GRAHAM, William Robert (1852-1925) was among the very first professional architects to live and work in Northern Ontario after 1890. Born in Barrie, Ont. in 1852, he may have trained in the office of Thomas Kennedy in that city after 1870, and he was recorded as “an architect of Meaford, Ontario” when he prepared the design of the High School there in 1890. By 1891 he had moved to Fort William where he was listed as both architect and builder (Might's Ontario Gazetteer & Directory, 1892-93). He then moved to Sault Ste. Marie before 1900, and later relocated to Cobalt, Ont. in 1905 and continued to live and work there for the next twenty years. He died in Cobalt on 12 October 1925, and was later buried at Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Toronto (obituary Toronto Star, 15 Oct. 1925, 31; obit. Canadian Engineer [Toronto], xlix, 10 Nov. 1925, 548).
W.R. GRAHAM (works in Ontario)
MEAFORD, ONT., High School, 1890 (C.R., i, 17 May 1890, 2; The Globe [Toronto], 17 May 1890, 9, t.c.)
FORT WILLIAM, ONT., Roman Catholic church, 1891 (Journal [Fort William], 23 Sept. 1891, 3, t.c.)
PORT ARTHUR, ONT., residence for Rev. Father Chartier, 1892 (The Journal [Fort William], 20 April 1892, 3, t.c.; C.R., iii, 30 April 1892, 1, t.c.)
W.R. GRAHAM (works in Sault Ste. Marie)
PIM STREET, north of Queen Street, residence for Thomas Hand, 1901 (C.R., xii, 20 March 1901, 2, t.c.)
SYMON & CAMPBELL HARDWARE CO., a two storey commercial block, 1901 (C.R., xii, 7 Aug. 1901, 2, t.c.)
EAST STREET, south of Wellington Street, residence for George A. Hunter, 1901 (C.R., xii, 7 Aug. 1901, 2)
PILGRIM STREET, residence for Thomas Dean, 1902 (Sault Star, 20 Feb. 1902, 8)
ALBERT STREET, residence for John Jenkins, 1902 (C.R., xiii, 26 Feb. 1902, 2)
W.R. GRAHAM (works in Cobalt, Ont.)
OPERA HOUSE, with 40 commercial offices, 1906 (Sault Star, 24 May 1906, 8)
ST. THERESE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH, 1906 (Sault Star, 24 May 1906, 8)
GRAHAM & HUNTER CO., a four storey commercial block, 1907 (Const., i, Nov. 1907, 70)
unnamed street, a two storey commercial block for an unnamed client, 1908 (C.R., xxii, 1 July 1908, 24)
COBALT TOWN HALL, 1908-09; later replaced by a new town hall in 1914 (Parks Canada, Town Halls of Canada, 1987, 282)
INDOOR SKATING & CURLING RINK, 1907-08 (Sault Star, 4 Oct. 1906, 1; Const., ii, Nov. 1908, 67; C.R., xxii, 2 Dec. 1908, 27; Cobalt Daily Nugget, 23 Jan. 1909, 4)
NIPISSING STORES CO., a 3 storey commercial block of stores and offices, 1909 (C.R., xxiii, 10 March 1909, 26)
HAILEYBURY ROAD, a two storey commercial block for Frank Liberty [sic], actually Frank Laliberte, 1909 (Cobalt Daily Nugget, 12 Aug. 1909, 1, descrip.)
PALACE MEAT MARKET BLOCK, on the Haileybury Road, 1909 (Cobalt Daily Nugget, 12 Aug. 1909, 2, descrip.)
JACOBSEN & CO. STORE, on the Haileybury Road, 1909 (Cobalt Daily Nugget, 12 Aug. 1909, 2, descrip.)
COBALT, ONT., a new grandstand at the Cobalt Athletic Grounds, 1913 (Daily Nugget [Cobalt], 26 May 1913, 3, t.c.)
PUBLIC SCHOOL, major addition, 1913 (Daily Nugget [Cobalt], 10 July 1913, 1, descrip; and 30 Oct. 1913, 1)
GIROUX LAKE, ONT., public school for S.S. No. 3, 1913 (Daily Nugget [Cobalt], 26 July 1913, 3, t.c.)