MARTIN, William Anderson (1893-1962) of Winnipeg, Man. served as the Building Commissioner and Architect for the Winnipeg Board of Education from 1929 until 1958. In this position, he was credited with the design of over 50 school buildings, and additions to existing schools, in the City of Winnipeg. Born in Edinburgh, Scotland on 26 March 1893, he was educated at the University of Edinburgh and emigrated to Canada in 1913. He is said to have been employed as a site supervisor for the George Fuller Construction Co. overseeing the construction of the Fort Garry Hotel (designed by Ross & MacFarlane of Montreal), and was briefly associated with John D. Atchison on the design and construction of the Merchant’s Bank Tower on Main Street (1913).
On 1 September 1918 he was hired as a drawing instructor in the Dept. of Mechanical Drawing at Kelvin Technical High School, and later obtained a position of draftsman with the Winnipeg School Board. When J.B. Mitchell retired as Board Architect in early 1929, Martin was appointed as Acting Commissioner of Buildings (Winnipeg Daily Tribune, 13 February 1929, 3). Later that year, on 1 September, he became full Commissioner of Buildings and Board Architect, and held this post for the next 28 years. Many of his early designs for school buildings, such as Victoria Public School (1930) were plain, unadorned works which lacked the refinements of the Beaux-Arts style evident in the work of his predecessor J.B. Mitchell. In the postwar era, he prepared a pattern-book plan for six different schools, all based on the same dull elevational treatment and floor plan (Winnipeg Daily Tribune, 13 June 1946, 18, illus. & descrip.)
In 1947, he called in Ewart Fitz Munn as consulting architect and designer to assist him with the plans of the monumental Winnipeg Technical & Vocational School, Wall Street (1948-51). A bird’s eye perspective drawing of this building, in the Art Deco style, was published in the Winnipeg Daily Tribune on 24 September 1947, 15, and owes much of its distinctive character to Munn, who also served as the architect for other Winnipeg schools in the postwar era. Martin retired in 1958 and died in Winnipeg on 2 April 1962 (obit. Winnipeg Free Press, 3 April 1962, 23; inf. from Dr. Gordon Goldsborough, Manitoba Historical Society)
(works in Winnipeg)
VICTORIA-ALBERT PUBLIC SCHOOL, Ellen Street, between William Avenue and Bannatyne Avenue, to replace the school which burned in March 1930 (Winnipeg Daily Tribune, 24 May 1930, 15, descrip.; 28 June 1930, 18, illus & descrip.)
GLENWOOD PUBLIC SCHOOL, 1930 (Winnipeg Daily Tribune, 12 July 1930, 24)
RIVER HEIGHTS PUBLIC SCHOOL, Queenston Street at Kingsway Avenue, 1931 (Winnipeg Daily Tribune, 23 Feb. 1931, 3; 25 April 1931, 14, descrip.)
FORT ROUGE PUBLIC SCHOOL, Guelph Street, between Garwood Avenue and Fleet Avenue, 1946 (Winnipeg Daily Tribune, 13 June 1946, 18, illus. & descrip.)
ELMWOOD, a public school near George V School, 1946 (Winnipeg Daily Tribune, 13 June 1946, 18, illus. & descrip.)
RIVER HEIGHTS PUBLIC SCHOOL, Grosvenor Avenue opposite Elm Street, 1946-48 (Winnipeg Daily Tribune, 13 June 1946, 18, illus. & descrip.; Winnipeg Free Press, 19 Feb. 1947, 3)
SARGENT PARK PUBLIC SCHOOL, Dominion Street at Sargent Avenue, 1946-48 (Winnipeg Daily Tribune, 13 June 1946, 18, illus. & descrip.)
INKSTER PUBLIC SCHOOL, Inkster Boulevard at McKenzie Street, 1946-48 (Winnipeg Daily Tribune, 13 June 1946, 18, illus. & descrip.)
(with Ewart Fitz Munn, Consulting Architect) WINNIPEG TECHNICAL & VOCATIONAL SCHOOL, Wall Street at Notre Dame Avenue, designed 1947; built 1948-51 (Winnipeg Daily Tribune, 24 Sept. 1947, 15, illus. & descrip.; 23 July 1948, 11, descrip.; C.R., lx, Nov. 1947, 142; Tim Morawetz, Art Deco Architecture Across Canada, 2017, 107, illus. & descrip.)
WESTON PUBLIC SCHOOL, Logan Avenue at Quelch Street, 1948 (Winnipeg Daily Tribune, 13 Aug. 1948, 11, illus.)
BROCK CORYDON PUBLIC SCHOOL, Corydon Avenue opposite Brock Street, 1948-50 (Winnipeg Daily Tribune, 17 Dec. 1948, 8; C.R., lxiii, March 1950, 136; May 1950, 144)
ROCKWOOD PUBLIC SCHOOL, Rockwood Street opposite Garwood Avenue, 1948-50 (Winnipeg Daily Tribune, 17 Dec. 1948, 8)