Background
Charles Wellington Davis was born in 1826 at Newburyport, Massachusetts, United States.
Charles Wellington Davis was born in 1826 at Newburyport, Massachusetts, United States.
He began his career in the east before leaving for California during the days of the Gold Rush. Arriving eventually in San Francisco, Mr. Davis settled there and began an architectural practice. During the twenty years he was active he was said to have planned many of the early public and business structures in the city, including the Jewish Synagogue on Sutter Street; Church of the Rev. Thomas Starr King, and the Robert Wait Block on Kearney Street.
In the early seventies Mr. Davis moved to the town of Santa Cruz, and a few years later, 1874, established an office in Los Angeles in the Downey Block. He continued practice there until the time of his death, the oldest architect (with the exception of E. F. Kysor) in Southern California.