By 1907, plans were well underway to build a legislature for the new province of Alberta. Edward Hopkins, the provincial architect, needed a draftsman, so he hired a young man from Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Allen Merrick Jeffers was an adventurous fellow with a roving nature. He?d served in the Spanish American War. He?d been elected the youngest member of the Rhode Island State Legislature. And he?d studied architecture, although there?s no record of his ever getting a degree in the field. According to Michael Payne of Alberta Historic Site Services, Jeffers had no sooner arrived in Alberta when controversy erupted over Hopkin?s design for the Legislature:

The public and politicians at the time thought that his proposal looked far too much like the BC Legislature at Victoria. They thought in fact it was just a copy of the BC Legislature. And as a result of this furor, Hopkins retired, or resigned, rather, as provincial architect late in 1907. And he was replaced by Jeffers, hired originally as the provincial draftsman who just acquired the title of being the provincial architect in 1907 because his boss resigned. Allen Merrick Jeffers came up with a new design based on the principles of the Beaux Arts style.

It came originally from France from the Ecole de Beaux Arts in Paris, but was used very commonly throughout North America and Europe for the design of public buildings. In fact, if you look at the Alberta Legislature building, it bears quite a strong resemblance to the other prairie legislatures in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, but it also looks like a number of American State Capital buildings as well.

During his five years with the province, Jeffers designed many of Alberta?s first and most important public buildings, including the McDougall Centre in Calgary. In 1912, before the Legislative Assembly building was finished, Jeffers left his position as provincial architect. And in 1923, after a successful career in private practice, he once again moved on to California, where he died three years later at the age of 52.

On the Heritage Trail, I?m Cheryl Croucher.