Weber Brothers
Weber Bros., C.C. (Christian C.) & E.A. (Edward A.)
C.C. Weber is listed as (William) Bausmith & Weber in 1903-1905; on his own in 1906; with E.A. Weber 1907-1912, 1917-1918, 1921; as Weber, (George S.) Werner & (John S.) Adkins in 1913-1916; with E.A. and M.H. Weber in 1919-1929; and with S.K. Weber in 1930-1942.
The Weber Brothers—the leading early 20th-century Northern Kentucky architectural firm—benefited from Edward's role in the Kentucky Republican party, which may have accounted for their receiving the important commission to design the Executive Mansion in Frankfort adjacent to Frank M. Andrews' magnificent early 20th-century Beaux-Arts State Capitol. The mansion, which has been repeatedly "restored," in the early 1980s under the auspices of the architectural historian William Seale for Phyllis George Brown (the renowned sports-caster, then the governor's wife), is also an important example of Beaux-Arts residential design, combining impressive and well-detailed public rooms with family quarters for the Governor above. Derived ultimately from a combination of the Grand and Petit Trianons at Versailles, built for Louis XIV and XVI, via several palatial McKim, Mead & White and Horace Trumbauer Newport, R.I., "cottages," it may actually have been designed by the talented Cincinnati architect John Scudder Adkins, who usually worked with another partner or firm. The Weber Bros. specialized in school and university buildings in Kentucky and elsewhere in the Midwest, including Holmes High School in Covington, Ky., the Newport (Ky.) Junior High School, and a central building at Eastern State University in Richmond, Ky.
The Weber Bros. firm seldom worked in Cincinnati, apparently because of difficulties with the Cincinnati Chapter of the AIA. They were for a time associated with a tile-manufacturing Co., and played an active role in the development of Ft. Thomas, Ky., where they lived and designed many houses and other buildings for half a century. Among their works north of the Ohio, however, are the handsome Droppelman bungalow at 1835 Dexter Ave, East Walnut Hills (1913), and a similar, symmetrical house on Bishop Street in Clifton. After World I, a large and relatively "authentic" limestone Tudor Revival mansion at 748 Betula Ave, Rose Hill, was designed for the "Watermelon King," Stephen A. Gerrard. A monograph of the firm's work remains in the hands of descendants.