FRYER, Stanley Thomas John (1885-1956) was born in Sawston, England on 4 May 1885 and educated at the Technical College in Bradford, England and at the Bradford City Art School. He articled with Edgar H. Parkinson in England from 1900 to 1905 and emigrated to the United States in 1907 where he found work in the offices of some of Boston's leading architects, including Cram, Goodhue & Ferguson, Allen & Collins, and with Coolidge & Carlson. He moved to New York and worked for Thomas Lamb before coming to Canada in 1911 and settling at Hamilton where he was employed as draftsman by Munro & Mead in 1911-12. He worked in partnership with W. Grayson Brown in 1913-14 (see list of works under Brown & Fryer) then became partners with William G. Evans in 1915. The following year he went overseas with Canadian Forces and was severely wounded at Somme, France. He returned to Canada in 1917 and resumed practice in the partnership of Fryer & Evans from 1920 to 1926. Fryer's early work was rooted in a mature Edwardian style that was clearly evident in his design for the Premier Tire & Rubber Co. factory in Beamsville, an exceptional work not typical of the utilitarian nature of most post-WW1 industrial building in Canada. It is likely that this project was intended as a key element in a Garden City village plan designed by Fryer & Evans in 1921 and located near Ancaster, Ont.
Fryer served as President of the Ontario Association of Architects in 1923-24 and then moved to Windsor in late 1925 to assist C. Howard Crane and Albert Kahn in Detroit before returning to Toronto in 1930 to work as draftsman for John A. Pearson. In 1931 he was noted as the designer working in the office of the City Architect of Toronto who was credited with the moderne design of the Horse Palace at the Canadian National Exhibition and for the progressive designs of several Art Deco style fire halls in Toronto (Const., xxiv, Sept. 1931, 282-90, illus.; xxv, Oct. 1932, 236-40, illus.). He left Canada in 1936 and returned to England to work for the Ministry of Works until 1948 when he came back to Hamilton and joined his former partner who was by then practicing under the name of Murton & Evans. Fryer died in Hamilton on 27 January 1956 (obituary in the Hamilton Spectator, 30 Jan. 1956, 4; R.A.I.C. Journal, xxxiii, March 1956, 105; biography in R.A.I.C. Journal, xxv, Dec. 1948, 461; port. in Const., xvi, Oct. 1923, 347)
FRYER & EVANS
HAMILTON, ONT., memorial to the Men of the 91st Regiment, Canadian Highlanders, at the Hamilton Armouries, James Street North, 1921 (Const., xiv, Aug. 1921, 250, illus.)
BEAMSVILLE, ONT., factory for the Premier Tire & Rubber Co., 1921 (Const., xiv, Aug. 1921, 249, illus. & descrip.)
ANCASTER, ONT., Memorial Garden Village, 1921 (Const., xiv, Sept. 1921, 260-3, illus.; Journal of the Town Planning Inst. of Canada, Feb. 1922, illus.; Mark Osbaldeston, Unbuilt Hamilton, 2016, 20-21, illus. & descrip.)
COBOURG, ONT., residence for David C. Dick, Queen Street, 1922 (C.R., xxxvi, 29 March 1922, 54)
TORONTO, ONT., Bellefair Avenue Methodist Church, Bellefair Avenue near Queen Street East, 1922; altered 2011 (C.R., xxxvi, 26 July 1922, 78; M. Campbell & B. Myrvold, Historical Walking Tour of Kew Beach, 1995, 26-27, illus. & descrip.; Toronto Star, 29 Jan. 2011, H 1, illus., but lacking attribution; dwgs. at City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 200, Series 410, File 4147)
HAMILTON, ONT., rebuilding of Cannon Street Public School, 1922-23 (inf. from Hamilton Public School Board)
HAMILTON, ONT., major alterations and refurbishing of the Reid Press Building, MacNab Street near King Street West, 1922 (Const., xv, Oct. 1922, 331-32, illus. & descrip.)
HAMILTON, ONT., store for William Carroll Ltd., 1924 (Const., xviii, April 1925, 127, illus.)
HAMILTON, ONT., residence for George Allan, Turner Avenue, c. 1926 (R.A.I.C. Journal, iv, Jan. 1927, 35)
HAMILTON, ONT., auto service station, 1927 (Const., xx, May 1927, 167, illus.)
S. T.J. FRYER
WINDSOR, ONT., apartments for W. McCauley, Ottawa Street at Marentette Avenue, 1928 (C.R., xlii, 21 March 1928, 67)
RICHMOND HILL, ONT., residence for N.F. Parkinson, c. 1939 (C.H.G., xvii, Oct. 1940, 34, illus.)