HACKETT, Charles Marcus (1866-1961), an American architect and engineer who arrived in Saskatchewan in 1912 and who operated a company in Saskatoon called The Interior Finishing Company (City Directory of Saskatoon, 1913, 194, 384; inf. Frank Korvemaker, Regina). His largest commission was for the Daylight Theatre (1916), an early silent movie theatre in Saskatoon. He was fined in Provincial Court for operating as an unlicensed architect, but he quickly rectified this by joining the Saskatchewan Association of Architects (Member No. 115A). He briefly lived and worked in Saskatoon, and in 1918 he was listed as a staff architect with Phillips, Stewart & Lee, Surveyors & Engineers in that city. In 1919 he returned to the USA where his best known work is the colossal Wilson Dam Hydro Electric Plant near Florence, Alabama, completed in 1924.
Hackett was born in Oneonta, New York on 26 April 1866, and no information has been found on his education or training, but he is almost certainly the same person recorded as an architect in the partnership of Epps & Hackett, Architects of Greensboro, North Carolina in 1890. By 1900 he was living and working in Buffalo, N.Y., and he then moved to Schenectedy, N.Y. where he became chief engineer of power station design with the General Electric Co. for five years (1902 -07). It is unclear why he moved to northern Saskatchewan before WWI, and only a few of his works have been located in Saskatoon and region. After returning to the USA, he specialised as a hydro electric engineer, and worked for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Tennessee Valley Authority to harness the water power of the Tennessee River in Alabama. He later worked for General Electric Corp. as an electrical engineer, and died at Nashville, Tenn. on 12 April 1961 at the age of 95 years (obituary and port. Nashville Banner, 13 April 1961, 40; inf. Frank Korvemaker, Regina).
(works in Canada)
SASKATOON, SASK., Daylight Theatre, 2nd Avenue South, 1916 (Saskatoon Daily Star, 30 Dec. 1916, 14-15, detailed descrip.)
SASKATOON, SASK., The Dart Block, 2nd Avenue South, a large commercial block with retail stores and offices, 1917 (Saskatoon Phoenix, 17 July 1917, 3, descrip.; and 21 Aug. 1917, 3, descrip.)
SASKATOON, SASK., The Hub Cafe, 2nd Avenue South “...adjacent to the Western Hotel”, 1917 (Saskatoon Phoenix, 17 July 1917, 3, descrip.)
COLONSAY, SASK., public school, 1917 (Saskatoon Daily Star, 25 July 1917, 15, t.c.)
FISKE, SASK., public school, 1917 (Saskatoon Daily Star, 31 Aug. 1917, 13, t.c.)
SASKATOON, SASK., Patricia Confectionery & Tea Rooms, 2nd Avenue South, 1917-18 (Saskatoon Daily Star,23 Feb. 1918, 14, advert.)
(works in the U.S.A.)
GREENSBORO, NORTH CAROLINA, Asheboro Street Grade School, 1908-09; demol. 1969 (inf. from Sask. Association of Architects, list of works in Application Form submitted in Sept. 1917)
GREENSBORO, NORTH CAROLINA, Normal School and dormitories, c. 1908 (S.A.A., list of works in Application Form submitted in Sept. 1917)
GREENSBORO, NORTH CAROLINA, Agricultural and Mechanical College Buildings, c. 1908 (S.A.A., list of works in Application Form submitted in Sept. 1917)