McVITTIE, Archibald Westmacott (1858-1926) trained as a surveyor under Maurice Gaviller and was partner with the prolific Barrie, Ont. architect Thomas Kennedy from 1881 until late 1883. Born in Toronto on 5 May 1858 McVittie attended Upper Canada College and became a fully qualified surveyor by 1879. His expertise enabled Kennedy to offer clients a full range of services including design, engineering and surveying, but McVittie was particularly attracted to surveying activity in western Canada. He resigned from the partnership in Barrie in early 1883 and moved to Calgary. In August 1883 he was recorded in partnership with C.E. Wolff, as Architects, Dominion Land Surveyors and Real Estate Agents with offices in Calgary and Macleod, Alta. (Calgary Herald, 31 Aug. 1883, 2, advert.). In Alberta he was commissioned to lay out the town sites of Fort McLeod and Calgary. He was briefly in partnership with the Calgary firm of Child & Wilson, then moved to British Columbia to continue his profession as a land surveyor after 1888. He moved back to Barrie, Ont. in 1895 and rejoined the firm of Thomas Kennedy & Co., and moved west again in 1899 to pursue interests in mining, lumber and real estate in British Columbia. In 1908 McVittie retired to Victoria and died there on 24 August 1926 (obit. Victoria Daily Times, 24 Aug. 1926, 1; biog. & port. Annual Reports of the Association of Ontario Land Surveyors, 1927, 122-3; inf. Stephen A. Otto, Toronto)
McVITTIE & CHILD
CALGARY, ALTA., a new bridge across the Elbow River, 1887 (Calgary Tribune, 1 April 1887, 8, t.c.)
McVITTIE, CHILD & WILSON (as local Supervising architects to Willcox & Johnston, Architects of St. Paul, Minn., USA)
CALGARY, ALTA., The Alberta Hotel, Stephen Avenue at Scarth Street, a three storey stone commercial block, designed 1887; built 1888-89; still standing in 2023 (Manitoba Daily Free Press, 20 June 1887, 4, t.c.; Calgary Tribune, 24 June 1887, 4, t.c.)