BLACKWELL, Victor Joseph (1885-1965) was born in London, Ont. on 10 September 1885 and articled in the local office of Moore & Henry, the leading firm in London, Ont. at the turn of the century. He moved to Boston in 1905 to study architecture at Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (Free Press [London], 17 Sept. 1905, 9). After completing his studies in 1907 and travelling in Europe for a time, he went to New York City to work as a draftsman for Clinton & Russell (in 1907-09), and then to Boston to work for Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge (in 1909-10). He joined the firm of Jenney & Mundie in Chicago (1910), followed by a period of time with Donaldson & Meier in Detroit (1910-11). This extensive training in several American firms prepared him for his return to London in February 1911 when he and John M. Watt formed a partnership (see list of works under Watt & Blackwell). They quickly became one of the leading firms in the city and were to dominate the profession in western Ontario for the next thirty years. After the dissolution of the firm in 1944 Blackwell continued to practise under his own name. In 1955 the firm became Blackwell & Hagarty. Blackwell died in London on 4 July 1965 (obit. Free Press [London], 5 July 1965, 22; biog. J.E. Middleton & F. Landon, The Province of Ontario, 1927, iii, 200-01; biog. and list of works R. Hamilton, Prominent Men of Canada, 1931-32, 428). The London Regional Art Gallery holds a substantial collection of drawings prepared by the firm of Watt & Blackwell between 1911 and 1940. A photographic portrait of Blackwell was published in the Daily Commercial News [Toronto], 20 Oct. 1936, 1.
ST. THOMAS, ONT., reconstruction after a fire of the Grand Central Hotel, 1946 (Canadian Hotel Review, xxiii, 15 Dec. 1945, 64)
LONDON, ONT., Queen Alexandra Sanatorium, 1949 (C.R., lxii, Jan. 1949, 186, t.c.)
ST. THOMAS, ONT., Memorial Arena, Wilson Avenue, 1949 (C.R., lxii, April 1949, 156-7)
(with Prack & Prack) TILLSONBURG, ONT., General Hospital, 1950 (C.R., lxiii, May 1950, 144)