My Genealogy Hound

WILLIAM TAYLOR BLAKE ROBERTS, the well known master builder who has been so long engaged in operations in Philadelphia and Montgomery counties, is of English ancestry. He was born June 15, 1850.

He received his education in the schools of Philadelphia, and during this time manifested a strong liking for the occupation of builder. When he was fourteen years of age his parents removed to Franklin, Venango county, Pennsylvania, where his father became manager for the Asher Petroleum Company, and also devoted a portion of his time to agricultural pursuits. The son engaged in farm work during the spring and summer, and followed the occupation of lumbering in the forests during the remainder of the year. After he had been thus engaged for three years the family returned to Philadelphia, and William T. B. became an apprentice to the trade of carpenter and builder, in which he has achieved so great a success. After the term of his apprenticeship expired he associated himself with his father in building operations, and later continued the business on his own account, becoming a contractor for capitalists and also engaging in extensive operations for himself. He soon achieved a reputation as a capable and honorable business man who could be trusted to fulfill his contracts in the most careful and conscientious manner. The first consideration with him was that his work should be honest and satisfactory, his own profits being a secondary consideration. The houses which he erected were soon found to command a ready sale at good prices, and his services came to be in very active demand. The reputation he won guaranteed him all the business in his line he desired, and his business has increased enormously in the course of the past twenty or thirty years. The field of Mr. Roberts as a builder was at first in the northern section of Philadelphia and in the outlying districts of Tioga and Germantown, where he erected thousands of dwellings. One of the most extensive and important of his earlier operations was the erection of the Aubrey Hotel, a speculative enterprise during the Centennial Exposition of 1876. It was located on Walnut street, and extended from Thirty-third to Thirty-fourth streets, costing about a quarter of a million of dollars. The magnificent residence of Peter A. B. Widener, on Broad street, at the corner of Girard avenue, one of the finest residences in Philadelphia, and also two dwellings adjoining it, all three of which were fine examples of his skill and genius, are important additions to the section of Broad street which is devoted to residential purposes. He also erected a number of buildings in Scranton, many of them large and costly structures.

Montgomery county as a field for Mr. Roberts’s extensive building operations is of later date. After he had labored successfully in the erection of dwellings which contributed so largely to the growth of Philadelphia, fine blocks of houses which he built connecting the older section of the city with what were formerly outlying farms, he became associated with the operations of Peter A. B. Widener and the late William L. Elkins, they having purchased large tracts of land in the vicinity of Ogontz, in Cheltenham township, as the result of the extension of the lines of the Union Traction Company, in which they were largely interested. They built within the limits of the city and later outside of them, covering tracts of land adjacent to their railway lines with comfortable homes, the entire management of these operations being entrusted to Mr. Roberts. His work was performed so satisfactorily that they gave to him the management of the erection of P. A. B. Widener’s, George W. Widener’s and G. W. Elkins’ palatial residences. moving steadily northward; Mr. Roberts has erected thousands of dwellings for other capitalists and also for himself. At the present time (1904) he is the owner of and is operating very largely in the vicinity of Glenside, where an era of improvement has been inaugurated which is likely to continue until the entire neighborhood is built up. That section of Montgomery county, which has improved more rapidly than any other, owes much to the skill and enterprise of Mr. Roberts. In addition to what he has done in that quarter, he was the builder of a portion of the extensive improvements of the Pennsylvania Iron Company, at Fiftieth street and Merion avenue, including offices, machine shops, foundry, etc.

Mr. Roberts is a man of progressive ideas and views, is ever ready to adopt improved methods, and it is largely through his instrumentality that the section of Montgomery county in which he resides has grown and developed in such a remarkable manner. He possesses many sterling characteristics, has a strict regard for commercial ethics, and a high standard of citizenship. He has given little attention to politics or to social enjoyment, his time and attention being entirely devoted to his business and the society of his family. During the greater part of the year Mr. Roberts resides at Ogontz, where he has a fine and modern mansion.

In June, 1871, Mr. Roberts married Miss Emma J. Britton, and two children have been born to them, a son and a daughter.