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Arthur W. Holmes

Architect who designed numerous buildings/particularly churches in Toronto/Ontario

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionApr 30, 2026
Entity authorityQ15995839 ↗
Source-derived summary

Arthur William Holmes (1863–1944) was an architect who designed numerous buildings, particularly churches, in Toronto and other places in Ontario during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.

Biography

He was born in London, England, and before he left for Canada in 1885, he trained under the supervision of George Edmund Street.

From 1887 to 1891 he worked as a student and assistant for Joseph Connolly. At some point during his first years in Toronto he converted to become a Roman Catholic. From then on, most of his work was the designing and construction of Roman Catholic churches, schools, colleges and residences.

From 1898, he worked almost exclusively on Roman Catholic parish churches. After Joseph Connolly died in 1904, Holmes completed the bell tower on St. Paul's in Toronto. Demand for Holmes as an architect increased so he hired an assistant, Charles Read, to help him with his work.

Much of work shows considerable emulation of Catholic churches in Europe.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Arthur W. Holmes” as architect who designed numerous buildings/particularly churches in Toronto/Ontario. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1863, 1944, 1885, 1887—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1863. The account is most persuasive where Arthur, Holmes and Architect can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as architect who designed numerous buildings/particularly churches in Toronto/Ontario. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 30, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q15995839. VIAF identifies the subject as 95843182. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1863, 1944, 1885 and 1887.

Critical limits

A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Arthur W. Holmes”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Arthur W. Holmes primary sources, Arthur W. Holmes archive and Arthur research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Arthur W. Holmes”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Arthur W. Holmes” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.