BRENNAN, John Francis [Frank] (1911-1978), active in Toronto, Ont. as a partner in the architectural firm of Brennan & Whale from 1949 until 1970. Brennan was born in St. Catharines, Ont. on 14 November 1911 and attended Roman Catholic separate schools there. In December 1920, his mother Nellie Foley Brennan of St. Catharines. married John Gibb Morton, a professional architect who had recently arrived from Scotland and had settled in Toronto. It was her second marriage, and Brennan became the stepson to Morton, and it was Morton who likely encouraged Brennan to pursue a career in the profession, and to take up the study of architecture at the University of Toronto.
Brennan arrived in Toronto in 1921 and attended high school at St. Michael's College School from 1923 to 1928. He then studied at St. Michael's College adjacent to the campus of the University of Toronto in 1928-29, and later enrolled in the Dept. of Architecture within the Faculty of Applied Science at the University of Toronto in 1929. During the summer break in 1929, 1930 and 1931, he trained under his stepfather J. Gibb Morton, who had become a talented designer and a specialist in the field of ecclesiastical design for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Toronto. In the summer of 1932, Brennan worked in the office of John M. Lyle, an important Canadian architect who was an acknowledged master of the Art Deco style.
Brennan graduated from the Univ. of Toronto in 1934, and after joining the Ontario Association of Architects in April 1936 he became a staff architect in the local Toronto office of the George A. Fuller Construction Co. (City of Toronto Directory, 1936, 145), one of the largest building contractors in North America, with headquarters in Chicago and New York The following year, in 1937, Brennan had joined the interior design division of the T. Eaton Co. Department Store chain (City of Toronto Directory, 1937, 149). There, he worked directly under the supervision of Rene Cera, a French architect and designer who was brought to Canada by the Eaton family in 1928.
Brennan served in the Royal Canadian Artillery in England and in Ottawa from 1939 to 1945, obtaining the rank of Major. He continued to practise under his own name until early 1949 when he invited George R. Whale to form a partnership with him. Their new firm remained active for the next twenty years, and specialised in the design of educational and ecclesiastical buildings. Their largest and most important commission was for Providence Villa in Scarborough, a large long-term care facility completed in 1962. Brennan retired in early 1970 after suffering from a chronic heart ailment. He was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada in 1976, and later died at Horseshoe Valley, Ont. on 18 June 1978 (obituary Toronto Star, 21 June 1978, C 30; inf. University of Toronto Archives; inf. Ontario Association of Architects; inf. Margaret Brennan, Toronto).
J.F. BRENNAN
MOONBEAM, ONT., Roman Catholic Separate School, for the Farquier & Nansen Union Separate School Board, 1948-49 (C.R., lxi, Oct. 1948, 177)
(with Ernest Cormier) TORONTO, ONT., St. Michael's College High School, Bathurst Street at St. Clair Avenue West, 1948-49 (Globe & Mail [Toronto], 1 March 1948, 7, illus.; C.R., lxi, April 1948, 144; ARQ [Montreal], No. 53, Feb. 1990, 21, illus.; Isabelle Gournay, Ernest Cormier and Universite de Montreal, 1990, 78, illus.)
(with Ernest Cormier) TORONTO, ONT., University of Toronto, St. Michael’s Roman Catholic College Centennial Buildings, now called Carr Hall, St. Joseph Street at Queen’s Park Crescent, 1948-54 (C.R., lxi, April 1948, 144; Univ. of Toronto Alumni Bulletin, Dec. 1952, illus.; Larry W. Richards, University of Toronto - The Campus Guide, 2009, 98, illus. & descrip.)
(with Ernest Cormier) TORONTO, ONT., University of Toronto, St. Basil’s Roman Catholic Seminary, now called Cardinal Flahiff Basilian Centre, St. Joseph Street near Bay Street, 1949, with addition by Brennan & Whale, 1959 (Larry W. Richards, University of Toronto - The Campus Guide, 2009, 99, illus. & descrip.)
RICHMOND HILL, ONT., St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Separate School, 1949-50 (R.A.I.C. Journal, xxvii, May 1950, 165, illus.)
BRENNAN & WHALE
MIMICO, ETOBICOKE TWP., St. Louis Roman Catholic Separate School, Morgan Avenue, 1950-51 (C.R., lxiii, Oct. 1950, 152)
TORONTO, ONT., Nurse’s Residence, St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Hospital, Queen Street West at Sunnyside Avenue, 1951-52 (R.A.I.C. Journal, xxix, June 1952, 171, illus.)
WALLACEBURG, ONT., public school, Margaret Avenue, 1955 (Windsor Daily Star, 27 June 1955, 4, illus. & descrip.)
TORONTO, ONT., St. Michael’s Roman Catholic College, Elmsley Hall, a Men’s Residence and adjacent power plant for the College, 1956-57 (Larry W. Richards, University of Toronto - The Campus Guide, 2009, 95, illus. & descrip.)
TORONTO, ONT., Loretto College Women's Residence, north side of St. Mary’s Street, west of Bay Street, 1958-59 (Toronto Star, 15 Nov. 1959, 51, descrip.; 21 June 1978, C 30, list of works in obituary)
SCARBOROUGH, ONT., Providence Villa Hospital and Residence, St. Clair Avenue East near Warden Avenue, 1961-62 (Toronto Star, 21 June 1978, C 30, list of works in obituary)
TORONTO, ONT., Bank of Nova Scotia, St. Clair Avenue West at Avenue Road, 1962 (R.A.I.C. Journal , xl, Aug. 1963, 81, illus. in advert.)
TORONTO, ONT., St. Michael’s Roman Catholic College, major addition and alterations to Brennan Hall, St. Mary’s Street, 1967, originally designed by Arthur W. Holmes in 1937 (Larry W. Richards, University of Toronto - The Campus Guide, 2009, 95, illus. & descrip.)
MARKLAND WOODS, ETOBICOKE TWP., St. Clement’s Roman Catholic Church, Markland Drive at Bloor Street West, 1970 (Catholic Register [Toronto], 31 Oct. 1970, 13; Toronto Star, 21 June 1978, C 30, list of works in obituary)