Burden, Charles Frederick | Biographical Dictionary of Architects in Canada

BURDEN, Charles Frederick (1858-1935) was born in Gravesend, Co. Kent, England on 22 October 1858 and obtained his knowledge of building trades as a supervisor of school construction in London from 1880 to 1884. From 1884 onward he held the position of Superintendent of Works for Mile End Old Town in London and in 1894 was appointed as Architect for the Guardians of the Poor at Mile End. Burden emigrated to Canada in 1900 and settled in northern Ontario where he designed the Public School, MASSEY, ONT., 1907 (C.R., xviii, 8 May 1907, 2, t.c.), and the Methodist Church, MASSEY, ONT., 1912-13 (Sault Star [Sault Ste. Marie], 28 Jan. 1913, 3, descrip.; Sudbury Star, 1 Feb. 1913, 5, descrip.). Between 1900 and 1911 he also designed the Roman Catholic Mission Church at CUTLER, ONT., the Methodist church and the Public School at WEBBWOOD, ONT., and a bank and office block at MASSEY, ONT. (list of works in Royal Inst. of British Architects, Membership Application dated 20 July 1911). In his later years he worked as an interior decorator and house painter and died in Massey, Ont. on 14 December 1935 (obituary in the Sudbury Star, 18 Dec. 1935, 12; R.A.I.C. Journal, xiii, Jan. 1936, 18; inf. Ontario Association of Architects, Toronto; R.I.B.A., Directory of British Architects 1834-1914, 2001, i, 297; inf. Fred Hallett and Mrs. D. Ritchie, Massey, Ont.)