PARKS, James William Marsden (1859 -1924) was '.....a rising architect of Point St. Charles' in Montreal in 1893 when he designed Congregational House on Wellington Street. Born in Blackwater, Co. Cornwall, England in August 1859, he was active in Montreal from 1891 until 1894 when he formed a partnership with W.B. and S.C. Thomas, who were both the sons of the well-known Montreal architect William T. Thomas. Their collaboration lasted less than two years, and Parks left Canada in 1896 and moved to the Boston suburb of Somerville Massachusetts, USA where he continued his career as an architect until after 1920. During this period he maintained an office in Boston (City of Boston Directory, 1906, 724). He later died in West Medford, Mass. on 9 December 1924 (obituary Boston Globe, 11 Dec. 1924, 18).
J.W.M. PARKS
ST. HENRI, a five storey factory for R.N. Tombyll, St. James Street at Walker Avenue, 1893 (Gazette [Montreal], 14 April 1893, 3)
O'BRIEN HALL, a public hall for Point St. Charles Congregational Church, Wellington Street at Sebastopol Street, 1893 (Gazette [Montreal], 24 Nov. 1893, 3, descrip.)
PARKS & THOMAS BROS.
CRESCENT STREET, residence for W.E. Phillips, 1896 (C.R., vii, 23 April 1896, 2)
H.A. WILDER & CO., Wellington Street, warehouse, 1896 (C.R., vii, 30 April 1896, 2)
(works in Massachusetts)
SOMERVILLE, MASS., a block of three flats on Morrison Avenue for the Estate of W.P. Rice, 1910 (American Contractor [Chicago], xxxi, 9 April 1910, 45)
DORCHESTER, MASS., a large auto garage for George M. Douse, Dorchester Avenue at Whitten Avenue, 1918 (Boston Globe, 15 Jan. 1918, 4, descrip.)