SPANISH FORT, Ala. — Did you know 19th-century Mobile was once called the “Silent City” because thoroughfares consisted of white Gulf Coast sand, rather than the popular stone or bricks in other cities, and horse hooves made no noise as they traveled?

Mobile architect L. Craig Roberts picked up that tidbit alongside scores of other trivia and facts while researching and honing his “History of Mobile in Architecture” lecture he’ll be delivering at 2 p.m. Feb. 13 in 5 Rivers Delta Resource Center’s Tensaw Theater.

For more than 30 years, Roberts has designed everything from contemporary waterfront homes to elaborate, traditional mansions, but a simple request from his mother’s social club several years ago led directly to one of his current most time-consuming pastimes.

Roberts said his first lecture for the antiquarian society in Gadsden, Ala., focused on what he knew best: residential architecture and recreating period replication architecture in residences.

“It was such a hit, they asked me back, and I slowly improved my history of Mobile in architecture to what it’s become today,” he said.

See the full story  on Page 1A in the Feb. 9 edition of The Bulletin.

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