MacFARLANE, David Huron (1875-1950), active in Montreal, Que. and partner in the busy and successful architectural firm of Ross & MacFarlane from 1905 to 1912. He was born in Montreal on 16 April 1875 and educated at Bishop's College School, then moved to Boston to study architecture and engineering at the Massachusetts Inst. of Technology from 1897 to 1898, then returned to Montreal where he trained in the offices of Edward Maxwell (in 1898-1901), and with Hutchison & Wood (in 1901-03). He travelled in Europe and studied in Paris in 1903 with Constant D. Despradelle at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, then came back to Montreal in late 1903.
In 1904 he was invited by Montreal architect George A. Ross to form a new partnership (see list works under Ross & MacFarlane), and their collaboration proved to be an immediate success, with major commissions in Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Winnipeg, Regina, Edmonton and Quebec City. They produced designs for over 50 institutional, commercial, industrial and residential works in Canada, but the pressure of the work pace took its toll. According to MacFarlane family members and descendants, David MacFarlane was not strong physically, and suffered from bouts of epilepsy, which may have played a part in the decision to dissolve their partnership in late December 1912 (Montreal Daily Star, 27 Dec. 1912, 8). His successor in the partnership was Robert Henry MacDonald (1875-1942) who had joined the firm of Ross & MacFarlane in 1907 as a draftsman.
After this date, MacFarlane continued to work as an architect under his own name from January 1913 to 1925, and he then retired from the profession, choosing instead to take up his hobby of landscape painting. A detailed review of his artistic skill appeared in an arts critique in The Gazette [Montreal], 26 April 1941, page 12. He was elected as an Associate of the Royal Canadian Academy in 1923, and as a Senior Member of the Academy in 1944. MacFarlane died at his residence at Ste. Hilaire, Que. on 1 February 1950 (obituary Gazette [Montreal], 3 Feb. 1950, 9; obit. Montreal Daily Star, 3 Feb. 1950, 23; biog. Ross Hamilton, Prominent Men of Canada, 1932, 293; biog. Colin MacDonald, Dictionary of Canadian Artists, 1982, p. 1019; inf. Royal Canadian Academy of Arts, Toronto, membership files; inf. Mrs. Jane Donnelly, Toronto). The Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal holds an extensive collection of original architectural drawings by the firm of Ross & MacFarlane from 1904 to 1912, and by the successor firm of Ross & MacDonald..
D.H. MacFARLANE
WESTMOUNT, QUE., Westmount High School, Western Avenue, 1913 (C.R., xxvii, 22 Jan. 1913, 58-59, illus & descrip.; and 4 June 1913, 69; Montreal Old & New, 1914, 341, illus.)
MONTREAL, QUE., St. Columbus Church, Kensington Street at Sherbrooke Street West, in Notre Dame de Grace, 1914-15 (C.R., xxviii, 25 Nov. 194, 60)
ST. HILAIRE, QUE., a residence for David MacFarlane, architect, 1918; with additions, 1929 (E. McMann, Royal Canadian Academy of Arts 1880-1979, 1981, 257, list of works)
HUDSON HEIGHTS, QUE., a country house for an unnamed client, 1923 (E. McMann, Royal Canadian Academy of Arts 1880-1979, 1981, 257, list of works)
COMPETITIONS
OTTAWA, ONT., new Departmental Buildings, Wellington Street, 1914. MacFarlane teamed up with Herbert Raine to submit an elaborate design in this national competition. He was one of 62 entrants, and was one of six finalists, but the federal government then shelved the project, and it took 11 years for MacFarlane and Raine to receive their promised prize money of $5,000. (NAC, RG11, Vol. 2951, File 5307-1-C, dated 14 July 1923 (inf. Dana Johnson, Ottawa).