POTTER, Joseph Walter (1879-1962) was one of the first professionally trained architects to practice in northern British Columbia. Born in Worcester, England on 9 October 1879 he emigrated to Canada before 1890 and settled in Toronto. He articled with Joseph Connolly, a leading ecclesiastical architect in Toronto, from 1893 to 1898, then moved to Buffalo, N.Y. to work as a draftsman for Thebaud & Sullivan (in 1898-1901). Potter moved to Chicago and worked as chief draftsman for L.D. Schawtzen (in 1901-03), then returned to Toronto to spend two years with Charles J. Gibson (in 1903-05) before joining the Provincial Dept. of Public Works as first assistant to the Chief Architect Francis R. Heakes (in 1905-09). In April 1910 he resigned his position with the D.P.W. in Toronto, and the following month moved to northern British Columbia and opened an office in Prince Rupert in May 1910 as 'architect and structural engineer' . A biography on the newly arrived architect, published in the Prince Rupert Optimist, 20 Aug. 1910, claims that he graduated from the Univ. of Pennsylvania in 1905, but this cannot be substantiated in records held by that institution. He also claims to have worked for Carrere & Hastings in New York City, but this too cannot be confirmed.
Despite his wide-ranging experience with several leading architects in Toronto, Buffalo and Chicago, his skill and competence as a qualified professional were called into question in 1921 after serious construction deficiencies appeared in his project for Booth Memorial School in Prince Rupertl. A subsequent investigation supported these claims, and likely hastened Potter's departure from Canada in 1922. He moved to Seattle, Wash., then to Los Angeles, finally settling in San Diego in 1927 where he continued to practise until 1939. He died there on 1 March 1962 (R.I.B.A., Directory of British Architects 1834-1914, 2001, ii, 396; D. Luxton, Building the West: The Early Architects of British Columbia, 2003,480-81, 515; inf. Barbara J. Sheppard, Prince Rupert Public Archives; R.I.B.A. Application No. 1528, 23 Feb. 1911)
(works in Prince Rupert)
CITY HALL, Fulton Street, 1912; demol. 1963
FIRE HALL, Fulton Street, 1912; demol. 1960
BESNER APARTMENTS, 1st Avenue West, 1914
SUMMIT APARTMENTS, Summit Avenue, 1914; burned 1971
ST. JOSEPH'S ROMAN CATHOLIC CONVENT, 4th Avenue West, 1917
BOOTH MEMORIAL PUBLIC SCHOOL, 6th Avenue East, 1920-21; demol. 1969