Charles E. Roberts Stable - History

History

Charles E. Roberts was an engineer, inventor and an important early client of Frank Lloyd Wright. Roberts was an influential member of the building committee of Unity Temple in Oak Park. For Roberts, Wright also developed the Quadruple Block Plan of 1900-1903. Many architectural historians have mistakenly identified Charles E. Roberts as the father of Oak Park Studio architect Isabel Roberts. As has been well documented, Isabel's father was James H. Roberts of South Bend, Indiana.

In 1896 Charles E. Roberts, an established patron of Frank Lloyd Wright, commissioned two jobs by the architect. One was the Charles E. Roberts House, which Wright executed an interior remodel on and the other was the Charles E. Roberts Stable. Wright redesigned the structure from an old barn into a garage for Roberts' electric car. The building was eventually converted into a residence by architect Charles E. White, Jr., Roberts' son-in-law and an employee in Wright's studio in the years 1903-1905. Sources greatly vary on the date of White's conversion. The village of Oak Park's landmark nomination form for Wright's other Roberts project, the patron's home, puts White's conversion of the garage into a residence at in 1929, at the same time the structure was physically moved from its original location to its present location. Historian Thomas O'Gorman, while noting the 1929 move, stated that the Wright-redesigned barn conversion was altered into a dwelling between 1903 and 1904. O'Gorman connects White's remodel to the sheer overhaul the building experienced under Wright's creative thumb.