TYRRELL, William (1816-1904), active in Weston, Ont., a suburb of Toronto, where he was recorded as an architect, carpenter, builder, township reeve, Justice of the Peace, and oil refiner (Mitchell’s Canada Gazetteer & Business Directory, 1864-65). By 1878 he was advertising his services as “Architect & Builder, Weston” in a business card inserted the York County Atlas (Illustrated Historical Atlas of the County of York, 1878, 52, advert.). His name appears variously as a builder or deputy Reeve for Weston in the 1880’s, and again as “architect & builder” after 1890 (Ontario Gazetteer & Directory, 1892-93, 1275).
Tyrrell was born in Ireland on 5 March 1816 but no information has been found on his education or training there. He emigrated to Upper Canada in 1836 and settled in Toronto where he worked as a building contractor up and down the Humber Valley in western Toronto. One of his first commissions was for the flour mill on the Humber River for William Gamble, 1837-38. When this complex burned down in 1849, Tyrrell was again called upon to build a new mill, the ruins of which still stand today and can be seen adjacent to the Old Mill Restaurant north of Bloor Street West. Tyrrell was a talented delineator and fastidious draughtsman, and possessed a wide-ranging knowledge of the Georgian and the fashionable Second Empire style, and used the latter with skill in his designs for the Masonic Hall at Eglinton (1873), and for the Weston Town Hall (1883). He appears to have been entirely self-taught, yet he sustained a career both as competent builder and as an imaginative architect for nearly fifty years, mixing professional interests with local politics, and earning him the name of “The Squire of Weston”.
Tyrrell died at Weston, Ont. at the age of ninety-nine on 8 November 1904 and was buried at Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Toronto (obit. The Globe [Toronto], 9 Nov. 1904, 12; Toronto World, 11 Nov. 1904, 8). A portrait painting of Tyrrell can be found in Edith L. Morrison & Jesse E. Middleton, William Tyrrell of Weston, 1937, frontispiece and p. 128. The Fisher Rare Book Library at the University of Toronto holds a manuscript collection of ledgers, account books, specifications and architectural drawings by Tyrrell, and by other architects including William Thomas, Kivas Tully, James Grand, and William Stibbs.
ISLINGTON, ONT. [now Etobicoke], St. George’s Anglican Church, Dundas Street West near Wimbleton Road, 1844; re-clad in brick, 1894 (M. MacRae & A. Adamson, Hallowed Walls, 1975, 267, 270)
WOODBRIDGE, ONT., Christ Church [Anglican], Islington Avenue near Woodbridge Avenue, 1851; burned February 1921 (Weston Times & Guide, 8 Dec. 1933, 1, historical article on the church; P. Somerville & C. MacFarlane, History of Vaughan Township Churches, 1984, 25-7, illus.)
TORONTO, ONT., pair of three storey brick houses for D'arcy Boulton, St. George's Square, 1856 (dwgs. Tyrrell Coll., Fisher Rare Book Library, Univ. of Toronto)
WESTON, ONT., cottage residence for W. Edwin Bull, 1857 (dwgs. Tyrrell Coll., Fisher Rare Book Library, Univ. of Toronto)
WESTON, ONT., residence for the architect William Tyrrell, King Street, 1859 (A Pictorial History of Weston, 1981, 59, illus.)
WESTON, ONT., Common School House, 1861; with addition of a second storey and wing, c. 1875 (dwgs. Tyrrell Coll., Fisher Rare Book Library, Univ. of Toronto)
ETOBICOKE TOWNSHIP, cottage for Mathew Parsons, c. 1867 (dwgs. Tyrrell Coll., Fisher Rare Book Library, Univ. of Toronto)
CLAREMONT, ONT., Wesleyan Methodist Church, 6th Concession, York Township, 1869 (dwgs. Tyrrell Coll., Fisher Rare Book Library, Univ. of Toronto)
EGLINTON, ONT [now North Toronto], Masonic Hall “…near the Prospect House”, 1873 (The Leader [Toronto], 29 May 1873, 2; Globe [Toronto], 29 May 1873, 4)
SARNIA, ONT., major addition and alterations to residence for R.S. Gurd, London Road at Christina Street, 1875; demol. 1964 (dwgs. Tyrrell Coll., Fisher Rare Book Library, Univ. of Toronto)
WESTON, ONT., factory buildings for Smith & Wilby, 1876 (dwgs. Tyrrell Coll., Fisher Rare Book Library, Univ. of Toronto)
WESTON, ONT., hotel for John Little, 1879 (dwgs. Tyrrell Coll., Fisher Rare Book Library, Univ. of Toronto)
WESTON, ONT., Presbyterian Church, Cross Street, 1880 (History of the Presbyterian Church in Canada Serving In Weston 1847-1947, 7; A Pictorial History of Weston, 1981, 34, illus.)
ETOBICOKE TOWNSHIP, cottage for Mathew Parsons, c. 1880 (dwgs. Tyrrell Coll., Fisher Rare Book Library, Univ. of Toronto)
WESTON, ONT., residence for Executors of the late William Holley, 1882 (dwgs. Tyrrell Coll., Fisher Rare Book Library, Univ. of Toronto)
WESTON, ONT., store, shop and dwelling house on Dufferin Street at Main Street, for David Rowntree, 1883 (dwgs. Tyrrell Coll., Fisher Rare Book Library, Univ. of Toronto)
WESTON, ONT., Public Hall & Mechanics Institute, Main Street, also called “ Dufferin Hall”, 1883; demol. 1957 (A Pictorial History of Weston, 1981, illus.; dwgs. Tyrrell Coll., Fisher Rare Book Library, Univ. of Toronto)
TORONTO, ONT., house on Dovercourt Road for Dr. Robert S. Tyrrell, 1884 (dwgs. Tyrrell Coll., Fisher Rare Book Library, Univ. of Toronto)
OTTAWA, ONT., pair of semi-detached houses for Joseph B. Tyrrell, 1884 ((dwgs. Tyrrell Coll., Fisher Rare Book Library, Univ. of Toronto)