Wegman, Jules Frederic

WEGMAN, Jules Frederic (1865 -1931) was born in Neuchatel, Switzerland on 14 July 1865 and received his early education there. He came to the United States with his father Julius, also an architect, at the age of ten years and trained with him, then spent several years in the Chicago office of Daniel H. Burnham & Co., a leading figure of American architecture. He appears to have also worked there under his own name, and is credited with the design of the Newbury Building, South Wabash Avenue at East Ninth Street, CHICAGO, ILL. in 1896 (Frank A. Randall, History of Chicago Buildings, 1949, 143). In 1905 he was invited to join the Toronto firm of Darling & Pearson. Wegman remained with that architectural office for the rest of his career, and was directly involved in the design and construction of landmark works by that firm including the original Sun Life Building, Montreal (1914-18) as well as later additions to this building (1923-5) and the North Toronto Railway Station (1915-16). He also worked independently, and can be credited with the elaborate transformation of the old Edinburgh Life Assurance Co. Block (1858 by Cumberland & Storm) into the American Club, Wellington Street West, TORONTO, ONT. (Const., vi, Dec. 1913, 463-6, illus. & descrip.). He was made a full partner in office of Darling & Pearson in 1924, and remained active with them up until the time of his death in Toronto on 30 April 1931 (biog. in Swiss National Society Montreal 1874-1949, 40; obituary in The Globe [Toronto], 1 May 1931, 12; Toronto Star, 1 May 1931, 30; R.A.I.C. Journal, viii, June 1931, 251; port. and biog. in R.A.I.C. Journal, xxii, Dec. 1945, 270)