Plans for the Queen Anne style DeRoboam home at 390 E. California Street in Jacksonville did not come from the same George Barber catalog of house plans that inspired the Nunan House, but its style and features indicate that its design did come from an architectural pattern book. Constructed in 1893 for Henrietta Schmidling DeRoboam, it’s one of the few houses in town with a “jerkin head” roof—a combination of gable and hip roofs.
Schmidling, a rich Prussian widow, had married Jean St. Luc DeRoboam in 1873. DeRoboam was the brother of Madame Jeanne DeRoboam Holt, proprietress of the U.S. Hotel. When Madame Holt died in 1884, her brother inherited the hotel. Following her husband’s mismanagement, Henrietta used her own fortune to rescue the U.S. Hotel from foreclosure. Having rescued her husband, she wanted her own residence. The Queen Anne style home she commissioned was a far cry from the 1855 pioneer wood frame structure it replaced.