MURTON, Herbert Eastwood (1889 - 1966) was active for more than forty years in the Hamilton region, yet few references to his work can be found. Born in Hamilton on 23 April 1889 he entered the office of Stewart & Witton in 1908 to serve an apprenticeship and remained there until 1918 when he moved to New York City to enroll in special courses at Columbia University from 1918 to 1920. He returned to Hamilton and formed a partnership with Louis O. Secord (see list of works under Secord & Murton). In early 1926 he decided to return to New York and landed a position with none other than Raymond Hood, the winner (with John Howells) of the Chicago Tribune Tower competition in 1922 and one of the important early modernist architects in the American age of the skyscraper. Murton then opened his own office in Plainfield, N.J. in June 1926, practising there until 1930. In Plainfield, he was said to have "...planned and supervised a group of large private residences in the Evergreen neighbourhood" (Courier-News [Plainfield], 26 Oct. 1929, 8).
Murton returned to Hamilton in late 1930 and maintained an office under his own name until 1947 when he formed a partnership with William G. Evans. During this period he designed many private houses in a Tudor Revival style, the most notable of which was the sumptuous and impeccably detailed residence for A.M. Masuret in London, Ont. (1935). Murton was active until after 1960 and resigned from the Ontario Association of Architects in December 1961. He died in Eugene, Oregon on 24 April 1966 (death notice Spectator [Hamilton], 25 April 1966, 33; inf. Ontario Assoc. of Architects). A photographic portrait of Murton was published in the Daily Commercial News [Toronto], 20 Oct. 1936, 1.
H.E. MURTON
(works in New Jersey)
HIGH BRIDGE, N.J., a new tower and steeple for the Reformed Church, Church Street at Fairview Avenue, 1930. The original church was designed by the prominent New York City architect George B. Post in 1870. The tower was destroyed during a tornado on 22 July 1930, and was replaced by the Gothic design prepared by Murton (Courier-News [Plainfield], 12 Dec. 1930, 43, descrip.). This church is now listed on the United States National Register of Historic Places.
(works in Ontario)
LONDON, ONT., residence for A.M. Masuret, 1935-36 (C.H.G., xiii, June /July 1936, 35, illus.)
LONDON, ONT., residence for D.C. McNaughton, 1935-36 (C.H.G., xiii, June/July 1936, 36, illus.)
(with Lester Husband) HAMILTON, ONT., Nurse's Home and Reception Builidng at the Hamilton Psychiatric Hospital, Fennell Avenue, 1937 (C.R., i, 21 April 1937, 35)
BURLINGTON, ONT., "The Seigneury", a large residence for H. Victor Emery, North Shore Boulevard, 1934 (R.A.I.C. Journal, xviii, June 1941, 102, illus.)
BURLINGTON, ONT., Post Office Building, Brant Street, for the Government of Canada, 1936-37 (Daily Commercial News [Toronto], 12 March 1936, 1, illus. & descrip.; R.A.I.C. Journal, xviii, June 1941, 99, illus.)
BURLINGTON, ONT., conversion of a barn to a private residence for an unnamed client, 1947 (C.H.G., xxiv, June 1947, 26-7, illus.)
MURTON & EVANS
NELSON TOWNSHIP, Glenwood Public Schol, 1946 (C.R., lix, March 1946, 133; R.A.I.C. Journal, xxiv, Oct. 1947, 356-7, illus.)
NAPANEE, ONT., public school, 1948 (C.R., lix, March 1948, 172)
BURLINGTON, ONT., major addition to public school, 1949 (C.R., lxii, March 1949, 139)