Violet Helen Mellish

Other Events:

• Eby ID Number: Waterloo-101398

Other Events:

• Building: Cambridge Farmers' Market, 40 Dickson St., Cambridge, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; designed building
• Building: Firehall - 56 Dickson St., Cambridge, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; designed firehall
• FindAGrave: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/26297786
• Name: F. W. Mellish
• Eby ID Number: Waterloo-153005
• Residence: 1871, Galt (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; Church of England
• Occupation: 1881, Galt (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; Carpenter
• Occupation: 1886, Galt (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; carpenter
• Occupation: 1891, Galt (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; Architecht
• Residence: 1891, Galt (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; Anglican
• Occupation: 1901, Galt (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; Architech

Notes:

Fred William Mellish was born in Galt on April 11, 1860, the first of the six children of Robert F. and Louisa Mellish. Fred Mellish received his early education in private schools and at the Galt Collegiate Institute. Possibly given an interest in the building trades by his father who was a painter, Mr. Mellish first trained as a carpenter and a builder with a view to eventually becoming an architect. It is unclear exactly when Mr. Mellish began his practice as an architect but he registered with the Ontario Association of Architects on March 21, 1891 at the age of 30. However, he was active in the profession prior to that date. He opened his offices in Room 23 in the Imperial Block on South Water St. in January 1890 but it is reported that previously he had designed and supervised the construction of quite a number of important buildings including, in 1890, the Scott Block. The list of Mr. Mellish's buildings erected after 1891, however, is impressive. It includes the Galt Hospital (1891), one of the few buildings he built of stone rather than brick; the Gore Mutual Insurance Company Head Office at Main and Ainslie (1895); the two-storey section of the Galt Market Building (1896); the Galt Fire Hall (1898); and the Galt Carnegie Library (1905). In addition he was responsible for a number of other commercial blocks in Preston and other towns in the area as well as a number of private residences, including a house on Main Street reportedly built for his bride Helen Isabel who sadly died at the age of 24 in May 1886 following the birth of her daughter. In 1908 Mr. Mellish moved to Vancouver where he was worked as an architect and contractor from 1909 to about 1920. In the west Mr. Mellish worked mainly as a designer of houses during the real estate boom of 1912-1913 but is known to have designed a warehouse and St. Saviour's church and parish hall. Upon retirement, he continued to reside in Vancouver and, in 1919, built a craftsman-style house for himself, his wife Agnes and their daughter Winnifred. He died in Vancouver on April 15, 1928 at the age of 68.

Cambridge Hall of Fame (2023). Available at: https://www.cambridge.ca/en/learn-about/cambridge-hall-of-fame.aspx (Accessed: 27 May 2023).
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MELLISH, Frederick William (1860-1928) of Galt, Ont. was the son of Robert Mellish, a painter & glazier in Galt, and was born there on 11 April 1860. He was educated at private schools and at Galt Collegiate Institute and later received training as a carpenter and builder. In 1888 he opened an office in Galt and during the course of the next two decades he obtained several important commissions for institutional buildings and commercial blocks in that town. Mellish was adept at working in a variety of styles, ranging from a simplified Scottish baronial, evident in his design for the Galt Hospital, 1889, to the monumental Beaux-Arts style, employed in his scheme for the Carnegie Library in Galt in 1903. He was among the first architects in Western Ontario to introduce the classical vocabulary of the Beaux-Arts style to public architecture in that region of the province. In 1909 Mellish moved to British Columbia and opened an office in Vancouver, perhaps to capitalise on the rapid development of that city, but only a few references to his work there have been found. He died in Vancouver on 16 April 1928 (death notice in the Vancouver Sun, 16 April 1928, 12; biography in M. Bixby, Industries of Canada: London, Owen Sound, Collingwood, Barrie...., 1890, 107; biography and port. in W. Cochrane, The Canadian Album-Men of Canada, ii, 1893, 154; D. Luxton, Building the West: The Early Architects of British Columbia, 2003, 477, 512)

(works in Galt unless noted)

SCOTT BLOCK, Main Street, c. 1888 (list of works in M. Bixby, Industries of Canada: London, Owen Sound, Collingwood..., 1890, 107)

GALT GENERAL HOSPITAL, St. Andrew's Street at Borden Street, 1889; addition, 1896; Nurse's Residence, 1899; hospital demolished in 1993; (Galt Reporter, 26 July 1889, 1; 30 Nov. 1899, 6, descrip.; C.A.B., ii, Aug. 1889, 95; C.R., vii, 7 May 1896, 1)

PRESTON, ONT., commercial studio and gallery for James Esson, Photographer, 1891 (C.R., ii, 21 March 1891, 2)

HESPELER, ONT., St. James Anglican Church, Ellis Road near Cooper Street, 1892; still standing in 2022 (Galt Reporter, 16 Sept. 1892, 1 & 2, t.c.)

GORE BLOCK, for the Gore Mutual Insurance Co., Main Street at Ainslie Street, 1893-94; demol. (Galt Reporter, 4 Aug. 1893, 2, t.c.; 1 Feb. 1895, 3, descrip.)

unnamed street, residence for J. McKenzie, 1893-94 (C.R., iv, 7 Dec. 1893, 2)

MAIN STREET, commercial block for R.G. Struthers, 1893-94 (C.R., iv, 7 Dec. 1893, 2; Galt Reporter, 16 March 1894, 1)
unnamed street, four houses for Dr. Lowry, 1893 (C.R., iv, 7 Dec. 1893, 2)

HOTEL IROQUOIS, Main Street at Wellington Street, 1894; addition, 1897 (C.R., v, 3 May 1894, 1; Galt Reporter, 6 July 1894, 4, t.c.; 18 March 1897, 1)

DICKSON SCHOOL, addition and alterations, 1894 (Galt Reporter, 25 May 1894, 4, t.c.)

LANSDOWNE AVENUE, residence for Frederick Mellish architect, 1895 (Galt Reporter, 12 April 1895, 1)

LANSDOWNE AVENUE, residence for Hugh Wallace, 1895 (Galt Reporter, 12 April 1895, 1)

PRESTON, ONT., Swimming & Mineral Bath House, adjacent to the Hotel Kress, for C.R. Hanning, 1895-96 (Galt Reporter, 19 July 1895, 1)

GALT PUBLIC MARKET, Dickson Street, an addition to the Vegetable Market Building, 1896 (Town of Galt, Council Minutes, 29 Dec. 1896)

MAIN STREET, two stores for Mr. Bernhardt, adjacent to the Hotel Iroquois, 1897 (Galt Reporter, 15 April 1897, 1, descrip.)

TURNBULL CO., Queen Street, factory, 1898 (C.R., ix, 20 April 1898, 3; C.A.B., xii, Jan. 1899, 5)

GALT OPERA HOUSE, Main Street, a major reconstruction of the Victoria Block for John Scott, 1898-99 (Galt Reporter, 27 Oct. 1898, 2, descrip.; 26 Jan. 1899, 2, descrip.)

GALT FIRE HALL, Dickson Street near Wellington Street, 1898; still standing in 2022, and now called The Fire Hall Museum (Galt Reporter, 3 Nov. 1898, 3, descrip.)

KAY STREET, residence for John A. MacDougall, 1899 (C.R., x, 19 April 1899, 3)

LANSDOWNE AVENUE, residence for James E. Bond, 1899 (C.R., x, 19 April 1899, 3)

LANSDOWNE AVENUE, residence for Edward Koeppel, 1899 (C.R., x, 19 April 1899, 3)

MAIN STREET WEST, residence for A.J. Oliver, 1899 (C.R., x, 19 April 1899, 3)

ALBERT STREET, residence for William McBride, 1899 (C.R., x, 19 April 1899, 3)

SOUTH WATER STREET, commercial block for John Sloan, 1899 (Galt Reporter, 28 Sept. 1899, 1)

GALT REPORTER PRINTING CO., North Water Street, commercial block, 1899 (Galt Reporter, 14 Dec. 1899, 6, descrip.)

SKATING & HOCKEY ARENA, 1901 (C.R., xii, 3 July 1901, 2)

PRESTON, ONT., factory for Clare Brothers & Co., 1901-02 (C.R., xii, 4 Dec. 1901, 4)

MORRISTON, ONT., additions and alterations to I.O.F. Hall, 1902 (C.R., xiii, 2 April 1902, 2, t.c.)

CARNEGIE PUBLIC LIBRARY, North Water Street at Dickson Street, 1903-04; still standing in 2022 (C.R., xiii, 4 Feb. 1903, 1; Brantford Daily Expositor, 8 Dec. 1904, 1; M. Beckman, The Best Gift, 1984, 75, 169, illus.)

CENTRAL PUBLIC SCHOOL, addition and alterations, 1905 (C.R., xv, 22 Feb. 1905, 4)

(works in Vancouver, B.C.)

VANCOUVER, B.C., St. Savior's Anglican Church, Semlin Drive near First Avenue East, 1909; new altar and fittings, 1911; with addition of Parish Hall, 1920; all still standing in 2022 (Vancouver Daily World, 31 March 1910, 9 & 10; and 3 Jan. 1911, 2, descrip.; and 14 Oct. 1920, 9, descrip.; dwgs. at the Vancouver City Archives)

VANCOUVER, B.C., factory for A.R. William Machinery Co., Railway Street at Jackson Avenue, 1909 (dwgs. at the Vancouver City Archives)

VANCOUVER, B.C., several residences at Talton Place, West 15th Avenue near Arbutus Street, a tract of houses developed by Thomas Talton Langlois, 1910-14 (H. Kalman, Exploring Vancouver, 1978, 221, illus.)

Mellish, Frederick William | Biographical Dictionary of Architects in Canada (2023). Available at: https://dictionaryofarchitectsincanada.org/node/695 (Accessed: 27 May 2023).

Building:
Fire Hall Museum and Education Centre 56 Dickson St., Cambridge

https://web.me.com/firehallmus.edcentre/museum/Welcome.html

Architect: F.W. Mellish
Year Built: 1898; addition c.1910
Housed in a magnificent nineteenth century, red brick fire hall, the Fire Hall Museum and Education Centre was built in the Romanesque Revival style. The four-storey, pyramidal-roofed hose tower set it apart from the crowd. Designed by local architect Fred Mellish and designated under the Ontario Heritage Act, the centre is one of the gems of the Cambridge civic square.

Past Doors Open Waterloo Region Sites https://www.regionofwaterloo.ca/en/discoveringTheRegion/resources/DoorsOpenPastSites.pdf

Frederick married Helen Isabella Jukes 13 May 1885, Galt (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada. Helen was born CALC 17 Feb 1863, , Connecticut, USA; died 2 May 1886, Galt (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada. [Group Sheet]

Other Events:

• Name: Helen Isabella Mellish
• Eby ID Number: Waterloo-66228
• Residence: 1886, Galt (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada

Notes:

Sad Death

It is not often that the Reporter is called upon to record a death under more distressing circumstances than one which took place in Galt on Sunday last, when the home of Mr. E. W. Mellish was invaded by the pale tyrant, and a beloved wife snatched almost instantaneously from its happy circle. Mrs. Mellish was confined of a daughter on the 17th of April, and made a highly satisfactory recovery until she commenced to sit up, when she became subject to attacks of weakness. This being reported to her medical attendant he gave her a tonic which apparently had the desired effect of increasing her strength and so strong did she feel on Sabbath morning that Mr. Mellish went to Church, leaving a friend, Miss Wells, at home with his wife. Shortly after 12 o'clock Mrs. Mellish arose and prepared t dress for diner; but when walking from one room to the other she suddenly fell to the floor. Miss Wells hearing her fall instantly went to her assistance and helped her to bed and took every possible means to give her relief; but finding that the attack did not pass off she managed to secure the attention of Mr. and Mrs. Mellish, senior, who were walking in the garden at the time. When they entered the house the poor young mother was gasping for breath. Her husband had just reached the gate on his return from church and was hurriedly called to the house and then at once ran for medical aid. Before he could return with the doctor, however, all was over \endash the chain of life was broken, and the pure young spirit had gone to dwell with its Maker.

Mrs. Mellish was a niece of Mrs. Geo. Jaggers, of this town, and she had resided with Mr. and Mrs. Jaggers since the death of her parents many years ago. They both, we believe, expired suddenly from heart disease, so that a weakness of that organ may be said to have been hereditary. She had a wide circle of friends in the town, and was universally esteemed b all who knew her. She was for a time a teacher in Trinity church Sunday School; and at the funeral on Tuesday afternoon the scholars attended the services in Trinity Church and rendered the hymn, "Nearer, my God, to The," with solemn effect. Mrs. Mellish was in the 24th year of her age at the time of her death.

Galt Reporter May 7 1886 pg 1

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In Galt, on Sunday, May 2nd, at half-past 12 o'clock, noon, Helen Isabella, beloved wife of F. W. Mellish, aged 23 years, 2 months and 15 days.

Galt Reporter May 7 1886 pg 1

Other Events:

• FindAGrave: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/244628189
• Eby ID Number: Waterloo-62482
• Occupation: 1851, Worksop, , Nottingham, England; painter
• Immigration: 1866, , Canada
• Occupation: 1871, Galt (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; Painter
• Residence: 1871, Galt (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; Church of England
• Occupation: 1881, Galt (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; Painter
• Occupation: 1891, Galt (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; House Builder
• Residence: 1891, Galt (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; Anglican
• Occupation: 1901, Galt (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; Painter

Robert married Louisa Baker 3 Oct 1859, , Wentworth Co., Ontario, Canada. Louisa was born 20 May 1840, , England; died 19 Jan 1917, Vancouver, , British Columbia, Canada. [Group Sheet]

Other Events:

• Name: Louisa Mellish
• Name: Louisa Ruff
• Eby ID Number: Waterloo-388926
• Immigration: 1857, , Canada
• Residence: 1871, Galt (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; Church of England
• Residence: 1891, Galt (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; Anglican
• Residence: 1911, Vancouver, , British Columbia, Canada

Notes:

Louisa lived in Vancouver with her son Albert in 1911.

Other Events:

• Eby ID Number: Waterloo-377963
• Residence: 1851, Worksop, , Nottingham, England

John — Anne Sykes. Anne was born 1800, Bawtry, , Nottingham, England; died Yes, date unknown. [Group Sheet]

Other Events:

• Name: Anne Mellish
• Eby ID Number: Waterloo-377964
• Residence: 1851, Worksop, , Nottingham, England