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Scottish born architect, sole practitioner Thomas Smeaton was equally as well-known for his political career and public life as he was for his architectural career.
Thomas Hyland Smeaton was born on 8 July 1857 in Glasgow, Scotland, the second son of Thomas Smeaton and Margaret Smeaton (nee Brown). His father was a building contractor (‘Death of Colonel Smeaton’ 1927: 61) and soldier (Hyams 2013). Thomas attended the Free Church Normal Seminary, Glasgow as a boy. This was followed by a science course as an evening student at Anderson's University (now University of Strathclyde) as well as studying art at the government run Glasgow School of Art. He reportedly received tutelage under Alexander ‘Greek’ Thompson (1817-1875) (‘Mr Smeaton, MP (Torrens)’ 1912: 5; ‘Death of Colonel Smeaton’ 1927: 61; ‘Biographical Sketches’ 1915: 10). He was also articled to Glasgow architect Robert McCallum (‘Biographical Sketches’ 1915: 10; ‘R McCallum’ 2014).
Smeaton appears to have worked as an apprentice stonecutter and builder (Hyams 2013; ‘Sturt’ 1915: 9; Coxon et al 1985: 206), although the dates are unclear and was a member of the Glasgow Operative Masons Union in 1874 (aged seventeen) (‘Sturt’ 1915: 9;). He worked for his father for twelve months following his articles (‘Death of Colonel Smeaton’ 1927: 61) and is said to have worked as a foreman for a London building firm at age twenty (that is, in 1877) (Hyams 2013). The Chronicle newspaper reported that his health suffered during his time in London and he was ‘ordered to a milder climate’ (‘Death of Colonel Smeaton’ 1927: 61). This coincides with a downturn in the building industry in his home town of Glasgow. Postgate, in The Builders’ History (1923), writes: ‘Just as the boom had passed its height in the autumn of 1878, … the City of Glasgow Bank failed for twelve million pounds. The whole Scottish building trade ceased, paralysed for seven years. Master builder after master builder was ruined.’
Smeaton arrived in Adelaide, South Australia in 1879 and was employed by the South Australian government as a clerk of works. He later worked in a private firm, quite possibly for Daniel Garlick (as Garlick co-supervised revised Smeaton’s first major solo architectural work – the YMCA building) (‘The Young Men’s Christian Association’ 1884: 34-5). On 8 July 1884, his 27th birthday, Thomas Smeaton married Jessie Saxby, youngest daughter of John Saxby of Adelaide (‘Marriages’ 1884: 4).
By 1882 Smeaton was practising as an architect on his own, winning the competition to design the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) building on the corner of Grenfell Street and Gawler Place, Adelaide. Smeaton's design was chosen by the YMCA on 3 May 1883 and by the end of August the building tender of Messrs C Farr and Sons was accepted and work was commenced ‘under the supervision of Messrs D Garlick and TH Smeaton’ (‘The Young Men’s Christian Association’ 1884: 34-5). The extensive shops, warehouse and premises for the YMCA covered nearly three-quarters of an acre and was three storeys high. The warehouse was occupied by Messrs Goode, Durrant, Tite and Co., and the street and basement floors were leased as shops and cellars. The YMCA portion of the building along Gawler Place comprised an entrance vestibule and staircases, a hall to seat 1000 people, reception rooms, reading rooms, secretary’s rooms, two parlours, a dining room for 200 and a gymnasium. It cost £27,000. The facade was classically styled and the interior was ‘richly ornamented throughout’ with ‘panels, mouldings, niches for statues, and pilasters … The ceiling [was] panelled and ornamented with two handsome centre flowers … The steps [were] of Sicilian marble.’ The hall was 97 feet x 45 feet, with the daylight ‘obtained entirely from the roof [and] [s]o that the full glare of sunlight should not be felt in the hall an inner framing for ornamental glass [was] introduced, softening the light and giving a rich appearance to the ceiling’ (‘The Young Men’s Christian Association’ 1884: 34-5). Later, in 1895, Smeaton carried out alterations to allow for an upgrade to the gymnasium facilities (‘A New Gymnasium’ 1895: 5).
His next major commission was in country South Australia. The Moonta Town Hall on Yorke Peninsula was originally designed as the Moonta Institute by Smeaton and opened in 1885 (‘Opening of the Moonta Institute’, 1885: 2). Standing on the corner of Henry and George Streets, the two-storey classically styled building is of limestone with cement facings. The corner tower rose to three storeys and was surmounted by a mansard roof (it was subsequently replaced in 1906-7 by a clock tower and domed roof (‘Town Hall, Moonta’ AHPI).
In June 1886 Smeaton, having been appointed as secretary of the YMCA in Christchurch, New Zealand, left South Australia to take up this posting (‘Fifty Years Ago’ 1936: 17). By January 1891 he had returned Adelaide and had become vocal with regards to the village settlement scheme in New Zealand, writing to the Advertiser newspaper on the subject (‘Village Settlements in New Zealand’1891: 6).
Following his return he took up his architectural practice again in 1892, entering a competition to design a new fire station for The Metropolitan Fire Brigade in Adelaide for £3000. Of the seven entries, Smeaton was successful with his design for a two-storey brick building featuring terracotta and cement dressings, extensive balcony and timber decorative work. A relatively large building, it stood on Wakefield Street, Adelaide and accommodated five families, seven single men and the superintendent, as well as an engine room, horse stabling and a yard (‘New Fire Brigade Building’ 1892: 6). The following year, Smeaton worked closely with the Director of Way College, Mr Grasby, to design new classrooms (1893). A red brick building with white bands above and below the window arches, it provided accommodation for eight classrooms and a school hall (‘Way College’ 1893: 7).
One of Smeaton’s main concerns was the unemployed and their plight. This was especially germane during the later years of the nineteenth century when homelessness and destitution were significant problems in South Australia. Smeaton's suggestion to help the unemployed was through the setting up of village settlements, similar to those he had observed in New Zealand. This he suggested to William Crooks as a philanthropic enterprise and in 1893, Crooks bought land near Woodville on which to settle unemployed families. The land was to be known as the Gordon Homestead Settlements and was at Cheltenham and Finsbury, either side of the railway line. Model cottages were designed by Smeaton and were timber framed with textured walls of ‘expanded metal steel fire-proof lathing … “rough coated” with hair mortar … topped with a cement dressings, and then finished with sharp pebbles, rough sand, and cement’ internal walls of lath and plaster with a cavity in between. These cottages sat on ‘a foundation of wooden blocks inserted into the ground about a foot’ (‘Homestead Settlements on the Plains’, 1893: 7). These cottages were set on two to four acres each and provided at a minimal rent so as to allow the families to work the land, using it for fruit trees, cows, pigs, fowl, and lucerne. Later, village settlements were set up on the River Murray (‘The Unemployed’ 1894: 6).
Smeaton's work was selected in 1895 when the Trades and Labour Council called for designs for a Trades Hall to be located in Grote Street, Adelaide. The two-storeyed classical building facade was constructed of Mitcham stone with cement dressings, with columns and pilasters in the Doric order on the ground floor and the Ionic above. The rear portion of the building was of brick. A central pediment surmounted a balcony above the principal entrance. The building contained offices, a hall, reading room, and committee rooms (‘The Trades Hall’ 1895: 41). Its construction was praised as ‘an excellent object lesson of the value of fairly paid labour and reasonable hours of work’, (‘The Trades Hall Building’ 1895: 2) - something Smeaton would campaign for throughout his political career.
On Rundle Street, Adelaide, Smeaton designed a new suite of buildings for Griffiths Brothers Proprietary Ltd, a four-storey 75-foot high warehouse and retail space for tea and coffee including a three-storey building for the coffee roasting department at the rear. The ornate brick building featured cement cornices and mouldings. The entablatures on the front were ‘artistically decorated, the gold lettering standing out conspicuously, while the background [was] tastefully picked out with scrollwork and foliage’ (‘An Enterprising Firm’ 1901: 8). ‘The shop itself [was] beautifully decorated and dressed, containing a cedar counter with a large glass case showing cocoa in all stages of manufacture … The floor [was] tiled with blocks of an artistic pattern, and numerous mirrors and oil paintings of Ceylon and Indian scenery and tea plantations’ (‘An Enterprising Firm’ 1901: 8).
Smeaton completed smaller projects as well as the larger halls and new buildings. One of these, alterations for Fred Bricknell to transform premises in Rundle Street, Adelaide into tea and refreshment rooms was an example. These were redecorated with ‘handsome upholstery, white framed mirrors, and electric lamps, … partitions of glass and wood … painted white and picked out with gold’ (‘New City Cafe’ 1900: 11). Outside of Adelaide, Smeaton designed a fire station for Port Pirie on Gertrude Street. The front facade was constructed of local stone and the rear was of brick. While the building was criticised by the local press as unsuitable for the hot climate, it was still described as ‘the most up-to-date fire station premises in the state’ (‘The New Fire Station’ 1902: 3).
Smeaton designed a gymnasium for the Glenelg Institute in 1907 (‘Glenelg Gymnasium’ 1907: 10). A tourist drawcard for Glenelg for a time was the Smeaton designed Glenelg Pavilion at the seaward end of the Glenelg Jetty (‘Glenelg Pavilion’ 1907: 11). The three-storey pavilion was built on piles at the end of the jetty and contained refreshment rooms on each level. Smeaton also designed premises for Muriden College on Grote Street, Adelaide in 1909 (‘Muriden College’ 1909: 9), a Memorial for King Edward, at Kooringa in 1910 (‘Burra letter’ 1910: 6), and a two-storey boarding house for Captain Hodgman of Port Adelaide (‘Personal’ 1913: 161).
Reflecting his support for the temperance cause was a commission for the Women's Christian Temperance union for whom he designed a temperance hotel on Wakefield Street, Adelaide. The temperance hotel provided headquarters and offices for the organisation as well as dining, kitchen, sitting, and reading rooms and twenty-six bedrooms for accommodation for visitors (‘A Noble Institution’ 1911: 9).
Smeaton’s architectural career was successful, but in his political career he shone equally as bright. From December 1892, Smeaton had served on Adelaide City Council as a councillor for the Hindmarsh ward then for Young ward (Hyams 2013; ‘Mr TH Smeaton’ 1898: 5). In 1893 Smeaton made his first foray into state politics, standing as an independent candidate for East Adelaide (‘East Adelaide’ 1893: 6) in the House of Assembly, albeit unsuccessfully. He stood at the next election in the seat of Albert in 1896, again without winning. He was successful in 1905 as a member of the Labor Party for Torrens in the House of Assembly, a seat which he held until June 1915 before transferring to Sturt following boundary redistribution and holding Sturt until 1921 (Coxon et al 1985: 206; ‘Death of Colonel Smeaton’ 1927: 61). Smeaton continued to practice architecture during his time in office.
Smeaton held many other public offices. He served as an officer for the Institute of Architects when Daniel Garlick was the president in 1893 (‘Institute of Architects’ 1893: 8), he was president of the South Australian Temperance Alliance, general secretary of South Australian Public Teachers Union (1921 to 27), chairman of the Fire Brigades Board, member of the Council of the South Australian School of Mines (Coxon et al 1985: 206). He was a lieutenant colonel of the South Australian Scottish Infantry, Commonwealth Military Forces (Hyams 2013), and although he was too old to enlist in the Great War, he was made chief military censor for South Australia (Coxon et al 1985: 206). In 1917 he presented a paper at the First Australian Town Planning Conference in Adelaide on the Housing of Returned Soldiers.
Smeaton’s interests also included literature and he was a founder of the South Australian Literary Societies Union and editor of its journal, winning prizes with his essays, stories, poems and speeches (‘Death of Colonel Smeaton’ 1927: 61). Among his publications were The People in Politics (1914) which was a history of the Labor movement in South Australia; From Stonecutter to Premier and Minister of Education (1924) on the life of Tom Price, and Education in South Australia from 1836 to 1927 (1927). Among his published creative works was the poem ‘The Forest: a Poem’ (1920), described as ‘a calm meditation on man, nature and God’ (Depasquale 1978: 210). He counted among his hobbies, ‘gardening, soldiering, and photography’ (‘Death of Colonel Smeaton’ 1927: 61) and was also extremely involved with the Stow Memorial Congregational Church, running one of ‘Adelaide's largest men's Bible classes’ (Hyams 2013).
Thomas Smeaton passed away on 17 October 1927 survived by his wife, Jessie, and is buried in West Terrace Cemetery.
Julie Collins and Ruth Fazakerley
Thanks to Ruth Fazakerley for her preliminary research on Thomas Smeaton.
Citation Details
Collins, Julie and Fazakerley, Ruth, ‘Smeaton, Thomas Hyland’, Architecture Museum, University of South Australia, 2008/2016, Architects of South Australia: [http://www.architectsdatabase.unisa.edu.au/arch_full.asp?Arch_ID=144] | 
Architects of South Australia, Copyright 2008, Updated regularly