Marjorie Hill had enrolled in architecture in 1916 at the University of Alberta. When the school closed during the First World War, she transferred to the University of Toronto and set a record in 1920 as the first woman in Canada to graduate with a degree in architecture.
BAUHAUS BUILDING, Dessau, Germany, 1926, workshop wing on the right, Walter Gropius, Architect; SHAKESPEARE MEMORIAL THEATRE, Stratford-upon-Avon, England, 1929–1932, Elisabeth Whitworth Scott, Architect.
B.A. 1916, B.A.Sc. 1920
1916 B.A., University of Alberta.
1916–1918 University of Alberta, first two years in the School of Architecture.
1918–1920 University of Toronto, third and fourth years in the Department of Architecture.
1920 B.A.Sc. (Architecture), University of Toronto. Worked at Eaton’s department store in interior design.
1921 Applied unsuccessfully to register with Alberta Association of Architects. Taught in a rural school in Alberta.
1922 Worked at MacDonald and Magoon, Architects, Edmonton: work included a Carnegie library in Edmonton. Returned to University of Toronto for postgraduate studies in town planning.
1923–1928 Moved to New York for summer design course at Columbia University, followed by work with architects Marcia Mead and Katherine Budd.
1925 Registered, Alberta Association of Architects.
1928–1929 Returned to office of MacDonald and Magoon, Architects, in Edmonton.
1930 No architectural work was available. Marjorie Hill turned to weaving and glove making, teaching these crafts through the Depression.
1936 Moved to Victoria, British Columbia, where she became a master weaver.
1940 Architectural commissions led to part-time practice: residential renovations and conversion of houses to apartments.
1945–1963 Architectural practice continued after the war: houses, motel addition, fellowship hall, hospital.
1945 Elected to Victoria Town Planning Commission.
1953 Registered, Architectural Institute of British Columbia.
“One must have artistic talent, practical experience, professional knowledge, good business sense and executive ability, resourcefulness and a determination to persevere. With these assets, there is no reason why a woman should not be as successful as a man.” (Toronto Stat, June 15,1920)
“The principal product of a handicraft program should be better people … Heredity, attention to diet, no smoking or drinking, lots of music and reading the papers keeps me going.” (Vancouver Sun, May 29, 1984)
CONVOCATION AT UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO, 1920. Front page of Toronto Star on June 15, 1920. “Miss E.M. Hill is … the first woman to graduate from the School of Architecture.”
1963 Retired after twenty-eight years of architectural practice. Continued to teach weaving and produce works for sale: “I am fully occupied with congenial and satisfying tasks.”
1985 Marjorie Hill died at the age of eighty-nine in Victoria.
10-SUITE APARTMENT, Fort Street, Victoria, B.C., 1954.
GLENWARREN LODGE, Balmoral Avenue, Victoria, B.C., a 63-bed private hospital 1962. (There were subsequent additions.) (Left) main floor plan.
B.Arch. 1923
1917 University of Toronto, completed first year in general arts. Enrolled at School of Architecture.
1919–1921 Interrupted studies after second year to teach in Rearville, Alberta. After two years, returned to university.
1923 B.Arch., University of Toronto.
1923–1927 Employed as an artist doing wash drawings and watercolour by Toronto art firm.
1925 Architectural commission – a fourplex – for her father, a Toronto builder.
1927 Employed by Workmen’s Compensation Board, Toronto, processing medical claims.
1958 Retired from Workmen’s Compensation Board.
1982 Jean Hall died at the age of eighty-six in Toronto.
Toward the end of First World War, an appeal was made to university students to volunteer as teachers in the Canadian Prairies. Jean Hall and her sister, a medical student, were among those who responded. Jean was sent to Rearville, east of Calgary. Because there was no accommodation for the new teacher, the residents built a sod house for her.
In the years following graduation, Jean Hall tried repeatedly to find work in an architectural office. By 1931, the effects of the Depression were widespread – her father’s construction firm was one of many forced to close. According to her sister, Jean was disappointed that she had been unable to have a career in architecture. For all that, she may still have been the first Canadian woman graduate in architecture to have seen a building of her design actually built.
U OF T ARCHITECTURAL CLUB, 1922, executive vice-president Jean Hall (centre).
FOURPLEX, 63 Jerome Street, Toronto, 1925; (left) floor plan of first floor.
JEAN HALL outside her sod house in Alberta, 1919–1921.
WAR MEMORIAL, student work, 1923.
B.Arch. 1927
1927 B.Arch., University of Toronto.
1927–1930