James D. Roberts House

The Roberts House is the only surviving example of a Carpenter's Gothic residence in Carson City. A front-facing gable roof covers the wood-frame building. Clapboards sheathe the walls, which rise to a roofline trimmed with bargeboards in the gables and drop molding hanging from the eaves. Pairs of slender wooden posts, embellished with carved brackets, support the porch. A balustrade of turned posts topping the porch and a stumpy, pointed-arched door opening onto the porch's roof appear to be later additions, as they do not match the lines of the house. The door most likely replaced a window. On the north side is a small, two story gabled wing containing a secondary entry. Its rich jigsawn details include attenuated bargeboards and an ornate balustrade on the balcony, which rests on delicate brackets.

The dwelling was moved from Washoe Valley in 1873 on a V&T Railroad flatcar. Carson City and Carson Valley to the south have many homes relocated from Virginia City and the Washoe Valley after those areas fell into economic decline. Now standing on North Carson Street in an area of commercial strip development, the house, set in a small park, seems isolated and out of place. Owned by the Carson City Parks Department, it functions as a local museum.