ROBERTS, David [Senior] (1810-1881), a native of Wales, was active in Toronto as an architect and civil engineer with an expertise in steam-powered mills, and was said to have designed several such installations in the 1840’s and 1850’s. His lengthy business advertisement, published in British Colonist [Toronto], 5 November 1844, page 3, states that he was “Late of the firm of Messrs. Thomas & David Roberts of Mountmellick, Ireland” and cites his 13 years of experience there as an engineer and millwright. It also touts his new association with Christopher Elliott of the Phoenix Foundry in Toronto. In 1851, he was advertising himself as “consulting engineer and mechanical draftsman” (British Colonist [Toronto], 18 March 1851).
A small biographical article on Roberts Sr., published in The Globe [Toronto], 25 December 1863, p. 1, col. 9, states that he had been “…active with Gooderham & Worts for the past eighteen years”, and that he had provided services to them since 1845, an indication that he may have advised them on the design and construction of all buildings and works on their Toronto site for nearly twenty years. His largest and most important work for the company was the immense stone warehouse, steam mill and distillery, built 1859, an early Victorian industrial landmark which still stands today (as of 2016). It measures 300 feet long and 80 feet wide, five storeys in height, with a chimney 100 ft. tall., and massive walls of Kingston limestone measuring more than three feet in thickness. The Ontario Archives in Toronto holds a collection of plans, elevations, sections and detail drawings by David Roberts Sr. for additional buildings on the site. Many of these drawings are signed and dated 1863 and 1869, indicating that Roberts Sr. had an ongoing and continuing relationship as the architect and engineer to the Gooderham & Worts Co. site, which now forms part of the Distillery District in Toronto.
He may have also been involved in the design of the Carling Brewery Building in London, Ont. (1873-75) which bears distinct similarities in style and form to the 1859 warehouse in Toronto designed for Gooderham & Worts. The London building is also credited in several sources as a work of David Roberts, but these original sources do not specify if this is by David Roberts Sr. or David Jr.
Roberts Sr. died in Sparta, Ontario on 5 December 1881 (death notice Globe [Toronto], 6 Dec. 1881, 4; death notice Toronto Daily World, 6 Dec. 1881, 4; inf. Kent Rawson, Toronto). His professional business as a specialist in distillery design was continued by his son David Roberts Jr. His Last Will & Testament, signed “David Roberts, architect and engineer” left an estate valued at $9,500 to his three sons, Thomas, Robert, and David Roberts Jr., architect (OA, Elgin County Wills, No. 977, dated 21 February 1882).
TORONTO, ONT., Gooderham & Worts Ltd., the Toronto City Steam Mills & Distillery Complex, Trinity Street, south of Mill Street, 1859-61; burned 1870, and rebuilt by his son David Roberts Jr. (The Leader [Toronto], 25 May 1859, 2, descrip.; Globe [Toronto], 11 July 1859, 2, descrip.; W. Dendy & W. Kilbourn, Toronto Observed, 1986, 87-8, illus. & descrip.; H. Kalman, History of Canadian Architecture, 1994, 665, illus. & descrip.)
TORONTO, ONT., Toronto General Hospital, Gerrard Street East, installation of a heating and ventilating system, 1864 (Globe [Toronto], 7 Oct. 1864, 3, t.c.)