Charles Wheelock

This article is about the architect. For the engineer and alderman, see Charles F. Wheelock.

Charles W. Wheelock (born December 12, 1833 in Charlestown, Massachusetts; died September 24, 1910 in Alameda, California) was a noted early architect in Birmingham. The partnership he formed with his son Harry lasted until 1939 and employed many designers, such as S. Scott Joy, Eugene Knight, James A. Lewis and Hugh Martin, who contributed greatly to the city.

Wheelock worked as a carpenter and contractor before representing himself as an architect, with no apparent formal training. He married the former Eliza Manchester of Boonville, New York in 1853. They had five children, Charles F., George (1857), Jesse Manchester (1859), Harry Bert (1866), and Mary.

During the Civil War, Wheelock served as a Captain in the 97th New York Volunteers, a regiment commanded by a relative, a Colonel Charles Wheelock, who died in 1865 and is buried in Boonville.

After the war, Wheelock moved to New York City. Soon he had relocated to the newly-founded village of Emporia, Kansas and was elected to represent the 3rd Ward in the first City Council upon its incorporation in 1870.

He moved to Texas in the early 1870s and partnered with Jacob Larmour on several important commissions there. By the end of the decade he had relocated to Las Vegas, New Mexico where he established an office in the Jesuite Building. He encouraged a protégé, John Sorenson, to practice there before moving on.

In 1882 Wheelock came to Birmingham and quickly established himself as the young city's first architect of note.

By 1895 Wheelock was Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of the State of Alabama, Free and Accepted Masons.

Wheelock died while visiting Alameda, California in September 1910. His body was returned to Birmingham for burial.

Notable buildings

The Church of the Advent

• Education Institute, Denison, Texas, 1873
• Collin County Courthouse, McKinney, Texas, 1875
• Travis County Courthouse, Austin, Texas, 1876, with Jacob Larmour
• Lamar County Courthouse, Paris, Texas, 1876, with Jacob Larmour
• Austin College, 1876, Sherman, Texas
• Roden Block, 1880s
• Birmingham City Hall (rejected proposal), c. 1886
• Morris Adler residence, Highland Avenue, 1887
• Watts Building, 1888
• Jefferson County Courthouse, 1889, with Henry Wolters
• Steiner Building, 1890
• Church of the Advent, 1893
• Anheuser-Busch distribution center (office building), 1893
• Base for the Confederate Soldiers & Sailors Monument, 1894
• Southern Club, 1897
• Nabers, Morrow & Sinnige building, 1898
• Westover House (Walker Percy residence at 2217 Arlington Avenue), c. 1901
• Lakeview School, 2800 Clairmont Avenue, 1901, addition completed in 1909
• Birmingham Trust building, 1902
• Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company worker housing and company buildings at Muscoda, Wenonah and Potter, 1903
• Hillman Hospital, 1903
• First National Bank Building, 1903, with Willliam Weston

References

• Wilson, H. T. (c. 1880) Historical Sketch of Las Vegas, New Mexico. Chicago, Illinois: Hotel World Publishing
• "Jesse M. Wheelock" biography in An Illustrated History of New Mexico. (1895) Chicago, Illinois: Lewis Publishing Company, pp. 448-49
• Owen, Thomas McAdory and Marie Bankhead Owen (1921) History of Alabama and Dictionary of Alabama Biography. 4 volumes. Chicago, Illinois: S. J. Clarke Publishing Co.
• Browne, Catherine Greene (1992) The History of Forest Park. Birmingham: Cather Publishing Company

• Fazio, Michael W. (2010) Landscape of Transformations: Architecture and Birmingham, Alabama. Knoxville, Tennessee: University of Tennessee Press ISBN 9781572336872