TEAGUE, James Calloway (1863-1947) was born in Tennessee, USA on 19 September 1863 and received his education there. He worked in Chattanooga, Tenn. before coming to Norfolk, Virginia in 1891 where his name is connected to the Romanesque Revival design of the Prince William County Court House in nearby Manassas, Virginia (1892-93), and with several large residences in the wealthy Ghent neighbourhood of Norfolk. By 1898 he was a successful architect in northern Michigan, and maintained an office in Sault Ste. Marie, Mich. for at least five years (W. T. Comstock, The Architects’ Directory, 1904-05, 52). One of his best works there is the refined Beaux-Arts design for the Carnegie Library, (1903-04), still standing today and now a designated landmark.
His name may also be linked with Francis H. Clergue (1856-1939), a financier and owner of the Consolidated Lake Superior Co., and the driving force behind the Lake Superior Power Company. The City Directory for Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan of 1898-99 records “James C. Teague, draughtsman, Lake Superior Power Company” and he may be the author of the bold Richardsonian Romanesque design for the Algoma Iron Works Building (c. 1900; now demol.), and the adjacent five storey Sulphite Pulp Mill Building, both of which are on the Canadian side of the border between the twin cities of Sault Ste. Marie, Mich. and Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. Teague was certainly the designer of “Montfermier”, an elaborate and palatial mansion in Canada for F.H. Clergue, begun in 1902 and destroyed by fire in 1934.
Teague appears to have left Michigan after 1905; in 1907-10 he is recorded maintaining an office in Seattle, Washington (W.T. Comstock, The Architects’ Directory, 1907, 115; 1909, 129). By 1909 he had become a member of the Washington State Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, but only one reference to his work in the Seattle area has been found (see biog. of Teague in J.K. Ochsner, Shaping Seattle Architecture, 2014, 479-80).. Teague then moved to Canada in March 1911, and took up residence in Calgary, Alta. where he obtained a major commission to design The Lancaster Block, a nine storey commercial office building which was to be one of the tallest structures in the city. In nearby Medicine Hat, his proposal for the new St. Barnabas Anglican Church was accepted after the Building Committee had rejected the design of Clemesha & Coltman as being too costly. His last commission in Canada was for the Capitol Theatre in Moose Jaw (designed 1913, completed in 1916), and he later left Canada in early 1914 and returned to Seattle, Wash. Within a year he was on the move again, to Butte, Montana where he opened a new office. By 1923 he had relocated once again, this time to Dallas, Texas where he designed a substantial Tudor Gothic mansion for J.V. Lincoln in East Dallas. Teague died in Fort Worth, Texas on 25 July 1947 (obit. Fort Worth Press, 26 July 1947, 6; inf. Barry Elmer, Calgary).
MANASSAS, VIRGINIA, Prince William County Court House, Lee Avenue at Grant Avenue, 1892-93, by Teague & Mayre, Architects; extant 2012 (Richard G. Wilson, Buildings of Virginia: Tidewater and Piedmont, 2002, 64-5)
SAULT STE. MARIE, MICH., Hydroelectric Power Company Plant (Edison Sault Power Co.), East Portage Avenue, facing the St. Mary’s River, 1896-1902; still standing in 2022 (Kathryn B. Eckert, Buildings of Michigan, 1993, 539, illus. & descrip.)
SAULT STE. MARIE, ONT., ‘Montfernier‘, a mansion for Francis H. Clergue, on Moffley Hill, near Langdon Crescent, 1902; burned 1934 (American Inst. of Architects, Washington, membership records for James C. Teague, letter from Teague dated 6 Nov. 1912, with list of works)
GOULAIS, ONT., railway depot for the Algoma Central Railway, 1901 (Sault Ste. Marie News [Michigan], 9 May 1901, 3)
SAULT STE. MARIE, MICHIGAN, St. James Anglican Church, Bingham Avenue at Carrie Street, 1902-03; still standing in 2022 (Detroit Free Press, 18 Aug. 1901, Section Three, 8; Kathryn B. Eckert, Buildings of Michigan, 1993, 537)
MANISTIQUE, MICHIGAN, a public school “on the Lake front”, 1903 (Detroit Free Press, 12 April 1903, Section Two, 11; Daily News Record [Sault Ste. Marie, Mich.], 1 May 1903)
SAULT STE. MARIE, MICHIGAN, Carnegie Library, Armory Place, 1903-04 (Kathryn B. Eckert, Buildings in Michigan, 1993, 537)
BELLINGHAM, WASH., The Exchange Building, North State Street at East Holly Street, c. 1906-07; extant 2012, and now called the YMCA Building (American Inst. of Architects, Washington, membership records for James C. Teague, letter from Teague dated 6 Nov. 1912, with list of works)
CALGARY, ALTA., The Mackie Block (also called The Lancaster Building), 8th Avenue West at 2nd Street West, for J.S. Mackie, begun 1912-13; completed 1916-19 by William S. Bates (Morning Albertan [Calgary], 26 April 1912, 15, descrip.; C.R., xxvi, 21 Feb. 1912, 66; and xxvii, 26 March 1913, 66, t.c.; and 3 Dec. 1913, 65; dwgs. at Canadian Architectural Archives, Univ. of Calgary, Acc. COH 7437)
MEDICINE HAT, ALTA., St. Barnabas Anglican Church, Fourth Street SE near South Railway Street, 1912; still standing in 2022 (Calgary Herald, 26 March 1912, 5, t.c.; Canadian Engineer [Montreal], xxii, 28 March 1912, 59, t.c.; Medicine Hat News, 8 Nov. 1912, 1; Manitoba Free Press [Winnipeg], 1 March 1913, 12, illus. & descrip.; Fifty Years of St. Barnabas Church 1884-1934, 3, 18-19, illus.)
CALGARY, ALTA., The Allen Theatre (later called The Empress Theatre), 213 8th Avenue East, between Centre Street and 1st Street East, 1912-13; demol. (Calgary Herald, 29 Jan. 1912, 18; and 1 Nov. 1913, 11 & 23, detailed descrip.)
CALGARY, ALTA., Bijou Theatre, at 127 8th Avenue, 1912-13; demol. (Calgary Herald, 16 July 1912, 10, t.c.; C.R., xxvii, 17 Sept. 1913, 60, illus. & descrip.)
CALGARY, ALTA., Monarch Theatre, Eighth Avenue East, 1913 (Morning Albertan [Calgary], 7 March 1913, 1, descrip.)
MOOSE JAW, SASK., The Allen Theatre, for the Canadian Film Exchange Co. of Toronto, Main Street North near Fairford Street East, designed in 1913-14; completed in 1916; renamed The Capitol Theatre, 1922; still standing in 2022 and now called the Moose Jaw Cultural Centre (City of Moose Jaw b.p. 26 Sept. 1916)
ANACONDA, MONTANA, O'Leary's Feed Store, Oak Street, 1915; still standing in 2020 (Anaconda Standard, 22 Aug. 1915, 5; inf. Christine Brown, Montana Historical Society)
THREE FORKS, MONTANA, major addition to the High School, 1916 (signed drawings at Montana State University, Bozeman, Special Collections: Oswald Berg Jr. Coll., Item No. 40, dated 15 June 1916)
GALLATIN & BROADWATER COUNTIES, MONTANA, school for the Consolidated School District, 1916 (Butte Miner, 25 June 1916, 2, t.c.)
BUTTE, MONTANA, commercial block at the s.w. corner of Arizona Street at Galena Street, for an unnamed client, 1916 ( Butte Miner, 21 Oct. 1916, 5, t.c.)
BUTTE, MONTANA, Chester Block, East Park Street, for Charles Steele, 1917; still standing in 2020 (Butte Miner, 22 July 1917, 8; 28 Dec. 1917, 6; inf. Christine Brown, Montana Historical Society)
WHITEHALL, MONTANA, High School, 1918 (Anaconda Standard, 9 June 1918, 14, t.c.)
HARLOWTON, MONTANA, a two storey brick school building, 1919 (Billings Gazette, 29 June 1919, 15, t.c.)
DALLAS, TEX., mansion for J.V. Lincoln, Swiss Avenue, Munger Place, East Dallas, 1924 (Dallas Morning News, 11 Feb. 1924, illus. & descrip.)