DUANE
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Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm gonna give it to you straight down the road. Now, most houses in Amarillo don't come with a story quite like this one. The Edward Llewellyn and Margaret Seewald Roberts house, sitting there in Potter County, is the kind of place that makes you slow down and look twice.
Edward Llewellyn Roberts, born in 1886. Margaret Seewald Roberts, born in 1896. Between the two of them, they had ideas.
Strong ones. And when they hired architect Harold Walsh in 1949 to design their home, Walsh knew right away he wasn't the only one with opinions about how this thing was going to come together. The Roberts brought heavy input to that design process.
Heavy. You can imagine how those conversations went. Now here's where the story gets interesting.
Margaret Roberts was no ordinary homeowner picking out curtains. She had studied under Georgia O'Keeffe, right there at Amarillo High School. Georgia O'Keeffe.
And whatever that woman lit inside of Margaret, it burned long and bright, because Margaret went on to earn national recognition as an etcher and sculptor. So when it came time to build, Margaret wasn't just consulted. She picked up tools herself.
Those exposed beams, that carved woodwork running through the house, Santa Fe motifs worked right into the bones of the place. Margaret Roberts carved that woodwork herself. With her own hands.
The whole house was built as a nod to Santa Fe, New Mexico, architecture. Irregular ranch-style floor plan, stucco fireplaces, stone floors, a southwestern spirit carried from room to room. Harold Walsh drew it up, sure.
But the Roberts shaped it into something else entirely. Edward Llewellyn Roberts lived to 1983. Margaret Seewald Roberts lived to 2001.
Two long lives, and the house they built together is still standing, still carved, still fired with that Santa Fe soul Margaret put into it. Some houses just hold their people long after the people are gone. This is one of them.
What the marker says
The Edward Llewellyn (1886-1983) and Margaret Seewald (1896-2001) Roberts house was designed by Harold Walsh in 1949 under heavy input from the Roberts. A student of Georgia O'Keeffe while at Amarillo High School, Margaret went on to achieve national recognition as an etcher and sculptor. Built as a nod to Santa Fe, New Mexico, architecture, the home features an irregular ranch-style floor plan. Notable features of the home include Santa Fe motifs such as exposed beams and woodwork carved by Roberts herself. The southwestern theme is rounded out with stucco fireplaces and stone floors. RECORDED TEXAS HISTORIC LANDMARK - 2016