HAMMOND, George Francis (1855-1938), a prominent architect of Cleveland, Ohio who appears to have operated a branch office in Montreal, Quebec during the period from 1893 to 1897. He was an expert in the design of electrical power substation buildings, and prepared plans for these works in Montreal, Toronto, as well as in Chicago, Kansas City, and New Orleans. In 1893 he was commissioned to design an Electrical Power & Boiler House on William Street, near the Lachine Canal Basin, for the Montreal Street Railway Company (Gazette [Montreal], 30 May 1893, 4, t.c.; C.R., iv, 1 June 1893, 2, t.c.). His office at this time was located on the 4th Floor of the Board of Trade Building in Montreal (City of Montreal Directory, 1893-94, 340). Coincidentally, this office was just down the hall from the Montreal Street Railway Construction Office, and his relationship with the company was again called upon in 1895 when he was asked to take over the design and construction of the new five storey Head Office Building for the Montreal Street Railway Co., corner of Place d’Armes at Fortification Lane, 1895-96.
Hammond was born at Roxbury, Mass., USA on 26 November 1855 and studied architecture at the Massachusetts Inst. of Technology in Cambridge under Prof. William R. Ware. He trained under William G. Preston, a prominent Boston architect, from 1876 to 1878, then opened his own office in Boston in 1878. He later moved to Cleveland and continued to work there until his retirement in 1926. He took a particular interest in the design of medical buildings, and published a book on the subject in 1891 entitled A Treatise on Hospital & Asylum Construction, With Special Reference to Pavilion Wards. Hammond died at Falls Village, Connecticut on 26 April 1938 (biog. H. Withey, Biographical Dictionary of American Architects, 1956, 261-62; inf. Alice N. Loranth, Fine Arts Div., Cleveland Public Library). A biography and engraved portrait of the architect can be found in the National Cyclopedia of American Biography, Vol. xii, 1904, p. 524
(works in Montreal)
MONTREAL STREET RAILWAY CO., a new Electrical Power & Boiler House, William Street, 1893 (Gazette [Montreal], 30 May 1893, 4, t.c.; C.R., iv, 1 June 1893, 2, t.c.)
MONTREAL STREET RAILWAY CO., Head Office Building, Place d'Armes at Fortification Lane, 1895-96 (Gazette [Montreal], 24 March 1896, 3, detailed descrip.)
(with Maurice Perrault) MONTREAL, QUE., rebuilding of St. Lawrence Hall, and conversion of the old building into a hotel at 14 storeys, and office block at 12 storeys, with two distinct and separate buildings, one facing St. James Street, St. Francis Xavier Street and Fortification Lane, and the other facing Craig Street, St. Francis Xavier Street, St. George Street, and Fortification Lane, 1896-97 (Montreal Daily Star, 29 Sept. 1896, 4, detailed descrip.)
(works in Ohio)
CLEVELAND, OHIO, Hollenden Hotel, 1885 (American Architect & Building News [New York], xxii, 19 Nov. 1887, illus. plate; Eric Johannesen, Cleveland Architecture 1876-1976, 1979, 11-12, illus. & descrip.)
CANTON, OHIO, Folwell Block, North Market Street at Fifth Street, a department store for William R Zollinger & Co., 1900 (Stark County Democrat [Canton], 28 Sept. 1900, 8, illus. & extensive descrip.)
ZANESVILLE, OHIO, U.S. Post Office, South Fifth Street, 1904 (Zanesville Times Recorder, 29 Feb. 1904, 1, descrip.; USA, National Register of Historic Places, designated in 1988)
CLEVELAND, OHIO, First Church of Christ Scientist, East 46th Street at Cedar Avenue, 1900-04 (Mary-Peale Schofield, Landmark Architecture of Cleveland, 1976, 129, illus. & descrip.)
CLEVELAND, OHIO, mansion for Frank C. Case, Clifton Park, 1905 (Eric Johannesen, Cleveland Architecture 1876-1976, 1979, 103-04, illus. & descrip.)
KENT, OHIO, master plan for Ohio State Normal College, and now called Kent State University, 1911
CANTON, OHIO, McKinley High School, Market Avenue North, 1917-18 (Withey, list of works)