KEATING, Edward Henry (1844-1912) of Halifax, Nova Scotia is best known for his professional role of City Engineer in that city from 1872 until 1890. During this period, his principal responsibilities included overseeing roads and waterworks systems, but he also proved himself to be an adept and talented architect, preparing designs for important civic buildings including fire halls, hospitals, and the immense Provincial Exhibition Hall of 1879. Born in Halifax on 7 August 1844, he was educated at Dalhousie College, with a view of taking up the study of architecture. He then became engaged under George Whiteman, C.E. and provincial government engineer of Nova Scotia, and was later chief draftsman of the Windsor & Annapolis Railway. In 1867 he joined the staff of the Intercolonial Railway, working under the direct supervision of Sir Sanford Fleming, architect and engineer of Toronto, and it is likely that his skills as a draftsman and designer were honed under Fleming.
In late 1872 he accepted the post of City Engineer in Halifax, and in December 1872 he replaced Horatio B. Sellon when the latter was removed from the post of City Architect as Halifax Council voted to pass a resolution giving Edward H. Keating, the City Engineer, the functions formerly exercised by the City Architect (The Citizen [Halifax], 7 Dec. 1872, 3). This effectively gave Keating control of all of the architectural work for the City, and that same year he prepared a remarkably sophisticated Second Empire style design for the Fire Engine House on Gerrish Street. His original drawings for this landmark have survived, and prove him to be a skilled delineator and draftsman, with abilities to match those of other leading Halifax architects such as David Stirling and Henry Busch. The largest and most significant architectural commission by Keating is undoubtedly that for the sprawling Provincial Exhibition Building (1879), an extraordinary essay in civic architecture that may have been inspired by the work of his mentor, Sir Sanford Fleming, who had designed the large glass public exhibition hall in Toronto nearly twenty years earlier in 1858. Keating prepared six different architectural schemes for this landmark; the original drawings by Keating for all of these variants are now held at the Public Archives of Nova Scotia in Halifax.
In 1890 Keating moved to the United States to take up the post of City Engineer in Duluth, Minn., but within two years he had returned to Canada, this time to become City Engineer of Toronto, a post he held until 1898. His master plan for Toronto Harbour development included creation of the Keating Channel at the mouth of the Don River, a docking slip which was named after him. During his final years he was employed as a consulting engineer, arbitrator and valuator. Keating died in Toronto, Ont. on 17 June 1912 (obituary The Globe [Toronto], 18 June 1912, 8; Mail & Empire [Toronto], 18 June 1912, 1; obituary Engineering News [New York], lxvii, 27 June 1912, p. 1254; biog. & port. Canadian Architect & Builder, viii, July 1895, 86; biog. & port. Canadian Engineer [Toronto], xiii, July 1906, 241; biog. M. Rosinski, Architects of Nova Scotia: A Biographical Dictionary, 1994, 127-28). The Public Archives of Nova Scotia holds a small collection of original architectural drawings prepared by Keating between 1872 and 1882.
(works in Halifax)
FIRE ENGINE HOUSE, at the head of Gerrish Street, 1872 (dwgs. at PANS, Keating Coll.)
GRAND PARADE, Barrington Street at Duke Street, major improvements to the park, with lower level of shop fronts, vaults, and piers, and balustrades and fences at street level (dwgs. at PANS, Keating Coll.)
SMALL POX HOSPITAL, near Gottingen Street, on the hillside north of the Rockhead Prison, 1876 (Acadian Recorder [Halifax], 28 Oct. 1876, 3, descrip.; dwgs. at PANS, Keating Coll.)
PROVINCIAL EXHIBITION BUILDING, Tower Road, between Morris Street and Spring Garden Road, 1879, with six different design alternatives shown in plans (Nova Scotian [Halifax], 20 Sept. 1879, 1, descrip.; Phyllis Blakeley, Glimpses of Halifax from 1867-1900, 1973, 84-85, descrip.; dwgs. at PANS, Keating Coll.)
QUEEN STREET FIRE ENGINE HOUSE, Hose Tower and bell tower, 1880 (dwgs. at PANS, Keating Coll.)