Edmund Burke (architect)

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.

Works

References