C.H.E. Blackmann

C.H.E. Blackmann
Above and below: Oybin, Blackmann's heritage-listed home in the Sydney suburb of Annandale

C.H.E. Blackmann (1835 – c. 1912) (Carl Heinrich Edmund Blackmann), a leading Sydney architect and member of the Institute of Architects and Surveyors and the Royal Society, was associated with over 130 buildings in a career of 20 years in Australia.[1] He came to Australia from Germany at the age of 21, joined the Gold Rush and was naturalized in Victoria in 1861.[2] He returned to Berlin for two years to complete his architectural training and brought his new wife Bertha Wilhelmina Mueller back to Victoria in 1866.[3]

Blackmann had a spectacular fall from grace in 1886 when he sailed to California with a younger woman, abandoning his wife, seven children and new business partner (Sir) John Sulman. The ensuing notoriety resulted in the marginalisation of his contribution to architecture; his outstanding work was subsequently ascribed to his much younger partner Varney Parkes (Blackmann & Parkes 1880-1885) or to John Sulman (Blackmann & Sulman 1886). Authors have repeated the rumour that he ‘fled the country with a barmaid leaving Sulman liable for his tubulars"’.[4][5]

During his lifetime, Blackmann's contemporaries lauded his skills in mining engineering, drawing, design, project management and architecture. Recent research[6] has shown that Blackmann left Sulman, a recent migrant to Sydney, with an exclusive office suite and a flourishing business with rich bank and insurance clients. Sulman purchased the other half of the partnership in 1889. Bertha was left with property and funds and in 1890 took the two youngest sons to California to live with Blackmann and the woman, who had been the family’s nanny, according to his descendants. Bertha and the five older children subsequently flourished in West Australia, where Bertha died in 1927.

Blackmann became a US citizen in Los Angeles in 1888.[7] In California he worked as an architect in Los Angeles, San Diego and finally San Francisco. The last known record relating to him was in 1912.

Early life

Born to German parents in Tomaszów in the Russian Protectorate of Poland in April 1835, Blackmann was educated in Berlin, after which trained under the Continental builder/architect method, articled to an architect with practical experience as a carpenter. He was a ship's carpenter for four years. leaving the ship in Australia to join the Gold Rush of 1856. He mined in Maryborough and claimed he saved sufficient funds to return to Berlin and attend lectures at the Royal Architectural Academy for two years (1864-1866).[8]

Victoria and Tasmania

In Melbourne he worked as draughtsman and drawing master offering ‘perspective, isometrical, geometrical, and other drawings’ for architects and engineers and teaching technical drawing.[9]

From July 1869 to January 1871 he was the Mining Manager of the Back Creek Gold Mining Co, near Launceston. He built the first puddling machine in Tasmania and ‘managed to extract some 600 oz. or 700 oz. of gold from a surface run of alluvial wash a little more than from 12ft to 15ft. deep’.[10]

On return to Melbourne Blackmann worked in the Victorian Public Works Department under the Colonial Architect, William Wardell [11] and designed Hamilton Post Office.[12] Privately he was the architect of the heritage-listed German Lutheran Trinity Church in Parliament Place, East Melbourne, which opened in November 1874.[13]

New South Wales

Stanmore Public School, Sydney, designed by Blackmann and Parkes
Erskineville Public School, Sydney, also designed by Blackmann and Parkes

In October 1877 Blackmann moved to Sydney where he was engaged by James Barnet, the New South Wales Colonial Architect and prepared detailed drawings of Callan Park [14] and the Garden Palace for the Sydney International Exhibition of 1879.[15] He was the supervising architect for the Exhibition Refreshment Pavilion [16] and for the Goulburn Government Offices.[17]

In June 1880, Blackmann formed an architectural partnership with Varney Parkes,[18] who was a 21-year-old cadet in the Colonial Architect's Office and son of the Premier Sir Henry Parkes. The partnership flourished for over five years until dissolved in September 1885, when Varney Parkes was elected to the New South Wales Parliament.[19]

Also in 1880, Blackmann designed his home Oybin, part of the Johnston Street Group built by John Young in the Sydney suburb of Annandale. This group originally consisted of eight houses, of which six are still standing. Blackmann lived in Oybin until 1885. It was divided into six flats in 1927 and gutted by a "suspicious" fire in 1976. It was subsequently restored during the 1990s and renovated further in 2007. It was put on the market in September 2014, and was expected to sell for at least $2.6 million.[20] It is now heritage-listed.[21]

After dissolution of the partnership on 4 September 1885, Blackmann maintained as clients the Australian Joint Stock Bank, Mercantile Bank of Sydney and the Australian Mutual Provident Society. During the year as a sole practitioner he advertised tenders for three residences, six banks, five commercial buildings, additional public buildings for Randwick Council as well as minor works.

Negotiations to form another partnership with John Sulman concluded October, 1886[22] and the first tender was advertised on later that month.[23] It would appear that Blackmann, then aged 51 suffered a ‘mid life crisis’ and sailed for New Zealand from Melbourne on SS Waihora on 2 December 1886.[24]

California

Blackmann was naturalised in Los Angeles in November 1888. Between 1889 to 1890 he was registered as an architect in Los Angeles styling himself as Harry Blackman. From 1890, he ran a ranch in Tustin, followed by an orange grove in Santa Ana, Orange County, which he sold in 1901. This is where he brought up his two youngest sons.

Architectural registers record Blackmann from 1901 to 1906 in Los Angeles, where he took a fifth share in Associated Architects and Engineers, which was incorporated in 1902.[25] He met with mixed success, filing for bankruptcy in March 1904.[26] Hotel Bimini, the only building currently attributed to his name in California, was opened in the next month.[27]

Blackmann is registered in San Diego for 1907 to 1909, where he is recorded as an architect and civil servant in the Southern District of San Diego, where he produced drawings for a city park 'memorial monument in honor of the visit of the Evans' Fleet to San Diego.[28] He was last recorded in 1912, practising architecture in Oakland, California when he was aged 77.

References

  1. ↑ Sayers, John W, C H E Blackmann – An Outline, Historical Research Thesis Bachelor Architecture Degree V (Old Course) UNSW 1973
  2. ↑ National Archives of Australia A712, 1861/R5062
  3. ↑ Victorian Passenger lists PROV, VPRS 7666, Inward Overseas Passenger Lists (British Ports
  4. ↑ John Maxwell Freeland The Making of a Profession – A History of the Growth and Work of the Architectural Institutes of Australia, Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1971, p6
  5. ↑ John Phillips, John Sulman and the Question of an "Australian Style of Architecture" Fabrications: 8, July 1997 p90
  6. ↑ Norma Perry, C H E Blackmann – the disappearing architect, Norma Rose Perry, Sydney, 2011 ISBN 978-0-646-55884-4
  7. ↑ Name: Chas H E Blackmann State: California Court Location: Los Angeles, California Naturalization Record Type: Declaration of Intention Roll Description: (Roll 07) Declarations of Intention Vols. 24-26; 1886-1892 Archive: National Archives, Washington, D.C. Collection Title: Naturalization Records in the Superior Court of Los Angeles, California, 1876-1915 Archive Series: M1614 Archive Roll: 7
  8. ↑ An Illustrated History of Los Angeles County, California, The Lewis Publishing Co. 1889, p384
  9. ↑ The Argus, Thursday 26 March 1868 p1
  10. ↑ Launceston Examiner 18 December 1882 p3
  11. ↑ Trethowan Bruce, The Public Works Department of Victoria - 1851-1900 : an architectural history, Dept. of Architecture & Building, University of Melbourne, 1975
  12. ↑ Heritage listing http://vhd.heritage.vic.gov.au/places/result_detail/26535?print=true
  13. ↑ Heritage listing http://vhd.heritage.vic.gov.au/vhd/heritagevic#detail_places;392
  14. ↑ Sydney Morning Herald 28 February 1878 p5
  15. ↑ Bridges, Peter and McDonald, Donald, James Barnett, Colonial Architect, Hale & Iremonger, Sydney, 1988, p79
  16. ↑ H C Kent, Reminiscences of Building Methods in the Seventies under John Young – Lecture, Architecture, November 1924
  17. ↑ Australasian Sketch 31 January 1880 p14
  18. ↑ Information about Varney Parkes and Blackmann http://about.nsw.gov.au/collections/doc/varney-parkes/
  19. ↑ Sydney Morning Herald 4 September 1885 p14
  20. ↑ SMH Domain.com
  21. ↑ State Heritage Register
  22. ↑ Sydney Morning Herald 21 October 1886 p 14
  23. ↑ SMH 28/10/1886 p10
  24. ↑ The Argus, 2 December 1886 p6 Shipping Intelligence Hobson's Bay
  25. ↑ Los Angeles Times 5 April 1902
  26. ↑ Los Angeles Times (1886-1922) 18 March 1904
  27. ↑ Los Angeles Times: (2 April 1904)
  28. ↑ http://www.sandiegohistory.org/amero/notes-1908.htm
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