HAMEL, Felix Maral (1851-1907), active in Ottawa, Ont. and Hull, Que. where he is best known as City Engineer for Hull. Born in Quebec City on 25 May 1851, he was the son of the prominent civil engineer Felix Hamel. He was educated at the Seminary in Quebec City, and was first employed by the Intercolonial Railway. He moved to Ottawa and joined the Dept. of Public Works in the 1870’s, supervising the construction of several federal engineering works for that department, and in 1897 he began his own practise as engineer and architect. His name appears in yearly editions of the Ottawa City Directory from 1891 to 1901 as a civil engineer and architect. Most of his architectural projects came at the request of the Roman Catholic diocese in Ottawa, who commissioned him to design schools in Hull and Ottawa.
Hamel registered as an architect with the Ontario Association of Architects in early 1907, but died a few months later on 4 July 1907 (obit Ottawa Citizen, 4 July 1907, 3). An informative obituary article on Hamel noted that he was “…in addition to his many other gifts, possessed of marked ability as an architect, and good proof of this can be seen in several of the schools that have been erected by him in Ottawa lately” (Evening Journal [Ottawa], 4 July 1907, 8).
HULL, QUE., a Roman Catholic school, 1897 (C.R., vii, 18 Jan. 1897, 2)
MANIWAKI, QUE., a large hotel "....nearly 500 ft. long", 1897 (Evening Journal [Ottawa], 21 May 1897, 6)
OTTAWA, ONT., Guigues Roman Catholic School, Murray Street, 1904 (Ottawa Journal, 5 Aug. 1904, 8, descrip.)
OTTAWA, ONT., Roman Catholic School, Wilbrod Street near Chapel Street, 1904 (Ottawa Journal, 9 Aug. 1904, 3, illus.)
OTTAWA, ONT., Roman Catholic School, Friel Street, 1906 (C.R., xvii, 30 May 1906, 5)
OTTAWA, ONT. addition to St. Jean Baptiste Roman Catholic School, Empress Avenue, 1906 (Ottawa Journal, 21 April 1906, 16)
OTTAWA, ONT., addition to St. Agatha's Roman Catholic School, Eccles Street at Le Breton Street, 1906 (Ottawa Journal, 21 April 1906, 16)
OTTAWA, ONT., new school building to replace existing Breboeuf Roman Catholic School, Anglesea Square, 1906 (Ottawa Journal, 21 April 1906, 16)
OTTAWA, ONT., new Roman Catholic School in St. George's Ward, 1906 (Ottawa Journal, 21 April 1906, 16)