Born at Halifax, England in December 1878, he trained as an architect before coming to Canada with his wife in 1907. During the First World War, he served in Egypt for five years with the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force. Returning to Winnipeg, he worked as an assistant in various architectural offices before beginning his own practice sometime before 1926.
He formed a partnership with James H. Halley in January 1927 and advertised that the new studio was taking over the practice of John Danley Atchison after he moved to California. Parkinson later worked with Arthur E. Cubbidge. He served as President of the Manitoba Association of Architects (1929). From 1938 to 1948, he was resident architect for the federal government in Winnipeg, overseeing the construction of all federal buildings in Manitoba. He retired in 1948.
He and wife Ethel Parker (?-1960) had a son, John Leslie Howard “Les” Parkinson (1911-1993). He was a member of the Masons (Master, Norwood Lodge No. 119).
He died at his Winnipeg home, 289 Kitson Street, on 14 June 1953 and was buried in the Elmwood Cemetery.
Some of his architectural works in Manitoba included:
Building
Location
Year
Status
St. Joseph’s Hospital (expansion)
421 Pritchard Avenue, Winnipeg
1926
791 Corydon Avenue, Winnipeg
1927-1928
Union Stockyards Office Building (expansion)
Marion Street, St. Boniface
1928
Demolished (?)
J. Gordon Fraser House
206 Handsart Boulevard, Winnipeg
1928
St. Philip’s Anglican Church (expansion)
240 Taché Avenue, Norwood
1928
Roman Catholic Church
St. Norbert
1929
738 St. Joseph Street, St. Boniface
1929
80 Roslyn Road, Winnipeg
1929
12 West Gate, Winnipeg
1929-1930
St. Paul’s High School & College (Paul Shea Hall)
Ellice Avenue, Winnipeg
1932
Demolished (1964)
See also:
Memorable Manitobans: John Danley Atchison (1870-1959)
1911 Canada census, Automated Genealogy.
Birth registration [John Leslie Howard Parkinson], Manitoba Vital Statistics.
1921 Canada census, Ancestry.
Obituary, Winnipeg Free Press, 15 June 1953, page 26.
“Architect, veteran, Edward Parkinson dies at age 75,” Winnipeg Free Press, 16 June 1953, page 10.
Obituary [Ethel Parkinson], Winnipeg Tribune, 19 December 1960, page 108.
Obituary [J. Leslie Parkinson], Winnipeg Free Press, 4 October 1993, page 31.
Obituaries and burial transcriptions, Manitoba Genealogical Society.
We thank Jordan Makichuk for providing additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Robert Hill and Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 7 November 2024
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