Background
Eloise Jenkins was born in Lincoln, Illinois, daughter of John Jenkins (a judge) and Minnie Spencer Eads Jenkins.
Eloise Jenkins was born in Lincoln, Illinois, daughter of John Jenkins (a judge) and Minnie Spencer Eads Jenkins.
She taught drawing locally as a young woman, then studied art in New York City, where she met and married one of the instructors, landscape painter George South. Roorbach, in 1889.
They moved to San Francisco together and built a redwood bungalow at Brookdale, in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Eloise Roorbach published travel essays about California, usually writing about a trip through the wilderness or along the coast, sometimes with her own illustrations. "The most desirable place in the world is, generally, that enchanted spot just a little beyond the foot of ground we happen to be in," she declared of her pleasure in exploring her adopted state.
She earned a reputation as a critic of California architecture, with articles about architect Irving Gill, and the California Mission style.