Wright & Sanders

It was established in 1858 in Victoria, British Columbia, by John Wright, the first professional architect to practice in the province.

Wright retired from practice in 1895, followed by Sanders c. 1906, about the time the firm's office, and much of its built work, was destroyed by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.

[1][2][3] Wright & Sanders practiced in Victoria for the next six years, designing a variety of buildings including houses, churches and Congregation Emanu-El, the oldest synagogue on the west coast of North America.

In 1866 they entered and won an architectural competition to design the new Asylum for the Deaf, Dumb and Blind in Berkeley, California.

In 1868 they also won a competition to design the new campus of the University of California, Berkeley, but refused the job over a compensation dispute.

In addition to churches, they designed houses for men like Mark Hopkins Jr. and Alfred A. Cohen, the campus of the San Francisco Theological Seminary, the Napa State Hospital, Lick Observatory on Mount Hamilton and some of San Francisco's earliest skyscrapers.

The firm kept up their Victoria connections and late in their partnership they were commissioned to design the Great Western Hotel, plans for which were completed but the project was ultimately canceled due to local conditions and the panic of 1893.

The earthquake and ensuing fires destroyed the firm's drawings and records as well as a large part of their built work.

[1][3] In 1881 Wright was a founding member of the Pacific Coast Association of Architects (PCAA), a San Francisco-based organization, and was elected its first vice president.

It was during this period that Wright was superintending construction of Thomas' Guelph City Hall, and the men may have met on the building site.

On Independence Day, about two months later, Mrs. Sanders drowned when the gangway connecting the Oakland Long Wharf and the El Capitan collapsed.

[10][11][5] At least two notable San Francisco architects, Bernard Maybeck and George Applegarth, worked for Wright & Sanders.