BUGBEE, Samuel Charles (1812-1877) was born in St. Stephen, New Brunswick and was educated and trained in Saint John, N.B. where he was employed as an assistant to John Cunningham. In 1838, he helped Cunningham prepare the drawings, details and specifications for Centenary Wesleyan Methodist Church, St. George Street, Saint John (built 1838-39). In 1840 he won the commission to design the very first building on the campus of Mount Allison Wesleyan Academy in SACKVILLE, N.B., built 1840-42; burned January 1866 (J. Leroux & T. Holownia, Vision in Wood & Stone: The Architecture of Mount Allison University, 2016, 17-21, illus. & descrip.).
Bugbee then moved to Boston in 1846 where he maintained a successful practice as an architect in Boston, Mass. until 1861 when he moved to San Francisco. In 1851, working from his office in Boston, he prepared a distinctive Gothic design for the Congregational Church, Main Street, YARMOUTH, N.S. (1851-52; burned 1892), a structure erected by the master builder John Panter '.....from a working plan of Mr. Bugbee' (J. Lawson, Yarmouth Reminiscences, 1902, 528). In the Massachusetts area his works included the lavish country home at Pittsfield, Mass. for H. Henderson , 1852 (Dodge's Literary Museum, vi, 29 Jan. 1853, 124), and the Pavilion Resort Hotel, Gloucester, Mass., 1849 (dwgs. at the Cape Ann Historical Association, Gloucester, Mass.). In San Francisco his best known commissions were for the Grand Opera House, the California Theatre, the Union Hall, and substantial private mansions for the Stanford family, the Crocker family, and for the Colton family. Bugbee died in San Francisco on 1 September 1877 (obituary in the San Francisco Chronicle, 3 Sept. 1877, 3; obituary Daily Alta California [San Francisco], 3 Sept. 1877, 1; obituary Saint John Daily Telegraph, 21 Sept. 1877, 3; inf. Janice Chadbourne, Boston Public Library; inf. William Kostura, San Francisco).