WILSON, William Matthew (1894-1947) was active in St. Catharines, Ont. and in the Niagara Peninsula from 1922 until after 1945. He was a native of Evanston, Illinois, born there on 1 January 1894, but his family moved to Toronto, Ont. shortly after. Wilson attended public school in Toronto, then took courses in drafting and building construction at the Toronto Technical School on College Street. He took an early interest in the design of educational buildings, and served an apprenticeship from 1911 to 1914 with James M. Cowan of Toronto, a specialist in the planning of Roman Catholic Separate School buildings for the Toronto Diocese. From 1914 to 1919 he was employed as a draftsman with the architectural department of the Toronto Board of Education, working under the direct supervision of Charles H. Bishop. In 1919 he joined the office of Dominion Realty Ltd., the architectural division of the Canadian Bank of Commerce, and assisted Victor D. Horsburgh. From 1921 to 1922, he was employed as an assistant to Francis S. Baker, but then he moved to the Niagara Peninsula in 1922 and opened an office under his own name. His practice was moderately successful, but by 1925 he appears to have closed his office and had taken a position as chief draftsman for Findlay & Foulis, Architects, and was employed by them to oversee the construction of their important commissions for Table Rock House at Niagara Falls (1925-26), and for the lavish mansion for Sir Harry Oakes (1929).
Wilson again tried his hand at private practice, and opened an office in St. Catharines in the depths of the Depression, in 1932, and supplemented his income by teaching architectural drawing in evening classes at St. Catharines Collegiate & Vocational School, as also served as an occasional teacher in the drafting department of the day school. Wilson died in St. Catharines, Ont. on 5 December 1947 (obit. St. Catharines Standard, 6 Dec. 1947, 2; inf. Mrs. Sheila Wilson, St. Catharines Public Library; inf. Ontario Association of Architects)
(works in St. Catharines, Ont.)
POLECRONE BLOCK, St. Paul Street at Chestnut Street, for S. Polecrone, 1922 (City of St. Catharines, record plans No. 1086; dated July 1922)
unnamed street, residence for Gordon McGhie, 1923 (Const., xvi, July 1923, 256-57, illus. & descrip.)
unnamed street, a two-family dwelling for an unnamed client, 1923 (Const., xvi, July 1923, 256, illus. & descrip.)
LINCOLN COUNTY, public school for S.S. No. 2, near St. Catharines, 1923 (Const., xvi, Oct. 1923, 367-68, illus. & descrip.)
VALLEY WOOD PUBLIC SCHOOL, Smythe Street, 1942-43 (E. Julian, A, Kirk, A. Phair, St. Catharines: Our Built Heritage, 2005, 133, illus.)
WILSON’S STORE, Russel Avenue at Woodland Avenue, 1943-44 (City of St. Catharines, record plans No. 1150.2, dated Dec. 1943)
ST. PAUL STREET, retail store for Henry Schellenberg, c. 1945 (City of St. Catharines, record plans No. 1145, undated)
CARLTON STREET, block for George Lounsberry, c. 1945 (City of St. Catharines, record plans No. 5004, undated)
ONTARIO STREET, small apartment block for Emily Merritt Trust, c. 1945 (City of St. Catharines, record plans No. 5135, undated)
RIDLEY ROAD, building for Otto Bogusat, 1945 (City of St. Catharines, record plans No. 5055, dated 23 March 1945)
BRUCE STREET, a two storey block for K.A. Bowes, 1945 (City of St. Catharines, record plans No. 5003, 24 April 1945)
ONTARIO STREET, a block for J.H. Mitchell, 1946 (City of St. Catharines, record plans No. 5043, dated 15 May 1946)
(with Wilson A. Salter) GLENRIDGE PUBLIC SCHOOL, major addition, 1949 (City of St. Catharines, record plans No. 6004.2, dated 1949)
(work elsewhere)
MERRITTON, ONT., public school, c. 1940 (obituary in St. Catharines Standard, 6 Dec. 1947, 2, list of works)
NIAGARA-ON-THE-LAKE, ONT., public school, c. 1940 (obituary in St. Catharines Standard, 6 Dec. 1947, 2, list of works)
GRANTHAM TOWNSHIP, ONT., public school, c. 1940 (obituary in St. Catharines Standard, 6 Dec. 1947, 2, list of works)
WALLACEBURG, ONT., public school, c. 1940 (obituary in St. Catharines Standard, 6 Dec. 1947, 2, list of works)
THOROLD, ONT., Memorial Swimming Pool, c. 1945 (obituary in St. Catharines Standard, 6 Dec. 1947, 2, list of works)