FREEMAN, Joshua Eugene (1865-1956) of San Francisco, Calif. was credited with the design of the Methodist Church at Union, B.C. in 1894. The following year he designed Beaufort House, Cumberland, B.C. (1895-96). This lavish Shingle-style mansion served as a summer residence and headquarters for Robert Dunsmuir, the wealthy coal magnate whose principal residence, Craigdarroch Castle, was built in 1885-90 in nearby Victoria, B.C. (D. Luxton, Building the West: The Early Architects of British Columbia, 2003, 226-7, 500). Freeman was born in Boston, Mass. on 31 May 1865 and lived and worked in San Francisco for the duration of his professional career. His best known work there is the mansion for Alexander Dunsmuir, Peralta Oaks Court, in Oakland, Calif., 1899, a sprawling Colonial Revivial residence now listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. Freeman died in San Francisco on 2 June 1956.
UNION, B.C. [later renamed Cumberland, B.C.], Grace Methodist Church, 1894 (Nanaimo Free Press, 20 April 1894, 1, descrip.; Christian Guardian [Toronto], 2 May 1894, 276)
UNION, B.C. [later renamed Cumberland, B.C.], residence for F.D. Little, 1895 (Weekly News [Union], 23 April 1895, 8)
CUMBERLAND, B.C., Beaufort House, a mansion for Robert Dunsmuir, 1895-96; demol. (D. Luxton, Building the West: The Early Architects of British Columbia, 2003, 226-7, 500)
OAKLAND, CALIF., a mansion for Alexander Dunsmuir, Peralta Oaks Court, 1899 (D. Gebhard et al, A Guide to Architecture of San Francisco & Northern California, 1976, 300; USA, National Register of Historic Places)