JOHN BELCHER: ARCHITECT AND ENGINEER
Anyone who walks or drives throughout Peterborough may notice some striking buildings: Market Hall and Clock Tower,
Peterborough County Court House, All Saints’ Anglican Church, former Peterborough Collegiate, former Carnegie Library (now part of City Hall), St John’s Anglican Church, and several commercial blocks and buildings downtown, to name some. All of these structures, and more in the city and surrounding communities, were the work of Peterborough architect/engineer John Edward Belcher. One of his more unusual structures was the original Pagoda Bridge in Jackson Park (the current version is an exact replica).
John Belcher was born about 1836 in Cork, Ireland, to architect Samuel R. Belcher and Martha (Deaves) Belcher. He attended Queen’s University, Belfast, then articled with his father. After articling, John was assistant to Sir John Benson, Cork’s City Engineer, and then engaged in engineering work around Liverpool.
In 1869, John Belcher and Clementina Macdonald were married in Birkenhead, Cheshire. She was the niece of Bobcaygeon lumberman Mossom Boyd, and the couple lived with him and his family for the first two years after they arrived in Canada (1870-71) – before moving to Peterborough where John began his very successful career. They had four children: Mossom Boyd Belcher, who died in infancy while the family was still in Bobcaygeon; May Georgina Belcher, Flora Macdonald Belcher, and John Alfred Belcher, who were all born in Peterborough.
From 1878 to 1897, John Belcher was Peterborough’s Town Engineer, and responsible for designing and creating infrastructure and public buildings. Despite being an Anglican, in 1885 he was appointed as Architect for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Peterborough; in that capacity he designed St Peter-in-Chains Cathedral and Sacred Heart Church. In 1899, two years after his retirement as Town Engineer, John Belcher was elected President of the Ontario Association of Architects.
John Edward Belcher died on 20 August 1915, of cardiac arrest, and is buried in Peterborough’s Little Like Cemetery, alongside three of his brothers – Samuel, Alfred, and Thomas – all engineers who emigrated to Peterborough in John’s footsteps. Clementina Belcher “joined” her husband upon her death in 1922.
By: Don Willcock,
The Peterborough Museum & Archives,
300 Hunter St E, Peterborough 705-743-5180
