White, Melville P.

WHITE, Melville P. (1875-1962), son of Alexander White of Woodstock, Ont., was born there and articled in Toronto under Edmund Burke in 1893-97. It was with the advice of his mentor that he won First Prize for his drawings for the Design of a Jewellery Store in 1896 (C.A.B., ix, Jan. 1896, 14 and plate illus.). He moved to Chicago to join his brother Murray A. White and spent two years as assistant to Solon S. Beman. In 1899 his career took a new direction when he accepted a position with the Chicago Ornamental Iron Co. and in 1906 was appointed its managing director. In 1907 he returned to Toronto to take charge of the Architectural Bronze & Iron Works, one of the leading firms responsible for decorative metal works found in hundreds of buildings erected in eastern Canada during the first decades of the twentieth century. White retired in 1948 and died in Toronto on 1 February 1962 (obit. Globe & Mail [Toronto], 2 Feb. 1962, 5; biog. and port. Who's Who in Canada, 1943-44, 884)