HALL, Raymond M. (1893-1960) maintained an office in Galt, Ontario (now part of Cambridge) for nearly 45 years. Born in Plattsville, Blenheim Township, Oxford County, Ont. on 16 May 1893, he was educated in Plattsville, Ont. and in Stratford, then moved to Toronto to take architectural courses at the Toronto Technical School. In 1913-14 he trained under the talented Toronto architect Charles S. Cobb, then moved to Kitchener where he worked as assistant to Bernal Jones on several occasions over a period of fifteen years, beginning in 1914 and through to 1930. In the meantime, he opened his own office in nearby Galt, Ont. in 1915, and sustained his career there with a variety of eclectic designs for large private residences and commercial buildings. He served with Canadian Expeditionary Forces during WWI, and was briefly in partnership with John Evans, a local Galt architect, in 1919. One of his largest commissions completed during his career was the refined modernist design for the Waterloo County Registry Office in Kitchener (1938), still standing in 2023, and now called The Registry Theatre.
In 1945 he prepared a stripped modernist design for a proposed Civic Centre in Galt, but the scheme was never built. The perspective drawing by Hall showing his scheme for the project now forms part of the Raymond Hall Collection at the Ontario Archives. Hall died in Galt on 13 November 1960 (obit Galt Reporter, 14 Nov. 1960; R.A.I.C. Journal, xxxviii, Jan. 1961, 57; inf. Ontario Assoc. of Architects). The Ontario Archives, now located at York University in Toronto, holds an extensive collection of original drawings by Hall covering the period from 1920 to 1955, and documenting more than 200 projects by Hall in Galt, and in southwestern Ontario.
Raymond M. HALL (works in Galt)
(with John Evans) DICKSON PARK, outdoor Grandstand, 1919 (dwgs. at OA, Raymond Hall Coll.)
ISOLATION HOSPITAL, for the Galt Board of Health, 1919-21 (Letter and invoice from Raymond Hall, Architect, 29 May 1919; dwgs. at OA, Raymond Hall Coll.)
IROQUOIS HOTEL ANNEX, addition of an apartment block to the hotel, Main Street, for George Bernhardt, 1920 (dwgs. at OA, Raymond Hall Coll.)
R.R. No. 4, country house for Robert M. Hamilton, 1920 (dwgs. at OA, Raymond Hall Coll.)
CONCESSION STREET, store and office for A.J. McPherson, 1920 (dwgs. at OA, Raymond Hall Coll.)
MASONIC TEMPLE, Dickson Street, 1921 (dwgs. at OA, Raymond Hall Coll.)
SALISBURY AVENUE, at Wentworth Avenue, residence for Mrs. Elizabeth Hay, 1921 (dwgs. at OA, Raymond Hall Coll.)
MAIN STREET EAST, residence for James E. Gardiner, 1922 (dwgs. at OA, Raymond Hall Coll.)
CONCESSION STREET, stores for J.A McIrvine, 1922 (C.R., xxxvi, 30 Aug. 1922, 50)
MAIN STREET EAST, residence for John H. Prudham, 1924 (dwgs. at OA, Raymond Hall Coll.)
LINCOLN AVENUE, residence for James A. Taylor, 1926 (dwgs. at OA, Raymond Hall Coll.)
CROMBIE STREET, residence for Henry G. Hannam, 1927 (dwgs. at OA, Raymond Hall Coll.)
LITTLES CORNERS [Galt South], on the Hamilton Highway, country residence for Harry C. McLaughlin, 1927 (C.R., xli, 1 June 1927, 50)
BRANT ROAD SOUTH, residence for Frank W. Landreth, 1929 (dwgs. at OA, Raymond Hall Coll.)
SALISBURY AVENUE, residence for William A. Dixon, 1929 (dwgs. at OA, Raymond Hall Coll.)
T. LITTLE & SON, Ainslie Street North, Funeral Home, 1932 (dwgs. at OA, Raymond Hall Coll.)
CONCESSION STREET, store for Roy Dalton, 1934 (dwgs. at OA, Raymond Hall Coll.)
McKENZIE STREET, residence for Robert G. Todd, 1936 (dwgs. at OA, Raymond Hall Coll.)
THE CRESCENT, residence for R. James Spalding, 1937 (dwgs. at OA, Raymond Hall Coll.)
LANSDOWNE ROAD SOUTH, residence for Adam Wilson, 1938 (dwgs. at OA, Raymond Hall Coll.)
LANSDOWNE ROAD SOUTH, residence for Roy L. Dalton, 1939 (dwgs. at OA, Raymond Hall Coll.)
CATHAY STREET, residence for the architect, 1939 (dwgs. at OA, Raymond Hall Coll.)
G.H. THOMAS & SON, Concession Street, office and shop, 1940 (dwgs. at OA, Raymond Hall Coll.)
WATER STREET NORTH, residence for M. Milne Todd, 1941 (dwgs. at OA, Raymond Hall Coll.)
ABERDEEN ROAD SOUTH, residence for Ernest S. Canning, 1941 (dwgs. at OA, Raymond Hall Coll.)
FORWARD BAPTIST CHURCH, Cambridge Street at Brook Street, 1944 (dwgs. at OA, Raymond Hall Coll.)
LOWREY AVENUE SOUTH, residence for William J.M. Marcy, 1944 (dwgs. at OA, Raymond Hall Coll.)
FORBES STREET, at St. Andrew’s Street, four shops and apartments for Lyn Cross, 1946 (dwgs. at OA, Raymond Hall Coll.)
CORONATION BOULEVARD, residence for Joseph C. Scanlon, 1947 (dwgs. at OA, Raymond Hall Coll.)
SALVATION ARMY CITADEL, Ainslie Street South, 1947 (dwgs. at OA, Raymond Hall Coll.)
WEST RIVER ROAD, residence for Dr. J. Reginald Smith, 1948 (dwgs. at OA, Raymond Hall Coll.)
LIBERTY DRIVE, residence for James D. Scott, 1948 (dwgs. at OA, Raymond Hall Coll.)
Raymond M. HALL (works elsewhere)
(with John Evans) HESPELER, ONT., a group of ten houses for the Hespeler Housing Commission, 1919 (C.R., xxxiiii, 2 July 1919, 50)
PRESTON, ONT., residence and office for Dr. Morley E. Gorman, Queen Street, 1923 (dwgs. at OA, Raymond Hall Coll.)
KIRKLAND LAKE, ONT., residence for G.A. Goddard, 1932 (dwgs. at OA, Raymond Hall Coll.)
BRANTFORD, ONT., residence at Echo Place, R.R. No. 1, for Gladstone L. Edmondson, Echo Villa Avenue, 1936 (dwgs. at OA, Raymond Hall Coll.)
BRANTFORD, ONT., residence for John M. Harris, Governor's Road, 1936 (dwgs. at OA, Raymond Hall Coll.)
PARIS, ONT., residence for R.M Creeden Jr., 1936 (dwgs. at OA, Raymond Hall Coll.)
PARIS, ONT., residence for E.P. Cuthbert, 1937 (dwgs. at OA, Raymond Hall Coll.)
STRATFORD, ONT., residence for K.H. Bruce, William Street, 1937 (dwgs. at OA, Raymond Hall Coll.)
KITCHENER, ONT., Waterloo County Registry Office, Frederick Street, 1938-40 (C.R., li, 22 June 1938, 47; Kitchener Daily Record, 26 April 1938, 3 and 11, descrip.; and 14 July 1938, 3, detailed architectural descrip., and 26 July 1940, 3, detailed descrip.; 4; Waterloo County, Journal of Proceedings & By-Laws of the Municipal Council of the County of Waterloo, 1939, 53, descrip.; R.A.I.C. Journal, xviii, June 1941, 101, illus.; Tim Morawetz, Art Deco Architecture Across Canada, 2017, 74-5, illus. & descrip.; dwgs. at OA, Raymond Hall Coll.)
KITCHENER, ONT., Weiss Bag & Burlap Co., Albert Street South, a large 2 storey industrial plant, 1938 (Kitchener Daily Record, 29 Oct. 1938, 11, illus. & descrip.)
CALEDON, ONT., a new four room public school, 1938 (Georgetown Herald, 16 Nov. 1938, 3, descrip.; Toronto Star, 5 Dec. 1938, 6)
CHESLEY, ONT., conversion of the old Town Hall into the Roxy Movie Theatre, 1938 (Owen Sound Daily Sun-Times, 30 March 1938, 2, payment of fees to R. Hall, architect; and 31 May 1938, 7, detailed architectural descrip., and 3 June 1938, 3, descrip.)
KITCHENER, ONT., residence for Edward M. Weiss, Borden Avenue North, 1945 (dwgs. at OA, Raymond Hall Coll.)
PARIS, ONT., Paris Public Utilities Commission, office building, 1946 (dwgs. at OA, Raymond Hall Coll.)
STRATFORD, ONT., residence for Dr. Robert Boyes, 1946 (dwgs. at OA, Raymond Hall Coll.)
PRESTON, ONT., residence for Dr. W. Howard Renwick, Borden Street, 1946-47 (dwgs. at OA, Raymond Hall Coll.)
PRESTON, ONT., residence for Valentine P. Bernhardt, Duke Street, 1948 (dwgs. at OA, Raymond Hall Coll.)