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Description:
The Churchill Apartments (608 Church Street) are a 3-storey-plus-basement apartment building located at the southwest corner of Church Street and Isabella Street in the Church-Wellesley Village of Toronto. The Churchill Apartments (608 Church Street) were designed in 1925 in the Spanish Colonial Revival style by architect Neil George Beggs. The Churchill Apartments (608 Church Street) replaced an earlier houseform building which existed on this site.
TO Built staff have noted that "the building has a mansard roof of red barrel tiles and repeating cornice brackets. The basement level, first floor, and second floor have brick façades while the third floor's façade is plastered."
The Spanish Colonial Revival architectural style was a popular architectural style in North America during the early 20th century. Gaining popularity after the Panama-California Exposition of 1915, the style drew inspiration from the Colonial architecture of the Spanish colonization of the Americas. The style had largely waned in popularity by the onset of the Great Depression in the early 1930s. The Churchill Apartments (608 Church Street) is one of only a handful of Spanish Colonial Revival buildings in and near the Church-Wellesley Village.
The eponym of the Churchill Apartments was likely Sir Winston Churchill. Churchill served as Secretary of State for the Colonies from 1921 to 1922 and as the Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1924 to 1929. Around the time that the building permit was issued for the Churchill Apartments, Churchill gave a well-known speech describing the British government's plan to return to the gold standard in an attempt to boost and stabilize the post-World War I economy. Churchill later served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1941 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955.
Architect - Neil George Beggs:
The architect of the Churchill Apartments (608 Church Street) was Neil George Beggs.
The Biographical Dictionary of Architects in Canada: 1800-1950 provides the following biography of Beggs:
"Neil George Beggs was born in Bray, County Wicklow, Ireland on 2 July 1871 and was educated in Dublin and at the South Kensington Art School in London. After articling in Dublin with Kaye, Harry & Ross for two years, he then joined the office of the Royal Engineers in London where he was a staff architect and consultant to the British Admiralty. Beggs emigrated to Canada in 1906 and joined Thomas Kennedy of Barrie, Ont. in the partnership of Kennedy, Beggs & Co, while also finding work as the plumbing inspector in that town. By May 1907 the partnership had been dissolved and his affairs in speculative building activity in Barrie led to his insolvency in August 1908 when he was forced to assign his assets to creditors. He moved to Toronto and spent two years in the drafting department of the Grand Trunk Railway (in 1909-10), two years as a civil engineer in the City Architect's Office (in 1910-12), then formed a partnership with George Redmond in 1913 (see list of works under Redmond & Beggs). During WWI he served with the Canadian Engineers and opened his own office in Toronto in 1921. Much of his practice was devoted to small walk-up apartment blocks in Toronto, often executed in a variety of simplified eclectic styles. At the time of his death on 6 March 1935 he was said to have '..designed more apartment houses than any other architect in Canada, and can be credited with having erected the first such building in Toronto'."
Developer and First Owner - Elsie Hooper:
The developer and first owner of the Churchill Apartments (608 Church Street) was Elsie Hooper. Elsie Hooper was one of a number of women who became engaged in the property development and operations of apartment buildings in Toronto during the early 20th century. Research is ongoing as to identify further details regarding Elsie Hooper.
(Research by Adam Wynne)
