Adelaide station (1925) a high point for Herbert Jackman, doyen of Australia's oldest architecture firm
The grand Adelaide Railway Station was an architectural triumph for Herbert Jackman and his brother Sydney.
Adelaide Railway Station is a monument to the dynamic era (1922-30) for South Australian Railways under the American William Alfred Webb but also a high point for the architecture of Herbert Jackman and what is now Australia’s oldest architecture firm: JPE Design Studio.
Kapunda-born Jackman had eight younger siblings including Sydney who also became an architect, working as the chief draughtsman in the Government Architect’s Office in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Educated at Caterer’s School at Glenelg and then Norwood, Jackman was articled to Adelaide architect Daniel Garlick of Daniel Garlick and Son in 1885.
Financial trouble and bad harvests in South Australia caused Jackman to move to the new town of Broken Hill where he had ample work. In 1891 Garlick’s son, Arthur, joined him as a partner before they returned to Adelaide where they formed the partnership of Garlick, Jackman and Garlick.
Jackman in 1899 took sole control of Garlick and Jackman that, interrupted only by his World War I service, has continued as English, Soward and Jackman or Garlick and Jackman and Gooden, continues in the 21st Century as JPE Design Studio.
Adelaide Railway Station, designed in 1925 with extensive output from his brother Sydney and based on New York’s Grand Central Terminal, was one of Jackman significant Adelaide buildings.
Others included the Tattersall’s Hotel, Hindley Street (1900), rebuilding of the Stag Hotel, Rundle Street (1902), Bowman’s Building, King William Street (1908), Charles Moore’s department store, Victoria Square (1913), and Hooper’s Furnishing Arcade, Hindley Street (1927-1930).