RITCHIE, Samuel Douglas (1887-1959), active in Montreal, was born in Trois Rivieres, Que. on 26 January 1887, and trained in the office of Finley & Spence in Montreal. He was a talented delineator and a precocious student who, at the age of eighteen, received Second Prize for his design of a house in the Colonial style (C.A.B., xvii, Feb. 1905, 23, illus.). The following year he was the recipent of another award for a 'Design of a Small Suburban House' (C.A.B., xix, June 1906, 86-7, with plate illus.). The following year he succeeded in obtaining the First Premium for his Free Style design of a 'Suburban or Small Town House of Small Cost' (C.A.B., xx, Jan. 1907, 2-3, 8-9, illus. & descrip.). From 1912 until 1921 Ritchie was associated with the design of buildings at Shawinigan, Que. for the Shawinigan Water & Power Co.
He was among over one hundred competitors who submitted an entry in the two-stage Canadian Battlefields Memorial Competition in 1921. His design was one of the 17 finalists and advanced to the second stage (Gazette [Montreal], 26 April 1921, 10; Const., xiv, June 1921, 169, illus.) but his scheme was eventually set aside in favour of the winning proposals by F.C. Clemesha of Regina, and by Walter Allward of Toronto. In 1922 he formed a partnership with H.D. Shorey and for the next twenty-five years their firm executed plans for some of the most distinctive Art Deco and modernist buildings in Montreal (see list of works under Shorey & Ritchie). One of the commissions from this period which can be attributed to Shorey alone was the design of his own house on Clarke Avenue in WESTMOUNT, QUE. (C.H.G., vii, Jan. 1930, 59-61, illus.). In 1948 the firm invited Chrystie L. Douglas to join the partnership and remained active until after 1950. Ritchie died in Montreal on 20 November 1959 (obit. Gazette [Montreal], 21 Nov. 1959, 43; Montreal Star, 20 Nov. 1959, 25; inf. Prov. of Quebec Assoc. of Architects)
S. Douglas RITCHIE
STE. ANNE DE BELLEVUE, QUE., residence for an unnamed client, 1917 (Montreal Daily Star, 14 April 1917, 9, list of drawings exhibited at the Spring Exhibition, Montreal Art Museum, 1917)
GRAND MERE, QUE., residence for an unnamed client, 1917 (Montreal Daily Star, 14 April 1917, 9, list of drawings exhibited at the Spring Exhibition, Montreal Art Museum, 1917)
COMPETITIONS
TOWN OF MOUNT ROYAL, Model City Housing Co., 1920 (Gazette [Montreal], 6 Feb. 1920, 6). A total of 67 designs were sent in for this post-war housing competition, and S.D. Richie received a First Prize of $150. for his plan for a detached 8-room house.