Los Angeles County
Biographies
JOHN CORNELEY WILSON AUSTIN
AUSTIN, JOHN CORNELEY WILSON, Architect, Los Angeles, California was born at Bodicote, near Banbury, Oxfordshire, England, February 13, 1870. He is the son of Richard Wilson Austin and Jane Elizabeth Austin of England. He has been married twice, the second marriage being in 1902, when he was wedded to Hilda Violet Mytton in Los Angeles. By the first marriage there is one child, Dorothy Austin, and by the second there are five children, Marjorie, Ada, William, Hilda and Angela.
Mr. Austin was educated in private schools of England and at various times was under the direction of a tutor. He went through an architectural apprentice course in England while studying in the offices of William S. Barwick, architect.
At the age of twenty-one, moved by a desire to see the world, he came to America, and settled at Philadelphia. This was in 1891, at which time he entered the employ of Benjamin Linfoot, one of the prominent architects of Philadelphia, with whom he remained for one year. He then returned to England, where he again went into the offices of the Barwick firm.
His stay in England was brief; three months after taking his position with the Barwick Company he again sailed for the United States. This time he continued west and crossed the continent, settling at San Francisco. He sought and found employment with the firm of William Mooser and C. J. Devlin, with whom he stayed for two and a half years. At the end of that period he returned to England, where he visited his relatives for three months.
On returning to San Francisco he went with his former employers, but the great rush to Los Angeles and Southern California was then attracting the attention of the entire country and Mr. Austin joined in the rush to that city. He arrived there in 1894 and has since made it his home.
Upon his arrival in Los Angeles Mr. Austin worked for several firms, among them being Morgan and Walls, but two years later opened offices for himself. From that date he gradually worked his way to the front and is now recognized as on of the leading architects in the West.
He has constructed everything from a mission style building to the most up-to-date and modern sky-scraper and has played a leading role in the rapid architectural development of Los Angeles and Southern California. His business extends all through the Southwest and embraces some of the most noted structures of the Pacific Coast. His work is represented east as far as Grand Rapids, Michigan, and in Arizona and Washington and British Columbia.
Among his best examples of construction are the following: Wright and Callender Building; the Potter Hotel, at Santa Barbara; the Virginia Hotel, of Long Beach; many local schools and churches; Madam Erskine M. Ross’ beautiful home at Vermont and Wilshire boulevards; the First Methodist churches of both Los Angeles and Pasadena; the California and Angelus Hospitals; Harvard Military School, Ontario High School, Grand Avenue School, Twelfth and E. Street Grammar School of San Diego; every building constructed in Del Mar; the Darby, Freemont, Leighton, Hershey Arms and Alvarado hotels of this city.
Besides his many business interests, which are scattered over a greater part of the State, he is deeply interested in the cause of the needy and is at the present time President of the L. A. Humane Society for Children; a member of the L. A. Chapter of the American Institute of Architects and an associate member of the national body. He is a member of the Jonathan Club and Sierra Madre Club of this city and of the L. A. Chamber of Commerce. He is a thirty-second degree Mason and a member of the Mystic Shrine, Al Malaikah Temple.
Transcribed
by Joyce Rugeroni.
Source: Press
Reference Library, Western Edition Notables of the West, Vol. I, Page 441,
International News Service, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles,
Boston, Atlanta. 1913.
© 2010 Joyce
Rugeroni.
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