McKAY, Thomas (1842-1887), active in New Westminster, B.C. as both an architect and building contractor. Born in Osgoode, Ontario, he moved to California in 1867 and a decade later he relocated to the Lower Mainland area of British Columbia. He helped to oversee the completion of the construction of the Provincial Asylum at New Westminster, designed by Andrew J. Smith, in 1875-78. McKay collaborated with William Turnbull on a striking design in the Second Empire style for St. Anne’s Roman Catholic Convent in New Westminster in 1877. Together, they later served as both designers and contractors for St. Louis College (1886), which was also executed in the Second Empire style, and they prepared the elaborate Gothic Revival design for St. Peter’s Roman Catholic Church (1886). McKay died during a hotel fire in New Westminster in the early morning of 15 January 1887 (obituary Daily Columbian [New Westminster], 15 Jan. 1887, 3; Mainland Guardian [New Westminster], 19 January 1887, 3; biog. and list of works in D. Luxton, Building The West: The Early Architects of British Columbia, 2003, 83, illus.)
McKAY & TURNBULL
NEW WESTMINSTER, B.C., St. Anne’s Roman Catholic Convent, Albert Crescent, 1877; demol. 1968 (Mainland Guardian [New Westminster], 6 June 1877, 3; Daily Colonist [Victoria], 19 Aug. 1877, 3, descrip.)
NEW WESTMINSTER, B.C., St. Peter’s Roman Catholic Church, Blackwood Street at Columbia Street, 1886; demol. (Mainland Guardian [New Westminster], 28 April 1886, 3)
NEW WESTMINSTER, B.C., St. Louis College, Agnes Street at Blackwood Street, 1886; demol. (list of works in obituary, Mainland Guardian [New Westminster], 19 Jan. 1887, 3)