Lt. Charles Arthur Julian Sharman

History

SHARMAN, Charles Arthur Julian (1874-1928) was born in Leighton Buzzard, Buckinghamshire, Engl. on 6 April 1874 and studied architecture in England and in Zurich, Switzerland. He served with an English regiment in the Boer War, then emigrated to Canada in 1901 and traveled to Alberta, finally selecting the town of Red Deer for his new home. He became a well-known rancher, raising prize-winning cattle and dairy cows on his property called 'Old Basing Farm'. He was also active as an architect there from 1908, designing several commercial, ecclesiastical and residential works for leading citizens of Red Deer including several buildings for Leonard Gaetz.

In 1912 Sharman, in association with Barnes & Gibbs of Edmonton, was commissioned by the Dept. of Indian Affairs in Ottawa to prepare a standard plan for an 8 room school house, a 6 room cottage plan, a farm residence, and a store and office plan to be used on Indian reservation sites throughout Western Canada. These schools and residence buildings were erected in several locations in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba (dwgs. Indian & Northern Affairs Canada, Ottawa, INAC File 266, 267, 268 and 269). That same year Sharman prepared an elaborate Edwardian design for the new federal Post Office in Red Deer, also in collaboration with Barnes & Gibbs (Red Deer Advocate, 11 Oct. 1912). Modeled on the Post Office in Strathcona, South Edmonton, only the foundations were constructed before the project was abandoned due to cost overruns and a severe economic downturn in Alberta. In April 1913 Sharman presented his proposal for a civic centre in Red Deer comprising a court house, city hall, public library, fire hall, and a federal armoury (Red Deer Advocate, 13 April 1913) but he was unable to obtain the commission to design these buildings with the exception of that for the Armoury Building, a collaboration with the staff architects in the federal Dept. of the Militia in Ottawa.

Following the outbreak of WWI he sold his entire herd and, although over military age, joined the Central Alberta Battalion and moved to England in May 1916 where he served as a lieutenant at Bramshott, and later with the Canadian Forestry Corps before returning to Alberta in late 1918. Few references to his activity as an architect can be found after this date, and he resumed farming operations on his property near Red Deer. He died there on 6 March 1928 (obit. Red Deer Advocate, 8 March 1928; biog. Who's Who & Why In Canada, 1913, 733; biog. and port. Red Deer News, 2 Dec. 1914, 5; biog. Henry Boam, The Prairie Provinces of Canada, 1914, 281; inf. Michael Dawe, Red Deer & District Museum & Archives). A lengthy retrospective article on the career of Sharman appeared in the Red Deer Advocate, 4 Dec. 1967, 2 & 13.

(works in Red Deer unless noted)

• LEONARD GAETZ MEMORIAL METHODIST CHURCH, Ross Street at 48th Avenue, 1909-10 (Red Deer News, 4 Aug. 1909, 8; 27 April 1910, 1; C.R., xxiii, 22 Sept. 1909, 21)
• GAETZ MFR. CO., 1st Avenue East at 1st Street North, major addition to factory, 1911 (Red Deer News, 23 Aug. 1911, 1)
• unnamed street, residence for Dr. Richard M. Parsons, major additions and alterations, 1912 (Red Deer News, 1 Jan. 1913, 4)
• MICHENER BLOCK, including Merchant's Bank, for Edward Michener, c. 1912 (Red Deer News, 2 Dec. 1914, 5, list of works in biography)
• unnamed street, residence for W.E. Lord, c. 1911 (inf. Red Deer Museum)
• BALMORAL SCHOOL, 1911 (inf. Red Deer Museum)
• (with Barnes & Gibbs) PRESBYTERIAN LADIES COLLEGE, 1911-12 (C.R., xxv, 23 Sept. 1911, 60, 6 Dec. 1911, 43, illus. & descrip.)
• RED DEER MEMORIAL HOSPITAL, major addition, 1912 (C.R., xxvi, 10 April 1912, 65)
• unnamed street, residence for Stanley N. Carscallen '..on the crest of the hill east of town', 1912 (Red Deer News, 1 Jan. 1913, 4, descrip.)
• RED DEER EXHIBITION GROUNDS, exhibition hall and grandstand for the Red Deer Agricultural Society, 1912 (Red Deer News, 1 Jan. 1913, 4, descrip.)
• ST. LUKE'S ANGLICAN CHURCH, 54th Street at 50th Avenue, a new Parish Hall for the church, 1912 (inf. Red Deer Museum)
• MOVING PICTURE HOUSE, located "north of the Red Deer News office", for F.N.V. Smith, 1919 (Red Deer News, 19 March 1919, 1)

Source: "Biographical Dictionary of Architects in Canada"

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