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Darling and Pearson was an architectural firm based in Toronto from 1895 through 1937. The firm was prolific and produced consistently fine work though the patronage of notable figures of the Canadian establishment, and is responsible for enhancing the architectural character and quality of the city, and indeed the rest of Canada, in the first quarter of the 20th century.
The firm was organized first as Darling, Curry, Sproatt, & Pearson in 1892, with partners Frank Darling, S. George Curry, Henry Sproatt, and John A. Pearson. From 1893 through 1896 it evolved into Darling, Sproatt & Pearson, then finally Darling and Pearson was founded as such in 1897.
Its heyday began with Darling's commissions from the Canadian Bank of Commerce in 1898, grand Edwardian buildings in Toronto, Winnipeg, Montreal, and Vancouver, and dozens of smaller branches in smaller Canadian cities and towns. Darling's training with the English architect George Edmund Street and Sir Arthur Blomfield in the early 1870s brought a serious, substantial, Victorian influence, well-suited to large civic and institutional projects in the years of the nation's development.
Their subsequent projects included the first tall steel-frame building in Canada (the Royal Tower in Winnipeg, 1904), the tallest building in Canada for three decades (the 1930 Canadian Bank of Commerce Building in Toronto, with York and Sawyer of New York), and the largest single building in the British Commonwealth (the Sun Life Building, Montreal, Started in 1914 and tower added by1931).
After the deaths of Frank Darling in 1923 and Pearson in 1940, the firm was renamed Darling, Pearson and Cleveland with Darling's nephew as a partner.
Hudson's Bay, also known as The Bay, is a Canadian department store chain. It is the flagship brand of the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), the oldest and longest-surviving company in North America as well as one of the oldest and largest continuously operating companies in the world.
The Canadian Northern Railway (CNoR) was a historic Canadian transcontinental railway. At its 1923 merger into the Canadian National Railway, the CNoR owned a main line between Quebec City and Vancouver via Ottawa, Winnipeg, and Edmonton.
The Canadian Bank of Commerce was a Canadian bank that operated from 1867 to 1961. It merged in 1961 with the Imperial Bank of Canada to form the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, which today is one of Canada's Big Five banks.
The Bank of Toronto was a Canadian bank that was founded in 1855 by a group of grain dealers and flour millers. On February 1, 1955, it merged with The Dominion Bank to form the Toronto-Dominion Bank, which is now known as the present-day TD Bank Group. Its first president was James Grant Chewett, whose support was sought by financier Thomas Clarkson.
The Fairmont Royal York, formerly and still commonly known as the Royal York, is a large historic luxury hotel in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Located along Front Street West, the hotel is situated at the southern end of the Financial District, in Downtown Toronto. The Royal York was designed by Ross and Macdonald, in association with Sproatt and Rolph, and built by the Canadian Pacific Railway company. The hotel is currently managed by Fairmont Hotels and Resorts.
Commerce Court is an office building complex on King and Bay Streets in the financial district of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The four-building complex is a mix of Art Deco, International, and early Modernism architectural styles. The office complex served as the corporate headquarters for the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) and its predecessor, the Canadian Bank of Commerce, from 1931 to 2021. Although CIBC relocated its headquarters to CIBC Square, the bank still maintains offices at Commerce Court.
Colonel Robert Samuel McLaughlin, was a Canadian businessman and philanthropist. He started the McLaughlin Motor Car Company in 1907, one of the first major automobile manufacturers in Canada, which evolved into General Motors of Canada.
John Andrew Pearson was an early 20th-century British-born Canadian architect and partner to the Toronto-based firm of Darling and Pearson.
Frank Darling was an important Canadian architect, winner of the RIBA Gold medal in 1915, who designed many of Toronto's landmark institutional and financial buildings, as well as scores of bank branches throughout the country. Darling is best described as an 'Edwardian imperialist' in his outlook and architectural approach, and accordingly left a legacy of fine Edwardian Baroque buildings in Canada's major cities, representative of the period's prosperity and optimism.
Trader's Bank Building is a 15-storey, 55.39 m (181.7 ft) early skyscraper, completed in 1906 at 67 Yonge Street in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The building was designed by Carrère and Hastings, with construction beginning in 1905. It was the tallest building in the British Commonwealth until the Royal Liver Building was completed in 1911. It remains one of Canada's few surviving skyscrapers of the early 20th Century.
The historic building at 197–199 Yonge Street was formerly a four-floor Canadian Bank of Commerce building built in 1905 by architects Darling and Pearson and declared as a historical property by the City of Toronto, Ontario, Canada in 1974. The bank left the building in 1987. The bank address was 199 Yonge Street, the numbers still showing above the entrance. Next door at 205 Yonge Street is another historic site. The gap between the two sites was once the Colonial Tavern, demolished in the 20th century. It has been refurbished with 17,423 square feet (1,619 m2) of space. 197 Yonge Street was preserved and became part of the Massey Tower project.
The Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce Building is a building at 265 Saint-Jacques Street in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
York and Sawyer was an American architectural firm active between 1898 and 1949, subsequently as the Office of York & Sawyer, Architects; Kiff, Colean, Voss & Souder into the mid-1950s; and was succeeded by Kiff, Colean, Voss & Souder, who were active as late as 1965. The firms' early work is exemplary of Beaux-Arts architecture as it was practiced in the United States. The original partners Edward York and Philip Sawyer both trained in the office of McKim, Mead & White in the 1890s. In 1898, they established their independent firm, based in New York City.
The Bank of Hamilton was established in 1872 by local businessmen in the city of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada under the leadership of Donald McInnes, the bank's first President. Like the other Canadian chartered banks, it issued its own paper money. The bank issued notes from 1872 to 1922. The end dates are the final dates appearing on notes, which may have circulated for some time after.
Samuel George Curry was a Canadian architect who practiced in Toronto as the junior partner of several of Toronto’s leading architects, among them Frank Darling and from 1892 Darling's partner John A. Pearson, Henry Sproatt, Francis S. Baker, Ernest Rolph and W. F. Sparling.
The Financial District is the central business district of Downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was originally planned as New Town in 1796 as an extension of the Town of York. It is the main financial district in Toronto and is considered the heart of Canada's finance industry. It is bounded roughly by Queen Street West to the north, Yonge Street to the east, Front Street to the south, and University Avenue to the west, though many office towers in the downtown core have been and are being constructed outside this area, which will extend the general boundaries. Examples of this trend are the Telus Harbour, RBC Centre, and CIBC Square.
The Canadian Bank of Commerce in Watson, Saskatchewan, was constructed in 1906 in a Greek Revival style. The Toronto firm of Pearson and Darling served as architects. This building was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1977 and currently houses the Watson and District Heritage Museum.
The Salvation Army in Canada is the Canadian territory of a Christian church that is known for its charity work, with a motto of Giving Hope Today. The Salvation Army was formed in 1865 in London, England, and it began working in Canada in 1882. Today, it operates in 400 communities across Canada and in Bermuda. The Salvation Army Archives are in Toronto, and the Salvation Army's Training College is in Winnipeg.
Massey Tower is a new complex in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, spanning the block below Shuter Street, between Yonge and Victoria streets. The complex's northeast corner added much-needed backstage space to historic Massey Hall. To the south of the complex lies the historic Elgin and Winter Garden Theatres. The Yonge Street facade uses the 1905 Canadian Bank of Commerce headquarters at 197 Yonge Street, vacant since 1987. The complex's tower rises 60 storeys and stands 208.3 metres (683 ft) in height.
The Toronto General Trusts Corporation was a Canadian trust company that existed from 1872 to 1961. The country's first trust company, the TGT received its charter in 1872, but did not begin operations until 1882. Founded as the Toronto General Trusts Company, in 1899 it took over the Trust Corporation of Ontario, at which time it changed its name to the Toronto General Trusts Corporation. By the 1950s, Toronto General was Canada's fourth largest trust company after Royal Trust, Montreal Trust, and National Trust.
