Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- [188-]-[190-] (Creation)
Level of description
Manuscript Collection
Extent and medium
Four drawings
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
James Balfour was born in Hamilton in 1854. His father, Peter Balfour (1819-1897), emigrated to Canada from Scotland in 1842 and settled in Hamilton where he opened his own business as builder, carpenter, and joiner, and leter served as city alderman and assessment comissioner. James Balfour, at age eighteen, was sent to apprentice with the prominent Scottish architectural firm of Frank Peddie and John Kinnear in Edinburgh. After spending an additional year in New York, he returned to Hamilton in 1876 to open his own practice at the age of twenty-two. In the 1880's and 90's Balfour carried out several major comissions in Hamilton and elsewhere. These included an office building in Hamilton for the Canada Life Assurance Company (1883) Hamilton City Hall (1887-90); Detroit Institute of Fine Arts (ca. 1887), a building for which a competition was held with entries by leading American and Canadian architects the YMCA residence in Hamilton (1889); the Hamilton Boys' Home (ca.1892); the Tuckett Tobacco Factory in Hamilton (ca. 1895); and Alma Ladies' College in St. Thomas (ca. 1896).
Archival history
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
James Balfour Papers were presented to the University of Toronto in 1986 by Mrs. Rachel Grover.
Content and structure area
Scope and content
Four architectural drawings by James Balfour (1854-1917) who practised as an architect in Hamilton from 1876 to 1905. The drawings were executed for George A. Grover of Hamilton. One plan is dated 1883. The others are undated. Two receipts, dated 1884, are also included.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Material may be requested in person at the Fisher Library Reference Desk, or in advance using our online stack retrieval request form: https://fisher.library.utoronto.ca/stack-retrieval-request
Conditions governing reproduction
Language of material
- English