McIntyre, John (1879-1957)
John McIntyre was born on 31 January 1879 in Stranraer and was articled to Alexander Hunter Crawford of Edinburgh in 1895 working mainly on domestic work in Trinity, Morningside and elsewhere and studying at the School of Applied Art and Heriot-Watt College. He remained with Crawford after the formation of the latter’s partnership with Robert Rowand Anderson and Frank Worthington Simon in 1899, leaving in January 1900 to become a draughtsman in the Royal Engineers Scottish District Architects Office, where he was promoted to chief draughtsman two years later.
In 1905 he won the competition for St Paul’s Church, Glasgow, and although he states in his RIBA nomination papers that he left the Royal Engineers at this time, he did not venture into independent practice until January 1910 though he had an office at 28 North Bridge, Edinburgh from at least 1908 if not sooner. He was admitted LRIBA in 1910, his proposers being John Watson, Hippolyte Jean Blanc and Crawford. By that time his travels had taken him to York, Cambridge, Oxford, Wells, around Scotland, and to Normandy.
In the same year, 1910, McIntyre closed his Edinburgh practice to recommence practice in Vancouver in association with Gordon Lorimer Wright from Burnet’s office. When the economy collapsed in 1913 he closed his office to take charge of the design and construction departments for both Point Grey and Burnaby, and in 1915 joined the Powell River Company. From 1919 to 1935 he was its Townside Manager and designed and built a major part of the Powell River development and public buildings, including the community centre, Dwight Hall, the War Memorial site, the Brooks School, golf clubhouse, Bank of Montreal and other industrial buildings such as the Stillwater powerhouse. Subsequently he was in charge of its Public Relations Division, but also had a significant private practice until the financial crash of 1929.
In 1944 he was elected the first ‘good citizen’ by Powell River but retired from the Company in 1952. McIntyre died on 21 June 1957 aged seventy-eight.
