KLEIN, Maurice Dalvin (1896-1976) a prolific designer of private houses, was born at Brooklyn, N.Y. on 31 October 1896 and raised in Montreal by his parents who enrolled him in Woolf's Academy in 1903. He remained there until 1911 and then moved to Toronto where he attended classes at Toronto Technical School on College Street from 1912 to 1914. One of his instructors there was Charles S. Cobb, a talented Beaux-Arts architect who offered Klein a position in his Toronto office in 1914. During the next four years Klein honed his talent as a designer and was twice awarded the First Prize in the student's competition at the Canadian National Exhibition. In 1917 he received the fourth year prize in advanced architecture at the Toronto Technical School (Const., xii, Aug. 1919, 233). He opened his own office in Toronto in 1919 and devoted most of his practice to the design of residences in a variety of styles, many of them located in the newly developing neighbourhoods of Lawrence Park and Cedarvale.
He holds a unique position in 20th century Canadian architecture as the author of his own hardcover pattern book of house designs, released in 1924 by the Home Builder's Service Bureau. Entitled 'The Home Plan Book', it contained '....a collection of Fifty Architectural Designs for Homes of Moderate Cost', many of them inspired by traditional English, Georgian or Colonial precedents rendered in a picturesque style. A description of his book can be found in the Montreal Daily Star, 18 April 1925, 26, and the book was offered to potential home owners for a mere $2.00 per copy.
Ironically one of his best known works in Toronto is not a private residence but instead a monumental stone memorial fountain erected in Kew Beach Park in 1919. Klein obtained this commission when his refined Italian Renaissance design was awarded First Prize in an open competition. In 1931 Klein received a Second Award for Domestic Interiors for his design of the Hicks Residence in York Mills (R.A.I.C. Journal, viii, March 1931, 79). In 1936 he was one of ten architects awarded an Honorable Mention for a house design submitted in a national competition sponsored by the federal government (Dominion Housing Act, Architectural Competition for Low-Cost House Designs, 1936, 22, illus.). He remained in practice in Toronto until after 1950 and resigned from the Ontario Association of Architects in 1974. Klein died in Toronto on 11 May 1976.
(works in Toronto unless noted)
HILLBROW AVENUE, at Raglan Avenue, residence for H.B. Taber, 1919 (Const., xii, Aug. 1919, 234-5, 256, illus. & descrip.; and xiii, June 1920, 178-9, illus.)
KEW BEACH PARK, Memorial Drinking Fountain erected to the memory of Dr. D.W. Young, 1919; still standing in 2024 (Const., xii, Aug. 1919, 233, illus.; and xiii, Aug. 1920, 246, illus. & descrip.; R.A.I.C. Journal, iv, April 1927, 133, illus.)
HIGHLAND AVENUE, residence for Duke C. Johnston, 1922 (C.R., xxxvi, 12 April 1922, 339, illus. & descrip.)
NORTH YORK, residence for Gordon Hicks, Donwoods Drive, 1926 (Const., xx, March 1927, 77, 84, illus.; and xxv, Feb. 1932, 42-3, illus. & descrip.; R.A.I.C. Journal, iv, April 1927, 140, illus.; and viii, March 1931, 79; C.H.G., iv, June 1927, 22, illus.; and viii, March 1931, 94, illus.; and Aug. 1931, 17, illus.)
HEATHDALE ROAD, residence for H. Percival Edwards, 1927 (C.H.G., iv, Aug. 1927, 24, illus.)
GLENCAIRN AVENUE, residence for Arthur W. Hodgetts, 1928 (R.A.I.C. Journal, v, Oct. 1928, xxi, illus. in advert.; Const., xxv, Feb. 1932, 43-4, illus. & descrip.)
HILLHOLME ROAD, residence for John R. Robertson, 1930 (C.H.G., viii, July 1931, 36-7, illus.)
GLENGOWAN ROAD, residence for John R. Pinder, 1931 (Const., xxv, Feb. 1932, 40-2, illus.)
ETOBICOKE, residence for Mrs. Ellen M. McCally, Burnamthorpe Road near Royalavon Crescent, 1936 (C.H.G., xiv, March 1937, 33, illus.)
(with Chapman & Oxley) HOLY BLOSSOM SYNAGOGUE, Bathurst Street at Ava Road, 1937-38 (C.R., l, 11 Aug. 1937, 31; W. Dendy & W. Kilbourn, Toronto Observed, 1986, 250-51, illus. & descrip.)
WESTON ROAD, near Rogers Road, garage, showroom and offices for Jethro K. Crang, 1946 (C.R., lix, Feb. 1946, 113)
ABBOTT AVENUE, residence for William H. Somerville, 1946 (C.H.G., xxiv, March 1947, 22, illus.)
WOODBRIDGE, ONT., residence for Dr. J.S. Wilkinson, 1947 (C.H.G., xxiv, June 1947, 34-5, illus.)
SYMONS STREET, near Lakeshore Boulevard West, residence for Murray C. Bailey, 1949 (C.H.G., xxvi, June 1949, 27, illus.)