Architecture collections

Heritage resources in the University of Victoria Special Collections

UVic Special Collections collects, preserves, exhibits and makes accessible rare, antiquarian and special books; as well as literary, military and architectural collections and archives. The directive is to collect internationally, following the interest of faculty in their research and teaching. The University Archives collects locally, material of relevance to the University and Southern Vancouver Island (with particular emphasis on the environmental movement, women's movement, publishing and the performing arts).

Within this framework there is much in the University Archives and Special Collections for those interested in heritage. With reference to archives, with a focus on heritage material in Special Collections, we have the papers of John Betjeman, the English writer who campaigned and wrote in order to save important British Victorian churches and buildings. UVic Archives has the records of Martin Segger inclusive of the minutes of the Victoria and Canadian Heritage committees on which he sat. It also has the research for his books on heritage architects of Victoria. In addition to these holdings, the Archives also has plans and drawings of all the early University Buildings. However, within this broad mix there are three architectural archives which I wish to bring to the attention of the heritage community at this time. I am grateful to the following for their writing which is included in this article: Janice Currier, Lenore Hietkamp, Diane Archibald, and Louise Patterson.

Special Collections has the archives of three internationally important architects: Richard Roskell Bayne 1859-85, who practiced in India; Laszlo Hudec who practiced in Hungary and Shanghai, China, c. 1913-37; and Samuel Maclure, who practiced in British Columbia, 1894-1929. All three were acquired by or in conjunction with History in Art faculty members, Alan Gowans and, more recently, Martin Segger. Each archive represents, an exciting resource of biographical, social, design, decoration and architectural history. Interested researchers from the community are welcome to view these archives. We are located in the basement of the McPherson Library and are open from 10:30 - 4:30, Monday to Friday.

Richard Roskell Bayne

Richard Roskell Bayne was born in Warwickshire, England, 7 July 1827. He received his first training in architecture from his father. In 1858, Bayne worked in the office of the British architect, Charles Barry, while attending classes at University College, in London. By 1859, he was studying at the South Kensington School of Design in London, and was awarded the Queen's Prize by that institution in 1860.

After completing a year of travel in Europe, Bayne worked in the office of architect Digby Wyatt. In 1864, he received the distinction of passing the Royal Institute of British Architecture Voluntary Architectural Examination and was also awarded the RIBA Sloan Medal. This prize enabled Bayne to make an extensive sketching tour in Europe in 1864-1865. Bayne joined the East India Railway Company in 1866 and moved to Calcutta. By the time he retired from the Company in 1890, he had earned the rank of district engineer. After his retirement, he moved to Victoria, British Columbia, where he opened an architectural office in 1891. He died in Victoria in 1901 and is buried in the Ross Bay Cemetery. Descendants of the Bayne family now live in Port Alberni.

The Bayne collection

The Bayne collection was purchased by Special Collections and the Maltwood Gallery in 1995. When the Bayne archive was first located by Martin Segger it had been broken up and remounted by a local antique shop and thus its original order has had to be reconstructed by History in Art students. Description of this collection has been performed by Janice Currier. Much of the archive is presently out on loan to the Port Alberni Museum because of the Bayne's family connection with this city.

The Bayne Collection consists of 733 items, the majority of which are drawings and water-colours produced by Bayne on a European sketching tour. Bayne spent four months in France in 1864, sketching Romanesque and Gothic churches. From there Bayne travelled to Spain documenting sites in the Pyranees he believed would soon be lost to warfare and neglect, recording stained glass windows and other architectural details of the Gothic and Romanesque structures, and visiting sites with important Moorish architecture. Bayne's Spanish work is the most comprehensive in the collection. From Spain, Bayne travelled to Naples, Athens to Salonica, and south to Constantinople. The drawings remaining from this trip show his interest in Byzantine churches and Islamic architecture in Greece and Turkey. Bayne's may be the only records of some of these buildings, before their restoration, and this is what makes them especially interesting to Art Historians.

His drawings executed in Naples, include studies of Pompeii, panoramic views of Rome, and architectural drawings of Renaissance and Medieval structures from Rome, Venice, Milan, Florence, Pisa, and Assissi. Only a few drawings remain of his trip to Germany These drawings are dated and numbered, but the information about them is limited as the sites are not identified.

After Bayne accepted a position with the East India Company in 1866, he moved to Calcutta, India. Part of the collection includes sketches he made on tours in India, and illustrate Muslim and Hindu structures in Benares, Delhi, Allahabad, Madras, Ahmadabad, Bombay, Brindabun, Chitor, Moorabad, and Calcutta. At least four structures in India are attributed to Bayne: the East India Railway offices (1881-84), the Huseinbad Clock Tower at Lucknow (1881-85), the Mayo Memorial Hall at Allahabad (1879), and the Thornhill and Mayne Memorial Library at Allahabad (1878). The presentation drawing for the latter structure is included in the collection as a donation from the Port Alberni Historical Society.

When Bayne retired from the East India Railroad Company, he settled in Victoria and opened an architectural practice. The archive includes a few drawings Bayne executed in Canada, such as the plan, sections and details of a grain elevator in Fort William. Other items in the collection include a photograph of Bayne, several covers of his original European notebooks and two certificates, one of which commemorates his achievement in passing the Voluntary Architectural Examination in 1864 with distinction, and the second certifying his election as an Associate to the Royal Institute of British Architects.

Laszlo Hudec

Laszlo Hudec was born in 1893 in northern Hungary. As a young man, Laszlo's father, a builder, encouraged him to work in all aspects of the trade. From 1911 to 1914 Hudec studied architecture at the Budapest University. After the completion of his degree, he joined the Austro-Hungarian army, only to be caught by the Russians in 1916 and sent to prison camp in Siberia. Two years later, in 1918, Hudec was on a prisoner of war train headed for the interior of Russia from Habarowsk, a prison camp close to the Chinese border. Hudec jumped train and made his way into China eventually arriving in Shanghai.

In Shanghai, Hudec joined the American architectural firm, R.A. Curry. By 1925, he had established his own office and was one of the leading architects in the city. By 1941, he had built at least 37 buildings as well as numerous private residences.

The Hudec collection

The Libraries' Special Collections has recently received as a gift the papers of Laszlo Hudec. The archive consists of approximately 550 sketches, conceptual drawings, presentation drawings, working drawings, technical drawings (inclusive of blueprints), travel sketches and photographs. The drawings include exterior and interior renderings of plans and designs for projects produced in both Europe and in China. This architectural collection consists of works by Hudec and two anonymous authors. The work of Hudec was transcribed in English, German and Chinese. The work of the unknown authors is transcribed in Hungarian and German. There are also 2 boxes of textual records including notes, notebooks, photo albums, documents, letters, memos, scrapbooks, photos, legal records, rare journals, and newspapers clippings. The body of work covers 1913-1937. Although it has not yet been properly arranged and described, there is already a postgraduate student who is writing her M.A. thesis on this work.

Samuel Maclure

Samuel Maclure (1860- 1929) was born in Sapperton, B.C., near New Westminster. He attended school in New Westminster and Victoria, developing an early interest in art. In 1884, he spent a year studying art at the Spring Garden Institute in Philadelphia, taking classes in architecture and mechanical drawing as well as art. In the late 1880s, Maclure set up his own architectural practice, first in partnership with Charles H. Clow and later with Richard P. Sharp. Maclure and Clow built the Royal Colombian Hospital in New Westminster in 1889. With Sharp, Maclure designed houses for the Hill family of New Westminster.

In 1892, Maclure and his family moved to Victoria. One of his first commissions in Victoria was the Temple Building. During this time, he maintained a second practice in the lower mainland and built "Gabriola" for B.T. Rogers in Vancouver in 1901. Samuel Maclure and Francis Rattenbury were appointed architects for the new Government House in 1901, completed in 1903. Maclure received commissions from many prominent Victoria and B.C. businessmen and politicians. In addition, he kept up his interest in drawing and painting, producing many impressive drawings and water-colours of local West Coast landscapes. He and his friend Emily Carr both belonged to the Vancouver Island Arts and Crafts Society, one-quarter of whose members were Maclure clients. "Miraloma," Maclure's final large commission, was a culmination of his originality. Designing this rustic home was Maclure's final statement. Three years later, in 1929, he passed away after a short illness.

The Maclure collection

The collection consists of 2138 plans, 10 water-colours, and 10 photos. It is also accessible in microfiche format. There are architectural plans by Samuel Maclure for homes in Victoria, British Columbia, and out of province locations. The collection includes lists of people who commissioned homes by Maclure, and construction contracts. Although the original order was destroyed at the time of transfer to the Maltwood Museum in 1968, the plans have been arranged and described and a finding aid is available. The Maltwood has added other local architects to their files, including plans by English designer George P. Bankart; H.D. Day; other local architects; and water-colours by Maclure. The content of Maclure's office in the Five Sisters Building in Victoria was destroyed in 1910 including a large percentage of Maclure's earlier works. The balance of the Special Collection's plans date from 1910 to 1929 although a few of the earlier plans have been collected from their original owners. Maclure's plans are rich in every kind of design detail.
By the late 1920s Maclure found that clients, who could afford architecturally-designed homes, wanted only seven or eight rooms in an economical plan. As a result, he designed several residences in a simple, stucco-clad Georgian-Revival style. Since these homes were restricted in space for halls and staircases, Maclure looked for innovative ways to provide more room. He had always been interested in scientific and technological progress, and expressed a desire to experiment with concrete as a building material. The influence of Frank Lloyd Wright has been noted in his design and line. Maclure also had a unique affinity to native materials and was well known for using site-quarried masonry for his designs. A major feature of many of the houses is a spacious staircase, fireplace, and balconied second floor. Major rooms opened onto a spatial core through wide-sliding doors; and at ground level the hall often opened directly out into the gardens, which often were designed to incorporate and reflect his house designs.

Maclure's success was a direct result of his ability to adapt the current American Art-and-Crafts with its half-timber construction to a sophisticated English immigrant society. He took advantage of scenic locations, especially of mountainous topography in siting many of his commissions in Victoria and nearby coastal communities. Later Maclure designed his houses in a variety of styles adapting Queen Anne style, Tudor-Revival, Georgian-revival, Craftsman, Chalet-style, and Bungalow. It was Maclure's earlier works, however, reflecting his personal interpretation of the Shingle style and half-timber facade, which influenced a generation of architects throughout the Province.
Maclure was considered to be predominantly a domestic architect, a designer of houses, with a career that spanned 40 years. As his buildings were well constructed with high quality materials, much of his work is still in existence. In Victoria where he spent the majority of his adult life, he undertook between 200 and 300 commissions. It is estimated that close to 100 of these buildings remain, though some have been renovated beyond their original design. In New Westminster and Vancouver, Maclure himself or his firms (Sharp and Maclure, and Clow and Maclure in New Westminster; Maclure and Fox, and Maclure and Lort in Vancouver) designed more than 150 buildings.
Maclure's houses and buildings add a unique heritage value to the Province. Only with the availability of the archives can people with a personal interest in restoration have the means to return the buildings to their original design. "Progress" has meant in many cases the destruction of architectural history or the remodelling to such an extent that the original design of the homes or buildings are no longer visible. It is, therefore, of great importance to preserve Maclure's plans for the benefit of future generations. Hopefully, someday, all these images will be able to be scanned and put up on the Web for everyone to study from the comfort of their own homes.