WRIGHT, Charles Henry Challenor (1864- 1944) is best known in Toronto for his role as an educator who established the Department of Architecture within the School of Practical Science at the Univ. of Toronto in 1890 (Toronto World, 21 April 1890, 2). Born on board a British ship in Boston Harbour on 22 April 1864 he was raised in Digby, N.S. and attended Pickering College at Pickering, Ont. in 1881-84, then moved to Toronto where is he learned structural engineering at School of Practical Science in 1885-88. He took a particular interest in architecture, and at the invitation of Prof. Francis W. Chandler of M.I.T. in Boston, he moved there in 1888 to pursue his architectural studies, and then spent more than a year assisting with the construction of the new Boston Public Library, designed by McKim, Mead & White. Wright returned to Toronto in early 1890 and accepted the appointment as lecturer in the newly formed Department of Architecture, and was later made full Professor and head of the Dept. of Architecture in 1901. He was nominated as a member of Royal Inst. of British Architects in 1911.
Wright was one of the founding members of the Ontario Association of Architects, and although he agreed not to accept any private commissions while holding his university teaching post, he can be credited with the design of a an Arts & Crafts style cottage for Dr. James M. MacCallum, on Island 158, near Go Home Bay, GEORGIAN BAY, ONT. in 1911 (City & Country Home [Toronto], vii, June 1988, 74-5, illus.; Ross King, Defiant Spirits: The Modernist Revolution of the Group of Seven, 2010, 58). He continued to teach until his retirement in 1934, and was elected to a Life Fellowship in the R.A.I.C. in 1941. Wright died in Toronto on 27 March 1944 (obit. Globe & Mail [Toronto], 28 March 1944, 8; Telegram [Toronto], 28 March 1944, 2; R.A.I.C. Journal, xxi, May 1944, 94; biog. R.A.I.C. Journal, xi, May 1934, 78; xii, Jan. 1935, 18; R.I.B.A., Directory of British Architects 1834-1914, 2001, ii, 1070; inf. Ontario Assoc. of Architects). A photographic portrait of Wright appeared in The Contract Record [Toronto], xxiv, 19 January 1910, 35. The University of Toronto Archives holds a biographical file on Wright (Grier Coll.)