Background
Charles Coker Wilson was born in 1864 at Harrisville, United States.
Charles Coker Wilson was born in 1864 at Harrisville, United States.
He received a technical education at the State College, and in 1888 completed a post graduate course in Mechanical and Civil Engineering. After being employed for a decade on Engineering projects, Mr. Wilson decided to take up Architecture, and went to Paris for two years of study at the Ecole des Beaux Arts.
Upon his return to this country the young man entered the New York office of Carrere & Hastings and as draftsman gained valuable experience in designing some of the important works of the firm.
Early in his architectural career Mr. Wilson gained a reputation as a specialist in the field of educational buildings, and in addition to schools and colleges he designed in his native state, were others built in Georgia, Alabama and Virginia. Among notable examples of these were four buildings at the University of South Carolina, also McClintock and Alumni Hall at the Women s College; Judson Hall, Furman University, in Greenville, S. C.; buildings at the Presbyterian College in Clinton, S. C., and the entire campus at Coker College, Hartsvilie, S. Cā all commissions received prior to 1920. Later works include nine buildings at Meredith College, Raleigh, N. C., and four Professors' houses at Chicora College.
Mr. Wilson was also chosen to design numerous Grade and High Schools (said to number more than fifty) in the southern states. Among the more important were the Grade School at Darlington, S. C., which attracted wide attention and the design copied in other schools; Central Grammer School, Jacksonville, Fla., illustrated in the American School Board Journal; and the Greenwood, S. C., High School, much publicized in architectural and school magazines.
Although Mr. Wilson's major works were schools, he also was successful in designing Hospitals. During the 1920's he was commissioned architect of the Gastonia (N. C.) City Hospital; Alachua County Hospital in Gainesville, Fla., Thompson Memorial Hospital, Lumberton, N. C. (1926); Halifax District Hospital, Daytona Beach, Fla., and St. Luke's Hospital in Tryon, N.C.
Elected an Associate of the A. I. A. in 1905, Mr. Wilson was raised to Fellowship in 19M, and in 1922 was one of the co-founders of the South Carolina Chapter, A. I. A. He was also a charter member of the State Association of Architects.