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Front entrance with circular drive -
The building is set back from both streets in a park-like setting -
Two-storey classroom wing clad in sandstone -
Classroom wing with its sandstone cladding featuring both quarry and ashlar finishes -
Side entrance with recessed wood doors and sidelight -
Cornerstone with Ontario armorial crest and lead lettering -
Stairwell characterized by stack bond brick walls, terrazzo floors, and steel balusters
London Teachers’ College
Known since 1975 as Elborn College, the building was designed for the training of elementary teachers as a replacement for London Normal School (Francis Heakes, 1899). The building is associated with the professionalization of teaching in Ontario. Affiliated with the University of Western Ontario, the facility was designed by Peter Dickinson for the Toronto firm of Page & Steele.
The building is sited on a street corner opposite, at that time, the campus of University of Western Ontario. It is a low-slung assembly of volumes set within a park-like landscape. Within Dickinson’s body of work, London Teachers’ College is noteworthy for its respect for the university’s architectural legacy of earlier 20th century buildings in a Collegiate Gothic style. Modern in its planning, spatial qualities, and building technology (e.g. concrete and terrazzo), it is the stone cladding that resonates with the earlier buildings on the nearby campus. The London building is a striking contrast to the more exuberant, playful modernism of Dickinson’s design for Toronto Teachers’ College, completed two years earlier.
In 1973, London Teachers’ College merged with Althouse College to form the Faculty of Education at the University. The building was dedicated to Dr. Harold E. Elborn (1903-1968) who was a school principal, inspector, and eventually Deputy Minister of Education from 1961 to 1965.
There have been several additions, mainly at the rear (west side) of the building.