Charles Wheelock

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

Charles H. Wheelock (born December 12, 1833 in Claremont, New Hampshire or Charlestown, Massachusetts; died September 24, 1910 in Alameda, California) was a noted early architect in Birmingham.

Wheelock was the son of Alfred and Sarah Rispah Almira Andrews Wheelock of New Hampshire. The family moved to New York during his childhood and he attended the public schools in Oneida County. He apprenticed as a carpenter and worked as a draftsman 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 F. (1857), Jesse Manchester (1859), Harry Bert (1866), and Mary.

During the Civil War, Wheelock served as Captain of Company I of the 117th Regiment of New York State Volunteers.. He attained the rank of Major prior to his discharge. After the war he moved first to New York City, and then to Kansas, where his fourth son, Harry was born. Soon he 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.

Wheelock moved to Texas in the early 1870s and partnered with Jacob Larmour on several important commissions there, including the Education Institute in Denison (1873), courthouses for Collin, Travis and Lamar counties (1875-1876) and Austin College in Sherman, Texas (1876). In 1887 he moved Mexico for a few years, and then settled in Las Vegas, New Mexico where he established an office in the Jesuit College building. He encouraged a protégé, John Sorenson, to practice there before moving on.

In late 1881 Wheelock came to Birmingham and quickly established himself as the young city's first architect of note. He opened an office in the Elyton Land Company Building and, by 1884, was working from an office in the McConnell Building on 2nd Avenue North. In 1890 he brought his son, Harry, into the partnership of Charles Wheelock & Son, later called Wheelock & Wheelock. By 1899 the firm had offices in the Steiner Building, which he had designed. The firm, which continued until 1939, employed many younger designers, such as S. Scott Joy, Eugene Knight, James A. Lewis and Hugh Martin, who also contributed greatly to the city.

On July 26, 1894 Wheelock traveled to Brazos County, Texas to remarry, to the widowed Anna Cassity Warren. His stepdaughter, Ada Warren Josephnthal, died the following year. The couple resided at 2321 5th Avenue North. Anna suffered fatal injuries from being trampled by a runaway horse and dray at the intersection of 5th Avenue and 21st Street on September 15, 1899.

By 1895 Wheelock was a 32nd degree Mason of Grand Lodge of Alabama of the Free and Accepted Masons and also a Right Eminent Grand Commander of the Knights Templars, and a member of the Zamora Shrine Temple. He was crowned as Rex Vulcan VI during Birmingham's 1901 Mardi Gras ball. He also served as a member of the vestry of the Episcopal Church of the Advent, as a director of the Berney National Bank, and as president of the Jefferson County Building & Loan Association.

In 1902 Mayor William Drennon appointed Wheelock to chair a committee to propose revisions to the city's building and plumbing codes. He retired from practice in 1904, leaving his sons Harry and George to run the firm.

In 1908 Wheelock moved to Alameda, California and resided at 1118 College Avenue, where later took ill. He died there in September 1910. His body was returned to Birmingham for burial at Oak Hill Cemetery. The Charles Wheelock Chapter No. 158 of York Rite Masons was named in his honor.

Notable buildings

For the works of Charles Wheelock & Son and Wheelock & Wheelock, see those entries.

References

External links

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