ORROCK, John Wilson (1870-1965) held the position of chief draftsman, assistant engineer, and finally Chief Engineer of Buildings for the Canadian Pacific Railway head office in Montreal. Born in Scotland in 1870 he trained with Edward Calvert, an Edinburgh architect and surveyor, and came to Canada in 1891 to join the staff of the C.P.R. as a draughtsman. He was appointed Chief Draughtsman in 1904 and as Engineer of Buildings for the railway in 1924. In this position he was put in charge of major railway hotel reconstruction projects including the Chateau Frontenac in Quebec City and the C.P.R. Hotel at Lake Louise, and supervised construction of the extensions to Palliser Hotel in Calgary and the Empress Hotel in Victoria. In this capacity he may have been responsible, either alone or in collaboration with other architects, for the design of several station buildings including the Park Avenue C.P.R. Station, Montreal, and the Union Terminal in Regina. He retired from his position in 1937, and later died in Montreal on 29 September 1965 (obituary in The Gazette [Montreal], 30 Sept. 1965, 45; biographies in Who's Who in Engineering, 1923, 622; C.R., xxxviii, 21 May 1924, 503, ; vol. 50, 7 July 1937, 34-5)
BANFF, ALTA., major addition to the Banff Springs Hotel, 1926-28 (H. Kalman, Railway Hotels and the Development of the Chateau Style in Canada, 1968, 22 and pl. 19, illus.)
VICTORIA, B.C., Empress Hotel, addition of a large Heating Plant & Laundry Building for the hotel "...in the Early Georgian style", Humboldt Street at Douglas Street, 1929-30 (Victoria Daily Times, 9 Aug. 1930, 17, illus. and detailed architectural descrip., but attributed to "...C.P.R. architects"; inf. Parks Canada, Canada's Historic Sites, Designation Statement, 15 January 1981)
(with Colin M. Drewitt) KENTVILLE, N.S., Cornwallis Inn, Main Street, for the Dominion Atlantic Railway, 1930 (Gazette [Montreal], 8 May 1930, 8, descrip.; Canadian Railway & Marine World, xxxiii, June 1930, 346, illus. & descrip.; C.R., xliv, 14 May 1940, 547-8, illus. & descrip.; inf. Scott Edwards)
TORONTO, ONT., C.P.R. Interlocking Signal Control Tower, Scott Street, adjacent to ramp from the Gardiner Expressway, 1930; still standing in 2023 (inf. Canadian Pacific Railway Archives, Montreal)
MONTREAL, QUE., Park Avenue Railway Station for the C.P.R., 1930-31 (Railway Age [New York], xciii, 20 Aug. 1932, 246-50, illus. & descrip.)
(with Colin M. Drewitt) YARMOUTH, N.S., Lakeside Inn Hotel, for the C.P.R., 1931 (C.R., xlv, 15 July 1931, 823-25, illus. & descrip.)
REGINA, SASK., Union Station Railway Terminal, South Railway Street, 1932 (C.R., xlvi, 14 Sept. 1932, 1021-28, illus. & descrip.)