Kohn, Samuel

KOHN, Samuel (1907-1978) of London, Ont. was the staff architect for Metropolitan Stores Ltd. from 1939 until after 1960 and was responsible (often anonomously) for many of the distinctive Art Deco facades which he developed for this chain of department stores located in towns and cities across Canada. Born in Kinev, Poland on 16 March 1907 he was raised in London, Ont. where he attended the H.B. Beal Technical School for 1922 to 1926. He served an apprenticeship with Watt & Blackwell from 1926 to 1930 and was then appointed their chief draftsman. Kohn held this position until 1934 when he left the firm and opened his own office in London. His first commissions included many designs for altering and updating the exteriors of many branches of the Metropolitan Stores Ltd., and in 1939 he took the position of designer and draftsman for that company. Kohn died in Lauderdale Lakes, Florida on 3 February 1978 (death notice in the Free Press [London], 6 Feb. 1978, C5; inf. Province of Quebec Association of Architects).

(with Louis N. Fabbro) SUDBURY, ONT., Hotel Coulson, Durham Street, a major reconstruction of the former New American Hotel which burned in January 1937, for J.P. Coulson of Ottawa, 1937 (Ottawa Journal, 5 March 1937, 13; C.R., Vol. 50, 31 March 1937, 29; North Bay Nugget, 14 July 1937, 16, descrip.)
OTTAWA, ONT., major alterations to the Metropolitan Stores Ltd., Sparks Street, 1941 (C.R., liv, 26 March 1941, 32)