WILLS, James William Urbane [Senior] (1834-1906), an early figure on the architectural scene in St. John's, Newfoundland. Born in Paignton, Co. Devon, England in 1834, he was educated and trained in England, but no information has been found on his architectural commissions before 1880. In 1883 he was listed as Clerk of Works for the major addition of the transepts and choir for St. John's Anglican Cathedral, ST. JOHN'S, NFLD., a work begun by Sir George Gilbert Scott in 1847 but destroyed in the Great Fire of 8 July 1892. Wills was a member of the Cathedral Works team but it is unclear if he had design responsibility for the additions made to the building. At the time of his departure from Newfoundland for England in 1886 he was noted as "...the architect of the Church of England Cathedral" in St. John's (Evening Telegram [St. John's], 12 May 1886, 4). He is likely the same 'Mr. Wills' who exhibited architectural drawings in 1884 at the Athenaeum Hall Art Exhibition in St. John's (Evening Telegram [St. John's], 8 May 1884, 4).
In late 1892 he returned to Canada from England, arriving in St. John's with his two sons Arthur J. Wills and James William Urbane Wills [Junior] and began work on the reconstruction of the Anglican Cathedral after the Great Fire in the city in July 1892 (Times & Commercial Gazette [St. John's], 5 Nov. 1892, 3). The extensive destruction of the commercial centre of the town provided Wills and his two sons with opportunities to design several distinctive landmarks in St. John's, including the Masonic Temple and St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, both executed in brick, an uncommon building material in the province. No reference to his work has been found after 1896. Wills Sr. later died in Bournemouth, England on 28 July 1906 (England & Wales, National Probate Calendar, 1906, p. 207; inf. from Shane O'Dea, St. John's)
J. WILLS & SONS
(works in St. John's, Newfoundland)
ST. JOHN'S ANGLICAN CATHEDRAL, addition of the transepts and choir, 1880-85; burned July 1892 and rebuilt (Evening Telegram [St. John's], 11 Aug. 1883, 1; t.c.; 6 Feb. 1885, 1, t.c.; Building News [London], xlix, 18 Sept. 1885, 446, descrip. and plate illus.)
DUCKWORTH STREET, at Victoria Street, a Club House, 1893 (Evening Herald [St. John's], 30 March 1893)
JAMES BAIRD & CO., Water Street, commercial block, 1893 (Evening Telegram [St. John's], 13 May 1893, 4, descrip.; 22 Jan. 1894, 4, descrip.)
SCOTLAND ROW, on Cathedral Hill, four brick buildings for an unnamed client, 1893 (Evening Telegram [St. John's], 22 May 1893, 1, t.c.)
DUCKWORTH STREET, at Gambier Street, shops and dwellings for Patrick O'Farrell, 1893 (Evening Telegram [St. John's], 29 May 1893, 4, descrip.)
WATER STREET, commercial block for T. & M. Winter, 1893 (Evening Telegram [St. John's], 30 May 1893, 1, t.c.)
ST. JOHN'S ANGLICAN CATHEDRAL, Church Hill, a rectory and clergy house for the Cathedral, 1893 (Evening Telegram [St. John's], 22 June 1893, 1, t.c.)
KEATING'S BUILDING, 1893 (Royal Gazette [St. John's], 24 June 1893)
CENTRAL FIRE STATION, 1893 (Evening Telegram [St. John's], 3 July 1893, 1, t.c.)
MASONIC TEMPLE, Cathedral Hill, 1894 (Evening Telegram [St. John's], 24 Aug. 1894, 4, illus. & descrip. Evening Herald [St. John's], 24 Aug. 1894, 3-4, illus. and detailed descrip.)
ST. ANDREW'S PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, Queen's Road, 1894-96 (Evening Telegram [St. John's], 22 May 1893, 1, t.c.; and 27 May 1893, 4, descrip.; Gazette [Montreal], 13 Sept. 1894, 6, descrip.; Newfoundland Quarterly, iv, March 1905, 2-3, illus. & descrip.)