McDOWELL, John Harold (1886- ), of Montreal, Que. and a partner in the firm of McDowell & Henderson, Architects (fl. 1911-16). Born in Russeltown, Havelock Twp., in southern Quebec on 29 July 1886, he was educated at the Huntington Academy and at Sherbrooke Business College. He studied architecture at McGill University in 1908-10, and began his professional career in 1911. That same year he formed a partnership with Peter Henderson, and their best known work was the Coronation Building (1911), a refined four storey retail and office block clad in terra cotta, showing the influence of the Chicago School on the commercial architecture of Montreal. Henderson appears to have left Montreal in late 1914, and may have moved to Vermont in the United States to continue his career. (biog. and port. in Montreal Old & New, 1914, 341). In 1916, an advertisement appeared in a Vermont newspaper for the firm of McDowell & Henderson, Architects, with two offices, one in Montreal, and the other in Burlington, Vermont (Burlington Free Press, 17 Feb. 1916, 5, advert.). They were joined by J.M. Mercer in early 1917, but their business was dissolved in March 1917 and they later declared bankruptcy (Burlington Free Press, 22 June 1917, 8). McDowell continued the business under his own name, but no information has been found on his activity as an architect after 1917.
J.H. McDOWELL
(works in Montreal unless noted)
STE. CATHERINE STREET WEST, at Phillips Square, large eleven storey commercial block for Henry Morgan & Co., 1911 (C.R., xxv, 8 March 1911, 138)
McDOWELL & HENDERSON
CORONATION BUILDING, Ste. Catherine Street West at Bishop Street, for Mrs. D.E. Borrie, 1911 (C.R., xxv, 21 June 1911, 49, descrip.; Montreal Daily Herald, 9 Sept. 1911; Montreal, Les Magasins Les Cinemas, 1985, 174-75, illus.; F. Remillard & B. Merrett, Montreal Architecture, 1990, 151, illus.)
QUEBEC CITY, QUE., The Grande Allee Apartments, Grande Allee near Cartier Avenue, six storey apartment block for The Grande Allee Apt. Co., 1911 (C.R., xxv, 20 Sept. 1911, 60; 15 Nov. 1911, 60)
CHAMELET’S RIDING ACADEMY, Aqueduct Street at Overdale Street, dwellings an stables for C. Chamblet, 1912 (C.R., xxvi, 24 Jan. 1912, 65)
ST. MARTIN STREET, three storey commerical block for St. Armour’s Land Co., 1912 (Le Prix Courant [Montreal], xlv, 28 June 1912, 48)
J.H. McDOWELL
ST. ANDREW CURLING CLUB & RINK, St. Matthew Street, c. 1912 (list of works in Montreal Old & New, 1914, 341)
WESTMOUNT, Shaar Hashomayim Jewish Synagogue, Kensington Avenue at Cote St. Antoine Road, begun 1914; completed 1922 (list of works in Montreal Old & New, 1914, 341)
STE. CATHERINE STREET WEST, at Mountain Street, large theatre building, 1914 (C.R., xxviii, 26 Aug. 1914, 63)
McDOWELL & HENDERSON
BURLINGTON, VERMONT, Red 46 Department Store, new facade, with major alterations, 1915 (Burlington Free Press, 25 Nov. 1915, 9, descrip.)
RICHFORD, VERMONT, High School, Corliss Heights at Eastern Avenue, 1916 (Burlington Free Press, 9 June 1916, 13, t.c.)
BURLINGTON, VERMONT, residence for George Harris, South Willard Street, 1916 (Burlington Free Press, 21 Aug. 1916, 8)