COURVAL, Elzear Pierre Joseph (1871-1939) was born in Montreal, Que. on 29 June 1871 and studied at the Ecole Polytechnique in that city. He was briefly in partnership with Guillaume Mann in 1893-94, but their collaboration lasted less than a year. In 1896 he formed a new partnership with Albert Sincennes ( Montreal Daily Star, 23 July 1896, 8), and they continued to work together until 1901 (see list of works under Sincennes & Courval). Courval became a member of the Province of Quebec Assoc. of Architects in 1898. In 1903 he joined the C.P.R. as a draftsman in the engineering department and remained there until 1910. Courval accepted a position with the City of Montreal as assistant to the Chief Draughtsman for the City in 1910, and succeeded his supervisor to that post in 1918, and later became City Architect, overseeing a staff of nearly thirty draftsmen. One of his commissions from the period was a sophisticated Beaux-Arts design for a city-owned 'Chalets Souterrains' (La Presse [Montreal], 27 April 1911, 1, illus.). Courval died in Montreal on 7 March 1939 (obit. Le Devoir [Montreal], 7 March 1939, 1; La Presse [Montreal], 8 March 1939, 27; biog. and port. Biographies Canadiennes Francais, 1926, 329). A detailed description of his office operations at City Hall in Montreal, together with biographies of some of his staff, was published in the Charlottetown Guardian, 21 August 1931, 9.
(works in Montreal)
CRESCENT STREET, three houses for W.H. Weir, 1895 (Le Prix Courant, xvi, 8 March 1895, 36)
MOUNT ROYAL AVENUE, at Chambord Street, store and apartment for Francois & Oscar Proulx, 1904 (Le Prix Courant, Week No. 14, 1904, 52)
MOUNT ROYAL AVENUE, near Hotel de Ville, two stores and apartments for A.P. Belair, 1906 (Le Prix Courant, Week No. 33, 1906, 44)
OUTREMONT, residence for A. Benjamin Voyer, Bloomfield Avenue, 1906 (Outremont b.p. 45, 16 April 1906)
MOUNT ROYAL AVENUE, near Fabre Street, store and apartments for Edgar Richard, 1907 (Le Prix Courant, Week No. 23, 1907, 44)
ST. HUBERT STREET, flats for Placide Brunet, 1907 (Le Prix Courant, Week No. 38, 1907, 44)
LAURIER AVENUE, at St. Hubert Street, seven houses for John Keegan, 1908 (Le Prix Courant, Week No. 38, 1908, 38)
ST. DENIS STREET, near Carmel Street, flats for J. Keegan, 1908 (Le Prix Courant, Week No. 42, 1908, 42)
CARRIERES STREET, near Garneau Street, two houses for N. Robichaud, 1909 (Le Prix Courant, Week No. 20, 1909, 42)
ST. ANDRE STREET, near de Fleurimont Street, three houses for J. Keegan, 1909 (Le Prix Courant, Week No. 23, 1909, 44)