1912 – Mutual Life Assurance Company of Canada, Waterloo, Ontario

Designed by architect Frank Darling, of the Toronto firm, Darling and Pearson this imposing structure was erected in 1912, with an addition in 1921, which duplicated the original architecture. The 1912 building and the addition were designed in a Renaissance style, was finished externally in light-brown and yellow brick, with panelled grey stone quoins, English Terra cotta, and moulded pedimented windows. From 1900 to 1999 the company operated under the same name, until it was renamed Clarica, after which it was acquired by Sun Life Financial in 2002. Now part of a much larger complex and tower.

“Waterloo may be justly proud of the Mutual Life Assurance Company of Canada building, which is typical of the progressive spirit in that community. It stands a dignified Renaissance structure of Canadian made buff brick and light terra cotta of a harmonizing nature. Directly in front of the building is a circular court paved with block stone in geometrical patterns. The whole lot is surrounded by a wrought iron fence eight feet high. Entering through walnut doors with heavy raised panels, one passes through the entrance hall, lined with Canadian marble, into the corridor, which is treated in plaster panels set between pilasters of verde antique marble and marble tiled walls. Surrounding and on the outside of the corridor are the office rooms with mahogany woodwork, plaster finish and quarter-sawed white oak.”
Construction, April 1914

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