BRYAN, Francis William (1860-1937) of Collingwood, Ont. was active there as an architect and builder from c. 1885 until after 1900. Born in Coventry, England on 22 March 1860, he was brought to Canada by his family in 1865 at the young age of 5 years, and was raised in Simcoe County, Ontario.
In partnership with his younger brother William H. Bryan, he operated a successful lumber mill business called Bryan Brothers Manufacturing Co. Their company was cited in the Annual Report of the Collingwood Board of Trade, 1894, p. 72, where he was noted as “ Mr. Frank Bryan, the elder member of the firm, also officiates as an architect, and he prepares plans and specifications for their customers”. Their busy lumber factory, located at the foot of Minnesota Street in Collingwood, employed between 50 and 60 men, and it is likely that their firm can be credited with both the design of, as well as the construction of, many residential, commercial and institutional buildings erected in Collingwood from 1890 to 1910 and after.
One of the largest architectural commissions completed by Bryan was for the Romanesque Revival design of the Victoria Public School Annex, Maple Street at Fifth Street, COLLINGWOOD, ONT., 1895. This substantial brick landmark was erected as an annex to the original Victoria Public School, designed by the Toronto architect Marshall B. Aylesworth in 1884 and demolished in 1969. The Annex was built as a free-standing addition to the school, and is still extant as of 2018. Bryan continued to live and work in Collingwood and later died there on 18 December 1937. His death certificate described his professional occupation as “architect & builder” (Prov. of Ontario - Certificate of Death No. 032709, issued 20 Dec. 1937; inf. Richard Longley, Toronto; inf. Richard Lax, Collingwood).