VARNEY, Almon Clother & Co., (1849-1930), architects of Detroit, Michigan designed a substantial commercial block in WIndsor, Ontario for the wealthy Detroit industrialist Joseph S. Visger. The Visger Block, completed in 1893, was erected on McDougall Street adjacent to the Market Square in Windsor, extending from William Street to Arthur Street, and consisted of fifteen stores with offices and residences above (C.R., iii, 17 Dec. 1892, 1). Almon C. Varney was born in Luzerne, N.Y. on 28 March 1849 and studied architecture in the office of Darius Norcross in Glen Falls, N.Y. in 1876, then moved to Boston to continue his training with E.M. Borden. He opened an office in Detroit in 1879 in association with his younger brother Freeman N. Varney (1857-1914). They maintained a busy and successful architectural practice which was later renamed A.C. Varney & Co., Architects, and they were joined by two sons, Almon Chester Varney (1880-1961), and Freeman L. Varney, son of Freeman N. Varney.
In 1903 the firm of A.C. Varney & Co. designed an elaborate private residence for Dr. William R. Merwin, Victoria Avenue at Wyandotte Street, Windsor, Ont., 1903. This distinctive building was designed in "...the Mission style of California" and was illustrated and described in the Evening Record [Windsor], 12 Dec. 1903, Section Two, 9, illus. Almon C. Varney later moved to Seabreeze, Florida after 1920 and died there on 8 January 1930. A detailed biography of this architect can be found in A Book of Detroiters: A Biographical Dictionary of Leading Living Men of the City Detroit, 1914, and in Charles Moore, History of Michigan, 1915, Vol. 3, p. 1257.
WINDSOR, ONT.
OPERA HOUSE, restoration and rebuilding after a fire, 1882; demol. (Amherstburg Echo, 29 Dec. 1882, 2)
VISGER BLOCK, McDougall Street, adjacent to Market Square, for Joseph S. Visger, 1893; demol. (C.R., iii, 17 Dec. 1892, 1)
VICTORIA AVENUE, at Wyandotte Street, large residence for Dr. William R. Merwin, 1903; demol. c. 2010 (Evening Record [Windsor], 12 Dec. 1903, Section Two, 9, illus. & descrip.)
VICTORIA AVENUE, "....on the vacant lot north of Dr. Merwin's residence", a three storey apartment block for Dr. William R. Merwin,, 1904; demol. (Evening Record, 27 Feb. 1904, 1, descrip.)