Freestone, Arthur James

FREESTONE, Arthur James (1888-1951) was born and educated in Toronto and trained under E.J. Lennox from 1906 until 1909, then worked as a draftsman with Curry & Sparling for six years. During his apprenticeship with Lennox, he submitted a design in the competition for the Town Hall in Meaford, Ont. in November 1907. He was one of seven Ontario architects to compete for this commission, but his scheme was passed over in favour of the proposal sent in by Ellis & Connery of Toronto (inf. Fred Kennedy, Heritage Meaford).
Freestone joined the staff of the architectural department of the Toronto Board of Education in 1916 where he worked first as a draftsman and later as assistant architect under Cyril E. Dyson, the Chief Architect of the Board. With Dyson he was said to have been responsible for many of Toronto's secondary schools designed in a distinctive Collegiate Gothic style, including Jarvis Collegiate (1922-23), Danforth Technical School, (1923), Humberside Collegiate (1927), Western Technical School (1927), Northern Vocational School (1930), and Harbord Collegiate (1930-31). Upon the retirement of Dyson in early 1950 Freestone became Chief Architect but died unexpectedly during the following year (obituary in the Globe & Mail [Toronto], 13 March 1951, 5; R.A.I.C. Journal, xxviii, April 1951, 118)