Eben Ezra Roberts (1866–1943) was an American architect known for his work in the early modern

Prairie style Prairie School is a late 19th- and early 20th-century architectural style, most common in the Midwestern United States. The style is usually marked by horizontal lines, flat or hip roof, hipped roofs with broad Overhang (architecture), ove ...

, pioneered by

Frank Lloyd Wright Frank Lloyd Wright (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key role in the architectural movements o ...

, as well as other traditional residential styles. Roberts was born in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

and attended architectural school at Tilton Seminary in

New Hampshire New Hampshire is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...

. After moving to Chicago he eventually established a practice in the suburb of

Oak Park, Illinois Oak Park is a village in Cook County, Illinois, adjacent to Chicago. It is the 29th-most populous municipality in Illinois with a population of 54,583 as of the 2020 U.S. Census estimate. Oak Park was first settled in 1835 and later incorporated in ...

. In Oak Park alone, Roberts designed over 200 houses.

Early life

Eben Ezra Roberts was born in

and attended public school. His father trained him in both mechanical and freehand drawing as he grew up.Hackl. Marty.
Eben E. Roberts
," ''Oak Park Tourist/Historical Society of Oak Park and River Forest'', 2003. Retrieved 15 June 2007. His family moved to Meredith, New Hampshire where Roberts' education continued in public schools there. He went on to study architecture at Tilton Seminary, now known as Tilton School, in New Hampshire.

Career

In 1888 Roberts moved to

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

where he worked as a site superintendent for S.S. Beman at Pullman, on the south side of the city. Roberts remained at that job until 1893. Roberts moved to the Chicago suburb of Oak Park in 1893 and established his own practice which eventually grew to become the largest architecture firm in the village of Oak Park, rivaling even architecture giant

's practice. In Oak Park he designed over 200 homes which span a multitude of architectural styles.Sacchi, Lonnie.
From castles to Canavares
" ''Riverside/Brookfield Landmark'', 10 April 2007. Retrieved 15 June 2007. Wright and Roberts were not, themselves, professionally associated, other than the fact that they were competing architects.Bigolin, Steve.
The Landmarks of Barb City - Part 33
" ''Daily Chronicle'', 15 November 2004. Retrieved 16 June 2007. Once in Oak Park Roberts focused on residential work until he moved his office to Chicago in 1912 where he focused on larger, commercial projects. Roberts' practice in Oak Park grew quickly and he soon employed several draftsmen.Guarino, Jean L. "Park Grove Manor," Village of Oak Park Landmark Nomination Form, 26 March 2004. Despite eventually working in Chicago, Roberts remained an Oak Park resident until he died in 1943. Roberts and his wife Rossie Roberts (

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...

Willey) lived in the Eben Ezra Roberts House on Superior Street in Oak Park for most of the time they were in the village. At that home, now a contributing property to the U.S. federally Registered

Frank Lloyd Wright-Prairie School of Architecture Historic District Frank or Franks may refer to: People * Frank (given name) * Frank (surname) * Franks (surname) * Franks, a medieval Germanic people * Frank, a term in the Muslim world for all western Europeans, particularly during the Crusades - see Farang Cur ...

, Roberts and his wife raised their two children Margaret and Elmer C. Roberts. Roberts' Oak Park firm, established in 1893, maintained two offices: one was at Marion Street and North Blvd in the Dunlop Brothers Bank Building, the other was along Superior Street. After the office moved to 82 West Washington Street in Chicago in 1912 Roberts' son, Elmer, began to work in the practice as a draftsman until he left for architectural school in 1913. When the younger Roberts graduated he became a staff member and in 1924 he became a full partner. E.E. Roberts became ill in 1926 and went into retirement, though he worked as an adviser to the firm for some time after leaving.Heitzman, Frank. "Maze Branch Library," Village of Oak Park Landmark Nomination Form, 22 July 2005. In 1930 the pair designed the Borden Dairy Building on Vincennes Road in Blue Island, Illinois in the

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

style.

Works and style

Roberts designed buildings in many styles but after he began accepting mostly commercial commissions he favored

and its emphasis on horizontal lines. It is his work in this early modern style and the architectural transformation that took place in the early 20th century for which he is remembered. Roberts 1890s designs were aimed at popular tastes at the time. He designed homes across the gamut of architectural styles, Queen Anne, Shingle style and Tudor Revival are but some of the examples of the styles his homes conformed to. In 1900 Roberts work underwent a distinct shift with the design of the A.J. Redmond House in Oak Park. His residential work began to adapt a more horizontal emphasis, featuring broad windows,

hip roof A hip roof, hip-roof or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downwards to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope (although a tented roof by definition is a hipped roof with steeply pitched slopes rising to a peak). Thus, ...

s, wide

eave The eaves are the edges of the roof which overhang the face of a wall and, normally, project beyond the side of a building. The eaves form an overhang to throw water clear of the walls and may be highly decorated as part of an architectural styl ...

s and large pier-supported

porch A porch (from Old French ''porche'', from Latin ''porticus'' "colonnade", from ''porta'' "passage") is a room or gallery located in front of an entrance of a building. A porch is placed in front of the facade of a building it commands, and form ...

es dominating the front facade. Many of Roberts' early 20th century residential works are of this type, commonly following the stock

American Foursquare The American Foursquare or American Four Square is an American house style popular from the mid-1890s to the late 1930s. A reaction to the ornate and mass-produced elements of the Victorian architecture, Victorian and other Revival styles popul ...

plan with wood-trimmed

stucco Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and a ...

exteriors and full-width porches with massive corner piers. The homes varied in decorative details such as

dormer A dormer is a roofed structure, often containing a window, that projects vertically beyond the plane of a pitched roof. A dormer window (also called ''dormer'') is a form of roof window. Dormers are commonly used to increase the usable space ...

s and other exterior features. The horizontal emphasis, broad, overhanging eaves and hip roofs are all common elements of Prairie style, a school many houses of the foursquare tradition adhere to. Other examples of Roberts' Prairie style residential work is found in Oak Park houses such as the Henry P. Magill House, the Frank W. Hall House, Charles Schwerin House and the Louis Brink House. One example of Roberts' commercial work in Oak Park, the Prairie style Scoville Square, is listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.Masonic Temple Building
Property Information Report, HAARGIS Database,

Illinois Historic Preservation Agency The Illinois Historic Preservation Division, formerly Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, is a governmental agency of the U.S. state of Illinois, and is a division of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. It is tasked with the duty of m ...

, accessed August 29, 2008.

Other works

*1111 South Boulevard in Oak Park, theater building later adapted for use as film production space for Atlas Educational Film Company. Extant.

Early life

Career

Works and style

Other works

Notes

Further reading