WARREN, Jesse Milton (1888-1953) was born in California on 14 December 1888 and received his training and early practical experience in San Francisco and Seattle. He opened an office under his own name in San Francisco in 1907, then moved to New York City, and relocated to Seattle, Wash. in 1910. He moved to Victoria, B.C. in 1911 and practised there until early 1915, completing several commercial and residential commissions in that city. His best known work is that for the Pantages Theatre (now the McPherson Theatre), a staid and reserved Renaissance Revival design containing an exuberant and elaborately decorated interior. In 1914 he was one of thirty architects from Canada and the United States who submitted a design in the competition for the Vancouver Civic Centre, but his scheme was not premiated (C.R., xxix, 6 Jan. 1915, 8). He returned to Seattle before 1920 and remained active there until after 1950. In 1947 he presented a proposal for the City Hall Hotel, Douglas Street, Victoria, located on the site of the old City Hall, but the scheme was not built (Victoria Daily Times, 16 June 1947, 22, descrip.). He died in Santa Barbara, California on 1 September 1953 (obituary in the Colonist [Victoria], 3 Sept. 1953; biog. and list of works in Victoria Daily Times, 20 Feb. 1923, 7; D. Luxton, Building the West: The Early Architects of British Columbia, 2003, 398-99, 523; biog. in J.K. Ochsner, Shaping Seattle Architecture, 2014, 484; inf. M. Segger)
J.M. WARREN (works in Victoria, B.C.)
THE CENTRAL BUILDING, View Street at Broad Street, 1911-12 (Colonist [Victoria], 9 Aug. 1911, 11, illus. & descrip.; and 27 May 1913, 1 & 2, illus. & descrip.; C.R., xxv, 15 Nov. 1911, 42-3, illus. & descrip.)
B.C. HARDWARE CO., Blanchard Street, 1912 (Colonist [Victoria], 31 Dec. 1911, 11, illus.)
FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH, Vancouver Street at Fisguard Street, 1913 (Colonist [Victoria], 16 June 1912, 7, illus.; and 14 Jan. 1913, 4)
OLD FORT CAMOSUN, a new exhibit building displaying the history and resources of Victoria and Vancouver Island, 1912 (Colonist [Victoria], 6 Sept. 1912, 18, illus.)
STATION HOTEL, Pandora Street at Store Street, for the Victoria Phoenix Brewing Co., 1913 (Colonist [Victoria], 28 May 1913, 7; M. Segger & D. Franklin, Exploring Victoria's Architecture, 1996, 95-6, illus.)
OAK BAY, residence for Rowland H. Powell, Yale Street, 1913 (S. Stark, Oak Bay's Heritage Buildings, 1986, 90, illus.)
OAK BAY, residence for Henry C. Hall, Beach Drive, 1913 (S. Stark, Oak Bay's Heritage Buildings, 1986, 25, illus.)
KENT HOTEL, Broad Street, for W.H. Murphy, 1913 (Colonist [Victoria], 7 June 1913, 14, illus.)
PANTAGES THEATRE, Government Street at Cormorant Street, 1913-14 (Colonist [Victoria], 19 June 1913, 10; M. Segger & D. Franklin, Victoria - A Primer for Regional History in Architecture, 1979, 62-5, illus.)
COOK STREET, at Grant Street, commercial block for three retail stores for Wallace A. McMorran, 1913 (Victoria Daily Times, 26 June 1913, 20)
COMUS HOTEL, Cormorant Street at Store Street, c. 1913 (Victoria Daily Times, 20 Feb. 1923, 7, list of works for J.M. Warren)
ALBANY HOTEL, Government Street near Fort Street, c. 1913 (Victoria Daily Times, 20 Feb. 1923, 7, list of works for J.M. Warren)
GOVERNMENT STREET, at Cormorant Street, office block for R.T. Elliot, 1913 (Colonist [Victoria], 29 Dec. 1912, 11, illus. & descrip.; Year Book of the B.C. Society of Architects-Vancouver Chapter, 1913, illus.)
OAK BAY, residence for Dr. James D. MacLean, Oak Bay Avenue, 1914 (C.R., xxviii, 25 March 1914, 80)
SANDS FUNERAL HOME, Quadra Street at Cormorant Street, 1915; altered c. 1930 (Victoria Daily Times, 30 April 1915, 11, illus.; Victoria Heritage Foundation, This Old House: Victoria's Heritage Neighbourhoods, Vol. 3, 2007, 67, illus.)