Joseph Connolly 1840-1904
Text from the plaque
This prominent Ontario architect was born in Ireland and received his professional training there under J. J. McCarthy, a leading nineteenth century Catholic church architect. By the early 1860s Connolly had settled at Toronto where he soon established a special practice designing buildings for the burgeoning Roman Catholic community across Ontario. This church, Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception (1876), in the style of the thirteenth century French Gothic, is one of his earliest known structures and is widely considered to be his finest. Among the other religious buildings Connolly designed are the James Street Baptist Church (1879), in Hamilton, one of his few Protestant structures, and St. Peter's Cathedral-Basilica in London (1880). Connolly also designed industrial and residential buildings as part of his extensive practice.
Transcribed from the marker, not summarised.
Find the place
The County of Wellington
The City of Guelph
In front of the church at the top of the stairs
on Norfolk Street across from Macdonell Street
Also recorded for this place: The County of Wellington
N 43 32.580 W 80 15.080
Recorded December 2014. Check current access before visiting.
More information
Visitors' notes
November 8, 2008
Very interesting page...did not know of this plaque....Are there any known portraits, sketches or photos of Joseph Connolly ?...Bob McCorkindale....