WILSON, Robert (1859-1940) was active in Vancouver where he was best known as the Chief Assistant and office manager for Thomas Hooper, a well-known Vancouver architect who operated one of the largest practices on the west coast in the pre-WWI era. Born in Montreal, Que. on 21 April 1859, Wilson was educated there and at the age of sixteen he entered the office of Hutchison & Steele, one of the leading architectural firms in that city, and worked there as an assistant in 1875-76. He gained additional experience with Alexander F. Dunlop (in 1877-78), and later worked as superintendent of construction for his father Daniel Wilson from 1880 to 1899. He moved to Vancouver in early 1900 and opened an office under his own name, but he can only be linked to a few small residential commissions during this period. The following year, in 1901, he joined the Pacific Division office of the Canadian Pacific Railway, supervising the construction of hotels for that company in Vancouver and Victoria.
Wilson then took a position in the office of Thomas Hooper in 1908, becoming Manager and assistant to Hooper, and collaborating with him on major projects including the Winch Building, and the Court Houses at Revelstoke, in Vernon, and in Vancouver. The downturn in the economy in 1913 prompted Hooper to move to New York City, leaving Wilson to continue to work under his own name from 1915 until 1927. When Hooper returned to Vancouver in 1928 they re-established their partnership under the name of Hooper & Wilson (biog. Contract Record [Toronto], xlii, 4 July 1928, 725). Their collaboration was shortlived, however, and was dissolved in 1930. Wilson resigned from the A.I.B.C. in 1935, and died in Vancouver on 3 July 1940 (obit. Vancouver Sun, 4 July 1940, 10; inf. Architectural Inst. of British Columbia, Application for Membership No. 74; D. Luxton, Building the West: The Early Architects of British Columbia, 2003, 487-8, 524)
R. WILSON
KITSILANO, residence for Robert M. Tod, York Street near Larch Street, 1915 (list of works in AIBC application form)
POINT GREY, residence for George E. Winter, Chancellor Boulevard at Western Parkway, on the University Lands, c. 1915 (list of works in AIBC application form)
POINT GREY, residence for J. Frank Boyd, Bellevue Street near West 25th Avenue, 1919-20 (list of works in AIBC application form)
SHAUGHNESSY HEIGHTS, residence for Leslie G. Henderson, West 37th Avenue near Marguerite Street, 1919-20 (list of works in AIBC application form)
ROYAL CROWN SOAP LTD., East Georgia Street, wharf, 1919-20 (list of works in AIBC application form)
WILTSHIRE APARTMENTS, Nicola Street, near Robson Street, apartment block for T.P. Masters, 1925 (City of Vancouver b.p. 107145, dated 16 April 1925; inf. Patrick Gunn, Vancouver)
VANCOUVER, B.C., Huntley Lodge Apartments, Oak Street, 1927 (dwgs. at Vancouver City Archives)