MARLING, James Herbert (1857-1895) was born in Toronto, Ont. and trained under Henry Langley in 1877-79, at a time when the firm Langley, Langley & Burke was at the height of their success. He left Toronto in early 1880 and moved to Syracuse, N.Y. where he assisted Joseph L. Silsbee, then moved to Chicago to work with Solon S. Beman before opening an office in Buffalo in 1882 as local partner in the firm of Silsbee & Marling. In 1887 he formed a new partnership in Buffalo with Herbert C. Burdett (1855-1891), a talented young designer who had trained in the office of H.H. Richardson before moving to Buffalo. In 1889 the firm received three commissions to design sumptuous Shingle Style houses for the wealthy Patterson family in Woodstock, Ontario. That same year they submitted an entry in the international competition for the Confederation Life Building in Toronto. Their sophisticated Romanesque Revival design, signed 'Ajax', tied for fourth place (C.A.B., iii, Nov. 1889, 1; Architecture & Building [New York], xiii, Aug. 1890, 67 and plate illus.). The winning submission was sent in by the Chicago firm of Knox & Elliot.
After the untimely death of Burdett in 1891 Marling formed a new partnership with James A. Johnson who had previously worked as draftsman for their firm. Marling & Johnson received a commission for an elaborate mansion in WELLAND CO., ONT., overlooking Lake Erie, on a site which has yet to be identified. Marling died in Buffalo on 24 May 1895 (obituary Buffalo Evening News, 29 May 1895, 10; obit. Inland Architect [Chicago], xxv, June 1895, 45; biog. Who Was Who in America 1607-1896, 333; inf. Martin Wachadlo, Buffalo, N.Y.).
MARLING & BURDETT (works in Canada)
WOODSTOCK, ONT., residence for John D. Patterson, Vansittart Avenue, 1889 (Architectural Era [Syracuse], iii, June 1889, 136)
WOODSTOCK, ONT., residence for Arthur S. Patterson, Light Street, 1889 (Architectural Era [Syracuse], iii, June 1889, 136)
WOODSTOCK, ONT., residence for John Arthur, Light Street, 1889 (Architectural Era [Syracuse], iii, June 1889, 136)
MARLING & JOHNSON (works in Canada)
WELLAND COUNTY, ONT., a mansion 'on the north shore of Lake Erie', for an unnamed client, 1892-93 (Catalogue of the Second Annual Exhibition of the Buffalo Chapter of the American Inst. of Architects, 1894, item 24, illus.)