HOLNN-MOLLER, Anton Christian (1883-1955), an exceptionally gifted architect from Denmark who worked in the tradition of the Danish builder and craftsman. Born in Copenhagen on 12 March 1883, he attended classes at the Technical High School there, and spent three summers engaged in construction work, as all architects in Denmark were required to do. He obtained four years of study, then became a draughtsman and a building inspector. In 1905 and 1906, he was awarded travelling scholarships which enabled him to visit other countries in Europe. He began his career as an architect in Denmark in 1912, receiving commissions for private residences, apartment blocks, factories, bakeries, one church, and a school building. He also spent five years as an instructor of building construction at the technical high school at Roskilde, Denmark. From August 1919 to November 1920, he held the post of staff architect for the Arbejdernes Andels-Boligforening [Housing Association] in Copenhagen, and further research may link his name to several garden housing estates erected by that Association in the region of Copenhagen.
Holnn-Moller emigrated to Canada in June 1921 and settled in Winnipeg, Man. where he was “occupied with construction work and bricklaying”. In June 1922, he applied for membership in the Manitoba Association of Architects. It is unclear if his application was accepted because in October 1922 he moved south to Chicago, Ill. and later sought full citizenship status there in November 1927. It was during this period that he completed his first significant commission in Canada for the Danish Lutheran Church in Winnipeg (1927). By September 1929 he was again back in Canada, but this time he was living and working as an architect in Alberta. There, he designed Sharon Lutheran Church, Calgary, 1930, a distinctive brick landmark in Alberta with stepped brick gables and sloping roof forms which draw upon the rich tradition of Danish ecclesiastical works such as the famous Grundtvig Church in Copenhagen (1913-30), designed by the leading Danish architect Peder V. Jensen-Klint.
Eight years later, in 1938, Holnn-Moller produced an exceptional design for the Danish Lutheran Church in Edmonton, Alta. which was inspired by the Danish tradition of brick country churches, and he again developed a bold expressionist theme with dramatic stepped gables and a huge circular window lighting the interior nave space. The original suite of the carefully crafted drawings by Holnn-Moller for this church have survived, and are now part of the Blakey Collection at the Public Archives of Alberta, Edmonton. No information has been found on works by Holnn-Moller after 1940, and he may have left Canada and returned to the Chicago area. In December 1948, he traveled by ship from New York to Gothenburg, Sweden, but in April 1953, at the age of 70 years, he returned by ship to New York City. He later died in Copenhagen on 8 December 1955 (obituary The Pilot-Tribune [Blair, Nebraska], 15 December 1955, p. 1 (inf. from the Manitoba Assoc. of Architects, Winnipeg; inf. Kaj Buch Jensen, Kalundborg, Denmark).
KALUNDBORG, DENMARK, a tract of 29 houses in the Haveley neighbourhood, 1916; still standing in 2017 (Manitoba Assoc. of Architects, Membership Application from A. Holnn-Moller, dated 15 June 1922, with list of works)
KALUNDBORG, DENMARK, a large tract of 100 row houses along Slagelsevej Street, Poulas Alle, Niels Valdemars Alle, and Ingeborgs Alle, 1917; still standing in 2017 (Manitoba Assoc. of Architects, Membership Application from A. Holnn-Moller, dated 15 June 1922, with list of works)
ROSKILDE, DENMARK, a tract of 8 row house blocks, each containing 8 units, for a total of 64 units, for the local Building Society, c. 1918 (Manitoba Assoc. of Architects, Membership Application from A. Holnn-Moller, dated 15 June 1922, with list of works; inf. Mr. Kaj Buch Jensen, Kalundborg, Denmark)
HOLBAEK, DENMARK, a tract of 20 houses, erected within 10 pairs of semi-detached units, for the local Housing Association, c. 1918 ((Manitoba Assoc. of Architects, Membership Application from A. Holnn-Moller, dated 15 June 1922, with list of works)
(works in Canada)
WINNIPEG, MAN., First Danish Lutheran Church, Bannerman Avenue near Emslie Street, 1926-27 (Winnipeg Tribune, 3 Nov. 1926, 7, illus. & descrip.; 18 Nov. 1926, 3, descrip.)
DALUM, ALTA., Bethlehem Lutheran Church, Highway 56, 1929; still standing in 2021 (inf. Provincial Archives of Alberta)
TILLEY, ALTA., Bethany Lutheran Church, c. 1930; still standing in 2021 (inf. Lutheran Church Archives, Wlfred Laurier University, Waterloo, Ont.)
CALGARY, ALTA., Sharon Lutheran Church, 10th Avenue N.E., near 1st Street N.E., 1930; still standing in 2017 (C.M. Cherland, The Lutheran Legacy: Growth of Calgary’s Lutheran Churches, 1975, 25, illus.)
DICKSON, ALTA., Girl’s Dormitory for the local High School, for the Danish community in Dickson, 1931 (signed drawings at the Red Deer & District Archives, Red Deer, Alta.)
PASS LAKE, ONT. [near Port Arthur], Salem Lutheran Church, Pass Lake Road [Highway 587], 1931-32; burned June 2020 (inf. Debby Jensen, Pass Lake, Ont.)
EDMONTON, ALTA., Danish Lutheran Church, 96th Street NW at 108th Avenue NW, 1938 (signed drawings at Public Archives of Alberta, Edmonton, Blakey Collection, Acc. 67.100, Reel 3)