97 Stanley Street, St. Thomas

History / Biographical: Lila Caroline (nee Taylor) McGillivray Knowles was born in Granton, Ontario in 1866. She was a local artist known for landscape, flowers, and coastal scene painting. She studied under Farqhuar McGillivray Knowles, who she later married in Toronto. In 1931, she became an art teacher at Alma College in St. Thomas. Her husband died in 1932, and she continued to teach at Alma College for thirty years. She died in St. Thomas in 1979. William St. Thomas Smith, who spent most of his career in St. Thomas and teaching at Alma College, created landscapes and seascapes using watercolours, travelling to the East Coast, Britain and Europe to draw and paint. It’s unclear how he adopted the moniker “St. Thomas”, but one story has him adding it while a student at Ontario Art College in the 1800s because another student had the same name. Smith was born in Belfast in 1862 and his family emigrated to Canada when he was seven, settling in Beaverton, where his father started a foundry. He married an Elgin County woman, Julia Ann Elizabeth Payne, also an artist and teacher, and settled in St. Thomas in 1887. He received an honorary degree from the University of Western Ontario in 1940 and died in St. Thomas in 1947.

Scope and Content: A colour photograph showing an exterior view of 97 Stanley Street in St. Thomas, Ontario. This was the former home of artist William St. Thomas Smith (died in 1947), as well as Lila McGillivray Knowles (died in 1979). Both St. Thomas Smith and McGillivray Knowles were former teachers at Alma College.

Website / Street View Notes: link shows a more contemporary view provided by Google Maps Street View. Accessed on February 25, 2021.