Memorable Manitobans: Charles Henry Wheeler (1838-1917)

Charles Henry Wheeler Click to enlarge

Architect, music critic.

Born at Lutterworth, North Leicestershire, England on 23 April 1838, little is known about his early life and education except he was married to Annie Wakefield of Fairford, Gloucester in 1858. It is believed that he studied architecture and music in Birmingham, England in this same period. He continued his pursuit of his architectural career in this city and later in London for approximately twenty years.

Early in the 1880s, he began to hear favourable accounts of life in the Canadian West and decided to seek his fortune in this area. Wheeler arrived in Winnipeg with his wife and six children in February 1882. He must have been a remarkable man at age forty-four and with a large family to leave England and an established career to move to an unknown boom-town like Winnipeg. Once here, he began to work for the architectural firm of James Chisholm.

It was not long before Wheeler began to distinguish himself in his new homeland and city. In 1883, his plans for the new Holy Trinity Anglican Church (located at the corner of Graham Avenue and Donald Street) were chosen from over forty submitted sets in an international competition as the Winnipeg design for the new building. Soon afterward, Wheeler established his own firm and had many valuable architectural contracts in Winnipeg and throughout the prairie region. He also contributed to the formalization of architectural practice in Manitoba, serving in 1906 as a founding Vice-President of the Manitoba Association of Architects.

However, his successes as an architect did not detract from his other great interest, music. He was choirmaster at Knox and Zion churches and involved in several other musical pursuits in the city. In later life, he retired from his architectural career to devote himself to his love for music. Wheeler eventually became the music and drama critic for The Winnipeg Tribune, a post that he held until his death.

Wheeler died at the Winnipeg General Hospital on 7 January 1917 as a result of injuries sustained from falling on an icy sidewalk. He was buried in the St. James Cemetery.

Some of his architectural work in Manitoba included:

Building	Location	Year	Status
Euclid School	Corner of Lusted & Euclid, Winnipeg	1882
Holy Trinity Church	Corner of Graham & Donald, Winnipeg	1884
G. F. and J. Galt’s Warehouse	103 Princess corner Bannatyne, Winnipeg	1887
James Robertson & Company Warehouse	179 Pacific, Winnipeg	1887
George D. Wood & Company Warehouse	22-24 Alexander East, Winnipeg	1887
E. F. Stephenson Residence	11 Osborne, Winnipeg	1888
Home for the Incurables	Portage la Prairie	1889
Shaarey Zedek Synagogue	King & Henry, Winnipeg	1890
Home for Incurables	3rd Street NE, Portage la Prairie	1890
Merchants’ Bank	11th Street & Rosser, Brandon	1890
A. C. Baskerville & Co. Warehouse	660 Main, Winnipeg	1890
Morden Methodist Church	Morden	1890
Mathewson House	432 Assiniboine, Winnipeg	1890
Sanford Building	291 Bannatyne Avenue, Winnipeg	1890
Deaf and Dumb Institute	Portage Avenue, Winnipeg	c1891
Maxwell & Co. Warehouse	Winnipeg	c1891
E. M. Carroll Residence	Winnipeg	c1891
Provincial Gaol	20 Third Street SE, Portage la Prairie	c1891
Brandon Asylum for the Insane (addition)	First Street, Brandon	1892-1893	Destroyed by fire (November 1910)
Foulds Block	546 Main Street, Winnipeg	1892
St. Mary St. Alban Anglican Church	Kaleida	1892
John Galt Residence	Winnipeg	1892
R. D. Bathgate Residence	Winnipeg	1892
Judge Killam Residence	Winnipeg	1893
John Peck & Company Warehouse	33 Princess, Winnipeg	1893-1894
Court House	Kennedy Street, Winnipeg	1893-1894
Bank of Ottawa construction supervision	363 Main Street, Winnipeg	1894
Davis Block	Market Square, Winnipeg	1894
Water Works Company’s Station	Armstrong’s Point, Winnipeg	1894
Union Bank alterations	Main & Bannatyne, Winnipeg	1894
Macdonald House	61 Carlton Street, Winnipeg	1895
Campbell Block	532-534 Main at James, Winnipeg	1895
Argyle School No. 2	corner Argyle & Henry, Winnipeg	1896	Demolished
Dufferin School No. 2	Park corner Logan, Winnipeg	1896	Demolished
Assiniboine Block alterations	173 Main at York, Winnipeg	1896
D. T. Lennon Residence	195 Kennedy, Winnipeg	1896
John Plaxton Residence	226 Vaughan, Winnipeg	1896
R. R. Taylor Warehouse	Winnipeg	1896
Winnipeg Opera House	Notre Dame & Adelaide, Winnipeg	c1896
Winnipeg Industrial Exhibition Grandstand	Dufferin & Sinclair, Winnipeg	1900
Deloraine School No. 490	Deloraine	1902
Carman School No. 176	Carman	1902
Bacteriological Laboratory	Winnipeg	1906
Brookside Quarantine Hospital	Brookside Cemetery, Winnipeg	1906-1907
Tees and Persse Block	285 Market Square, Winnipeg	?
A. M. Nanton Residence	Winnipeg	?
James Smart Residence	Brandon	?
R. R. Taylor Residence	Middlechurch	?
W. Rough Residence	Winnipeg	?

See also:

The Architectural Legacy of Charles H. Wheeler by Giles Bugailiskis
Manitoba History, Number 54, February 2007

The Early History of the Cauchon Block, Later the Empire Hotel by Randy Rostecki
Manitoba Pageant, Spring 1976, Volume 21, Number 3

Architect Wheeler Lives by Lillian Gibbons
Manitoba Pageant, Autumn 1978, Volume 24, Number 1

Charles Henry Wheeler, Dictionary of Canadian Biography XIV, 1,049-1,050.

Sources:

A History of Manitoba: Its Resources and People by Prof. George Bryce, Toronto: The Canadian History Company, 1906.

Death registration, Manitoba Vital Statistics.

“Chas. H. Wheeler dies in hospital,” Manitoba Free Press, 8 January 1917, page 5.

Buildings at the Brandon Mental Health Centre by David Butterfield and Randy Rostecki, Manitoba Historic Resources Branch, November 1988.

Dictionary of Manitoba Biography by John M. “Jack” Bumsted, Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 1999.

Biographical Dictionary of Architects in Canada, 1800-1950 by Robert G. Hill, Toronto.

We thank Nathan Kramer for providing additional information used here.

This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough and Giles Bugailiskis.

Page revised: 30 January 2022

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