Edward Weber was best known for his school designs—notably Central Catholic High School and St. Mark’s School in the McKees Rocks Bottoms. The sense of fairy-tale whimsy he showed in those designs was on full display in this house, which Weber designed for Louis Brown in 1913.(1) It shows the same Jugendstil influence that we identified in the Lilian Henius house in Highland Park, which was designed by our noted early modernists Kiehnel & Elliott; this one is on a grander scale, but if we did not know the architect we would be forgiven for speculating that the two houses were drawn with the same pencil.
Footnotes
- Source: The Construction Record, August 2, 1913: “Architect Edward J. Weber, 406 Renshaw building, will receive estimates until August 5 on erecting a 2½-story stucco tile residence on Amberson avenue and Amberson place for Louis Brown, 313 Water street. Cost $25,000.” (↩)
