CHAPPELL, Melbourne Russell (1887-1981), a member of the Chappell family of Cape Breton, N.S. and son of William Chappell, one of four brothers who operated the successful firm of Chappell Brothers, Builders & Contractors. Melbourne R. was born at Chappell's Mill, Cumberland Co., N.S. in 1887. He gained much of his knowledge of architecture and building as a draftsman in the office of his father's construction firm located in Sydney, N.S. (later known as Chappells Ltd.). They operated a business as building contractors and were owners of a successful lumber and planing mill operation in Sydney which had its own architectural drafting department from 1901. M.R. Chappell was also active in local potitics, serving as a town alderman in 1924-28, and is perhaps better known in the region for carrying on a forty-year search for buried treasure on Oak Island near Lunenburg, an island which he purchased in the 1930's and continued to explore until his death in 1981.
The Beaton Institute in Sydney, N.S. holds a manuscript collection of letters and drawings by Melbourne R. Chappell (MG 12-75). This collection includes drawings for several projects which may have been designed by M.R. Chappell while he worked as a staff architect with the firm of Chappell Brothers & Co. (biog. M. Rosinski, Architects of Nova Scotia, 1994, 195-6, 233; inf. Beaton Institute, Sydney; inf. Harry Holman, Charlottetown)
SYDNEY, N.S., Isle Royale Hotel, a 5 storey hotel for the Community Hotel Co., Dorchester Street at The Esplanade, 1927-28 (Daily Journal of Commerce [Toronto], 9 June 1927, 5; Evening Mail [Halifax], 14 May 1928, 17 & 22, illus. and detailed architectural descrip.)
GLACE BAY, N.S., commercial block for Mr. Markadonis, Main Street at Commercial Street, 1929 (Evening Mail [Halifax], 4 Feb. 1929, 7, descrip.; C.R., xliii, 27 Feb. 1929, 145)
SYDNEY, N.S., theatre for D.P. MacDonald, 1938 (inf. Beaton Institute, Sydney)
BAIE COMEAU, QUE., tract of houses for the Ontario Paper Co., 1938 (inf. Beaton Institute, Sydney)
AMHERST, N.S., Maritime Winter Fair Arena, 1939 (inf. Beaton Institute, Sydney)
SYDNEY, N.S., Young Men's Christian Association, Charlotte Street, 1940 (C.R., liii, 17 April 1940, 22, t.c.)