Henry Langley (architect)


Henry Langley was a Canadian architect based in Toronto. He was active from 1854 to 1907. Among the first architects born and trained in Canada, he was a founding members of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts in 1880 and was instrumental in establishing the Ontario Association of Architects in 1889. A conservative in architectural design, he is primarily known for designing numerous churches in the Toronto area, although he designed many secular buildings as well including residential, commercial and public buildings. Langley designed 70 churches throughout Ontario. He was the first chair of the Department of Architecture at the University of Toronto, where he taught during the 1880s and 1890s.

Life and career

Langley's parents, William Langley and Esther Anderson, emigrated to Canada from Ireland in 1832. Born in Toronto, Langley received his general education from the Toronto Academy where part of his training included studying the principles of drawing. In early 1854 he became apprenticed to Scottish architect William Hay, who was a specialist in gothic architecture. During his seven-year apprenticeship, he worked with Hay on some of the oldest buildings and structures in Toronto, including St. Basil's Church, Toronto, two of the original buildings at the University of St. Michael's College, Yorkville Town Hall and the Oaklands at De La Salle College among other structures.
After Hay's departure from Toronto in 1861, Langley was invited in 1862 by Hay's partner, Thomas Gundry, to become his new partner. He accepted and quickly became the firm's primary designer with Gundry shouldering most of the business side of the company. His most important project during these years was the Government House. In 1869 Gundry died, after which Langley spent the next four years working alone. However, he was assisted during those years by two talented apprentices who later became well known architects in Toronto: Frank Darling and his nephew Edmund Burke.
With the success of the firm, Langley brought in Burke and his brother, the builder Edward Langley, as partners in 1873. The company was in high demand and greatly increased its staff over the next several years. His brother left a decade later and Burke departed in 1894. His son, architect Charles Edward Langley, worked with him during the last 14 years of his life. Charles was the first person to graduate from the Department of Architecture at the University of Toronto on 3 May 1892.
Langley died in Toronto in 1907 and is interred at the Toronto Necropolis. He notably designed that cemetery's chapel.

Selected works


BuildingYear CompletedBuilderStyleSourceLocationImage
St. Peter's Anglican Church, Toronto1864–1866Gundry and LangleyGothic Revival15188 Carlton Street at Sherborne Street, Toronto, Ontario
St. Michael's Cathedral spire1865-66Gundry and LangleyGothic RevivalToronto, Ontario
St. Basil's Church, Toronto1865-66Gundry and LangleyGothic RevivalToronto, Ontario
Government House 1865-6sGundry and LangleyGothic RevivalToronto, Ontario
St. Stephen-in-the-Fields Anglican Church, Parkdale Deanery1865-6Henry LangleyGothic Revival15Bathurst Street and College Avenue, Toronto, Ontario
Metropolitan United Church1872Henry LangleyFrench Gothic RevivalWChurch Street and Queen Street East, Toronto, Ontario
Toronto Necropolis Chapel1874Henry LangleyGothic Revival15Winchester Street and Sumach Street, Toronto, Ontario
St. Luke's United Church1874Henry Langley and Edmund BurkeRomanesque Revival15Sherborne Street and Carlton Street, Toronto, Ontario
St. Andrew's Evangelical Lutheran Church1878Henry Langley & Edmund BurkeGothic Revival15383 Jarvis Street, Toronto, Ontario
Jarvis Street Baptist Church1878Henry Langley & Edmund BurkeGothic RevivalJarvis Street, Toronto, Ontario
St. Mark's Anglican Church, Parkdale1881Henry Langley, Henry Langley and Edmund Burke Gothic Revival201 Cowan Ave, Toronto, Ontario
McMaster Hall1881Henry Langley, Henry Langley and Edmund Burke Romanesque Revival2273 Bloor Street West, Toronto, Ontario
Beverley Street Baptist Church1886Henry Langley & Edmund BurkeGothic Revival672 Beverley Street, Toronto, Ontario
Trinity-St. Paul's United Church1887–1889Henry Langley and Edmund BurkeGothic Revival15Bloor Street west of Spadina Avenue, Toronto, Ontario

Gundry & Langley (1862-1869)

Henry Langley, Edward Langley & Edmund Burke
Henry Langley & Edmund Burke
Henry Langley & Charles Edward Langley