardens of the Palace of Peace in The Hague, Netherlands (1908-10), the royal gardens and park system in Athens (1912), and the plan for rebuilding Salonika, Greece in 1917. He also lectured regularly on planning and civic design at Liverpool University from 1910 to 1924; one of his students there was the young Eric Arthur, who later came to Toronto in 1924.
Mawson died at Hest Bank, Co. Lancashire, England on 14 November 1933 and was succeeded by his son Edward P. Mawson who took over the family business (obit. The Builder [London], cxlv, 17 Nov. 1933, 773-4; biog. and list of works in Who Was Who 1929-1940 [London], iii, 919; MacMillan Encyclopedia of Architects, 1982, iii, 124; R.I.B.A., Directory of British Architects 1834-1900, 1993, 609; D. Luxton, Building The West, 2003, 511-12; biog. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, xxxvii, 2004, 483-4). An extensive 48 page illustrated catalogue on the Calgary Master Plan by Mawson was published in 1978 under the title Calgary, Many Years Hence - The Mawson Report in Perspective, and written by E. Joyce Morrow.
TORONTO, ONT., plan for a model suburb on the Glebe Farm Property, a tract of 147 acres located east of Yonge Street and north of Davisville Avenue, prepared for the Dovercourt Lands Co., 1911-12 (Toronto World, 23 Nov. 1911, 9, descrip.)
HALIFAX, N.S., campus plan for Dalhousie University, with new boulevard on Morris Street leading to the entrance at the campus, 1912 (Evening Mail [Halifax], 5 July 1912, 11; and 2 Nov. 1912, 1 & 16, descrip.; list of works in MacMillan Encyclopedia of Architects, 1982, iii, 124)
BANFF, ALTA., proposal for a new bridge over the Bow River, 1912 (list of works exhibited in Reviving The Art of Civic Design in Calgary - Thomas H. Mawson, 1979, 6, Item 21)
VANCOUVER, B.C., improvements to Stanley Park, including 3 alternative designs for a new Entrance to the Park, 1912 (C.R., xxvi, 17 April 1912, 59, descrip.; The Sun [Vancouver], 5 Sept. 1912, 4; Vancouver Daily World, 21 Sept. 1912, 24, descrip.)
VANCOUVER, B.C., designs for a new Civic Centre, Stadium, and Social Centre, 1912 (Province [Vancouver], 24 Sept. 1912, 22, illus. & descrip.; 26 Sept. 1912, 1 & 26, illus. & descrip.)
VANCOUVER, B.C., master plan for Coal Harbour, 1912 (The Sun [Vancouver], 10 July 1912, 3, and 16 June 1913, 1 & 6, with detailed architectural description of three alternative plans by Mawson; Vancouver Daily World, 21 Sept. 1912, 24, descrip.; and 28 Dec. 1912, 21, descrip.; Town Planning Review [Liverpool], iv, April 1913, 7-12, with Plates 9 & 10, descrip. & illus.; Builder [London], cviii, 11 June 1915, 550-51, illus.; Architecture Canada, xliii, Sept. 1966, 38, illus.)
MEADLANDS, VANCOUVER ISLAND, plan for a Model village, for the British Columbia Electric Co., 1912 (The Sun [Vancouver], 5 April 1912, 9, descrip.)
VANCOUVER, B.C., improvements to the Brockton Point lighthouse, Stanley Park, 1915 (Vancouver Sun, 11 Nov. 1915, 8)
VICTORIA, B.C., a plan for public park beautification in Victoria, 1912 (Daily Colonist [Victoria], 13 Aug. 1912, 2, descrip.; and 24 Sept. 1912, 5, descrip.; and 22 Jan. 1913, 3, with explanation of why the project was not carried out)
SASKATOON, SASK., a refinement and elaboration of the Master Plan for the campus of the University of Saskatchewan, first developed by Brown & Vallance of Montreal, and altered by Mawson, 1912 (Prairie Forum [Regina], Vol. 5, No. 2, Fall 1980, 170-71; dwgs. In the possession of the Buildings & Grounds Dept., Univ. of Saskatchewan)
REGINA, SASK. Master plan for the Civic Centre, Broad Street at South Railway Street, extending southward 14 city blocks to the Provincial Parliament Buildings, 1913 (Architecture Canada, xliii, Sept. 1966, 38, illus.)
REGINA, SASK., site layout and landscape plan for the grounds of the Residence of the Lieutenant Governor, including elaborate gardens, greenhouse, outbuildings and boat docks, 1913 (Saskatchewan Association of Architects, Historic Architecture of Saskatchewan, 1986, 81, illus.; Charles C. Hill, edit., Artists, Architects & Artisans - Canadian Art 1890-1918, 2013, 261, illus. & descrip.). The present man-made lake at Wascana Centre was developed from the Master Plan conceived by Mawson.
CALGARY, ALTA., master plan for the Calgary Civic Centre, 1913-14 (Calgary Herald, 2 June 1913, 20, descrip.; E Joyce Morrow, Calgary - Many Years Hence, 1979, Plates 27-36, illus. & descrip.; H. Kalman, History of Canadian Architecture, 1994, 652-53, illus. & descrip.; Plan Canada [Ottawa], xlv, No. 1, April 2005, 46-9, illus.; dwgs. at Canadian Architectural Archives, Univ. of Calgary Acc. 42A 78.32; Charles C. Hill, edit., Artists, Architects & Artisans - Canadian Art 1890-1918, 2013, 244-46, illus. & descrip.). A full transcript of Mawson’s proposal for Calgary was reproduced in Geoffrey Simmins, Documents in Canadian Architecture, 1992, 77-8, 82-98).
OTTAWA, ONT., proposal for the development of Borden Park, 1914 (list of works exhibited in Reviving The Art of Civic Design in Calgary - Thomas H. Mawson, 1979, 8, Item 35, No. iii)