Title and statement of responsibility area
Title proper
Bank of Ottawa / Bank of Nova Scotia building, 602 West Hastings Street
General material designation
- Architectural drawing
Parallel title
Other title information
Title statements of responsibility
Title notes
Level of description
File
Reference code
Edition area
Edition statement
Edition statement of responsibility
Class of material specific details area
Statement of scale (cartographic)
Statement of projection (cartographic)
Statement of coordinates (cartographic)
Statement of scale (architectural)
Scales vary.
Issuing jurisdiction and denomination (philatelic)
Dates of creation area
Date(s)
Physical description area
Physical description
22 architectural drawings : blueprint
Publisher's series area
Title proper of publisher's series
Parallel titles of publisher's series
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Statement of responsibility relating to publisher's series
Numbering within publisher's series
Note on publisher's series
Archival description area
Name of creator
Biographical history
W. Marbury Somervell was an architect who practiced in New York, Seattle, then Vancouver, both under his own name and as one of the partners in the firm Somervell and Putnam.
Somervell was born in Washington, D.C. and studied architecture at Cornell University. His employers, the New York firm of Heins & Lafarge sent him to the west coast to supervise construction of St. James Cathedral in Seattle. Somervell remained in Seattle, where he forms a partnership with Joseph S. Cote, which practiced in Seattle 1906-1910.
In 1910, Somervell moved on to Vancouver, where he set up practice under his own name. In 1911 his former office manager, the former New York architect, John L. Putnam, became a partner and the firm continued under the name Somervell & Putnam.
The firm was responsible for designing the British Columbia Electric Railway head office and depot at Hastings and Carrall, the Burnaby Municipal Hall, the Bank of Ottawa building at Hastings and Seymour, the Birks building at Georgia and Granville, the Yorkshire building on Seymour Street, the Merchants' Bank building at Hastings and Carrall, the London Building on West Pender Street, the Shannon estate for B.T. Rogers, and the Union Bank building at Hastings and Seymour.
Some time around 1920 the firm and both its partners relocated to Los Angeles. Somervell retired in 1935 and dies in France in 1939.
Name of creator
Biographical history
Sharp and Thompson was a Vancouver architectural firm founded in 1908 by George Lister Thornton Sharp and Charles Joseph Thompson. The firm designed many buildings, including the master plan, Sciences Buildings, Main Library and powerhouse for the University of B.C.; the Vancouver Club; the Anglican Theological College at UBC, the Burrard Street Bridge, and a large number of residences; St. Mary's Church, Kerrisdale; the first Vancouver Art Gallery (1931).
After the retirement of George Sharp around 1940 and architects Robert Berwick and Ned Pratt became partners in 1945, the firm was renamed and continued as Thompson, Berwick and Pratt.
Custodial history
Scope and content
File consists of architectural drawings of the original design for and later alterations to the building. Drawings include plans, exterior and interior elevations, sections and details.
Notes area
Physical condition
Immediate source of acquisition
Arrangement
This file was once part of AM511; it has been added to COV-S393 as this is the most likely provenance of the records.
Language of material
Script of material
Location of originals
Availability of other formats
Restrictions on access
Access to these drawings is restricted indefinitely due to FOIPPA legislation. File contains architectural drawings. Researchers wanting to access these drawings must complete an ‘Access to restricted records’ form, and are required to seek written permission from the building owner to view the records.