Isabel Roberts
Encyclopedia
Isabel Roberts was a Prairie School
figure, member of the architectural design
team in the Oak Park Studio of Frank Lloyd Wright
and partner with Ida Annah Ryan
in the Orlando, Florida
architecture firm, “Ryan and Roberts”. It is fair to say that Roberts is an under-appreciated member of Wright’s Oak Park studio staff.
, the younger of two surviving daughters of James H. and Mary Harris Roberts. James was a mechanic and inventor born in Utica, New York
; Mary, a homemaker and a native of Prince Edward Island
. They had been married in 1867 in New York state. They lived for a time in Missouri, where Roberts and her sister Charlotte were both born. Leaving Missouri, the Roberts family moved several more times, including to Providence, Rhode Island
. They eventually settled in South Bend, Indiana
, where James H. Roberts became Deputy Director of Inspections for the State of Indiana. They were active members of the First Presbyterian Church of South Bend and social and civic groups through which they became friends of Laura Caskey Bowsher (later, DeRhodes). This friendship eventually led to Roberts' introducing Laura to Frank Lloyd Wright and Laura's commissioning from Wright's studio the K. C. DeRhodes House
.
; architect Walter B. Chambers
shared in this enterprise. Located at 123 E. 23rd Street, this was the first wholly independent atelier opened in the United States. Masqueray is best remembered as the architect of the St. Louis Exposition
and of the Cathedral of Saint Paul in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Roberts found herself among an impressive roster of future architects who studied with Masqueray, including William Van Alen
, who would become the architect of the Chrysler Building
. Starting in 1899, Masqueray made a concerted effort to include women among his architectural students and even opened a second atelier especially for women students at 37-40 West 22nd Street in New York. As was said at the time, "...he has unbounded faith in women's ability to succeed in architecture...provided they go about it seriously." While in New York, Roberts lived at 129 West 96th Street.
and opened his own studio in Oak Park, Illinois
. Frank Lloyd Wright was one of a number of emerging architects who were part of a movement that Marion Mahony called The Chicago Group and later came to be known as the Prairie School
.
The Chicago Group espoused Louis Sullivan
's credo, "form follows function
," which became evident in their work, hallmarks of which include: a close relationship of the building to the landscape, an openness and informality of the floor plans, large overhangs on the exterior structure, a use of horizontal bands and clustered windows and a restrained use of conventionalized forms from nature as a harmonious ornamental theme throughout each building. Also evident were the influences of Japanese architecture and the English Arts and Crafts movement
.
An early researcher and author on the Prairie Period was Grant Carpenter Manson, who interviewed several of the Oak Park Studio members in 1939 and 1940, and wrote that in the studio Roberts worked as "bookkeeeper and general factotum" who "did occasionally try her hand at design and worked on some of the detail-drawings of her own house". Further clarification of Isabel Robert's role in the Oak Park Studio comes from Wright's son John Lloyd Wright, who observed first-hand the contributions made by Roberts and others in the Oak Park studio. John Lloyd Wright relates that William Drummond
, Francis Barry Byrne
, Walter Burley Griffin
, Albert McArthur
, Marion Mahony, Isabel Roberts and George Willis
were the draftsmen. He further clarifies that they made up the five men and two women who each were making valuable contributions to Prairie style architecture for which Wright became famous.
Isabel Roberts has been described by Wright scholars as Frank Lloyd Wright's secretary, bookkeeper or office manager. What many have missed is that, like all employees at the time, she contributed to the lively and creative design atmosphere of the Studio. Wright biographer Brendan Gill calls Roberts "the office manager of the Oak Park studio". Similarly, Diane Maddex labels "Isabel Roberts, the office manager of his studio in neighboring Oak Park." David A. Hanks manages only the term "secretary" to describe Roberts' role. So, too, biographer Meryle Secrest defines Roberts' roll simply as: "Isabel Roberts, secretary". H. Allen Brooks skirts the issue with "Isabel Roberts, on the staff." This is consistent with Frank Lloyd Wright's writing about the Oak Park "…studio adjoining my home, where the work I had then to do enabled me to take in several draughtsmen and a faithful secretary, Isabel Roberts…" Grant Carpenter Manson wrote "Isabel Roberts, for whom one of the most celebrated Prairie Houses was built in River Forest in 1908, was not an architect; she was bookkeeper and general factotum at The Studio…" Manson's information was incomplete and inaccurate, as shown in the reference letter Wright wrote for Roberts in 1921, as noted below.
Melenaie Birk says Roberts was "a bookkeeper and assisted with drafting in Wright's Oak Park studio". Roxanne Williamson wrote: "Isabel Roberts managed the office but also seems to have done some drafting." Henry Russell Hitchcock and Edgar Kaufmann, Jr., writing 45 and 55 years later, "Isabel Roberts, one of the drafters in his office". Notably, Thomas A. Heinz presents his view of Isabel Roberts' work while in Wright's employ, saying, "She was an architect in her own right and her talent and position in Wright's Oak Park office has been largely ignored and underestimated."
Isabel Roberts also produced some original designs for the leaded art glass windows in the Prairie houses. Among the light-screens she is known to have designed are those in the Harvey P. Sutton House
in McCook, Nebraska. Charles E. White, Jr.
, who wrote valuable letters about his time as an architect in the Oak Park Studio, said that Roberts worked on ornamental glass in the spring of 1904, a time when the following projects were underway: Darwin D. Martin House, Burton J. Westcott House, Mrs. Thomas Gale House, Robert M. Lamp House and Unity Temple. The "light screens" in these may owe their design in part or in full to Roberts. Isabel Roberts is remembered by her extended family, today, as an architect.
More so than other Studio employees, Roberts was often part of the Wright family circle and was frequently a babysitter for their increasingly large family of six children. Photographs taken by Frank Lloyd Wright in front of the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio
show her with his wife Catherine, the children, his mother Anna and sister Maginel. Isabel Roberts and Catherine Lee Tobin Wright were exact contemporaries.
While she was in Wright’s employ, Roberts and her mother commissioned a house from Wright's studio, which is known as the Isabel Roberts House
, in the Chicago
suburb of River Forest
. Some scholars contend that it is based on an unbuilt commission for Joshua Melson in Mason City, Iowa
. The Isabel Roberts House was designed by Isabel Roberts, per her own statement, even though it has always been attributed to Wright, out of whose studio it emerged. The house was designed for Isabel and Mary Roberts to share, which they did for a decade before leaving Illinois. Also, according to her own statement, while in Wright's employ, Roberts designed the K. C. DeRhodes House
in South Bend, Indiana, for her South Bend friend, Laura Caskey Bowsher DeRhodes.
After Wright went off to Europe
with Mamah Borthwick Cheney
in 1909, Isabel Roberts was among the remaining Oak Park Studio employees working to complete Wright's unfinished commissions. Wright had arranged for architect Hermann V. von Holst
to oversee the work; he, with Studio employees Isabel Roberts and John Van Bergen, as well as Marion Mahoney and Walter Burley Griffin (who were by this time no longer employees but working under contract), brought what work they could to completion—much of it modified to Marion's designs. Then Roberts literally locked the doors of the Oak Park Studio, thus closing the productive Oak Park years of Wright's career. Roberts worked for William Drummond for about a year. During that time, the following works were on the boards: Ralph S. Baker House (1914–1915), 1226 Ashland Avenue, Wilmette, IL; John A. Klesert House (1915), Keystone Avenue, River Forest IL; First Congregational Church (1915), 5701 West Midway Park, Chicago, IL 60644.
, as early as the winter of 1915. Roberts and her mother Mary moved to St. Cloud a decade after the Isabel Roberts House was completed. Mary Roberts was in failing health due to the lingering effects of influenza
. Roberts's sister Charlotte and her husband John B. Somerville were by that time established residents of St. Cloud. Mary Roberts died in Florida, in 1920.
Once in Florida, Isabel Roberts went into architectural practice with Ida Annah Ryan, who was the first woman in the United States
to earn a masters degree in architecture, from MIT
. As the firm of "Ryan and Roberts", they were among no more than a dozen architecture firms active in Orlando in the 1920s. Their business is listed under the heading "Architects" as "Ryan and Roberts" in the 1926 and in the 1927 Orlando City Directories, at 240 S. Orange St. and the Kenilworth Terrace address. One of only 10 architectural firms listed in 1926, the others including: Frank L. Bodine
, Fred E. Field
, David Hyer
, Murry S. King
, George E. Krug
, Howard M. Reynolds
, Frederick H. Trimble
and Percy P. Turner
. And one of 12 firms so listed in Orlando in 1927, which included Maurice E. Kressly
.
Soon after arriving in Florida, Roberts attempted to become a member of the Florida chapter of the American Institute of Architects. Letters of recommendation from John Van Bergen, Hermann V. von Holst and Frank Lloyd Wright which accompanied her application make it unmistakably clear that these men who had been her colleagues in Chicago considered Roberts to be an architect. Even so, Roberts was not admitted to the AIA. Nonetheless, throughout the 1920s, the architectural firm of Ryan and Roberts created landmark buildings in Central Florida
, some of which still stand, today:
Additional residential and commercial structures by Ryan and Roberts continue to be identified as current owners become more aware of the significance of the contributions these women made to the field of architecture.
Isabel Roberts was a member of the St. Cloud Presbyterian Church (another of their commissions, a remodeling of an older structure, it is now demolished) until she moved from St. Cloud to Orlando in the early '20's, at which time she joined First Presbyterian Church of Orlando.
Isabel Roberts and Ida Annah Ryan lived and practiced at their Kenilworth home and studio in Orlando for the remainder of their lives. Isabel Roberts died in Orlando on December 27, 1955 at the age of 84, and was buried in Greenwood Cemetery, Orlando, alongside her mother Mary Roberts and her sister Charlotte Roberts Somerville; none of their graves have markers.
Prairie School
Prairie School was a late 19th and early 20th century architectural style, most common to the Midwestern United States.The works of the Prairie School architects are usually marked by horizontal lines, flat or hipped roofs with broad overhanging eaves, windows grouped in horizontal bands,...
figure, member of the architectural design
Architectural Design
Architectural Design, also known as AD, is a UK-based architectural journal first launched in 1930.In its early days it was more concerned with the British scene, but gradually became more international. It also moved away from presenting mostly news towards theme-based issues...
team in the Oak Park Studio of Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright was an American architect, interior designer, writer and educator, who designed more than 1,000 structures and completed 500 works. Wright believed in designing structures which were in harmony with humanity and its environment, a philosophy he called organic architecture...
and partner with Ida Annah Ryan
Ida Annah Ryan
Ida Annah Ryan was a pioneering United States woman architect. She was born on November 4, 1873 at Waltham, MA, one of five children of Albert Morse Ryan and Carrie S. Jameson. Albert Morse Ryan was a Waltham city employee and historian who also ran a milk business. She graduated from the Waltham...
in the Orlando, Florida
Orlando, Florida
Orlando is a city in the central region of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat of Orange County, and the center of the Greater Orlando metropolitan area. According to the 2010 US Census, the city had a population of 238,300, making Orlando the 79th largest city in the United States...
architecture firm, “Ryan and Roberts”. It is fair to say that Roberts is an under-appreciated member of Wright’s Oak Park studio staff.
Childhood
Isabel D. Roberts was born in Mexico, MissouriMissouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
, the younger of two surviving daughters of James H. and Mary Harris Roberts. James was a mechanic and inventor born in Utica, New York
Utica, New York
Utica is a city in and the county seat of Oneida County, New York, United States. The population was 62,235 at the 2010 census, an increase of 2.6% from the 2000 census....
; Mary, a homemaker and a native of Prince Edward Island
Prince Edward Island
Prince Edward Island is a Canadian province consisting of an island of the same name, as well as other islands. The maritime province is the smallest in the nation in both land area and population...
. They had been married in 1867 in New York state. They lived for a time in Missouri, where Roberts and her sister Charlotte were both born. Leaving Missouri, the Roberts family moved several more times, including to Providence, Rhode Island
Providence, Rhode Island
Providence is the capital and most populous city of Rhode Island and was one of the first cities established in the United States. Located in Providence County, it is the third largest city in the New England region...
. They eventually settled in South Bend, Indiana
South Bend, Indiana
The city of South Bend is the county seat of St. Joseph County, Indiana, United States, on the St. Joseph River near its southernmost bend, from which it derives its name. As of the 2010 Census, the city had a total of 101,168 residents; its Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 316,663...
, where James H. Roberts became Deputy Director of Inspections for the State of Indiana. They were active members of the First Presbyterian Church of South Bend and social and civic groups through which they became friends of Laura Caskey Bowsher (later, DeRhodes). This friendship eventually led to Roberts' introducing Laura to Frank Lloyd Wright and Laura's commissioning from Wright's studio the K. C. DeRhodes House
K. C. DeRhodes House
The K. C. DeRhodes House is a classic 1906 Frank Lloyd Wright Prairie style home located at 715 West Washington Avenue in South Bend, Indiana. The home has been carefully restored by its current owners over more than two decades and remains in private ownership. It is one of two Wright homes in...
.
Architectural education
Isabel Roberts spent three years in New York City, studying architecture in the atelier Masqueray-Chambers, the first atelier (or studio) in the United States established to teach the practice of architecture along the French lines of the Ecole des Beaux Arts. It was established by Emmanuel Louis MasquerayEmmanuel Louis Masqueray
Emmanuel Louis Masqueray was a Franco-American preeminent figure in the history of American architecture, both as a gifted designer of landmark buildings and as an influential teacher of the profession of architecture.-Biography:...
; architect Walter B. Chambers
Walter B. Chambers
Walter Boughton Chambers was a successful New York architect whose buildings continue to be landmarks in the city’s skyline and whose contributions to architectural education were far-reaching....
shared in this enterprise. Located at 123 E. 23rd Street, this was the first wholly independent atelier opened in the United States. Masqueray is best remembered as the architect of the St. Louis Exposition
St. Louis Exposition
St. Louis Exposition can refer to either:*Saint Louis Exposition *Louisiana Purchase Exposition...
and of the Cathedral of Saint Paul in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Roberts found herself among an impressive roster of future architects who studied with Masqueray, including William Van Alen
William Van Alen
William Van Alen was an American architect, best known as the architect in charge of designing New York City's Chrysler Building .-Life:...
, who would become the architect of the Chrysler Building
Chrysler Building
The Chrysler Building is an Art Deco style skyscraper in New York City, located on the east side of Manhattan in the Turtle Bay area at the intersection of 42nd Street and Lexington Avenue. Standing at , it was the world's tallest building for 11 months before it was surpassed by the Empire State...
. Starting in 1899, Masqueray made a concerted effort to include women among his architectural students and even opened a second atelier especially for women students at 37-40 West 22nd Street in New York. As was said at the time, "...he has unbounded faith in women's ability to succeed in architecture...provided they go about it seriously." While in New York, Roberts lived at 129 West 96th Street.
Oak Park, Illinois
Isabel Roberts was among Wright's first employees when he left Louis SullivanLouis Sullivan
Louis Henri Sullivan was an American architect, and has been called the "father of skyscrapers" and "father of modernism" He is considered by many as the creator of the modern skyscraper, was an influential architect and critic of the Chicago School, was a mentor to Frank Lloyd Wright, and an...
and opened his own studio in Oak Park, Illinois
Oak Park, Illinois
Oak Park, Illinois is a suburb bordering the west side of the city of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. It is the twenty-fifth largest municipality in Illinois. Oak Park has easy access to downtown Chicago due to public transportation such as the Chicago 'L' Blue and Green lines,...
. Frank Lloyd Wright was one of a number of emerging architects who were part of a movement that Marion Mahony called The Chicago Group and later came to be known as the Prairie School
Prairie School
Prairie School was a late 19th and early 20th century architectural style, most common to the Midwestern United States.The works of the Prairie School architects are usually marked by horizontal lines, flat or hipped roofs with broad overhanging eaves, windows grouped in horizontal bands,...
.
The Chicago Group espoused Louis Sullivan
Louis Sullivan
Louis Henri Sullivan was an American architect, and has been called the "father of skyscrapers" and "father of modernism" He is considered by many as the creator of the modern skyscraper, was an influential architect and critic of the Chicago School, was a mentor to Frank Lloyd Wright, and an...
's credo, "form follows function
Form follows function
Form follows function is a principle associated with modern architecture and industrial design in the 20th century. The principle is that the shape of a building or object should be primarily based upon its intended function or purpose....
," which became evident in their work, hallmarks of which include: a close relationship of the building to the landscape, an openness and informality of the floor plans, large overhangs on the exterior structure, a use of horizontal bands and clustered windows and a restrained use of conventionalized forms from nature as a harmonious ornamental theme throughout each building. Also evident were the influences of Japanese architecture and the English Arts and Crafts movement
Arts and Crafts movement
Arts and Crafts was an international design philosophy that originated in England and flourished between 1860 and 1910 , continuing its influence until the 1930s...
.
An early researcher and author on the Prairie Period was Grant Carpenter Manson, who interviewed several of the Oak Park Studio members in 1939 and 1940, and wrote that in the studio Roberts worked as "bookkeeeper and general factotum" who "did occasionally try her hand at design and worked on some of the detail-drawings of her own house". Further clarification of Isabel Robert's role in the Oak Park Studio comes from Wright's son John Lloyd Wright, who observed first-hand the contributions made by Roberts and others in the Oak Park studio. John Lloyd Wright relates that William Drummond
William Eugene Drummond
William Eugene Drummond was a Chicago Prairie School architect.-Early Years and Education:He was born in Newark, New Jersey, the son of carpenter and cabinet maker Eugene Drummond and his wife Ida Marietta Lozier...
, Francis Barry Byrne
Barry Byrne
Francis Barry Byrne was initially a member of the group of architects known as the Prairie School. After the demise of the Prairie School about 1914-16, Byrne continued as a successful architect by developing his own personal style.-Biography:Francis Barry Byrne was born and raised in Chicago...
, Walter Burley Griffin
Walter Burley Griffin
Walter Burley Griffin was an American architect and landscape architect, who is best known for his role in designing Canberra, Australia's capital city...
, Albert McArthur
Albert Chase McArthur
Albert Chase McArthur was a Prairie School architect, and the designer of the Arizona Biltmore Hotel in Phoenix, Arizona.-Early years:...
, Marion Mahony, Isabel Roberts and George Willis
George Rodney Willis
George Rodney Willis, was an American architect associated with the Prairie School and the Oak Park, Illinois studio of Frank Lloyd Wright who thereafter had a successful career in California and in Texas....
were the draftsmen. He further clarifies that they made up the five men and two women who each were making valuable contributions to Prairie style architecture for which Wright became famous.
Isabel Roberts has been described by Wright scholars as Frank Lloyd Wright's secretary, bookkeeper or office manager. What many have missed is that, like all employees at the time, she contributed to the lively and creative design atmosphere of the Studio. Wright biographer Brendan Gill calls Roberts "the office manager of the Oak Park studio". Similarly, Diane Maddex labels "Isabel Roberts, the office manager of his studio in neighboring Oak Park." David A. Hanks manages only the term "secretary" to describe Roberts' role. So, too, biographer Meryle Secrest defines Roberts' roll simply as: "Isabel Roberts, secretary". H. Allen Brooks skirts the issue with "Isabel Roberts, on the staff." This is consistent with Frank Lloyd Wright's writing about the Oak Park "…studio adjoining my home, where the work I had then to do enabled me to take in several draughtsmen and a faithful secretary, Isabel Roberts…" Grant Carpenter Manson wrote "Isabel Roberts, for whom one of the most celebrated Prairie Houses was built in River Forest in 1908, was not an architect; she was bookkeeper and general factotum at The Studio…" Manson's information was incomplete and inaccurate, as shown in the reference letter Wright wrote for Roberts in 1921, as noted below.
Melenaie Birk says Roberts was "a bookkeeper and assisted with drafting in Wright's Oak Park studio". Roxanne Williamson wrote: "Isabel Roberts managed the office but also seems to have done some drafting." Henry Russell Hitchcock and Edgar Kaufmann, Jr., writing 45 and 55 years later, "Isabel Roberts, one of the drafters in his office". Notably, Thomas A. Heinz presents his view of Isabel Roberts' work while in Wright's employ, saying, "She was an architect in her own right and her talent and position in Wright's Oak Park office has been largely ignored and underestimated."
Isabel Roberts also produced some original designs for the leaded art glass windows in the Prairie houses. Among the light-screens she is known to have designed are those in the Harvey P. Sutton House
Harvey P. Sutton House
The Harvey P. Sutton House, also known as the H.P. Sutton House, is a six-bedroom, Frank Lloyd Wright designed Prairie School home at 602 Norris Avenue in McCook, Nebraska...
in McCook, Nebraska. Charles E. White, Jr.
Charles E. White, Jr.
Charles E. White, Jr. was a noted Chicago area architect who for a time worked in the Oak Park studio of Frank Lloyd Wright and who, both before and after that time, had a successful and influential career as an architect and a writer on architectural subjects...
, who wrote valuable letters about his time as an architect in the Oak Park Studio, said that Roberts worked on ornamental glass in the spring of 1904, a time when the following projects were underway: Darwin D. Martin House, Burton J. Westcott House, Mrs. Thomas Gale House, Robert M. Lamp House and Unity Temple. The "light screens" in these may owe their design in part or in full to Roberts. Isabel Roberts is remembered by her extended family, today, as an architect.
More so than other Studio employees, Roberts was often part of the Wright family circle and was frequently a babysitter for their increasingly large family of six children. Photographs taken by Frank Lloyd Wright in front of the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio
Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio
The Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio at 951 Chicago Avenue in Oak Park, Illinois, has been restored by the Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust to its appearance in 1909, the last year Frank Lloyd Wright lived there with his family. Frank Lloyd Wright purchased the property and built the home in...
show her with his wife Catherine, the children, his mother Anna and sister Maginel. Isabel Roberts and Catherine Lee Tobin Wright were exact contemporaries.
While she was in Wright’s employ, Roberts and her mother commissioned a house from Wright's studio, which is known as the Isabel Roberts House
Isabel Roberts House
Isabel Roberts House is a classic 1908 Prairie House from the studio of Frank Lloyd Wright located at 603 Edgewood Place in River Forest, Illinois It was built for Isabel Roberts and her widowed mother, Mary Roberts....
, in the Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
suburb of River Forest
River Forest, Illinois
River Forest is a suburban village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. Two universities make their home in River Forest, Dominican University and Concordia University Chicago. The village is closely tied to the larger neighboring community of Oak Park, Illinois. There are significant...
. Some scholars contend that it is based on an unbuilt commission for Joshua Melson in Mason City, Iowa
Mason City, Iowa
Mason City is the county seat of Cerro Gordo County, Iowa, United States. The population was 28,079 in the 2010 census, a decline from 29,172 in the 2000 census. The Mason City Micropolitan Statistical Area includes all of Cerro Gordo and Worth counties....
. The Isabel Roberts House was designed by Isabel Roberts, per her own statement, even though it has always been attributed to Wright, out of whose studio it emerged. The house was designed for Isabel and Mary Roberts to share, which they did for a decade before leaving Illinois. Also, according to her own statement, while in Wright's employ, Roberts designed the K. C. DeRhodes House
K. C. DeRhodes House
The K. C. DeRhodes House is a classic 1906 Frank Lloyd Wright Prairie style home located at 715 West Washington Avenue in South Bend, Indiana. The home has been carefully restored by its current owners over more than two decades and remains in private ownership. It is one of two Wright homes in...
in South Bend, Indiana, for her South Bend friend, Laura Caskey Bowsher DeRhodes.
After Wright went off to Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
with Mamah Borthwick Cheney
Mamah Borthwick
Martha "Mamah" Borthwick is primarily noted for her relationship with Frank Lloyd Wright, which ended when she was murdered....
in 1909, Isabel Roberts was among the remaining Oak Park Studio employees working to complete Wright's unfinished commissions. Wright had arranged for architect Hermann V. von Holst
Hermann V. von Holst
Hermann V. von Holst was an American architect practicing in Chicago, Illinois and Boca Raton, Florida, from the 1890s through the 1940s, best remembered for agreeing to take on the responsibility of heading up Frank Lloyd Wright’s architectural practice when Wright went off to Europe with Mamah...
to oversee the work; he, with Studio employees Isabel Roberts and John Van Bergen, as well as Marion Mahoney and Walter Burley Griffin (who were by this time no longer employees but working under contract), brought what work they could to completion—much of it modified to Marion's designs. Then Roberts literally locked the doors of the Oak Park Studio, thus closing the productive Oak Park years of Wright's career. Roberts worked for William Drummond for about a year. During that time, the following works were on the boards: Ralph S. Baker House (1914–1915), 1226 Ashland Avenue, Wilmette, IL; John A. Klesert House (1915), Keystone Avenue, River Forest IL; First Congregational Church (1915), 5701 West Midway Park, Chicago, IL 60644.
Orlando, Florida
Isabel Roberts and her family, accompanied by members of the William Drummond family, were visitors to St. Cloud, FloridaSt. Cloud, Florida
St. Cloud is a city in Osceola County, Florida, United States. The population was 35,183 at the 2010 census. St. Cloud is closely associated with the adjacent city of Kissimmee and its proximity to Orlando area theme parks, including Walt Disney World, Universal Orlando Resort, and Seaworld.St...
, as early as the winter of 1915. Roberts and her mother Mary moved to St. Cloud a decade after the Isabel Roberts House was completed. Mary Roberts was in failing health due to the lingering effects of influenza
Influenza
Influenza, commonly referred to as the flu, is an infectious disease caused by RNA viruses of the family Orthomyxoviridae , that affects birds and mammals...
. Roberts's sister Charlotte and her husband John B. Somerville were by that time established residents of St. Cloud. Mary Roberts died in Florida, in 1920.
Once in Florida, Isabel Roberts went into architectural practice with Ida Annah Ryan, who was the first woman in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
to earn a masters degree in architecture, from MIT
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
. As the firm of "Ryan and Roberts", they were among no more than a dozen architecture firms active in Orlando in the 1920s. Their business is listed under the heading "Architects" as "Ryan and Roberts" in the 1926 and in the 1927 Orlando City Directories, at 240 S. Orange St. and the Kenilworth Terrace address. One of only 10 architectural firms listed in 1926, the others including: Frank L. Bodine
Frank L. Bodine
Frank Lee Bodine was an American architect who practiced in Asbury Park, New Jersey and in Orlando, Florida in the first four decades of the twentieth century....
, Fred E. Field
Fred E. Field
Frederick E. Field was an American architect who practiced in Providence, Rhode Island, and Orlando, Florida, in the period between 1883 and 1927.Frederick E Field was born November 7, 1861. His professional training took place at Cornell University...
, David Hyer
David Hyer
David Burns Hyer was an American architect who practiced in Charleston, South Carolina and Orlando, Florida during the first half of the twentieth century, designing civic buildings in the Neoclassical Revival and Mediterranean Revival styles.-Biography:...
, Murry S. King
Murry S. King
Murry S. King was Florida's first registered architect, a noted American architect with a successful practice in Orlando, Florida, in the 1910s and 1920s....
, George E. Krug
George E. Krug
George Edward Krug was an American architect who practiced in Greater New York City , Sao Paulo, Brazil and Orlando, Florida....
, Howard M. Reynolds
Howard M. Reynolds
Howard Montalbert Reynolds, Sr. was an American architect practicing in Orlando, Florida in the 1920s. He designed gracefully proportioned, notable public buildings in the prevailing fashionable styles of the 1920s, including Mediterranean Revival, Colonial Revival, Spanish Colonial, Egyptian...
, Frederick H. Trimble
Frederick H. Trimble
Frederick H. Trimble was an American architect practicing in Central Florida from the early 1900s through the 1920s, working in the Colonial Revival, Spanish Colonial Revival and Prairie Style....
and Percy P. Turner
Percy P. Turner
Percy Pamorrow Turner was an American architect who, in the 1920s-1950s practiced in Baltimore Maryland, Houston, Texas, Orlando, Florida and Miami, Florida.-Early years:...
. And one of 12 firms so listed in Orlando in 1927, which included Maurice E. Kressly
Maurice E. Kressly
Maurice E. Kressly was an American architect practicing in Pennsylvania and central Florida in the middle years of the twentieth century. Kressly was well known as a school architect in both states, as well as for designing romantic Mediterranean Revival and Tudor Revival residences in the...
.
Soon after arriving in Florida, Roberts attempted to become a member of the Florida chapter of the American Institute of Architects. Letters of recommendation from John Van Bergen, Hermann V. von Holst and Frank Lloyd Wright which accompanied her application make it unmistakably clear that these men who had been her colleagues in Chicago considered Roberts to be an architect. Even so, Roberts was not admitted to the AIA. Nonetheless, throughout the 1920s, the architectural firm of Ryan and Roberts created landmark buildings in Central Florida
Central Florida
Central Florida is a regional designation for the area surrounding Orlando in east central Florida, United States. The area represents the third largest population concentration in Florida, after the South Florida and Tampa Bay regions, respectively....
, some of which still stand, today:
- Veterans Memorial Library - 1012 Massachusetts Ave., St. Cloud, Florida. Isabel Roberts’ brother-in-law, John B. Somerville, served on the building committee, a connection which resulted in Ryan and Roberts obtaining this commission. In 1922, an outline of what was desired was laid before architects Miss Ida Annah Ryan and Miss Isabel Roberts of Orlando. The plans submitted by these ladies were subsequently accepted. The architects insisted on a motto. Carlyle's, "The true university is a collection of books," was chosen. The building, although described as of Grecian style is in fact reminiscent of the designs of many of the Prairie SchoolPrairie SchoolPrairie School was a late 19th and early 20th century architectural style, most common to the Midwestern United States.The works of the Prairie School architects are usually marked by horizontal lines, flat or hipped roofs with broad overhanging eaves, windows grouped in horizontal bands,...
small bank buildings of the upper Midwest by Louis Sullivan, William Gray PurcellWilliam Gray PurcellWilliam Gray Purcell was a Prairie School architect in the Midwestern United States. He partnered with George Grant Elmslie. The firm of Purcell and Elmslie produced designs for buildings in twenty two states, Australia, and China...
and George Grant ElmslieGeorge Grant ElmslieGeorge Grant Elmslie was an American, though born in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, Prairie School architect whose work is mostly found in the Midwestern United States...
, Frank Lloyd Wright and others. It is constructed of hollow tile with stained stucco exterior and is well cared for and in daily use today. It now houses the St. Cloud Heritage Museum. The building is currently owned by the City of St. Cloud; however, the museum is operated solely by volunteers of the Woman's Club of St. Cloud.
- Amherst Apartments - 325 West Colonial Drive, Orlando, Florida. The Amherst Apartments were, for many years, Orlando’s most prestigious apartment address. Designed by Ida A. Ryan and Isabel Roberts in the Prairie Style and built in 1921-1922, it featured forty-seven apartments situated on the south shore of Lake Concord. The building closely resembles the design for the German Embassy Building (1915) by William Eugene DrummondWilliam Eugene DrummondWilliam Eugene Drummond was a Chicago Prairie School architect.-Early Years and Education:He was born in Newark, New Jersey, the son of carpenter and cabinet maker Eugene Drummond and his wife Ida Marietta Lozier...
; Roberts worked for Gunzel and Drummond in 1915. The Amherst Apartments were demolished in 1986.
- Tourist Club House - 700 Indiana Ave., St. Cloud, Florida. This club house for the Tourist Club of St. Cloud was opened in the city park on December 3, 1923. Designed by Ida Annah Ryan and Isabel Roberts, it shows the influence of the Prairie School with which Roberts was associated, as a rectangular structure with a barrel-roofed auditorium. Frank Lloyd Wright’s Oak Park Studio developed this style with open, airy plans, low-pitched hip or gable roofs, horizontal brick walls, exposed rafter ends, broad overhanging eaves and grouped wood windows. The building was torn down circa 2005.
- The Ryan/Roberts Home and Studio – 834 Kenilworth Terrace, Orlando, Florida (private). Ryan and Roberts designed this Mediterranean Revival style home and adjoining studio for their own use in 1920-24. The stucco structure with gable roof is in a simplified Mediterranean revival style. The former studio faces the street. Details of the design include asymmetrical window placements, decorative attic vents, side yard orientation and gently scalloped corner buttresses. It is a very well maintained private residence today.
- The Chapel at the Fisk Funeral Home, 1107-1111 Massachusetts Avenue, St. Cloud. A Prairie meets Spanish Revival style building with pointed arch arcades and a second-floor string of grouped windows.
- The Pennsylvania Hotel Building, 10th Street between Pennsylvania Ave. and Florida Avenue, St. Cloud, Florida. The building now houses the St. Cloud Twin Theatres.
- The Peoples Bank Building, southeast corner of 10th Street and New York Avenue, St. Cloud, Florida. The bank failed in the late Twenties; the building is now used as a cafe and barber shop.
- The St. Cloud Presbyterian Church (demolished) was a Mediterranean Revival remodeling of the church building, designed by Ryan and Roberts in the early 1920s. Isabel Roberts was a member of this congregation. Photos of this stylish remodeling may be seen in the St. Cloud Heritage Museum.
- Ross E. Jeffries Elementary School, 1200 Vermont Avenue, St. Cloud, Florida, circa 1926; Though positive documentation has been lost to time, records show that the designers of the Mediterranean Revival style school's original building may have been Ryan & Roberts. The building is distinguished by an arched porch in the offset tower main entry and a low profile accentuated by a curved parapet roofed bay. The facade consists chiefly of large tri-part Chicago style windows, with small end windows as accents.
- Lester M. Austin, Sr. Residence, 541 North Boyd Street, Winter Garden, Florida, circa 1927. A large Mediterranean Revival stucco house with tile roof and triparte arched windows. The Austin Residence is well-maintained and remains in private hands.
- The Fraser Residence, Orlando, Florida (private). A spacious, elegant Mediterranean Revival stucco mansion situated on one of Orlando's secluded lakes, the Fraser Residence is well-maintained and remains in private hands. Ryan and Roberts' freedom with window shapes and placement is particularly evident in this house, as is their use of round-headed French doors and similar windows, without any 45 degree angle dividers and with the two half circle segments on each side. It was a popular device with the firm and might be thought of as one of their "trademarks". This home served as Orlando Opera Guild's 1988 Designers' Show House.
- Unity Chapel, Orlando (demolished). For many years, this charming building, in a stuccoed English vernacular style, was the worship home of First Unitarian Church of Orlando, near Lake Eola. Ida Annah RyanIda Annah RyanIda Annah Ryan was a pioneering United States woman architect. She was born on November 4, 1873 at Waltham, MA, one of five children of Albert Morse Ryan and Carrie S. Jameson. Albert Morse Ryan was a Waltham city employee and historian who also ran a milk business. She graduated from the Waltham...
was a member of this congregation. Some scholars have had a hard time identifying this building, which Roberts listed on her AIA application. It is not to be confused with Frank Lloyd Wright's famous Unity TempleUnity TempleUnity Temple is a Unitarian Universalist church in Oak Park, Illinois, and the home of the Unity Temple Unitarian Universalist Congregation. It was designed by the American architect Frank Lloyd Wright, and built between 1905 and 1908. Unity Temple is considered to be one of Wright's most important...
in Oak Park, Illinois.
- Lake Eola Bandstand (built 1924, demolished) Cantilevered hip roof over lozenge shaped deck, with distinctive Prairie Style lamps on the entrance bridge stairs.
Additional residential and commercial structures by Ryan and Roberts continue to be identified as current owners become more aware of the significance of the contributions these women made to the field of architecture.
Isabel Roberts was a member of the St. Cloud Presbyterian Church (another of their commissions, a remodeling of an older structure, it is now demolished) until she moved from St. Cloud to Orlando in the early '20's, at which time she joined First Presbyterian Church of Orlando.
Isabel Roberts and Ida Annah Ryan lived and practiced at their Kenilworth home and studio in Orlando for the remainder of their lives. Isabel Roberts died in Orlando on December 27, 1955 at the age of 84, and was buried in Greenwood Cemetery, Orlando, alongside her mother Mary Roberts and her sister Charlotte Roberts Somerville; none of their graves have markers.