FRENCH, Albert E. (1848 -1927) of Detroit, Mich. began his career there in 1873 and specialised in the design of public buildings, churches, schools and theatres. A native of Canada, he was born in Crapaud, Prince Edward Island on 3 March 1848 and moved to Michigan in July 1867. He first started out as a partner in the Detroit office of Mortimer L. Smith & Co., then joined Malcolmson & Higginbotham where he became well-known for his designs of school buildings in Detroit and elsewhere. French's interest in the fashionable Italianate style is evident in his winning design submitted in competition for the High School, Elysian Street, St. Thomas, Ont., 1877-78, altered 1902-03. These plans were replicated in his later proposal for the High School, Riddell Street, Woodstock, Ont. 1880-81. In 1877 he submitted an entry under the pseudonym 'Prima Inter Paris' in the competition for Alma College, St. Thomas, Ont. but his scheme was set aside and James Balfour was declared winner (Alma College, Minutes of the Board, 14 Nov. 1877). In 1881 French was awarded Third Prize in a competition for the Grand Central Hotel in St. Thomas, Ontario (Mail [Toronto], 17 Nov. 1881, 8).
He was also credited with the design of a public school in Leamington, Ont. in 1890, and that same year he designed a large hotel at Petite Cote., Ont, near LaSalle, Ont., for Albert Chapus. In 1891 he prepared the plans for Knox Presbyterian Church, Erie Street, Leamington, Ont., 1891, a building which replaced the earlier church that had been destroyed by fire. In Michigan his best known works include the Livingston County Court House, Howell, Mich. (1889-90) and the Barry County Court House, Hastings, Mich. (1892-94) (K.B. Eckert, The Buildings of Michigan, 1993, 157-8, 272-3, illus.; biography in Detroit of Today: The City of the Strait, 1893, 129). French died in Detroit on 1 November 1927 (obit. Detroit Free Press, 2 Nov. 1927, 14).
ST. THOMAS, ONT., High School, Elysian Street, 1877-78; altered 1902-03 (St. Thomas - Board of Education, Minutes of Meeting for 15 June 1877; inf. from G. Thorman, St. Thomas)
WOODSTOCK, ONT., High School, Riddell Street, 1880-81 (dwgs. in the possession of Oxford County Board of Education, Woodstock)
LONDON, ONT., steam laundry for Chiera & Vier, of Detroit, 1887 (Sanitary Engineer & Construction Record [New York], xvi, 30 July 1887, 245)
LEAMINGTON, ONT., public school, 1890 (Amherstburg Echo, 31 Oct. 1890, 8; Engineering & Building Record [New York], xxii, 12 July 1890, 96)
PETITE COTE, ONT. [near LaSalle, Ont.], a large hotel for Albert Chapus, 1890-91 (Amherstburg Echo, 31 Oct. 1890, 8; Engineering & Building Record [New York], xxii, 1 Nov. 1890, 353)
LEAMINGTON, ONT., Knox Presbyterian Church, Erie Street, 1891 (C.R., ii, 23 May 1891, 2)