Dossier f9 - unspecified client

George Martin was an architect in Smith's Falls, Ont. and in surrounding counties of Lanark, Leeds and Grenville for nearly twenty-five years. Born in Surrey, England he came to Canada in 1870 and settled in Toronto where he worked as a carpenter and builder. In 1879 or 1880 he moved to eastern Ontario where much of his work involved the construction of passenger stations and bridges for the Canadian Pacific Railway, but his achievements in this field fall outside the scope of this work. In early 1889 he moved to Smith's Falls and opened an architectural office (Rideau Record [Smith's Falls], 2 May 1889, 4). Martin's local fame rests largely on his ability to design distinctive and robust institutional and ecclesiastical works. He invariably adopted a brusque Romanesque Revival style for his large scale projects, taking advantage of the abundance of building stone found in the Hughes quarry near Perth. He also possessed a vision for the 'grand plan', setting out a scheme to connect all the summer resorts on the Rideau River with an electric railway system (C.R., x, 16 Aug. 1899, 3). In 1907 he was the patentee of a method to improve the construction of railway coaches (C.A.B., xx, June 1907, x). Few works can be attributed to him after 1910. Martin died in Smith's Falls on 4 March 1925