Mitchell, Charles R.

MITCHELL, Charles R. (fl. 1902-11) was active in Montreal from 1907 where he was in partnership with Herbert Raine. Both designers had moved to Canada from London, England where they had maintained an office from 1902 to 1907. Mitchell was a pupil of William Curlett, a leading architect in San Francisco, Calif. In 1899 he entered the office of Sir Aston Webb in London and while there, he met Herbert Raine, another draftsman with the firm. Both formed a partnership in London in 1902, and in 1903 the firm of Mitchell, Raine & Payne received Fifth Prize in the competition for the new City Hall in Durban, South Africa in 1903 (D. Picton-Seymour, Victorian Buildings in South Africa, 1977, 251-2). With the endorsement and support of Percy Nobbs both decided to emigrate to Canada in 1907 where they collaborated on several projects. In September 1907 Mitchell & Raine were among seven invited competitors who submitted designs for the new Parliament Buildings in Regina, Sask. Their scheme was not premiated, but their drawings, showing an elaborate Renaissance Revival design, have survived and are now in the possession of the Saskatchewan Archives Board (Const., i, May 1908, 42-7, illus.; Historic Architecture of Saskatchewan, 1986, 80, illus.; dwgs. at SAB, Regina). The firm last appears in Montreal directories in 1910; Raine began to work under his own name, but it is uncertain whether Mitchell returned to England or the United States after this time (ANQM, Prov. of Quebec Association of Architects Records, letter from C.R. Mitchell to Percy Nobbs, 4 June 1907)