Basic Biographical Details

Name:	James Maclaren & Son
Designation:
Born:	c. 1879
Died:	1893
Bio Notes:	James Maclaren was born in Dundee on 11 March 1829, the son of William Maclaren and Mary Anderson, and was christened on 22 March. He was articled to David Smith who had succeeded to James Black's practice, but Smith died in 1845 or early 1846 and he completed his apprenticeship with ____ Johnstone who was a land surveyor rather than an architect. Nevertheless he managed to secure a place in the office of David Bryce in Edinburgh from which he won the Soane Medallion in 1848 at the early age of nineteen, the subject being a vast complex of public baths. In 1850 he returned to Dundee to commence practice with his brother William, perhaps at his father's wish. William had been born on 12 May 1831 (christened 22 May); nothing is known of his training. The partnership was very brief: it is not yet known whether William died or followed another profession. In that same year James won the competition for the Peel Monument at Forfar and soon thereafter he was appointed architect and surveyor to the Panmure estate, perhaps through the influence of Bryce: this gave him control over the feuing of Barnhill, Monifieth and Carnoustie, and brought him many domestic commissions, enabling him to marry Jemima Margaret Miller c.1853. By 1854 at the latest he had secured the patronage of the Cox family, and in that same year, although only twenty-five, he was the founder-editor of the Scottish architectural journal, 'The Building Chronicle' which was published in Edinburgh and was an important forum for architectural debate until it ceased publication in 1857. Initially Maclaren's public and commercial architecture derived from Bryce, Graeco-Roman neo-classical for monuments and public buildings and astylar Renaissance for commercial buildings. Influenced perhaps by the stylistic debate in his Building Chronicle he built no baronial houses. The earliest were neo-Jacobean of the Burn school sometimes with curvilinear gables, but from the early 1860s his houses adopted a more freestyle treatment with neo-Jacobean, Second Empire and sometimes completely non-period elements, an idiom also adopted by his nephew and pupil David Maclaren who commenced practice on his own account with James Ireland in 1872. From the later 1870s James Maclaren similarly adopted a more free interpretation of Renaissance for his commercial buildings, a development which may have been associated with George Shaw Aitken, who had been taken on as his chief assistant in 1871 and became his partner in 1873, the practice now assuming the name of Maclaren & Aitken, the office then being within the building Maclaren had built for himself at 10 Bank Street. The partnership was briefly very successful but ended soon after March 1879 as a result of disagreements and litigation over the specification of stone from the Ferrybank estate near Cupar, which had been acquired by Maclaren. It was a fine white sandstone but proved unreliable on exposure to the weather. Aitken thereafter practised on his own account in Dundee for a year or two before moving back to Edinburgh and Maclaren continued on his own with his eldest son George Gordon Maclaren, who had been born 26 June 1855 and apprenticed to his father, as James Maclaren & Son. The Ferrybank stone affair adversely affected the practice and George had neither London nor Edinburgh experience. In the early 1880s the patronage of Maclaren's most important client, the Cox family, gradually slipped away to the much more up-to-date John Murray Robertson whose inspiration was partly American, and although the firm still had a very substantial domestic practice from the Panmure estate feus, it had lost the commanding position it had previously enjoyed. Nevertheless Maclaren's position as father of the profession in Dundee was still very much evident when he called a meeting in June 1884 to devise a uniform set of rules for the measurement of the work of the various trades. His efforts led to the Dundee Mode of Measurement in 1898 and ultimately the Scottish National Building Code of 1915. At the June 1884 meeting Charles Ower observed that it was the first time the architects in the area had met professionally and proposed an organisation on the lines of London's Architectural Association. In the same month the Dundee Institute of Architecture Science and Art was founded with James Maclaren as its first president, 1884-86. James Maclaren died at Ferrybank on 16 June 1893. Prior to his death he appears to have recognised that the practice was becoming out of date as a younger son, John Turnbull Maclaren, born 1864, was sent to an unspecified office in the United States to gain experience, returning on his father's death as a partner. It appears that John Turnbull Maclaren practised briefly as 'J T Maclaren & Son' in the months just after his father's death. He exhibited a design for some work on Lyndhurst at the Glasgow Institute of Architects in 1893 under this name. George Gordon Maclaren who had set up house in Invermark Terrace, Barnhill, retained his father's management of the Panmure feus for the Dalhousie Trustees and concentrated his interests in Broughty Ferry where he had become a parish councillor and a burgh commissioner, successfully promoting a scheme for a municipal gasworks, though not the scheme for municipal swimming baths and private baths of which he was the principal advocate. Stylistically his work was a pale version of his father's. In 1896 he suffered a heart attack and from the summer of 1898 he was confined to his house. He died on 31 June 1899, survived by a widow Isabella Stenhouse and a young family. He left a moveable estate of £1,633 15s 10d. John Turnbull Maclaren continued the practice as sole practitioner into the early years to the twentieth century.

Private and Business Addresses

The following private or business addresses are associated with this :
	Address	Type	Date from	Date to	Notes
	10, Bank Street, Dundee, Scotland	Business

Employment and Training

Employees or Pupils

The following individuals were employed or trained by this (click on an item to view details):
	Name	Date from	Date to	Position	Notes
	James Maclaren	c. 1879	1893	Partner
	George Gordon Maclaren	c. 1879	1893	Partner
	Alexander Gairns Laskie	1884	1889	Apprentice
	Alexander Gairns Laskie	1889	1890	Draughtsman
	Henry Cox McCulloch	November 1889 or July 1890	July 1890 or November 1890	Assistant

Buildings and Designs

This was involved with the following buildings or structures from the date specified (click on an item to view details):
	Date started	Building name	Town, district or village	Island	City or county	Country	Notes
	1880	Chance Inn	Inverkeilor		Angus	Scotland
	c. 1880	Thistle Hall			Dundee	Scotland	Reconstruction
	1881	Abbey Church Manse	Arbroath		Angus	Scotland
	1881	Ardestie Farmhouse and Steading	Panmure Estate			Scotland
	1881	Bell Baxter Annexe	Cupar		Fife	Scotland	Enlargement (Buidlings of Scotland says Maclaren & Son but this partnership did not form until 1883. Therefore just Maclaren on his own)
	1881	Northern Assurance Company Offices			Dundee	Scotland
	1881	Residence. Lochee	Lochee		Dundee	Scotland
	1881	Shops and dwelling-houses, Overgate			Dundee	Scotland
	1882	Villa for T Davidson	Cupar		Fife	Scotland
	1883	Colluthie House	Moonzie		Fife	Scotland	Addition of new front
	1883	Corn Exchange	Cupar		Fife	Scotland	Improvements
	1883	Cupar Spinning Mills, workmen's houses	Cupar		Fife	Scotland
	1883	Warehouses on Charles Street for David Stewart			Dundee	Scotland
	After 1883	Clepington Works Buildings			Dundee	Scotland	Date unknown: partnership uncertain
	1885	Abbey Church	Arbroath		Angus	Scotland	New front and tower. Also probably hall.
	1885	Half-time School, Camperdown Works	Lochee		Dundee	Scotland
	c. 1885	Afton Place			Dundee	Scotland
	c. 1885	Barry Free Church Manse	Barry		Angus	Scotland
	c. 1885	Bay House	West Ferry		Dundee	Scotland	Reconstruction - probably with the addition of the east wing
	c. 1885	Building on the east side of Wellgate			Dundee	Scotland
	c. 1885	Tenements on King's Road			Dundee	Scotland
	c. 1885	Tenements, Bonnybank			Dundee	Scotland
	1886	Offices for Cox Brothers			Dundee	Scotland
	Before 1886	Prinlaws Place Steps	Newport-on-Tay		Fife	Scotland	Check partnership
	1888	Barry Free Church	Barry		Angus	Scotland
	1889	Baxter Institute for Female Education	Cupar		Fife	Scotland	Reconstruction
	1889	Grove Academy	Broughty Ferry		Dundee	Scotland	First phase
	1890	Clepington Mission hall			Dundee	Scotland
	1890	Empress Hygienic Laundry			Dundee	Scotland	Alterations
	c. 1890	17, 18 Baxter Park Terrace and 35 Park Avenue			Dundee	Scotland
	c. 1890	Red Court, house, coachhouse, stable, lodge and laundry	West Ferry		Dundee	Scotland	Completion after dispute between Blanc and his client
	1891	Mercantile Buildings, Dundee Perth & London Shipping Company Offices			Dundee	Scotland	New building at 20 Dock Street
	1892	1-7 Union Street and 52-58 Nethergate			Dundee	Scotland	Remodelled and attic floor added
	1892	Thistle Hall			Dundee	Scotland	Remodelled and attic floor added
	1892	Villa for Dr T G Nasmyth	Cupar		Fife	Scotland
	1893	Gagie House	Gagie		Angus	Scotland	Internal reconstruction and external embellishments following a fire
	1893	Young Men's Christian Association gymnasium	Broughty Ferry		Dundee	Scotland
	Before 1915	Aberlemno School and Schoolhouse	Aberlemno		Angus	Scotland	Date unknown: unclear whether carried out before or after Maclaren's death
	Before 1915	Camphill School	Camphill		Dundee	Scotland	Date unknown: unclear whether carried out before or after Maclaren's death
	Before 1915	Chapelton School	Inverkeilor		Angus	Scotland	Date unknown: unclear whether carried out before or after Maclaren's death
	Before 1915	Lunan School and Schoolhouse	Lunan		Angus	Scotland	Date unknown: unclear whether carried out before or after Maclaren's death

References

Bibliographic References

The following books contain references to this :
	Author(s)	Date	Title	Part	Publisher	Notes
	Dundee Yearbook	1893				James Maclaren obituary
	Pride, Glen L	1999	The Kingdom of Fife	2nd Edition	The Rutland Press	p110, p185

Periodical References

The following periodicals contain references to this :
	Periodical Name	Date	Edition	Publisher	Notes
	Dundee Advertiser	July 1899			George Gordon Maclaren (cutting in NMRS)
	RIAS Quarterly	August 1948	no 73	Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland (RIAS)	John T Maclaren

Archive References

The following archives hold material relating to this :
	Source	Archive Name	Source Catalogue No.	Notes
	Professor David M Walker personal archive	Professor David M Walker, notes and collection of archive material		Personal information from William Salmond, William Patrick, James McIntosh Patrick, Ann Patrick, Stuart O Barron, Peter Young and Ian Gordon Lindsay