Wilson, Charles | Biographical Dictionary of Architects in Canada

WILSON, Charles (1810-1863) of Glasgow, Scotland prepared an ambitious Gothic design and presentation model for a proposed Scottish Prebyterian Church, Ste. Anne Street, QUEBEC CITY, QUE. in 1849 (Gazette [Montreal], 12 July 1849, 2, descrip.). The intention was to erect a building for Rev. Cook 'on a commanding site' featuring a tower more than 200 feet high and seating to accommodate1400 parishioners, but this scheme by Wilson was never realized. The model, however, survives, and is held at St. Andrew's Church, Quebec City (L. Noppen & M. Grignon, l'art de l'architecte, 1983, 85-6, illus.; Canadian Centre for Architecture, The Use of Models: Ninteteenth-Century Church Architecture in Quebec, 1994, 20-1, illus.). This architect was best known in Glasgow for his designs for Glasgow Academy,1846, the Park Circus terrace and quadrant, 1855, and the Free Church at Trinity College, 1856 (obituary in The Builder [London], xxi, 7 March 1863, 173; Directory of British Architects 1834-1900, 1993, 1004).