MEANWELL, Leonard William (1884-1950), active in Winnipeg, Man. from 1916 to 1924, and later in Windsor, Ont. from 1925 to 1950. Born in Rugby, Warwickshire, England on 17 September 1884, he emigrated to Canada in 1908 and settled in Winnipeg where worked as a draftsman in the Land Dept. of the C.P.R (in 1909), and as a draftsman in the Construction Engineering Dept. of Manitoba Govt. Telephones (in 1910). In early 1911 he joined the architectural of office of George W. Northwood and gained much of his knowledge of architecture and design from him over the next 3 years. Meanwell opened his own office in late 1915 and became a member of the Manitoba Assoc. of Architects in February 1916.
In late 1924 he left Manitoba and moved to Windsor, Ont. where he lived and worked under his own name. After 1940, he joined the Detroit architectural office of Giffels & Vallet, Architects & Engineers, but continued to work on local commissions in the Windsor area. In 1942 he joined Prof. Ernest Wilby, the dean of the architectural profession in Windsor in the early 20th C., and they produced a remarkably sophisticated modern Gothic design for St. Paul's Anglican Church on Ouellette Avenue in Windsor. A perspective view and description of their proposal was published in the Windsor Star, 7 October 1942, p. 5, but the outbreak of WWII may have caused the plans to be shelved. Meanwell died at McGregor Bay, Manitoulin Island, Ontario on 16 July 1950 while on a summer holiday (obituary Windsor Star, 17 July 1950, 16; 19 July 1950, 5)
WINNIPEG, MAN., War Cenotaph at St. Philip's Anglican Church, in Norwood, 1920 (Winnipeg Tribune, 1 Nov. 1920, 6, illus.)
MOOSE JAW, SASK., a tract of seven houses for the Holland Canada Mortgage Co., 1921 (Glenbow Museum, Calgary, original signed drawings by Meanwell; inf. Gordon Fulton, Ottawa)
WINDSOR, ONT., St. Paul's Anglican Church, Ouellette Avenue, between Hanna Street and Shepherd Street, in association with Prof. Ernest Wilby, 1942-43, but not built (Windsor Star, 7 Oct. 1942, 5, illus. & descrip.)