PETERS, Wesley Arthur (1859-1929), son of Samuel Peters of London, Ontario, and brother of S. Frank Peters, was active in the following offices in Canada and the U.S.A.:
Edwards & Peters, Winnipeg, Man., 1883 (with Robert J. Edwards)
W.A. Peters, Helena, Montana, Sept. 1883 to March 1885
W.A. Peters, Government Architect, Prince Albert, Sask., 1887-88
W.A. Peters, Buffalo, New York, 1895-1901
S. Frank Peters & W.A. Peters, Winnipeg, 1902-06
W.A. Peters, Summerland, B.C., July 1907- April 1909
W.A. Peters, Kelowna, B.C. May 1909- 1912
W.A. Peters, New Westminster, B.C., 1914
W.A. Peters, Niagara Falls, N.Y., 1915-28
Peters was born in London, Ontario on 27 August 1859 and presumably trained under his father. He lived and worked in Toronto, Ont. before 1883 where he was a draftsman in the important firm of Langley, Langley & Burke. It was in that office that he met another young architect, Robert J. Edwards, with whom he was to later collaborate with in Winnipeg (Manitoba Free Press [Winnipeg], 8 Feb. 1883, 1, advert.). He then moved to Montana and practiced there in 1884-85. He is likely the same 'W.H. [sic] Peters' listed as a government architect and residing in Prince Albert, Sask. in 1888 (McPhillips Business Directory of the District of Saskatchewan, N.W.T., 1888, 74). He is almost certainly the same "J. Peters [sic], Government Architect of Public Buildings in the Northwest" who was called to Moose Jaw, Sask. in 1891 to prepare plans for the new Town Hall at Moose Jaw, described as "...a beautiful, neat and commodious structure" (Moose Jaw Times, 11 Sept. 1891, 4). In the late 1890's he was living and working in New York State, but he had returned to Winnipeg in 1902 and was then referred to as being '...late of New York' when his brother S. Frank Peters invited him to form a partnership in Winnipeg (see list of works under S. Frank Peters). They worked together in that city until 1906 (Winnipeg Telegram, 18 Sept. 1906, 55).
In June 1907 Peters moved to British Columbia and opened an office in Summerland, but by 1909 Peters had moved to Kelowna, B.C. In 1914 he had moved again, this time to New Westminster, B.C., and he left the province the following year. Peters appears to have moved to Niagara Falls, N.Y. in 1915, and was recorded in local directories there as a staff architect with the 'H.E. Company', which is likely the Niagara Falls Heating & Engineering Co. This information is confirmed in a biographical retrospective of his father Samuel Peters, published in 1929 which states that '...Wesley Peters is engaged in his profession at present in the vicinity of Buffalo, N.Y.' (Association of Ontario Land Surveyors Annual Report, 1929, 86). Peters died there on 10 February 1929 and was later buried in the Peters family plot at Mount Pleasant Cemetery in London, Ont. (biog. and works D. Luxton, Building The West: The Early Architects of British Columbia, 2003, 364, 515; inf. Stephen A. Otto, Toronto).
HELENA, MONTANA, Church of Christ, Benton Avenue, 1884 (Helena Independent, 20 March 1884, 5, descrip; and 1 Jan. 1885, 5, list of new buildings in Helena)
REGINA, SASK., major addition to the Lansdowne Hotel, South Railway Street, with plate glass windows on the ground floor, and 28 new hotel rooms, 1889 (Regina Leader, 11 June 1889, 8, descrip.)
MOOSE JAW, SASK., Town Hall, 1891 (Moose Jaw Times, 11 Sept. 1891, 4)
NARAMATA, B.C., a sanatorium, cottages and a hotel, 1907 (Vernon News, 11 July 1907, 5)
SUMMERLAND, B.C., Baptist Church, Butler Street at Shaughnessy Street, 1907; still standing in 2022 and now called Lakeside Presbyterian Church (Vernon News, 26 Sept. 1907, 4)
SUMMERLAND, B.C., St. Stephens Anglican Church, Prairie Valley Road at Rosedale Avenue, 1909; still standing in 2022 (Vernon News, 5 Aug. 1909, 6)
NARAMATA, B.C. [near Penticton], a hotel for an unnamed client, 1909-10 (Vernon News, 9 Dec. 1909, 8, t.c.; Keremeos Chronicle, 17 Dec. 1909, 2, t.c.)
KELOWNA, B.C., Knox Presbyterian Church [now called First United Church], Bernard Avenue at Richter Street, 1909-10; still standing in 2022 (Parks Canada, Canada's Historic Places, designation statement 19 March 2022)
KELOWNA, B.C., St. Michael & All Angels Anglican Church, Sutherland Avenue at Richter Street, 1910-11; still standing in 2022 (Vernon News, 3 March 1910, 6; C.R., xxiv, 23 March 1910, 23, t.c.)
KELOWNA, B.C., St. Andrew's Anglican Church, Lakeshore Road at Collett Road, '...on Bellevue (Sawmill) Creek, in the Kelowna District', 1910-11; still standing in 2023 (P. Upton, A History of St. Andrew's Church - The First Fifty Years, 1961, 6)
KELOWNA, B.C., residence for Christopher R. Reid, Reid Road near East Kelowna Road, 1911 (Parks Canada, Canada's Historic Places, designated 20 March 2000; still standing 2022; inf. Donald Luxton, Vancouver)
NEW WESTMINSTER, B.C., City Police Headquarters, Twelfth Street at Queen's Avenue, 1912-13 (The Sun [Vancouver], 2 Dec. 1912, 13, descrip.)
BURNABY, B.C., St. Stephen's Anglican Church, Cameron Street near North Road, 1913; still standing in 2022 (City of Burnaby, Burnaby's Heritage: An Inventory of Buildings & Structures, 2011, 147, illus. & descrip.)
COMPETITIONS
VERNON, B.C., General Hospital, 32nd Street, 1907 (Vernon News, 3 October 1907, 5). Peters submitted an early design. This project was later opened to three competing architects who submitted entries as part of an architectural competition (see Vernon News, 10 October 1907, 5). The design prepared by Peters was set aside, and the winner was J.M. Barnet (Vernon News, 6 Feb 1908, 1).