Researching Canadian Buildings: Some Historical Sources

tectural Historians in 1972 1 very little was written before 1960 about build-ing and architecture in Canada. The following decade, however, saw the emergence of a number of seminal works in the area, such as Alan Go-wans ' Building Canada, Thomas Ritchie's Canada Builds, and John Rempel's BuildinR with Wood. 2 At the same time a rising concern about the quality of urban life and the rapid disappearance of much of the histor-ic urban fabric stimulated books about Canadian cities, such as Eric Ar-thur's Toronto, No Mean City and Peter John Stokes ' Early Architecture of the Town and Township of Niagara, 3 both of which have a strong ar-chitectural emphasis. Partly in conjunction with the movement to save old buildings and restore them, there also appeared books about particular buildings like St. Lawrence Hall and Union Station in Toronto. 4 The tide has now swelled. Both individuals and organizations across the country are publishing studies on a wide variety of architectural topics. 5 In 1974