HAY, Charles Ernest (1872-1936), active in the following firms in Scotland, in Canada, and in the State of Washington:
Charles Hay, Architect, Troqueer, Co. Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland, c. 1900-03
Charles Hay, Architect, Dumfries, Scotland, 1904-1911
Charles E. Hay, Architect, Calgary, Alta., 1912
Hay & Fairn, Architects, Calgary 1913 (with Clifford W. Fairn)
Charles E. Hay, Architect, Calgary, 1914-15; 1919-20
Hay & Herrald, Architects, Calgary, 1921 (with David E. Herrald)
Charles E. Hay, Architect, Calgary, 1922- Sept. 1923
Charles E. Hay, Architect, Seattle, Wash. 1924 to 1936
Hay was born in Edinburgh, Scotland on 17 July 1872, and was the son of John Charles Hay (1840-1925), a prominent architect in Edinburgh. He served an apprenticeship under his father, then trained for six years with J. Graham Fairley, another well-known architect in that city. Hay then worked as an assistant to William Beattie in Edinburgh, and as assistant to Frank J.C. Carruthers in Dumfries. By 1904 Hay had opened an office under his own name on Nith Street in Dumfries, overlooking the Nith River (The Architects & Surveyors Directory & Referendum [London], 1907, 180) and he continued to work there until late 1911. During this period, in 1906, he was elected as a Member of the Society of Architects (MSA), a rival organization to the Royal Inst. of British Architects based in London.
In January 1912 he emigrated to Canada, and found a job in Calgary with the busy office of Lawson & Fordyce, Architects. Later that year, he commenced practice under his own name, and during the next decade he obtained several commissions in Alberta and in British Columbia for residential, educational, commercial and ecclesiastical works. Hay left Canada in September 1923 and moved to Seattle, Wash. to take up a new post as senior draftsman in the office of B. Marcus Priteca, a leading architect and theatre designer. By 1929 he was serving as chief designer in that office, and he appears to have held this post until after 1932. Hay died in Seattle on 1 May 1936 (State of Washington, Register of Deaths, FHL Film No. 202 3360; inf. Mrs. H.M. Hoyte, Norwich, England; inf. Mrs. A. M. Sweeney, Santa Rosa, Calif.; inf. Dictionary of Scottish Architects [online])
(works in Scotland)
CURRIE, Midlothian Co., “Blinkbonny” a group of cottages, 1891-92 (Colin McWilliam, Lothian - The Buildings of Scotland, 1978, 150)
GULLANE, East Lothian, “Purvesholm”, a villa for J.S. Macdonald, 1898 (Colin McWilliam, Lothian - The Buildings of Scotland, 1978, 229)
DUMFRIES, Dumfrieshire, St. Joseph’s College, and the adjacent Boarding House Block, Craigs Road, 1907 (John Gifford, Dumfries & Galloway - The Buildings of Scotland, 1996, 271)
(works in Victoria, B.C.)
OAK BAY, “Balgreggan”, a residence for John A. Turner, Rutland Road near Beach Drive, 1914 (Stuart Stark, Oak Bay’s Heritage Buildings, 1986, 115, illus.; Larry McCann, Imagining Uplands, 2016, 288, illus.)
OAK BAY, residence for John A. Turner, Weald Road at Lansdowne Road, 1926 (Stuart Stark, Oak Bay’s Heritage Buildings, 1986, 113, illus.; Parks Canada, Canada’s Historic Places, designation as of 29 March 2005)
(works in Calgary)
ST. JOSEPH’S ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH, 19th Avenue N.W. at 6th Street, 1914-15 (R. Pilbrow, St. Joseph’s R.C. Church 1914, a typescript held in the Glenbow Museum, Calgary; Const., xvi, Feb. 1923, 71, illus.)
ALBERTA, a Standard Rural School House Plan, a prototype for a wood frame school building to be erected in various rural locations throughout the province, c. 1915 (dwgs. University of Calgary, Canadian Architectural Archives, Acc. 37A 7825, Item 17 S 72, blueprints)
DIDSBURY, ALTA., High School, 1919 (dwgs. University of Calgary, Canadian Architectural Archives, Acc. Ste hc/19D52; Item 17 S 72)
BASSANO, ALTA., major addition to the General Hospital, 1919-1920 (Bassano Mail, 2 Oct. 1919, 8; and 29 Jan. 1920, 8; Calgary Herald, 28 Aug. 1920, 20, illus.)
BROOKS, ALTA., school for the Dennis School District, 1920 (C.R., xxxiv, 14 April 1920, 62)
COALHURST, ALTA., school for the Consolidated School District, 1920 (C.R., xxxiv, 19 May 1920, 58; dwgs. University of Calgary, Canadian Architectural Archives, Acc. 37A 7825, Item 20 C 62)
STRATHMORE, ALTA., War Memorial Hall, 1921-22 (historical article in the Strathmore Standard, 18 April 1928, 1 & 4, illus. & descrip.)
(with D. Easton Herrald) CALGARY, ALTA., White Lunch Restaurant, 8th Avenue West, 1921 (dwgs. University of Calgary, Canadian Architectural Archives, Acc. 37A 7825, item 21 W 43)
(with D. Easton Herrald) ACME VILLAGE, ALTA., school for District 2296, 1921 (dwgs. University of Calgary, Canadian Architectural Archives, Acc. 37A 7825, Item 21 A 24)
CALGARY, ALTA., Gospel Hall, 6th Avenue East, 1922 (Const., xvi, Feb. 1923, 72, illus.)
(works in Seattle)
BETHANY PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, Queen Anne Avenue near Howe Street, 1929-30 (Pacific Coast Architecture Database [online]; inf. from Cynthia A. Canas, Pacifica, Calif.)