Westervelt, John Chorley

WESTERVELT, John Chorley (1873-1934) of New York City devoted much of his career to the design of branches of the Child's restaurant chain in the United States. When the chain expanded into Canada he was commissioned to plan new locations in Toronto and Montreal. Invariably clad in elaborate white terra cotta facing, the trademark material of the chain, Westervelt employed a variety of eclectic styles to express the lightness of the structural frame of his buildings. One his best works is the Spanish Renaissance style restaurant for the Child's Co. at the Savoy Plaza Hotel in New York. Born in Ithaca, N.Y. he graduated from Cornell University in 1894 and later opened an office in New York where he practised until his death there on 8 April 1934 (obit. New York Times, 9 April 1934, 17; biog. in H. Withey, Biographical Dictionary of American Architects, 1956, 646)

MONTREAL, QUE., Child's Restaurant, Peel Street, 1913 (C.R., xxvii, 6 Aug. 1913, 67)
TORONTO, ONT., Child's Restaurant, Yonge Street at Dundas Street East, 1917-18 (Toronto b.p. 15244, 20 Dec. 1917; Toronto Region Architectural Conservancy, Terra Cotta: Artful Deceivers, 1990, 105, illus.)
TORONTO, ONT., Colonial Building and Child's Restaurant, King Street West near Yonge Street, a 6 storey block, 1920-21; demol. c. 1965 (Toronto Daily Star, 15 Jan. 1921, 3, illus., Toronto b.p. 35330, 9 Nov. 1920; Const., xv, May 1922, 136 and a frontispiece, illus.)
MONTREAL, QUE., Child's Restaurant, McGill Street near St. James Street, 1930; demol. (C.R., xliv, 30 July 1930, 61)