WILSON, Arthur Gordon (1882- ) worked briefly in Edmonton and Calgary, Alta. in partnership with D.E. Herrald from 1907 until 1923 and together they can be credited with several landmark buildings in Strathcona and on the campus of the University of Alberta in Edmonton. Born in Scotland in 1882 Wilson studied at University College at Dundee from 1899 until 1901 when he entered the office of J. Murray Robertson, a leading architect in that city. In 1905 he joined James Findlay in Dundee who was successor to the practise of Robertson, and then emigrated to Canada in April 1906 where he settled at Winnipeg. Wilson briefly worked in the office of Stevenson & Patterson and it was there that he formed a partnership in May 1907 with D. Easton Herrald (Edmonton Daily Bulletin, 1 May 1907, 2). They moved their practise to Strathcona, Alberta in July 1908 and succeeded in obtaining several important commissions there for the Town Hall, the Fire Hall, and the mansion for the A.C. Rutherford, the Premier of Alberta. In 1910 they opened a branch office across the river in Edmonton to complete their work on First Presbyterian Church, a monumental late Gothic Revival design which was to be their only ecclesiastical commission. They were among twenty entrants who submitted a design in the competition for the University of British Columbia Campus Plan in Vancouver in 1912, but their scheme was not premiated. Wilson's name last appears in the 1916 Edmonton Directory when he held the post of government munitions inspector, and from 1920 until 1923 Wilson & Herrald maintained an office in Calgary, but no references to their work there can be found (R.I.B.A., Directory of British Architects 1834-1914, 2001, ii, 1021; inf. Dennis Person, Edmonton)
WILSON & HERRALD
WINNIPEG, MAN., extensive alterations and remodelling of the Winnipeg Theatre, Main Street near Portage Avenue, 1908 (Manitoba Free Press, 30 March 1908, 9, descrip.; 14 Nov. 1908, 25, descrip.; Winnipeg Daily Tribune, 15 Aug. 1908, 5, descrip.; 19 Dec. 1908, 26, descrip.)
(works in Edmonton and Strathcona)
JASPER AVENUE, stores and apartments for L.W. Blundell, 1908 (Edmonton b.p. 218, 11 May 1908)
ARCHIBALD BLOCK, Whyte Avenue West at First Street West, c. 1909 (C.R., xxiii, 12 May 1909, 38, t.c.; list of works in RIBA Application Form)
STRATHCONA TOWN HALL, Second Avenue at First Street West, 1909 (C.R., xxiii, 16 June 1909, 21, t.c.)
STRATHCONA FIRE HALL, First Avenue North near Main Street, 1909 (Evening Journal (Edmonton), 28 Aug. 1909, 1, descrip.)
SASKATCHEWAN DRIVE, at 111 Street, residence for Alexander C. Rutherford, now called Rutherford House, 1909-10 (C.R., xxiii, 3 Nov. 1909, 23; L. Maitland, The Queen Anne Revival Style in Canadian Architecture, 1990, 158, illus.)
13th STREET, residence for George H. Gowan, 1910 (Edmonton Daily Bulletin, 2 April 1910, 2)
SASKATCHEWAN DRIVE, residence for Maj. Guy W. Marriott, 1910 (C.R., xxiv, 13 April 1910, 28)
STRATHCONA, residence for Dr. Henry M. Tory 'on the campus of the University', now the Ring House Gallery, 1910 (C.R., xxiv, 18 May 1910, 28; dwgs. at the University of Alberta Archives)
STRATHCONA, residence for Dr. Adolph Lehman 'on the campus of the University', 1910 (C.R., xxiv, 18 May 1910, 28)
STRATHCONA, residence for Dr. William M. Edwards, 1st Avenue North, 1910 (C.R., xxiv, 18 May 1910, 28)
STRATHCONA, residence for Dr. William Kerr, Second Avenue, 1910 (C.R., xxiv, 18 May 1910, 28)
STRATHCONA, public school, 1910 (C.R., xxiv, 27 July 1910, 25)
STRATHCONA, residence for John W. Tipton, First Avenue South, 1910 (C.R., xxiv, 7 Sept. 1910, 27)
FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, 105th Street near 100th Avenue, manse, 1910; church 1911-12 (C.R., xxiv, 7 Sept. 1910, 27; Edmonton, Historical Walking Tours of Downtown Edmonton, 1988, 23, illus.)
STRATHCONA PUBLIC LIBRARY, Main Street at Second Avenue North, 1912 (C.R., xxvi, 31 Jan. 1912, 60, t.c.)
BAALIM BLOCK, Whyte Avenue, for James Watson & Co., 1912 (C.R., xxvi, 14 Feb. 1912, 70)
COMMERCIAL HOTEL, Whyte Avenue, major addition, 1912 (C.R., xxvi, 14 Feb. 1912, 70; Edmonton Daily Bulletin, 1 March 1912, 2, descrip.)
DOUGLAS BLOCK, Whyte Avenue near Main Street, 1912 (Strathcona Plaindealer, 14 June 1912, 1, t.c.)
(with Meyer J. Sturm) SOUTH SIDE CIVIC HOSPITAL, 112th Street, on the campus of the University, 1913-14 (C.R., xxvii, 5 March 1913, 70; Edmonton Bulletin, 26 June 1913, 5; Edmonton Capital, 22 Jan. 1914, 2, descrip.; First Fifty Years: A History of the University of Alberta Hospital, 1964, 6, illus.)
PRINCESS THEATRE & CINEMA, Whyte Avenue, 1914-15 (Edmonton Journal, 5 March 1915, 15, illus. & descrip.; Edmonton Daily Bulletin, 4 May 1914, 2, descrip.)