Kivas Tully

Kivas Tully (1820–24 April 1905) was an Irish-Canadian architect.^[1]

Born in Garryvacum in County Laois, Ireland, Kivas Tully was the son of John P. Tully, a lieutenant in the Royal Navy, and Alicia Willington. He trained as an architect at the Royal Naval School in London, England, before coming to the Province of Canada in 1844, arriving in Toronto, where he began working at the firm of John George Howard, designing many important buildings throughout southern Ontario.

Following Canadian Confederation, Tully joined the Ontario Department of Public Works in 1868. He was appointed the first Ontario Provincial architect (1868–1896)^[2] and engineer.^[3] He was involved in the supervising of the competition leading to the design of the Ontario Legislative Building at Queen's Park. As the provincial department of public works's chief architect, Kivas Tully supervised a series of district court houses built in northern Ontario. The court house at Parry Sound designed in 1871 still forms the core of the present court house complex. The Ontario Archives hold drawings for virtually all provincial buildings including courthouses, registry offices, goals & lock-ups, schools and colleges, hospitals and other works executed under his supervision fron 1896 until 1926.^[4]

In 1903, Kivas Tully was awarded the Imperial Service Order. He had retired in 1896 and died in Toronto on 24 April 1905.

Works

Some of his more prominent projects include:

Project	Year Completed	Location	Notes	Image
Bank of Montreal	1846	Northwest corner of Yonge Street and Front Street, Toronto	Neoclassical in style with quarters on the second and third floors for the manager and his family, the three-storey stone building was demolished in 1886 for a new Beaux-Arts Bank of Montreal office which now houses the Hockey Hall of Fame.[5]
Old Trinity College	1852	Trinity Bellwoods Park, Toronto	Gothic Revival. Demolished in 1956.
Victoria Hall	1860	Cobourg, Ontario	Neoclassical
Welland County Courthouse	1858	Welland, Ontario	Designed in the Neoclassical style by Tully and constructed by John Hellems and William A. Bald of several courses of Queenston limestone. Addition added in 1954.
First Trenton Town hall	1860	Trenton, Ontario	Neoclassical building was vacated by the police in 1970s and now home to DBIA and Trent Port Historical Society Museum.
London Asylum for the Insane	1870	London, Ontario	Main building demolished 1870 and only Infirmary or Exam Building remains.
Parry Sound District Courthouse	1871	89 James Street, Parry Sound, Ontario	Victorian court has had additions added 1920-1921 and still used as courthouse.
Hamilton Asylum for the Insane	1879	Fennell Street West, Hamilton, Ontario	South Cottage added 1885 and Infirmary 1895; demolished 1990s
Brockville Asylum for the Insane	1892-1894	Prescott Road, Brockville, Ontario	Main Building and Cottages, 1892-94
Orilla Asylum for the Insane	1886-1887	Memorial Road cottages; Main Building added 1889
Mimico Branch Asylum	1889–1895	New Toronto, Toronto	Victorian psychiatric hospital campus with Romanesque Revival and Gothic Revival influences, restored and repurposed by Humber College from 1991–2001.

Personal

Tully was married twice, first to Elizabeth Drew in 1844 (died 1847) and Maria Elizabeth Strickland in 1852 (died 1883). He had four daughters, but survived by two including Sydney Strickland Tully (1860–1911) when he died in 1905.^[6]

Publications

• Preliminary report of the engineer, on the survey of the various routes, for the proposed ship canal, to connect the waters of lakes Huron & Ontario at Toronto, presented to the president of the Board of Trade, 1857.

See also

Other Ontario provincial architects included:

• Francis R. Heakes
• George A. White
• George N. Williams

References

External

• Historic Places in Canada
• Kivas Tully Dictionary of Architects in Canada

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