J. Campbell Merrett
Biographical Outline
December 1945
Born: Montreal, August 26th, 1909.
Married: April 1937; two children.
Education: Selwyn House School, Montreal, 1916-1922
Ashbury College Ottawa, 1922-1926
McGill University, Montreal, 1926-1931
Degree: Bachelor of Architecture.
Awarded Province of Quebec Travelling
Scholarship, 1931: studied in
Europe, esp. England, France, Italy
Sweden, Germany, Holland, 1931-1934
Post-graduate course, Architectural Ass'n
School of Architecture, London:
with Certificate, 1932-1933
of London, 1933-1934
Special Planning Course, Massachusetts
Institute of Technology
Boston, Mass., October 1944
Experience: Architects' Offices:
Barott & Blackader (E.I.Barott), Montreal
Sir Aston Webb & Son, London, England
Ross & Macdonald, Montreal
Fetherstongaugh & Durnford, Montreal
Canadian National Railways, Montreal, 1936-1942
Construction Control, D. M. & S., Ottawa, 1943-1944
(Assistant to the Controller) on loan from C.N.R.
Town Plannning Director, Saint John Town Planning Commission,
Saint John, N.B., May 1944 - December 1945.
(Preparing Master Plan for City and part of County)
Professional Member, Royal Architectural Institute of Canada
Associations " Province of Quebec Association of Architects
& Interests: " American Society of Planning Officials
First President, Architectural Research Group,
Montreal, 1938-1942: with three others prepared
first Canadian Town Planning exhibition of its
kind, "City for Living", Montreal, 1941.
Prior to 1943 (move to Ottawa) was joint chairman
P.Q.A.A. Reconstruction Committee: member
R.A.I.C. Reconstruction Committee; member
various other P.Q.A.A. committees; member
Advisory Committee, McGill University School
of Architecture.
THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC ASSOCIATION OF ARCHITECTS
627 DORCHESTER STREET WEST
MONTREAL
March 11th, 1935
J.C.Merrett, Esq.
B.Arch., Architect,
3200 Westmount Blvd.
Westmount, P.Q.
Dear Sir,
Pursuant to your letter of February 20th,
I enclose herewith copy of a resolution passed at
our Council meting of March 7th:
Upon the motion of Mr. J.R.Smith seconded by Mr. P.
R.Wilson, it was unanimously resolved:
"That Mr. J.C.Merrett, as a graduate of McGill Uni-
versity (Dept of Architecture - 1931), having
passed a special examination in professional
practice (March 4th,1935), submitted certi-
ficates of experience required, signed
the Code of Ethics and paid the re-
gistration fee and current year's
dues, be admited in the P.Q.A.
A., and that his name appear
on the Register of Architects
for 1935;
And that copy of the pre-
sent resolution be sent
to Mr.Merrett".
Please find enclosed herewith our receipt
N0.2627 covering entrance fee and current year's dues.
A corrected copy of the Register todate will
follow within the next few days.
Yours truly,
M A U R I C E P A Y E T T E
Honorary Secretary.
It was lucky for me that my scholarship had coincided with the worst of the ``Great Depression'', when none of the Montreal architects had much, if any, work. Ernest Barott who had given me my summer jobs still had none, and no job for me. Two firms, Fetherstonhaugh & Durnford and Ross & MacDonald, hired me for a few months each at slim salaries: fortunately I was able to live at home.
Then I landed a spot in the Architect's Office of the Canadian National Railways, away down McGill St. There I designed everything from passenger car interiors, highway overpasses and miscellaneous structures for the Railway and for Trans-Canada Airways (for which my boss was also Chief Architect), to the large public rooms of the Vancouver Hotel (done on site during a month's stay out there), and finally the Montreal Central Station building (now surrounded by Hotel and Office Building) with its main concourse.
When the war came in 1939 that office became involved in work for the Government
Guch as airport buildings---theoretically a ``reserved occupation''. During that
time, those first months when W.W.2 seemed quiescent, I did a lot of soul
searching as to whether or not to enlist for military service. In spite of two
military grandfathers (and various uncles-in-law an cousins) my military
experience was limited to that of private in the Ashbury Cadet Corps, and
rejection by R.M.C. on physical grounds, and I had little doubt that I would
make a poor soldier, whether private or commissioned. Nevertheless I joined the
McGill C.O.T.C. and for several months trained at nights in the gym and on the
campus.
Occasionally there was a direct order from the Minister, C. D. Howe, as when I
was told to issue pronto a permit for work at the Eldorado Mine where (top
secret) uranium was to be produced (for research on the atom bomb).
My term in Ottawa coincided with the first two years of Tim's life. He and his mother were living in our apartment on Lorne Crescent, and I was a week-end commuter between Ottawa and Montreal. At first I spend 6 weeks living in the Château Laurier, at Government expense, until I found a congenial family (Joan and Campbell Radcliffe) to board with, in Sandy Hill, and bicycled to & from work. For a couple of summer months I had a room & breakfast at Ashbury in order to enjoy the cool of Rockcliffe Park, and play tennis at the Rockcliffe Tennis Club. Nick Archdale, then the Head at Ashbury, and his wife Sheila were good friends and tennis mates. Through them I met some of the wartime diplomatic contingent living in Rockcliffe. These included one ``Junkie'' Fleishman of the yeast family, who was U.S. Naval Attaché, and at whose house we often convened after a game to drink his mint juleps in frosted silver tumblers. Prince Bernhard of Holland was an occasional visitor and after one doubles game with him we went for twa with Princess Juiana at the nearby house where she and her young daughters were wartime refugees.
While I was with the C.N.R. and before I went to Ottawa, three of my architect
pals and I started a little organization which we called the Architectural
Research Group,
whose objectives were to bring about some serious town planning in Montreal and
generally promote anything in the way of good planning, architecture and design
in general. We started by doing a study and report on slum conditions in
Papineau Ward in the city. We
wrote a critique of the McGill School of Architecture, still far behind the
times, which resulted in preventing its being closed and instead given new
life. (At a dinner we gave for poor old Traquair on his retirement he
complimented us on our report even though it laid on him indirectly much of the
blame for the School's decline.) This led to our promoting as director of a
re-constituted school, one Serge Chermayeff, a well-known Russian-born (refugee)
architect practising in London and wanting to emigrate. He came and spent a
couple of months [six weeks?] in Montreal but was too advanced for the
``advisory committee'' of senior architects and so McGill did not ``buy'' him.
He went on to the Chicago Bauhaus and then to Yale, and John Bland was
appointed, later, Director of the McGill School.
A.R.G.'s big achievement was to research, design and build (all in our spare
time) a bilingual exhibition which we called ``City for Living'', or ``La
Cité ou Vivre'', and which broke all attendance records at the Art Gallery.
We were allowed to promote it by erecting on the front steps of the Gallery a
typical Montreal circular iron outdoor staircase, painted bright red: the
morning it appeared Sherbrooke St. traffic almost jammed up.
This exhibition
went on to several other sites, including Ottawa [?? check] (where ``A.R.G.O.''
happened later).
The Architectural Research Group's ``City for Living'' Exhibition, Montreal Art Gallery. The exhibition was opnend by the Mayor on May 12, '41 the same day the City Council adopted By-law #1682 creating Montreal's first City Planning Department. (Over 6000 people visited the exhibit, breaking the (then) Gallery attendance records: it went on to several other sites, including Otawwa--- where ARGO later formed.)
In the Spring of 1944 the City of Saint John, N.B. decided it might need some active town planning