Joseph Jacobberger


Joseph Jacobberger was an American architect based in Portland, Oregon. He partnered with Alfred H. Smith in the firm Jacobberger and Smith.

Early life

Jacobberger was born in the 1860s to cousins Hubert Jacobberger and Josephine Jacobberger. Sources fail to agree on the year or even the decade of his birth. The Jacobbergers immigrated to the United States sometime after 1869 and before 1874. The family moved to Omaha, Nebraska where Hubert Jacobberger became a building contractor. Joseph Jacobberger later attended Creighton University, graduating c1887.
He worked briefly in Minneapolis then worked with A.R. Saunders in Tacoma prior to settling in Portland in 1890. In Portland, Jacobberger began as a draftsman in the firm Whidden & Lewis.

Career

Jacobberger left Portland in the 1890s and worked with Frank Chamberlain Clark in the Los Angeles offices of Frank Roehrig. He returned to Portland in 1900 and began to build his own practice.
An early contract was the campus design at the University of Portland, known in 1901 as Columbia University. Jacobberger began an association with the Catholic Archdiocese of Portland that resulted in several design projects, although during his first decade as an independent architect in Portland, Jacobberger preferred residential designs and small commercial projects.
In 1912 Jacobberger formed a partnership with Alfred H. Smith that would continue until 1930. The firm Jacobberger and Smith was responsible for many buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Death

Jacobberger suffered a heart attack in 1930. While recovering, he had another attack and died one day before his 61st birthday.

Works

A partial list of Jacobberger's and the firm's works include :