HODGINS, Arthur Edward (1861-1939) was born in Toronto on 15 April 1861 and educated there at Upper Canada College. He graduated from Royal Military College in Kingston with a degree in civil engineering in 1882, and gained much of his experience as a railway engineer with the C.P.R. on the construction of the main railway line from Regina to the west coast. By 1890 he had settled at Nelson, B.C. where he served as government engineer and began to advertise himself as both an architect and as a civil engineer. He provided plans to the B.C. provincial government for several jails, lock-up facilities, and Recorder's Offices in towns located in the B.C. Interior, but he is best known for his distinctive High Victorian commercial buildings and the elaborate Queen Anne residential works he designed in Nelson, B.C. His plans for the Mara Block (1896-97) were described as 'the finest and most imposing and ornamental building in the city'. His career as an architect soon ended, and in 1899 he left for South Africa to serve in the Boer War, remaining there to work as officer in charge of Imperial Railways. He returned to Canada in 1904 and joined the Grand Trunk Railway as district engineer, and later held a similar posting with the Provincial Government of B.C. as district engineer for Vancouver Island. He died in Victoria on 18 December 1939 (obituary Daily Colonist [Victoria], 19 Dec. 1939, 5; Vancouver Sun, 19 Dec. 1939, 3; Province [Vancouver], 19 Dec. 1939, 7; Engineering Journal of Canada [ Montreal], xxiii, Jan. 1940, 35; biog. D. Luxton, Building The West: The Early Architects of British Columbia, 2003, 467-68, 504)
(works in Nelson, B.C.)
BARNARD BLOCK, Baker Street at Stanley Street, for F.S. Barnard, 1891-92; demol. (Miner [Nelson], 5 Dec. 1891, 8, descrip.)
HOUSTON & INK BLOCK, Baker Street at Josephine Street, 1892; demol. (Miner [Nelson], 30 Jan. 1892, 8; descrip.)
COLUMBIA & KOOTENAY NAVIGATION CO., office block, 1896 (Miner [Nelson], 9 May 1896, 1)
GOEPEL BLOCK, Baker Street, a two storey block for W.J. Goepel "......next to the Bealey Block', 1896 (Miner [Nelson], 9 May 1896, 1)
MARA BLOCK, Baker Street, between Stanley Street and Kootenay Street, for J.A. Mara, 1897 (Nelson Economist, 11 Aug. 1897, 6)
BAKER STREET, residence for the architect A.E. Hodgins, 1897 (Nelson Economist, 11 Aug. 1897, 6)
ROYAL HOTEL, Stanley Street at Silica Street, addition, 1897 (Nelson Economist, 6 Oct. 1897, 6)
PHAIR HOTEL, Victoria Street at Stanley Street, addition, 1897 (Nelson Economist, 6 Oct. 1897, 6)
unnamed street, residence for A.R. Burrowes, 1897 (Nelson Economist, 6 Oct. 1897, 6)
unnamed street, residence for R.W. Day, 1897 (Nelson Economist, 6 Oct. 1897, 6)
unnamed street, residence for Mr. Brougham, 1897 (Nelson Economist, 6 Oct. 1897, 6)
unnamed street, 3 cottages for Joseph H. Bowes, 1897 (Nelson Economist, 6 Oct. 1897, 6)
PROVINCIAL JAIL, Ward Street, 1897; demol. (Tribune [Nelson], 17 July 1897; C.R., viii, 29 July 1897, 1; Vancouver Daily World, 24 Aug. 1897, 7, descrip.)
PROVINCIAL COURTHOUSE, Ward Street near Vernon Street, major addition, 1898-99 (Miner [Nelson], 1 July 1898, 2; B.C., Sessional Papers, 1900, Public Accounts, 112)
PARSONS PRODUCE LTD., a warehouse on the waterfront, adjacent to P. Burns warehouse, 1899 (Miner [Nelson], 17 Feb. 1899, 1)
HENDRYX STREET, at Carbonate Street, residence for Arthur H. Buchanan, 1899 (Tribune [Nelson], 13 March 1899, 4; Nelson Economist, 20 July 1898, 6, descrip.; B.C., Nelson: A Proposal for Urban Heritage Conservation, 1981, 147, illus. & descrip.)
HOTEL (possibly the Athabasca Hotel), Kootenay Street at Baker Street, 1899 (Nelson Economist, 22 March 1899, 7)
P. BURNS & CO., commercial block, 1899 (C.R., x, 26 April 1899, 3; 7 June 1899, 2)
VICTORIA STREET, at Falls Street, residence for J.M. Lay, 1899 (Tribune [Nelson], 18 June 1899, 1)
MADDEN HOTEL, Ward Street, 1899; demol. (Tribune [Nelson], 28 July 1899, 4)
MADDEN BLOCK, a commercial block for the London & B.C. Goldfields Co. (now The Nelson Daily News Co.), Baker Street, 1899 (Tribune [Nelson], 13 Sept. 1899, 4; 29 Sept. 1899, 3, t.c.; C.R., x, 4 Oct. 1899, 2; B.C., Nelson: A Proposal for Urban Heritage Conservation, 1981, 114, illus. & descrip.)
MASONIC LODGE, with two stores, Baker Street at Kootenay Street, 1899 (Tribune [Nelson], 17 Sept. 1899, 4)
(elsewhere)
AINSWORTH, B.C., Recorder's Office & Lock Up, 1893 (B.C., Sessional Papers, 1894, Public Accounts, 76)
TRAIL, B.C., Lock Up, 1898 (B.C., Sessional Papers, 1899, Public Accounts, 617)
SLOCAN, B.C., Lock Up, 1898 (B.C., Sessional Papers, 1899, Public Accounts, 617)
KASLO, B.C., Recorder's Office, 1898 (B.C., Sessional Papers, 1899, Public Accounts, 617)
YMIR, B.C., Lock Up, 1899 (B.C., Sessional Papers, 1900, Public Accounts, 114)