MacDONALD, Evan Tyrell (c. 1864 - c. 1930), a talented architect active in St. Thomas, Ont. during the period from 1895 to 1898. Born in Inverness, Scotland, he immigrated to the United States in 1885 and appears to have established himself in the Detroit area after 1890. He arrived in St. Thomas, Ontario before 1895 and opened an office there, and in 1897 he won the competition in that city for a large Public School containing 20 classrooms. His submission was one of seventeen designs sent in, and he received the First Premium of $50.00 for his effort. It is unclear if he remained in St. Thomas to supervise this work, because by early 1898 he was referred to as “Evan T. MacDonald, of New York City”, an indication that he had already left Canada earlier that year (C.A.B., xi, May 1898, 85).
In New York, he took a position as Chief Assistant in the office of Morgan & Slattery, Architects, in 1899-1900 (D.S. Francis, Architects in Practice New York City 1840-1900, 1979, 51). By 1902 he had moved his office to Mount Vernon, N.Y. and continued to live and work there as an architect until after 1914. In 1918 he was living and working in Tarrytown, N.Y., and in 1930 he was living in Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y. No information has been found on his later works in the Mount Vernon area.
(works in St. Thomas)
FIRST METHODIST CHURCH, Curtis Street at St. George Street, rebuilding of the church after a fire in March 1895 (W.H. Murch, History of Methodism in St. Thomas, 1978, 19)
JENNINGS BLOCK, Talbot Street near Hincks Street, furniture store and offices for William B. Jennings, 1895; still standing in 2020 (St. Thomas Times, 4 June 1895; inf. Paul Baldwin, Ottawa)
PEARL STREET, at Scott Street, residence for John S. Wilson, 1895-96 (C.A.B., x, Nov. 1897, illus. plate)
WELLINGTON STREET, residence for N.W. Ford, 1897 (C.A.B., x, Oct. 1897, illus. plate)
GRIFFIN BLOCK, Talbot Street at Railway Street, a large commercial block for F.M. Griffin, 1898 (C.R., ix, 16 Feb. 1898, 3; C.A.B., xi, Feb. 1898, illus. plate)
COMPETITIONS
DETROIT, MICH., Chamber of Commerce Building, 1893. MacDonald was one of number of American architects who submitted designs for this project. A perspective view of his proposal was published in the Inland Architect [Chicago], xxi, May 1893, illus. plate). The competition was won by Spier & Rohns of Detroit.
ST. THOMAS, ONT., City Hall, 1897. MacDonald submitted an impressive Romanesque Revival design for this major public building (C.A.B., x, Oct. 1897, illus. plate). His scheme was one of 14 designs sent in by architects from the United States and Canada, but his proposal was passed over by the jury, who awarded the First Prize to Neil Darrach.
ST. THOMAS, ONT., Public School, 1897. MacDonald received First Prize of $50.00 for his proposal, which was selected from a total of 17 submissions (C.R., viii, 2 Sept. 1897, 2; C.A.B., x, Sept. 1897, 167) .
DESIGN FOR A PASSENGER STATION, at an unidentified location, 1898. An impressive perspective signed “E.T. MacDonald, delt.” was published in Canadian Architect & Builder, xi, March 1898, and may have been one of a number schemes submitted in competition for a railway station in southwestern Ontario.