Sumner Godfrey Davenport


Sumner Godfrey Davenport was an American-born Canadian architect who served as Chief Architect for the Royal Bank of Canada.

Life and career

Davenport was born in Framingham, Massachusetts, and graduated as an architect from Harvard University in 1901. His first two decades were spent with firms in Boston and New York City. After working with the Royal Bank of Canada in 1917, he was hired by the Canadian bank to work in Cuba in 1920 and shortly after as Chief Architect.
Retired from the bank in 1942, he supervised projects with the bank until 1951. Davenport died in Georgeville, Quebec, in 1956.

Projects

List of projects involving Davenport, either as supervising or primary architect, from 1901 onwards:
From 1920 to 1942, he worked on building branch buildings across Canada, with the exception of his own residence at 50 Forden Crescent, Westmount, in 1927.
His most critical projects were two bank offices in Montreal and Vancouver:
Davenport was married to Virginia Hopkins in 1911. They had one daughter, Mary Daniels Davenport, who died as an infant in 1912.