McLAREN, Thomas (1879-1967) of Montreal, Que, and best known for his collaboration with Frank Peden, in the partnership of Peden & McLaren. Together, they designed nearly twenty branches of the Bank of Montreal from Prince Edward Island to British Columbia between 1906 and 1916 (see list of works under Peden & McLaren). Born in Perth, Scotland on 22 July 1879, McLaren was educated at Perth Academy and served a four year apprenticeship with George P.K. Young, FRIBA in Perth from 1894 to 1898. While there, he took evening classes in architecture and design at the Shanks Educational Institution (from 1895 to 1898), then moved to Glasgow in 1899 to study architecture full time at the Glasgow School of Art (in 1899-1901). He emigrated to Canada in July 1902 and joined the office of Sir Andrew T. Taylor in Montreal, and while there, he gained extensive experience in the design of bank buildings in Canada. When Taylor left Canada and returned to London, England in January 1904, McLaren decided to take time to travel in Europe, then returned to Montreal in 1905 where he joined the architectural department of the Bank of Montreal, then under the supervision of Frank Peden, and was able to build upon his experience in designing bank branches for that company. In late 1906 he was encouraged by Peden to leave the Bank and to form an independent partnership. For the next eleven years their firm prospered, and their designs for new branches of the Bank of Montreal were completed in seven different provinces.
Their collaboration ended in 1917, but McLaren then decided to open an office under his own name. He served as mechanical drawing instructor at Loyola College in Montreal from 1923 to 1926, and also received several commissions for new buildings on that campus. He later became a building inspector for the Town of Montreal West, where he had earlier designed the Town Hall with Frank Peden in 1910. No information has been found on his architectural activity after 1930, and he retired from the R.I.B.A. in London in 1935.
McLaren died in Montreal on 11 April 1967 (obit. Montreal Star, 19 April 1967; Gazette [Montreal], 20 Apridl 1967, 45; biog. Who’s Who & Why in Canada, 1912, 343; A.J. Newlands, Prominent People in the Province of Quebec, 1923-24; biog. in Col. William Wood, The Storied Province of Quebec Past & Present, Vol. iv, 171; inf. Royal Inst. of British Architects, London; inf. Province of Quebec Assoc. of Architects; inf. Alex H. McLaren, Montreal West, Que.)
(works in Montreal unless noted)
BALLANTYNE AVENUE NORTH, pair of houses for Rickson A. Outhet, Landscape Architect, 1920-21 (C.R., xxxiv, 12 Nov. 1920, 52; 8 Dec. 1920, 57)
MONTREAL WEST, QUE., pair of semi-detached houses for an unnamed client, Percival Avenue, 1921 (C.R., xxxv, 2 March 1921, 60; xxxvi, 22 Feb. 1922, 182, illus. & descrip.)
MONTREAL, QUE., a detached cottage, built for an unnamed client, 1922 (C.R., xxxvi, 22 Nov. 1922, 1127, illus. & descrip.)
LOYOLA COLLEGE, Skating Rink, Sherbrooke Street West near Belmore Avenue, 1924 (list of works by Thomas McLaren in E. McMann, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts Spring Exhibitions, 1988, 244-45)
SHERBROOKE STREET WEST, at Westminster Street, apartment block for Saul Bierbrier, 1928-29 (C.R., xlii, 12 Sept. 1928, 55)
CLIFFSIDE BADMINTON CLUB, Cote des Neiges Road near Decelles Avenue, 1928 (C.R., xlii, 21 Nov. 1928, 51)
LACHINE, QUE., MacDonald’s Parish Hall, adjacent to St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, St. Joseph Boulevard at 15th Avenue, 1928 (Montreal, Les Eglises, 1981, 158-61, illus.)
COMPETITIONS
LONDON, ENGL., The Tite Prize, R.I.B.A., 1901. McLaren was among 26 entrants who submitted a proposal for " A Design for a Gateway to a Public Park". He was not among the three finalists in this annual competition (R.I.B.A. Journal, viii, 26 Jan. 1901, 130, list of entrants). His elaborate design, in the Renaissance Revival style, was later published in the Canadian Architect & Builder, xv, April 1902, illus. plate). This drawing was credited to McLaren in collaboration with Andrew Sharp, but a correction was published in May 1902, 64 suggesting that McLaren was the sole author of the design.
HAMILTON, ONT., North West Entrance Bridge, 1927-28. McLaren was one of 12 architects who submitted designs for this ambitious urban project (R.A.I.C. Journal, iv, April 1928, 131). The scheme by McLaren was not among the three finalists, and the winning design by Earle Sheppard was never built.