Edmund Burke

Edmund Burke (31 October 1851 – 2 January 1919) was a highly regarded Canadian architect best known for building Toronto's Prince Edward Viaduct or "Bloor Street Viaduct", and Toronto's Robert Simpson store. He served as the vice-president, then President of the Ontario Association of Architects.

Personal Burke was born in Toronto to parents with ties to building industry: His father, William Burke, was a local lumber merchant and builder who founded Burke, Smith & Co in 1850 (ceased operations 1967) that supplied timber to build important structures in Toronto like the Crystal Palace at the Provincial Exhibition Grounds and Gooderham and Worts Distillery) ) His mother, Sarah Langley, was sister to architect Henry Langley, whom Burke later trained with. He had family ties to Sackville, New Brunswick where several important works survive: His wife, the former Minnie Jane Black of Sackville, was related to William Black, founder of Methodism in Nova Scotia.

Education and training Burke attended Jesse Ketchum Public School, Upper Canada College and Toronto Mechanics' Institute before apprenticing as an architect with his maternal uncle and forming the firm Langley and Burke in 1873.

Later life and death Most of Burke's professional career was in Toronto and he lived a little more than a decade after his uncle's death. Burke died in the city and is buried at Mount Pleasant Cemetery, where he designed the mortuary chapel in 1893. Romanesque Revival 20 Mississauga Street West, Orillia, Ontario

Owens Art Gallery 1895 Edmund Burke Renaissance Revival Mount Allison University, 61 York Street, Sackville, New Brunswick, Canada

Hammond/Black House (home for Fine Arts head John Hammond and now residence to the President of Mount Allison University) 1896 Edmund Burke Queen Anne Revival-style Mount Allison University, 82 York Street, Sackville, New Brunswick, Canada Walmer Road Baptist Church 1889–1892 Edmund Burke & Henry Langley Gothic Revival 188 Lowther Street, Toronto, Canada

Broadmoor Manor 1908 Edmund Burke Romanesque Revival 15 382 Main Street, Tantramar, New Brunswick. Home of renowned Canadian sculptor Christian Cardell Corbet Dr. Charles Paisley House 1903 Edmund Burke Shingle style 42 York Street, Sackville Ogilvie Building 1907 Langley & Burke Southeast corner of Bay and Well; demolished ca. 1962

Biographies

Carr, Angela. Toronto Architect Edmund Burke: Redefining Canadian Architecture. McGill-Queen's University Press, 1995.