WOLFE, James Elbert (1820-1901), a prominent architect in San Francisco, Calif. who was described as the designer of the Theatre Royale, the first public theatre building in Victoria, British Columbia. Located on Government Street near Fort Street, this performance hall was completed in 1861 (Daily Press [Victoria], 18 May 1861, 3) and was credited to "James E. Wolf [sic], architect". He had arrived in Victoria, B.C. in early 1860 and began to advertise his services as "Architect, Contractor & Builder" (Daily British Colonist [Victoria], 23 Feb. 1860, 3, advert.) It may be presumed that this is the same architect who was born in Baltimore, Maryland in November 1820 and who moved to San Francisco in 1849, lured there by gold rush fever. He designed many of the early landmarks in the city, but by 1879 he began to devote much of his interest to publishing The Quarterly Architectural Review [San Francisco], a regular journal of architecture and construction which later became The California Architect & Building News, the most important architectural journal published on the West Coast in the late 19th C. Wolfe continued to live and work there until 1897 when he retired. He died in San Francisco on 7 January 1901 (obituary and port. San Francisco Call, 8 Jan. 1901, 3; obituary Baltimore Sun, 8 Jan. 1901, 7; biog. D. Luxton, The Early Architects of British Columbia, 2003, 488, 525).
VICTORIA, B.C., commercial block for J.D. Carroll, Yates Street, 1860; demol. by 1882 (Donald Luxton, Building The West: The Early Architects of British Columbia, 2003, 525)
VICTORIA, B.C., Theatre Royale, Government Street near Fort Street, for Chief Justice Matthew B. Begbie, 1861 (Daily British Colonist [Victoria], 20 March 1861, 2, t.c.; and 17 May 1861, 2, descrip.; Daily Press [Victoria], 18 May 1861, 3)
(works in San Francisco)
GRAND CENTRAL MARKET, Market Street, between Fifth Street and Sixth Street, 1869 (San Francisco Chronicle, 22 Oct. 1869, 3, detailed descrip.)
SECOND BAPTIST CHURCH, Russ Street, between Howard Street and Folsom Street, 1869 (San Francisco Chronicle, 22 Oct. 1869, 3, descrip.)
CALIFORNIA STREET, at Franklin Street, mansion for Hubert H. Bancroft, 1869 (San Francisco Chronicle, 22 Oct. 1869, 3, detailed descrip.)
FOURTH STREET, at Bluxome Street, a 3 storey hotel for Henry Rothschild, 1873 (San Francisco Chronicle, 6 June 1873, 3, descrip.)