MORRISON, Donald D. (c. 1790 - 1872), an architect and builder active in St. Andrews, New Brunswick, and one of the first professional architects to live and work in the Charlotte County region. Born in Rosshire County in Scotland in 1790 or 1791, he emigrated to the United States after 1810 and settled in Boston, Mass. where it is likely that he learned the trade of builder and contractor. He moved to southern New Brunswick after 1820 and his name first appears in 1822 when he was awarded the contract to build (and perhaps to design) the new Greenock Presbyterian Church, one of most important landmarks of the Neoclassical style in eastern Canada, completed in 1824 and now a national historic site. It is possible that Morrison may have been inspired by the Palladian-style churches he had seen in Boston when he lived there before moving to New Brunswick, or he may have seen (or owned a copy of) the English pattern book written by the architect James Gibbs in 1728, containing many designs for ecclesiastical, commercial and residential buildings.
In 1827 he designed and built his own residence at 204 Montague Street in St. Andrews, a refined essay in the Federal style with a pure symmetrical composition centred on the main door that he framed with an exquisitely detailed glass fan light and sidelights. In 1832 Morrison received an important civic commission to design the new County Gaol in St. Andrews. At the cornerstone laying ceremony on 20 July 1832, and in subsequent published articles, he was referred to as the “architect” in the documents placed inside a box within the cornerstone (New Brunswick Courier [Saint John], 4 Aug. 1832, 4). Yet two years later, in 1834, this building was attributed to another architect, John Cunningham of Saint John, and it is unclear if Cunningham was called in to complete the work begun in 1832 to Morrison’s design, or whether Morrison was merely acting as the local supervising architect to Cunningham.
Morrison appears to have moved back to Massachusetts after 1845; his name was listed variously as “builder”, or as “carpenter & builder” from 1848 until 1852 (Boston City Directory, 1848-49, 198; Boston City Directory, 1850-51, 242). By 1854, however, his name began to appear in the Classified Trades list of the Boston Directory as a professional architect where he maintained an office at 120 Washington Street, and the directories continue to record him as an architect as late as 1869 (Boston City Directory, 1869, 440). Morrison died in Boston on 15 February 1872 at the age of 82 years (State of Massachusetts, Registry of Deaths 1841-1915, lists for the year 1872). He was later buried at Forest Hills Cemetery in Boston.
ST. ANDREWS, N.B., Greenock Presbyterian Church, Montague Street at Edward Street, 1822-24 (Melville N. Cockburn, Greenock Church - St. Andrews, N.B. From 1821 to 1906, 1906, 5; Nathalie Clerk, Palladian Style in Canadian Architecture, 1984, 68, illus. & descrip.; Peter Richardson & Douglas S. Richardson, Canadian Churches - An Architectural History, 2007, 62-65, illus. & descrip.; John Leroux, St. Andrews Architecture 1604-1966, 2010, Item 64, illus. & descrip.)
ST. ANDREWS, N.B., a residence for the architect, Montague Street at King Street, c. 1827 (John Leroux, St. Andrews Architecture 1604-1966, 2010, Item 72, illus. & descrip.)
ST. ANDREWS, N.B., a large 3 storey commercial block at 189 Water Street, at King Street “…opposite Postmaster Campbell’s residence”, 1831; still standing in 2017 (historical article in The Bay Pilot [St. Andrews], 25 July 1878, 3, descrip.; John Leroux, St. Andrews Architecture 1604-1966, 2010, Item 15, illus. & descrip.; inf. David Sullivan, St. Andrews)
ST. ANDREWS, N.B., The County Gaol, 1832-34 (New Brunswick Courier [Saint John], 4 Aug. 1832, 4, where Morrison was referred to as “the architect” at the ceremony for the laying of the cornerstone on 20 July 1832). This building has been attributed in other sources to John Cunningham of Saint John, and dated to 1834.