Charles Henry OwsleyFAIA (1846–1935) was an English-born American
architect in practice in
Youngstown, Ohio, from 1872 until 1912.
Life and career
Charles Henry Owsley was born December 15, 1846, at Blaston Hall in
Blaston,
Leicestershire in
England to William Poyntz Mason Owsley and Henrietta Jane (Farrer) Owsley. He was educated at
Allesley Park College, a boys' school, in
Coventry, and at the age of 16 intended to pursue a career in the
Royal Navy. Owsley had difficulties on a trial voyage and deserted when the ship docked in a Welsh port. His father then arranged for Owsley, then aged 18, to be apprenticed to James Hoskins, an
Abergavenny contractor and builder. Owsley later claimed to have worked on projects designed by
Matthew Digby Wyatt and
George Gilbert Scott during his apprenticeship. He completed his apprenticeship in January of 1868. Following his marriage and the death of his father in the same year, Owsley and two of his brothers immigrated to
Canada, initially settling in
Toronto. In 1869 he moved to Ohio, purchasing land in
Weathersfield Township in
Trumbull County near Youngstown, and opened an office as an architect in 1872. His first major work was the second Mahoning County Courthouse in Youngstown, completed in 1876, and over the next decade developed a successful regional practice.[1]
In 1887 he formed a partnership with Swiss-born architect Louis Boucherle, who had worked for Owsley for about three years. During the same period Owsley directed his son,
Charles Frederick Owsley, towards an architectural career. After an education at the
University of Pennsylvania and the
École des Beaux-Arts in
Paris, the younger Owsley joined his father's office in 1905. In 1908 they began construction of the third Mahoning County Courthouse, replacing Owsley's courthouse of 1876. The new building reflected the younger Owsley's Beaux-Arts training, and he became a partner in the expanded firm of Owsley, Boucherle & Owsley in 1909. The new courthouse, completed in 1910, was Owsley's last major project as a principal architect.[1] Boucherle retired from the partnership in 1911,[2] followed by the elder Owsley in 1912. His son continued the office, but Owsley stayed active. He worked in his son's office, and when the firm was incorporated in 1920 as the Owsley Company, he became vice president. He retired fully
c. 1926.[1]
The majority of Owsley's work was in the Mahoning Valley area of Northeast Ohio and Western Pennsylvania, and several of his significant buildings remain in
Youngstown, Ohio,
Sharon, Pennsylvania, and
Salem, Ohio.[4]
Personal life and death
Owsley was married in 1868 in
Abergavenny to Mary Jane Williams.[1] They had five children, including
Charles Frederick Owsley (1880–1953). He was a parishioner of the First Presbyterian Church and a member of the Elks and the Masons. He died August 25, 1935, at home in Youngstown.[5]
Architectural works
Works by Charles H. Owsley, before 1912
Mahoning County Courthouse, Wick Ave and Wood St,
Youngstown, Ohio (1874–76, demolished)[1]
^"Charles H. Owsley, Architect, Dies at Youngstown Home" in Salem News, August 26, 1935, 1.
^
abcdLu Donnelly, H. David Brumble IV, and Franklin Toker, Buildings of Pennsylvania: Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2010)