WHITTEN, Roscoe Benjamin (1876-1935) was active in Sydney, Nova Scotia from 1900 until after 1907 when he appears to have left the Maritimes and moved to Western Canada. Born in Boston on 5 February 1876, he received his architectural education at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston and first advertised his services from an office on that campus (Sydney Record, 8 Aug. 1900, 2; C.A.B., xiv, Jan. 1901, 8). It is likely that he was a student of the prominent Boston architect and author Russell C. Sturgis with whom he was to later collaborate on the design of the Cape Breton Yacht Club in 1901. By early 1901 he was residing in Sydney and submitted plans in the competition for the Sydney Court House, but his design was not premiated and the firm of Elliot & Hopson was later declared the winner (Sydney Record, 12 April 1901, 5).
In 1903 Whitten formed a partnership with Richard A. Johnson and advertised their office as the '......successors to the Hopson Brothers, Architects' (Sydney Record, 24 June 1903, 3). This relationship was shortlived, and by May of 1904 Whitten was again working under his own name as a designer associated with the Chappell Brothers & Co., a successful contracting and building firm in the Cape Breton region (Sydney Record, 6 May 1904, 3). Whitten moved away from Sydney after 1907 and no references to his work can be found until 1911 when he appeared in Calgary, Alberta and later formed a partnership with George A. Oman in 1913 (Const., vi, Aug. 1913, 313). It is possible that he was persuaded to move to Calgary by Herbert A. Magoon, a successful Alberta architect who had worked in Sydney, N.S. in 1900-01. Whitten appears to have left Calgary in late 1914 (biography in M. Rosinski, Architects of Nova Scotia: A Biographical Dictionary, 1994, 224). He died in Melrose, Massachusetts in late February 1935 (obit. Sydney Post-Record, 27 Feb. 1935, 3).
R.B. WHITTEN (works in Nova Scotia)
SYDNEY, N.S., residence for Howard Ross, Colby Road, 1900 (Sydney Record, 15 Aug. 1900, 5, descrip.)
SYDNEY, N.S., Rosslyn Indoor Skating Rink, Pitt Street, 1900 (Evening Mail [Halifax], 18 Aug. 1900, 8)
WOODSTOCK, N.B., Skating Rink, 1900 (Sydney Record, 15 Aug. 1900, 3)
(with R. Clipston Sturgis, Boston) CAPE BRETON YACHT CLUB, 1901 (Sydney Record, 15 April 1901, 3, descrip.)
GLACE BAY, N.S., King's Theatre, 1903 (Sydney Record, 2 March 1903, 5)
(with R.A. Johnson) SYDNEY, N.S., St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church (later the United Baptist Church), Charlotte Street at Townsend Street, 1903 (dwgs. at the Beaton Institute, Sydney)
(with R.A. Johnson) SYDNEY MINES, N.S., commercial block for John McCormack, 1903 (C.R., xiv, 22 July 1903, 2)
(with R.A. Johnson) SYDNEY MINES, N.S., a theatre, 1903 (C.R., xiv, 22 July 1903, 2)
GLACE BAY, N.S., Knox Presbyterian Church, Commercial Street, 1904 (Sydney Record, 25 March 1904, 7, t.c.; and 30 Jan. 1905, 1, descrip.; dwgs. at the Beaton Institute, Sydney)
SYDNEY, N.S., Masonic Hall, Esplanade at Dorchester Street, 1905 (Sydney Record, 28 June 1905, illus. & descrip.)
SYDNEY RIVER, N.S., Riverside Asylum, 1905 (C.R., xvi, 28 June 1905, 2, t.c.; dwgs. at PANS)
SYDNEY, N.S., Cape Breton Hospital, King's Road, 1906 (Sydney Record, 24 April 1906, 3, descrip.)
SYDNEY, N.S., St. James Presbyterian Church, Victoria Road at Matilda Street, 1906 (Sydney Record, 26 Oct. 1906, 1, illus. & descrip.; dwgs. at the Beaton Institute, Sydney)
GLACE BAY, N.S., Post Office and Customs House, 1907 (Canada, Sessional Papers, 1909, Report of the Chief Architect, No. 19, 4)
R.B. WHITTEN (works in Alberta)
BASSANO, ALTA., The Watson Block, stores and offices for G.F. Watson, 2nd Avenue, located "...between the Eureka Theatre and the J.H. Stiles Building", 1912 (Bassano News, 22 Feb. 1912, 5, descrip.; and 4 April 1912, 4, descrip.; C.R., xxvi, 20 March 1912, 69)
BASSANO, ALTA., The Berkeley Hotel, 1912; demol. (Bassano News, 4 April 1912, 8)
CALGARY, ALTA., store for Bert Stringer, 8th Avenue S.W., 1912 (Calgary News Telegram, 17 Aug. 1912, 24)
CALGARY, ALTA., Anderson Apartments, a large apartment block for Victor Anderson, 18th Avenue at 17th Street West, 1912-13 (Calgary News Telegram, 31 Aug. 1912, 30; C.R., xxvii, 12 Feb. 1913, 64, illus.)
CALGARY, ALTA., apartment house for W.W. Duncan, 25th Avenue, 1912 (Calgary News Telegram, 31 Aug. 1912, 30)
CALGARY, ALTA., Fairey Apartments, 2nd St. S.E. at 4th Avenue, 1913 (Calgary News Telegram, 22 March 1913, 26)
CALGARY, ALTA., residence at Lake View Heights for N.J. Flesher, 1913 (Calgary News Telegram, 19 June 1913, 9, illus.)