MESSER, Robert (1827-1900), a native of Edinburgh, Scotland where he was baptized on 13 February 1827. He trained in England and was a pupil of 'Mr. Moffatt of Doncaster' and then spent two years as assistant to a 'Mr. Brown, Architect'. He emigrated to Canada c. 1854 and worked for the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada for three years, likely as an engineer. Messer submitted a plan in the competition for a new Jail at QUEBEC CITY, QUE. in May 1856. The Board of Works for Upper Canada took nearly four years before deciding to award the First Premium of £250 to Messer (NAC, RG 11, Vol. 274, Item 52654, letter from Samuel Keefer, 27 April 1861). His winning design, however, was never realised, and Charles Baillairge was later appointed to prepare plans for the jail. Messer met Chilion Jones in Toronto and formed a partnership with him in early 1857 (Globe [Toronto], 17 March 1857, 1, advert.). Together they submitted an entry in the competition for St. John's Anglican Church in Prescott in August 1858, but their proposal was set aside and Thomas S. Scott was declared the winner. In January 1858 they won the competition for the Union School House, SIMCOE, ONT. (built 1858-59; demol. 1930) with a proposal that '....united elegance of design with appropriateness and economy of arrangement' (Semi-Weekly Spectator [Hamilton], 29 May 1858, 4; Weekly Spectator [Hamilton], 3 June 1858, 2; John G. Hodgins, The School House: Its Architecture, Arrangements and Discipline, 1858, viii, 211, illus. & descrip.; Journal of Education for Upper Canada, xi, Jan. 1858, 1-2, illus. & descrip.; and xii, Sept. 1859, 129-31, illus. & descrip.)
In August 1859 Messer was invited by Thomas Fuller and Chilion Jones to join their office in Toronto (see list of works under Fuller, Messer & Jones). He may have become involved in the preparation of their winning design for the Parliament Building in Ottawa, but only three projects from their office in which Messer was associated can be documented. Messer appears to have left Toronto by early 1860 and was later recorded in Bahia, Brazil in August 1860 where was employed as engineer on the Bahia & San Francisco Railway. In 1864 he moved to Portugal, becoming Resident Engineer at the Oporto Crystal Palace (inf. from A.J.H. Richardson, Ottawa; Stephen Otto, Toronto; Institute of Civil Engineers, London, Application No. 2018 dated 14 Nov. 1865). By 1876 he had returned to Edinburgh, and was still living there in 1881. Messer later died there on 3 June 1900 and was buried at North Merchiston Cemetery in Edinburgh.