William Thomas, Architect, 1799-1860

David E. Smith is a professor of political Studies at the University of
Saskatchewan and the author of Building a Province: A History of
Saskatchewan in Documents and The Invisible Crown.

William Thomas was a master builder. Apprenticed in England at age 12 to
a carpenter–joiner, he became in early manhood a builder, a survey-or,
and an architect. A 20-year career followed in Leamington Spa, where he
perfected his skills over a range of styles: Tudor, Elizabethan,
neo-Gothic, and Georgian. He emigrated to Toronto in 1843. Within a
year, he had secured his first Canadian commission—St. Paul’s
Anglican Church, London—and from that point, he never looked back.
Between 1843 and 1860, Thomas designed and supervised the construction
of what remain some of Ontario’s best-known buildings: St. Michael’s
Cathedral, St. Lawrence Hall, and the Don Jail in Toronto; multipurpose
courthouses in Niagara, Chatham, and Peterborough; the Brock Monument at
Queenston; schools, banks, and commercial structures in London,
Goderich, Hamilton, and Toronto; and scores of domestic dwellings, of
which his own (Oakham House in Toronto) remains an impressive memorial
to his enterprise and craftsmanship.

This handsome and highly readable book is more than a biography of
William Thomas and a lavishly illustrated compendium of his work. It
traces the development a century ago of architecture as a profession in
Canada, the evolution of mid-19-century building tastes and styles, and
the rise of urban aspirations in a country still predominantly rural in
complexion and interests.