STRATTON & ELLINGWOOD, architects of New York City, consisting of Sidney Vanuxem Stratton (1845-1921), and his business partner Francis Lawrence Ellingwood (1866-1929), were active in New York City during the period of 1890 to 1892. Their firm was involved in the design and construction of the lavish mansion for Sidney H. Janes, located on Avenue Road at Edmund Avenue, TORONTO, ONT. Construction of this landmark began in late 1889 and was initially credited to Arthur Page Brown of New York, but when Brown left New York and moved to San Francisco in early 1890, the completion of the mansion was entrusted to Francis L. Ellingwood. According to a historical article published in the Toronto Sunday Star, 25 May 1912, 23, it was ’…… Mr. Ellingwood who devoted practically all of his time to its supervision ’, and it took nearly a full year to complete the mansion. The landmark stood until 1936 when it was demolished, but the extensive stone walls lining the property on the east and south side of the Avenue Road Hill are still standing in 2023.
Stratton was born in Natchez, Mississippi on 8 August 1845 and he was among the first American architectural students to attend the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Stratton studied in the Atelier of Honore Daumet (1826-1881), a leading French architect, from 1865 to 1868, then returned to the United States and later opened his own office in New York City. He formed a partnership with Ellingwood in 1890, but their collaboration ended in 1892 and Stratton continued to work under his own name until 1904 (Dennis S. Francis, Architects in New York City 1800-1900, pub 1979, 73). He later returned to his hometown and died in Natchez on 17 June 1921 (death notice Natchez Democrat, 18 June 1921, 6). A detailed graduate thesis on Stratton was completed by Julius C. Burns at the University of Georgia in 2018. This work is entitled ’Gilded Over: The Forgotten Architectural Career of Sidney V. Stratton ’ and is accessible online.
Ellingwood was born in Eastport, Maine on 6 August 1866, but no information has been found on his education and training. He and Stratton formed a partnership in New York in 1890, but this ended in 1892 and Ellingwood formed another partnership with Wainwright Parrish in 1893, and worked under his own name until after 1904. Ellingwood later died in New York on 4 April 1929. (James Ward, Architects in New York City 1900-1940, pub. 1989, 22).