Jurkovič worked in Vsetín as an independent architect in the studio of architect Michal Urbánek from 1889. His first works were related to the Provincial Jubilee Exhibition in Prague, for which, together with Urbánek, he prepared plans for several sacral and school buildings in the Vsetín area.

In 1892, he became the executive director of the exhibition committee of the art and ethnographic exhibition in the Upper Town in Vsetín. Here he created the famous "Wallachian Room", which became the model for the later Czechoslovak Ethnographic Exhibition in Prague. Jurkovič already appeared there as an ethnographic expert and worked closely with Vsetín experts Matouš Václavek and Josef Válek.

For the Prague exhibition of 1895, he and Urbánek designed an entire “Wallachian settlement”. Entire buildings were transported from Vsetín and reassembled directly at the exhibition site. Jurkovič also created a unique “Čičmanské gazdovství” here, representing Hungarian-Slovak folk architecture. This work brought him fame and enabled him to establish contacts with important artists, such as Mikoláš Alš, who visited Vsetín several times and created designs for Libušín na Pustevny, the Civic Savings Bank and the Vsetín Town Hall.

His first independent commission was a lookout tower in Brno, which he designed for the tourist association in Valašské Meziříčí. However, the lookout tower was not built.
A year later, he received a major commission from the Pohorská jednota Radhošť – a design for tourist shelters in Pustevny. The construction of Libušín and Maměnka began in 1897 and was completed in 1899. These buildings became a symbol of his work and are still among the most striking monuments of Wallachia.