WEST, Charles Welsford (1858-1934) was educated and trained as an engineer but advertised himself as an architect in Halifax from 1903 to 1911. Born there on 15 July 1858 he moved to New York City in 1875 or 1876 and conducted railway survey work in Brazil as well as water mapping studies of the Hudson River. By 1894 he had returned to Halifax and joined MacDonald Co. Ltd. as staff engineer and architect. One of his first commissions was the design of the substantial complex for the Crystal Springs Brewery, Longard Street at Macara Street, Halifax, for C.W. Hayward & Co. (1893-94). By 1903 he had opened dual offices in Halifax and Boston as an architect and consulting engineer. Much of his work was commissioned by the Halifax diocese of the Roman Catholic church; his most substantial project was for the Romanesque chapel at Mount St. Vincent Academy (now University) at Rockingham in north Halifax (1903-05), a major commission one would normally have expected to come from the hand of an experienced ecclesiastical architect working in Quebec City or Montreal. In 1912 he moved to Saint John, N.B. to continue his practice, but no references to his work have been found after 1918. He died in Brookline, Massachusetts in 1934 (biog. and port. Halifax Herald, 11 June 1903, 12; biog. & port. Evening Mail [Halifax], 11 June 1903, 3; biog. at NAC, MG28 I 277, papers of the Canadian Society of Civil Engineers; M. Rosinski, Architects of Nova Scotia, 1994, 223). His son was Welsford A. West, architect.
HALIFAX, N.S., Crystal Springs Brewery, Longard Street at Macara Street, for C.W. Hayward & Co., 1893-94 (Halifax Herald, 19 Jan. 1894, 8, detailed descrip.; Evening Mail [Halifax], 19 Jan. 1894, 6, detailed architectural descrip.)
HALIFAX, N.S., Monastery of the Good Shepherd, Quinpool Road near Windsor Street, laundry & boiler house, 1903-04; chapel, 1906-07; (Evening Mail [Halifax], 21 March 1904, 1 and 2; Morning Chronicle [Halifax], 19 Sept. 1903, 5;)
HALIFAX, N.S., St. Mary's Roman Catholic College, Windsor Street at Quinpool Road, 1903 (Evening Mail [Halifax], 6 July 1903, 3, descrip.)
HALIFAX, N.S., a new clubhouse for the Halifax Rowing Club, on the North West Arm, 1903-04 (Evening Mail [Halifax], 19 Sept. 1903, 12)
HALIFAX, N.S., chapel and annex for Mount St. Vincent Academy, Bedford Highway. 1903-05 (Morning Chronicle [Halifax], 28 July 1905; Evening Mail [Halifax], 19 July 1906, 1 & 10, detailed architectural descrip.)
HALIFAX, N.S., St. Mary's Roman Catholic Boys School, Grafton Street, opposite Grafton Park, 1904 (Evening Mail [Halifax], 24 March 1904, 9; and 4 Feb. 1905, 1 & 2; Report of the Board of School Commissioners for Halifax, 1905, 9, illus.)
HALIFAX, N.S., chapel for Holy Heart Roman Catholic Seminary, Quinpool Road, 1906-07; Seminary annex, 1908-09 (Halifax Herald, 16 Feb. 1906, 8, t.c.; Halifax Daily Echo, 4 April 1906, 1, descrip.; Const., ii, Dec. 1908, 67)
SAINT JOHN, N.B., St. Vincent Roman Catholic Girl's High School, Cliff Street, 1917-18 (C.R., xxxii, 30 Jan. 1918, 74-5, illus. & descrip.)