Thomas Stent

Thomas Stent (died 1912)^[1] was an architect in New York City in the United States. He assisted Alexander Saeltzer on the Astor Public Library (later merged 1895 into the current New York Public Library), and was the architect for its 1879–1881 expansion.^[2]

21 West 26th Street, designed by Thomas Stent

Stent was trained and practised in England in Europe, before coming across the Atlantic Ocean and up the St. Lawrence River to London, of then Canada West in 1855. In 1858, he moved to the capital at Ottawa.^[1]

He designed "Belvoir" in Delaware Township, of Middlesex County, Ontario. The house at Belvoir (pronounced "Beever") was owned by Helen Gibson Weld's grandfather, Richard Gibson (1840-1911).^{[citation needed]}

At Parliament Hill in Ottawa, the team of Thomas Stent and Augustus Laver (1834-1898), under the pseudonym of Stat nomen in umbra, won the prize for the second category, which included the new Canadian parliamentary buildings of the East and West Blocks.^[3] These proposals were selected for their sophisticated use of Gothic architecture, which was thought to remind people of parliamentary democracy's history, which could contradict and contrast with the republican use in the 19th (and later early 20th centuries) of Neoclassical architecture|Neo-classical / Classical Revival styles of architecture from Ancient Greece and Rome with white marble stone, utilized by the neighboring United States' federal national capital city further south of Washington, D.C., and would be more suited to the rugged surroundings of the still wilderness in the northern reaches of the North American continent, while still also being stately and impressive for governmental buildings.^[3] $300,000 dollars was allocated for the main building, and additional $120,000 dollars for each of the departmental buildings.^[3]

Stent and Laver's partnership also won the competition decades later to build the monumental San Francisco City Hall in San Francisco, California, U.S.A. It was designed in the then popular elaborate Beaux Arts / modified Classical Revival styles of architecture of an unusual huge mammoth size, topped by a tall dome, more resembling a typical state or national capitol, rather than a city hall. It was completed in 1898, but destroyed only eight years later by the famous Great San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of April 1906.^[4]

References

1. Young, Carolyn A (1995). Glory of Ottawa: Canada's First Parliament Buildings. McGill-Queen's Press. p. 43. ISBN 0773512276.
2. White, Norval; Willensky, Elliot; Leadon, Fran (2010). AIA Guide to New York City. Oxford University Press. p. 156. ISBN 978-0199772919.
3. Public Works and Government Services Canada (27 March 2013). "Building The Hill". Queen's Printer for Canada. Archived from the original on October 6, 2011. Retrieved 10 May 2013.
4. "Biography – LAVER, AUGUSTUS – Volume XII (1891-1900) – Dictionary of Canadian Biography".