Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720 - 1940

Builder and contractor, of Belfast. According to the 1911 census, John Smith, a son of the Belfast building contractor David Smith, was born in Belfast in 1840 or 1841. As a young man he was assistant to the Belfast city surveyor JOHN JAMES MONTGOMERY  JOHN JAMES MONTGOMERY but left the post in 1872 or 1873(1) to join his father, who had secured the contract for building the Belfast tramway system. The family firm, which he took over from his father in due course, was extensively employed by Belfast corporation and by the county surveyor of Antrim. It constructed sewerage schemes in Dundalk and as far afield as Waterford. John Smith died at home in Belfast on 4 October 1916, leaving a widow, Rose (née Rainey), whom he had married circa 1876, and five children.

Address: Home: Ardgivna, 37 Antrim Road, Belfast, <=1911 until death.



References

All information in this entry not otherwise accounted for is from the obituary of Smith in Building News 111, 11 Oct 1916, 359 and the 1911 census of Ireland,  http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/reels/nai001414912/ (last visited Mar 2009).

(1) James Munce was appointed his successor in May 1873.