FEE, Thomas Arthur (1863-1929), active in Vancouver, B.C., at first under his own name, and then in partnership with J. Edmeston Parr (see list of works under Parr & Fee). Born in Durham, Quebec on 18 May 1863, he trained in Minneapolis, Minn. with Harry W. Jones in 1888-89, then moved to Vancouver to help with the rebuilding of that city after the disastrous fire there in 1886. His name appears in various Vancouver City Directories from 1894 to 1897 as ’builder’, and as ’house builder’. A list of several large residences which he built (and likely designed) during this period appeared in the Vancouver Daily World on 27 November 1897, 3.
Fee possessed a large real estate portfolio and was one of the first purchasers of property along Granville Street in Vancouver, and was the holder of original C.P.R. deeds. He joined in partnership in 1898 with J. E. Parr, and during the next fifteen years the firm of Parr & Fee became one of the most successful and productive architectural partnerships in western Canada. They designed some of the first reinforced concrete buildings in Vancouver, and are credited with dozens of commercial and industrial landmarks throughout the city, including the Hotel Europe, the Vancouver Block, and the Dominion Theatre. Fee retired in 1912, but the firm of Parr, McKenzie & Day remained active until 1915. Fee died in Vancouver on 21 December 1929 (obit. The Province [Vancouver], 22 Dec. 1929, 1; Vancouver Sun, 23 Dec. 1929, 10; Vancouver Daily Star, 23 Dec. 1929, 9; biog. and list of works in Vancouver Daily World, 27 Nov. 1897, 3; biog. and port. in D. Luxton, Building The West, 2003, 190-94, illus.; inf. Architectural Inst. of British Columbia, Vancouver).
(works in Vancouver unless noted)
(from a list of works by Fee in the Vancouver Daily World, 27 Nov. 1897, 3)
BROUGHTON STREET, at Haro Street, residence for Mrs. S.B. Rogers, c. 1896
BROUGHTON STREET, at Robson Street, residence for W.H. Wheeler, c. 1896
BURRARD STREET, near Haro Street, residence for G. McL. Brown, c. 1896
BROUGHTON STREET, near Haro Street, residence for Gordon Drysdale, c. 1896
BROUGHTON STREET, at Haro Street, residence for N. D. McHaffie, c. 1896
GEORGIA STREET, near Bute Street, residence for Andrew E. Jukes, c. 1896
JERVIS STREET, near Heatley Avenue, residence for R.C. Ferguson, c. 1896
unnamed street, residence for Oliver Campbell, c. 1896
GEORGIA STREET, at Jervis Street, residence for W. Pellew Harvey, c. 1896