Daniel Garlick was a prolific and prominent architect during the establishment and development of the colony of South Australia. Described in the Register (1899) as ‘A Pioneer of the Forties’, he accepted numerous commissions for a wide range of building types in and around Adelaide as well as in nearly every township north of the capital. His partnership with Herbert Louis Jackman was the basis of the present day JPE, South Australia’s oldest surviving continuously practising architectural firm.
Daniel Garlick, son of Moses Bendle Garlick and Heather Rachel (nee Smith), was born on 20 January 1818 in Gloustershire, England, and arrived in Adelaide on the Katherine Stewart Forbes on 17 October 1837 (Morgan and Gilbert 1969). He was accompanied by his father, brothers (Thomas and William) and sister. He married Mrs Lucy Poole (nee King) in 1861 (Biographical Index 1986) and they had three sons, Arthur, John, and Reginald, and one daughter. After his first wife’s death in 1871 he married Mrs Martha Abbott in 1877.
Moses Garlick set up business with his sons in Kermode Street, North Adelaide in 1841, as builders and timber merchants (Morgan and Gilbert 1969). Daniel was practising as an architect by November 1853 (Jensen and Jensen 1980) and continued there until 1855, when the family moved to Munno Para East, east of Smithfield (Observer 1902), in an effort to find an environment more suited to Daniel’s poor health. Daniel set up offices in Murray Street, Gawler, during 1855. His projects included villas, cottages, country houses, shops, churches and chapels for the town and the countryside.
Daniel Garlick visited England for a year and on his return to South Australia continued working as an architect, in partnership briefly with George Abbott of Bridge Street, Norwood, who operated from an Angas Street office. They undertook commissions in Adelaide and the suburbs (Collins and Garnaut 2002). By 1866 Garlick was established as a sole practitioner and a land and estate agent with offices in Register Chambers, Adelaide. In 1869, as his commissions increased, he went into partnership with William McMinn, as Garlick and McMinn, but the partnership dissolved the following year when McMinn was appointed Overseer of Government Works (Nayda 1981).
A sole practitioner between 1870 and 1882, Garlick admitted his son Arthur as a partner in 1882 after the latter had completed articles with his father. In 1885 Herbert Louis Jackman was also articled to Garlick. Arthur left the practice of Garlick and Son in about 1891 for Broken Hill, a mining town near the border of New South Wales and South Australia. The building trade went into recession soon after so Jackman also moved to Broken Hill joining in partnership with Arthur Garlick. But industrial troubles brought building works to a halt in Broken Hill and both Jackman and Arthur Garlick returned to Adelaide in about 1892 to join Daniel Garlick as Garlick, Jackman and Garlick. In 1889 Arthur Garlick left the practice, which became Garlick and Jackman. Following Daniel Garlick’s retirement in 1900 Jackman retained his (Garlick’s) name in the firm’s title but operated as a sole practitioner until 1936.
Eight days before his death at age 84 on 28 September 1902, Garlick established a partnership with Harry Evan Sibley. It was known as Garlick and Sibley. Notification of the firm’s formation appeared in the Register, 29 September 1902, on the same day as Garlick’s funeral notice. Sibley continued the business as Garlick & Sibley (Lapins 1982).
Garlick contributed to various professional bodies. In 1858 he attended the first meeting of the South Australian Society of Architects, Engineers and Surveyors with eighteen others in associated fields (Sarvas 1998). He was a founding member of the South Australian Institute of Architects (SAIA) (Morgan and Gilbert 1969), and an inaugural councillor in 1886. He served as second President of the SAIA between 1892 and 1900 (Pikusa 1986). As a result of these roles, he was named ‘Patron’ and the ‘Grand old Man’ of the architects of South Australia (Lapins 1982).
Garlick held several roles in local government. He was the first Chairman of the District Council of Munno Para East between 1855 and 1860 (Observer 1902, Pikusa 1986). He represented Robe Ward, in the Adelaide City Council, between 1868 and 1870 (Pikusa 1986) but his public life ended after that owing to the pressure of private business (Observer 1902).
Garlick’s portfolio of works included various building types. As a sole practitioner and in his partnerships he designed an extensive number of churches and banks including the imposing National Bank (1883) on O’Connell Street, North Adelaide (AHPI). One of his earliest commissions was Para Para (1851), a residence for Walter Duffield, near Gawler. He designed the Malt House built in 1872 for the Old Lion Brewery, which had opened the previous year in North Adelaide, as well as brewery buildings in Clare in the mid-north of the state (AHPI). Other North Adelaide commissions included the St Peters Anglican Church Office for St Barnabas Theological College (1881-2) at 14-20 King William Road and a dwelling (1867) at 110 Barnard Street. He designed a two-storey women’s refuge at Kent Town in 1886, and in the same year he and his son Arthur commenced drawings for a commercial development at 150-154 Rundle Street for Samuel George Smith. This red brick building combined with elaborate stucco decoration is unusual for South Australia due to its Edwardian commercial style (AHPI).
Other buildings designed by Garlick include G. & R. Wills Warehouse (1878), at 203-207 North Terrace, Adelaide, the Queens Chambers (1869), at 19 Pirie Street, Adelaide, which was described in 1869 as a ‘suite of offices’ for G.W. Cotton (AHPI), and the original buildings at Prince Alfred College (PAC), 23 Dequetteville Terrace, Kent Town, for the Wesleyan church. The construction of PAC began in 1868 and additions were designed between 1876 and 1878 (Page 1986). Although McMinn is thought to have had a major influence on the Prince Alfred College design (Jensen and Jensen 1980), building works for the extensions were finished when Garlick was a sole practitioner. In 1878 Garlick also undertook works for St Peter’s College at Hackney following his success in a design competition for that project (Observer 1902).
Garlick designed churches including the Norwood Wesleyan Methodist Church, hall and front fence (1874) at 239 The Parade, Norwood (AHPI), the Wesleyan Church (1874), at Chapel Street, Magill (Lapins 1982), St. John’s Church Hall, 10-14 St. Johns Street, Adelaide, the Uniting Church and Church Hall, 90-92a Jetty Road, Glenelg, designed in 1878 and built in 1880 (Lapins 1982), and St Cyprians Anglican Church, 70 Melbourne Street, North Adelaide (1882-3) (AHPI). In 1883 Garlick and Son designed a Wesleyan Methodist Church, school and lecture hall in Archer Street, North Adelaide, and churches at Aldgate (1883) for the Wesleyan Church Trustees. Garlick was engaged for an interstate ecclesiastical commission in Brisbane in 1887 after winning first prize in a design competition (Lapins 1982).
Albert Terrace (1880) at 204-218 Carrington Street, Adelaide was built during a period of boom in South Australia. Designed by Garlick as nine houses with Italianate detailing, it was intended as accommodation for wealthier income groups living in the city of Adelaide. A significant Garlick building that is no longer extant is the CML Building (1880) in King William Street demolished in 1953 (Burden 1983).
Garlick produced works that are considered key buildings in early Adelaide and its country towns. Many have been identified as being of state or of local significance. They have been listed for their association with Garlick and for their demonstration of themes related to the colony’s economic and social foundation, and to the growth and endeavour of numerous ecclesiastical, commercial and educational institutions. A number have been noted as marking the introduction of various architectural styles to the young colony.
Christine Sullivan
Citation details
Sullivan, Christine, 'Garlick, Daniel’, Architecture Museum, University of South Australia, 2008, Architects of South Australia: [http://www.architectsdatabase.unisa.edu.au/arch_full.asp?Arch_ID=16] | 
Architects of South Australia, Copyright 2008, Updated regularly