Townsend & North

TOWNSEND & NORTH, of Buffalo, N.Y. were credited with the design of St. Stephen's Anglican Church, GRAND MERE, QUE., 1924-25 (The Journal [Grande Mere], 19 April 1924, 4-5, 8, illus. & descrip.). This assured Gothic work is almost certainly from the hand of Robert North (1883-1968); his collaborator was Fred de P. Townsend, a lawyer connected with the Laurentide Paper Co. of Grand Mere who did not play a role in the design of the church. North was a prolific architect credited with more than fifty churches in western New York during his career. Born in Batavia, N.Y. in 1883, he graduated from the School of Architecture at Cornell Univ. in 1905 and trained with Green & Wicks. He travelled extensively in Europe studying ecclesiastical architecture and returned to Buffalo in 1919 where he opened an office in 1922, and later designed Anglican churches in Buffalo, Niagara Falls, Lockport, Batavia, Rochester and Elmira. He was also a talented oil and watercolour artist, and exhibited his work at the Albright-Knox Gallery. He retired in 1953 and died in Buffalo on 2 May 1968 (obituary for North in Buffalo Courier Express, 3 May 1968, 25; biog. & port. for North in Buffalo Courier Express, 22 July 1928, Section 6, 7; inf. Mr. Robert North Jr., Buffalo; Robert Lemire, Danville, Que.)