Born in Garryvacum in
County Laois, Ireland, Kivas Tully was the son of John P. Tully, a lieutenant in the
Royal Navy, and Alicia Willington. He trained as an architect at the
Royal Naval School in London, England, before coming to the Province of Canada in 1844, arriving in
Toronto, where he began working at the firm of
John George Howard, designing many important buildings throughout southern
Ontario. Following
Canadian Confederation, Tully joined the Ontario Department of Public Works in 1868. He was appointed the first Ontario Provincial architect (1868–1896) and engineer. He was involved in the supervising of the competition leading to the design of the
Ontario Legislative Building at
Queen's Park. As the provincial department of public works' chief architect, Tully supervised a series of district courthouses built in northern Ontario. The courthouse at
Parry Sound designed in 1871 still forms the core of the present courthouse complex. The Ontario Archives hold drawings for virtually all provincial buildings including courthouses, registry offices, goals & lock-ups, schools and colleges, hospitals and other works executed under his supervision from 1896 until 1926. In 1903, Tully was awarded the
Imperial Service Order. He had retired in 1896 and died in Toronto on 24 April 1905. ==Works==