WILSON, John (1863-1952), a son of Walter F.C. Wilson of Isley, Scotland, who was employed as a steelworker on the Victoria Bridge in Montreal. John W. was born in Collingwood, Ont. on 17 August 1863 and attended public school there. He had no formal education or training in architecture, but gained his knowledge of building construction from working as a carpenter's assistant. One of his first jobs was to assist with the construction of the Victoria School, Collingwood, in 1884. Both he and his brother Daniel created a new business called Wilson Brothers, a planing mill which became the largest wood finishing mill in Collingwood at the turn of the century, employing a staff of fifty people (Annual Report of the Collingwood Board of Trade, 1894, 71). As early as 1895 they began to style themselves as 'architects', furnishing plans for buildings and providing the additional services of contractor and builder to construct these works. In 1903 he retired from the woodworking firm and took up the profession of architect, specializing in preparing plans for buildings commissioned by clients in Collingwood and in surrounding towns in the counties of Simcoe, Dufferin and Grey.
The largest and most important commission by Wilson during his entire career was undoubtedly that for the Bigwin Inn, an extensive complex of ten buildings located on Bigwin Island in the centre of the Lake of Bays, Muskoka. This popular summer resort was designed to accommodate 500 guests and, at the request of the client, was constructed with fireproof materials including natural stone, reinforced concrete and an intricate system of steel trusses spanning unobstructed interior spaces in the Dance Hall and the Dining Hall. Wilson decorated these rooms in an elaborate rustic style, using native pinewood for floors, wall panelling and for exposed roof trusses in some of the smaller lodge buildings. The buildings were carefully integrated with the existing dense forests on the Island, and the configuration of each was adapted to the natural features of the site. Wilson retired after 1932 and died in Collingwood on 17 November 1952 (obituary Enterprise-Bulletin [Collingwood], 20 Nov. 1952, 1 & 7; inf. Mr. John Wilson, Brampton, Ont.; inf. W.J. Carswell, architect, Collingwood; inf. Ontario Assoc. of Architects). A photographic portrait of the architect, with a list of works, appeared in the Collingwood Enterprise, 7 Jan. 1926, Collegiate Supplement, 1-8, illus.
John WILSON (works in Collingwood)
ELGIN STREET, rectory for St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church, 1886 (dwgs. Carswell & Griesbach Architects, Collingwood)
COLLINGWOOD MEAT CO., annex to the factory, 1895 (C.R., vi, 9 May 1895, 3; C.A.B., ix, Jan. 1896, 11)
BEACH STREET, at Fourth Street, residence for C. Cotterill, 1896 (C.R., vii, 13 Feb. 1896, 2)
McMURCHRY'S SETTLEMENT, a manse for a church, 1898 (C.R., ix, 3 Aug. 1898, 2, t.c.)
EAST WARD SCHOOL, major addition, 1902 (C.R., xiii, 18 June 1902, 1, t.c.)
MAPLE STREET, residence for Mrs. John Henderson, 1902 (C.R., xiii, 18 July 1902, 3)
HUME STREET, residence for William Paterson, 1902 (C.R., xiii, 17 Sept. 1902, 2)
QUEEN'S HOTEL, major addition and alterations, 1902 (C.R., xiii, 15 Oct. 1902, 2)
ST. MARIE STREET, residence for S.D. Andrews, 1902 (C.R., xiii, 22 Oct. 1902, 2)
CONNAUGHT PUBLIC SCHOOL, Napier Street East, 1902 (dwgs. Carswell & Griesbach Architects, Collingwood)
PINE STREET, 'Idlewyld', a residence for Thomas P. Long, 1903 (C.R., xiv, 18 March 1903, 2, t.c.)
COLLINGWOOD MEAT CO., a group of eight roughcast houses, perhaps on Balsam Street East, 1903 (C.R., xiv, 15 April 1903, 3; 23 April 1903, 8)
HUME STREET, at St. Marie Street, a group of nine roughcast houses for John Birnie, KC, 1903 (C.R., xiv, 15 April 1903, 3, t.c.)
IMPERIAL WIRE CO., several buildings for industrial factory complex, 1903 (C.R., xiv, 29 July 1903, 2)
COLLINGWOOD FURNITURE CO., addition of a new factory and power house, 1903 (C.R., xiv, 16 Sept. 1903, 2; 7 Oct. 1903, 4; dwgs. Carswell & Griesbach Architects, Collingwood)
COLLINGWOOD MEAT CO., extensive alterations to factory, 1903 (C.R., xiv, 11 Nov. 1903, 1)
SIXTH STREET, residence for Charles Duval, c. 1904 (Laurel Lane-Moore, Collingwood: Historic Homes and Buildings, 1989, 94-5, illus. & descrip.)
YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOC., Pine Street at Third Street, 1905-06 (Enterprise-Messenger [Collingwood], 25 May 1905, 1, descrip.; C.R., xvi, 31 May 1905, 2; Collingwood Bulletin - Industrial Number, Dec. 1906, illus. & descrip.)
unnamed street, residence for Mr. McKean, 1906 (C.R., xvii, 5 Sept. 1906, 2)
unnamed street, residence for G.K. Mills, 1907 (Const., i, Oct. 1907, 66)
ROMAN CATHOLIC SEPARATE SCHOOL, St. Paul Street at Ontario Street, 1907-08 (C.R., xviii, 10 April 1907, 4, t.c.; Enterprise-Messenger [Collingwood], 23 April 1908, 1, descrip.; J.G. Hodgins, Schools & Colleges of Ontario 1792-1910, ii, 179, descrip.)
THIRD STREET, residence for Charles Pitt, 1908 (Laurel Lane-Moore, Collingwood: Historic Homes and Buildings, 1989, 96-7, illus. & descrip.; dwgs. Carswell & Griesbach Architects, Collingwood)
C. STEPHENS CO., factory block, 1910 (C.R., xxiv, 23 March 1910, 24)
FIRE HALL, 1910 (C.R., xxiv, 17 Aug. 1910, 25)
KING GEORGE PUBLIC SCHOOL, Second Street, 1911 (C.R., xxv, 25 Jan. 1911, 26; 26 April 1911, 60; dwgs. Carswell & Griesbach Architects, Collingwood)
unnamed street, residence for A.D. Cayley, 1911 (C.R., xxv, 17 May 1911, 60)
E.A. DITSON CO., factory block, 1911 (C.R., xxv, 7 June 1911, 62)
POSTEL LOCK-NUT & BOLT CO., at the foot of Maple Street, a large factory, 1923 (Daily Sun-Times [Owen Sound], 30 June 1923, 5)
GENERAL & MARINE HOSPITAL, major addition, 1924; addition of Memorial Wing, 1927 (Daily Sun-Times [Owen Sound], 10 March 1924, 5, descrip.; and 6 June 1927, 5)
COLLINGWOOD COLLEGIATE INSTITUTE, Hume Street, 1925 (C.R., xxxix, 14 Jan. 1925, 52, t.c.; Daily Sun-Times [Owen Sound], 18 May 1925, 5; Collingwood Enterprise, 7 Jan. 1926, Collegiate Supplement, 1-8, illus)
TRINITY UNITED CHURCH, Maple Street near Third Street, a new Sunday School Building, 1928 (Through The Years: Trinity United Church 1853-1953)
John WILSON (works elsewhere in Ontario)
BRANTFORD, ONT. Farmer's Co-Operative Meat Packing Co. Ltd., 1900 (Brantford Expositor, 12 Jan. 1900, 5, descrip.; C.R., xi, 31 Jan. 1900, 1, t.c.)
PALMERSTON, ONT., meat packing factory for Joseph Stratford, 1898-1900 (Brantford Expositor, 6 Aug. 1898, 2, descrip.; Enterprise-Messenger [Collingwood], 1 Feb. 1900, 8)
BRANTFORD, ONT., Adams Wagon Co., large factory complex, 1900 (Brantford Expositor, 31 Aug. 1900, 5, t.c; dwgs. Carswell & Griesbach Architects, Collingwood)
PETROLIA, ONT. meat packing factory, 1902 (C.R., xiii, 19 Feb. 1902, 1)
TORONTO, ONT., meat packing factory at Toronto Junction for Canada Packing & Provision Co., 1903 (Toronto Daily Star, 13 May 1903, 5, t.c.; C.R., xiv, 13 May 1903, 2, t.c.)
NOTTAWASAGA TOWNSHIP, two reinforced concrete arched bridges over the Pretty River, Valley Road, 1906 (C.R., xvii, 25 July 1906, 4, t.c.)
DUNEDIN, ONT., Knox Presbyterian Church, County Road 9 near Sideroad 6 & 7 (near Creemore), 1910; still standing in 2022 (C.R., xxiv, 16 March 1910, 24, t.c.)
MUSKOKA, Britannia Hotel, Lake of Bays, near Huntsville, 1910; hotel closed in 1973 (Collingwood Enterprise, 7 Jan. 1926, Supplement, list of works)
THORNBURY, ONT., Agricultural Exhibition Building, 1910-11 (C.R., xxiv, 14 Dec. 1910, 26, t.c.)
THORNBURY, ONT., residence for E.C.M. Pedwell, 1911 (C.R., xxv, 7 June 1911, 61, t.c.)
OAKVILLE, ONT., warehouse for the Ware Manufacturing Co., 1911-12 (dwgs. Carswell & Griesbach Architects, Collingwood)
ELMVALE, ONT., a six room public school, 1917 (Barrie Examiner, 11 Jan. 1917, 11)
MUSKOKA, Bigwin Inn, Bigwin Island, Lake of Bays, near Huntsville, Ont., 1918-22, including the circular Dance Hall & Boathouse, and the circular Dining Hall Building, the Administration Building, the East and West Sleeping Lodges, Water Tower, Tea House, Golf Clubhouse, Ferry Pier, Observation Tower, and the Power House; circular Dance Hall demol. 2002, but other buildings still standing in 2022 (Const., xiv, May 1921, 128-36, illus. & descrip.; R.A.I.C. Journal, vi, Jan. 1929, 26-9, illus. & descrip.; Douglas McTaggart, Bigwin Inn, 1992; Architectural Conservancy of Ontario, 80 for 80: Celebrating 80 Years of the A.C.O., 2013, 96-97, illus. & descrip.)
WASAGA BEACH, ONT., Capstan Inn, 1920 (Collingwood Enterprise, 7 Jan. 1926, Supplement, list of works)
WASAGA BEACH, ONT., The Wasaga Inn, 1921 (Collingwood Enterprise, 7 Jan. 1926, Supplement, list of works)
HUNTSVILLE, ONT., major addition to the High School, 1922 (letter of recommendation from Charles O. Shaw, President of Bigwin Inn Co., dated 19 July 1924)
ANTEN MILLS, ONT., Simcoe County Registry Office, major addition, 1924 (Barrie Examiner, 5 June 1924, 6, t.c.)
BARRIE, ONT., Roxy Theatre, Dunlop Street West, 1931; theatre closed 1975; still standing in 2022 and now called Mavricks Music Hall (C.R., xlv, 7 Jan. 1931, 46)
COMPETITIONS
WELLAND, ONT., Public School, 1913. Wilson was one of sixteen architects to submit drawings in the competition for the Ward Five Public School at Welland, Ont. (Welland Tribune, 11 Dec. 1913, Section Two, p. 1, list of competitors). The entry by Wilson was set aside in favour of the winning design by A.E. Nicholson of St. Catharines.
COLLINGWOOD, ONT., public school, 1924. John Wilson was one of 4 architects who submitted plans for this new educational building (Daily Sun-Times [Owen Sound], 8 July 1924, 5). It is unclear who the winner was.
KENORA, ONT., High School, 1927. Wilson was the runner-up in the competition for the new High School in Kenora (Winnipeg Tribune, 23 Nov. 1927, 10). The winner was the Winnipeg firm of Northwood & Chivers.