BRISTOW, Leonard Temple (1876-1966), active in Winnipeg, Man. from 1905 where he was recorded as the local office manager for the Montreal architect Howard C. Stone. Born in Northumberland County, Ontario on 11 April 1876, he may have been educated and trained in Ontario before he moved to Manitoba in 1905. His mentor, H.C. Stone, had already been active there from 1904, and he hired Bristow in 1905 to oversee his local projects, allowing Stone to continue to live and work in Montreal, Que. and supervise his busy office there.
In early 1907 Bristow was credited with the monumental Beaux-Arts design for the Dominion Bank, Main Street near Higgins Avenue, WINNIPEG, MAN. (Winnipeg Tribune, 13 March 1907, 4, descrip.), but in the following year, the project was credited solely to Howard C. Stone of Montreal, for whom Bristow was serving as local associate architect. In late 1907 Bristow prepared the plans for a major new theatre complex called The Imperial Theatre, Princess Street Street at Notre Dame Avenue, WINNIPEG, MAN. (C.R., xviii, 25 Dec. 1907, 20). When local papers publicised the project in early 1908, it was credited to H.C. Stone (Winnipeg Tribune, 25 Jan. 1908, 1, descrip.). Bristow, however, was quick to issue a public protest, claiming he, and he alone, was the sole designer of this project (Winnipeg Tribune, 29 Jan. 1908, 7). His perspective drawing of the theatre, in the “early French Renaissance style”, appeared in the Manitoba Free Press, 8 Feb. 1908, 9, illus. & descrip., and was also credited to him in The Western Home Monthly [Wnnipeg], ix, May 1908, 20, illus. in advert.; inf. Robert Hamilton, of Hamilton, Ont.).
By all accounts Bristow appears to have been a capable designer on his own, and he quickly parted company with Stone, then opened his own office in Winnipeg in early 1908 after joining the Manitoba Association of Architects. By 1909, however, he had left Canada, and turned up in San Francisco, Calif. where he was employed as a draftsman with Loring P. Rixford (San Francisco City Directory, 1909, 312). Not content with the opportunities there, he moved to San Diego in 1911, and established a partnership with John B. Lyman Jr. as Bristow & Lyman, Architects (San Diego City Direcctory, 1912, 133). Their largest and most impressive work there was the 11 storey “skyscraper” called The Watts Building, Fifth Avenue at E. Street, San Diego, an early steel-frame Chicago style office tower completed in 1913, and still standing in 2015. Their office closed in 1916, and by 1918 Bristow was again in San Francisco, working as a salesman for various building products companies in the city up until 1926. He later died at Sebastopol, Sonoma County, Calif. on 4 September 1966.
BRISTOW & LYMAN (San Diego, Calif.).
A detailed biography and list of works for Bristow & Lyman in southern California from 1911 to 1916 has been published by the Dept. of Parks & Recreation of the State of California in their heritage report on the Harry L. Turner House, (built in 1914), and released on 1 July 2018. This list and the associated report are now online.
SAN DIEGO, CALIF., Frevert-Bledsoe Furniture Co. a six storey retail store and warehouse, Sixth Avenue at C Avenue, 1912; altered (Southwest Builder's & Contractor's Journal, 10 Feb. 1912; National City News [National City, Calif.], 13 April 1912, 1, descrip.)
SAN DIEGO, CALIF., The New Marston Department Store, C Street, between 5th and 6th Street, 1912; altered (California, list of works by Bristow & Lyman, 1 July 2018)
SAN DIEGO, CALIF., Young Women's Christian Association, 11th Street at C Street, a commission won in a competition over 7 other architects, 1912-13; demol. (Southwest Builder's & Contractor's Journal, 9 Nov. 1912)
SAN DIEGO, CALIF., Watts-Robinson Building, a ten storey office block for Nathan Watts, Fifth Street at E Street, 1912-13 (Long Beach Press, 10 June 1912, 3; USA, Dept. of the Interior, National Register of Historic Places)
SAN DIEGO, CALIF., residence for the architect Leonard Bristow, Hermosa Way, 1912; altered (San Diego Union, 9 January 1912; list of works by Bristow & Lyman, 1 July 2018)
TUSCON, ARIZ., The Agricultural Building, on the campus of the University of Arizona, won in a competition over 3 other architects, 1914 (Tuscon Citizen, 28 April 1914, 4; Arizona Daily Star [Tuscon], 29 April 1914, 8; Arizona Republican [Tuscon], 25 June 1914, 3, t.c.)
SAN DIEGO, CALIF., residence for Harry L. Turner, Altamira Place, 1914 (San Diego Union, 5 April 1914; City of San Diego, Heritage Designation Statement, 1 July 2018)
SAN DIEGO, CALIF., residence for Charles Sumner, Chatsworth Boulevard, Loma Portal, 1914 (California, list of works by Bristow & Lyman, 1 July 2018)