Edward James Lennox was born in Toronto on September 12, 1854, the son of Irish immigrants, and finished first in his class at the Mechanics' Institute. In 1886 he won the competition to design Toronto's new city hall — today's Old City Hall, a Richardsonian Romanesque mountain of stone completed in 1899. Carved among the gargoyles on its façade is a caricature of Lennox himself, handlebar moustache and all.

He designed more than seventy Toronto buildings — churches, banks, the King Edward Hotel, and, late in his career, Casa Loma for Sir Henry Pellatt. He went on to serve as a commissioner of the Toronto Transit Commission. Lennox died on April 15, 1933. Walk downtown Toronto today and you are still walking through his portfolio.