SANSOM, Charles Wyndham Herbert (1857- c. 1909) was born in England on 21 May 1857 and emigrated to Canada in 1873. He was living and working in Winnipeg in 1881 where he was recorded as a draftsman in the office of Balston C. Kenway. By late 1881 he had moved to Calgary where he was a member of the partnership of Sansum [sic] & Coryell, as "Architects, Engineers, Surveyors & Land Agents" (Calgary Weekly Herald, 31 Aug. 1881, 2, advert.; inf. Edworthy Park Heritage Society, Calgary). Documents now held in the Manitoba Public Archives confirm that this firm was recorded as expressing an interest in designing the new Hudson’s Bay Co. mill in that city (MPA, Hudson‘s Bay Co. Archives, D20/28 f132/133). He was still living and working as an architect in Calgary in late 1883 (Calgary Weekly Herald, 12 Oct. 1883, 1, advert.), yet no references to his architectural projects in the intervening two years have yet been found. A brief biography of Charles W.H. Sansom in Alberta from 1881 to 1885 has been published in the new book by the Edworthy Park Heritage Society entitled Shaganappi Point & Edworthy Park: A New History, 2022, 363.
After 1885 Sansom had relocated to Vancouver, British Columbia, and in 1886 he was invited by Edward H. Mallandaine Jr. to form a partnership (see list of works under Mallandaine & Sansom). Their collaboration was brief, and in early 1889 Sansom formed a new partnership with John W. Dawson. They won the competition for the new Public Market Hall in July 1889, and the project was completed in the following year. The partnership of Sansom & Dawson was dissolved in November 1890 (Vancouver Daily World, 18 Nov. 1890, 4). Sansom continued to live and work in Vancouver until 1893, but by 1896 he had moved again, this time to Greenwood, B.C. where his name was recorded as an architect in provincial directories until 1903. He moved to Spokane, Washington in 1904 and continued to practise as a mining engineer (Spokesman-Review [Spokane], 8 October 1908, 8), and 1911 he was listed as a consulting engineer overseeing the construction of new buildings and shafts for the McKinley Mining Co. on McKinley Mountain, north of Spokane (Spokane Daily Chronicle, 2 Oct. 1911, 16). No information has been found on his activity in Washington State after this date (inf. Donald Luxton, Building The West - The Early Architects of British Columbia, 2003, 516)
SANSOM & DAWSON
(works in Vancouver unless noted)
FALSE CREEK SCHOOL, major addition, 1889 (Vancouver Daily World, 3 June 1889, 2, t.c.; B.C. Sessional Papers, 1891, Public Accounts, 62)
PUBLIC MARKET HALL, Westminster Avenue, 1889-90 (Vancouver Daily World, 23 July 1889, 1, descrip.; 16 Sept. 1890, 4, descrip.; Vancouver News-Advertiser, Christmas Number, 1890, 10, illus., 18, descrip.; dwgs. at Vancouver City Archives)
PENDER STREET, between Hornby Street and Burrard Street, residence for William Tierney, 1890 (Vancouver Daily World, 29 March 1890, 1)
C.W.H. SANSOM
HOLLAND BLOCK, Water Street at Cordova Street, for James M. Holland, 1891-92 (Vancouver Daily World, 6 August 1892, 8; 8 Aug. 1892, 1; inf. Donald Luxton, Vancouver)
EAST END PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, 1892 (Vancouver Daily World, 2 March 1892, 5)
GREENWOOD, B.C., general hospital, 1896 (C.R., vii, 9 April 1896, 2)
GREENWOOD, B.C., Bealey Block, Copper Street, 1898 (Boundary Creek Times [Greenwood], 8 Oct. 1898, 11; 12 Nov. 1898, 7)
GREENWOOD, B.C., The Guess Block, Copper Street, next to the Windsor Hotel, for George A. Guess and Harry Guess, 1899 (Greenwood Miner, 18 Aug. 1899, 1, descrip.)
PHOENIX, B.C., a large three storey hotel for Mr. Marshall, Dominion Avenue at Phoenix Street, 1905 (Boundary Creek Times [Greenwood], 19 May 1905, 5, descrip.)