KNOWLES, Harry Percy (1871-1923) of New York City submitted an entry in the competition for the Masonic Temple in Toronto in 1914 (Toronto Daily Star, 17 Feb. 1914, 1, illus.; Const., vii, May 1914, 180-5, illus & descrip.; The Brickbuilder (Boston), xxv, Dec. 1916, 307, illus.). He was among 41 competitors from the USA and Canada, and his striking Beaux-Arts scheme, intended for a site on Spadina Avenue near Bloor Street West, was awarded First Prize of $1,000, but the initial cost estimates of $300,000 far exceeded the budget for the project (C.R., xxviii, 9 Dec. 1914, 65, t.c.). An attempt to revise the scheme was made in 1916, in collaboration with Burke, Horwood & White of Toronto, but this proved unsuccessful and the project was abandoned. The drawings by Knowles for this unbuilt work have survived. and are now held in the Horwood Collection at the Ontario Archives in Toronto (OA, Horwood Coll., 456)
Knowles was born in Hamilton, Ont. on 6 July 1871 and he later moved to New York City where he trained under Napoleon E. LeBrun. He specialised in the design of Masonic Temple buildings; his best known work is the Mecca Temple, West 55th Street, New York, designed for the Shriners in 1922 and completed in 1924. Knowles died in New York on 1 January 1923 (biography in H. Withey, Biographical Dictionary of American Architects, 1956, 352; obituary in the American Architect, cxxiii, 31 January 1923, 18; inf. Robert Hamilton).