Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720 - 1940

Civil engineer, of Kilkee, Co. Clare.   Thomas Jourdan (or Jordan), son of Patrick Jordan and his wife, Mary Lynch, was baptised in the parish of Kilfenora, Co. Clare, on 30 November 1836.   He is understood by his descendants to have trained as an architect and surveyor in the United States,(1)   He appears to have been back in Co. Clare by 1859 when a 'Thomas Jordan' furnished an estimate for drainage work at Clooneen, Co. Clare, on the estate of the Earl of Inchiquin,(2) and in 1863 he is recorded at an address in Deer Park Avenue in Hogan's Directory.  The Irish Builder for 15 March 1876 notes that his designs for improved residences for teachers had been published 'in an educational contemporary'.(3)   He was the author of a fourteen-page pamphlet, A Tract on sanitary drainage as exemplified in Kilkee under Rural Sanitary Authority, which was printed in Ennis in 1896.

Thomas Jourdan died circa 1908 and was buried at Kilfearagh, Co. Clare.  He had married Susan Hegarty at Kilfenora on 23 January 1860 and had at least three children. Towards the end of his life, if not earlier, he combined engineering with farming.  In the 1901 census (taken when he was visiting friends) his wife describes herself as 'Civil Engineer's - Farmer's wife'.  He is said to have brought back plant specimens from Canada for his garden at Doonaghboy.

Addresses:  Deer Park Lodge, 1 Deer Park Avenue, Kilkee, Co. Clare, 1863;   Doonaghboy, Kilkee, 1893.

See WORKS and BIBLIOGRAPHY. BIBLIOGRAPHY.



References

Information not otherwise accounted for is from Alan Phillips, husband of Jourdan's great-granddaughter (e-mail, Nov 2009), who also supplied copies of  photographs of Jourdan and his grave monument and a scanned copy of his pamphlet on the drainage of Kilkee (in IAA, Jones file 36A).

(1) The initials AE which he put after his name may indicate his American traning. 
(2) NLI, Inchiquin PapersI, MS 45,280/7 (information from Clara Hoyne, Clarecastle, Oct 2010).
(3) IB 18, 15 Mar 1876, 80.


2 work entries listed in chronological order for JOURDAN (OR JORDAN), THOMAS


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Building: CO. CLARE, KILKEE, SEWERAGE
Date: ?
Nature: New sewerage system for Kilkee.
Refs: Information from Alan Phillips, husband of Jourdan's great-granddaughter (e-mail, Nov 2009).

Building: CO. CLARE, KILKEE, ROAD
Date: ?
Nature: New road.
Refs: Information from Alan Phillips, husband of Jourdan's great-granddaughter (e-mail, Nov 2009).

Author Title Date Details
Jourdan, Thomas A Tract on sanitary drainage as exemplified in Kilkee under rural sanitary authority
1896 Ennis: printed by J. Parsons and Sons, Jail Street, 1896.  14 pp.