Louis Weissbein Explained

Louis Weissbein
Nationality:German
Birth Date:19 July 1831
Birth Place:Krotoschin, Prussia
Death Place:Boston, Massachusetts

Louis Weissbein (1831–1913) was a German-born American architect practicing in Boston, Massachusetts.

Life and career

Louis Weissbein was born July 19, 1831, to Michael A. Weissbein and Johanna (Basch) Weissbein in Krotoschin, then under the control of Prussia but historically and presently a part of Poland. He was educated in a local school and studied with a government architect, followed by two years at the Bauakademie in Berlin. In 1854 he immigrated to the United States, settling in Boston.[1] [2] For four years he worked as a draftsman for various architects, including Richard Bond and Nathaniel J. Bradlee.[1] [3] In 1858 he established his own office in Boston. He was a sole practitioner until 1883, when he formed a partnership with William Hatch Jones, who had joined Weissbein as a draftsman .[1] [4] The firm of Weissbein & Jones was active until Jones' death in 1903. Weissbein then returned to private practice, retiring shortly before his death.

Weissbein was a Republican.[1] During his term as Mayor of Boston, Hugh O'Brien proposed to appoint him City Architect of Boston, though he declined. In 1891 he was appointed to the Board of Commissioners of Prisons by Governor William E. Russell, and he resigned in 1894.[5] [6] Weissbein was a member of the American Institute of Architects from 1870 until 1895, and became a Fellow in 1889.[7]

Personal life

Weissbein was Jewish, and may have been the first Jewish architect to practice in Boston. He was one of the best-known German residents of Boston, and was a leader in local German society and philanthropy.[1] For fifty years he was a member of the Orpheus Musical Society, a German singing society, and was president for 22 years.[8]

Weissbein never married. He died December 10, 1913, in Boston.[9] At his death he bequeathed four thousand dollars to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to support scholarships for Jewish students.[10]

Legacy

Weissbein's major works include the original buildings of Boston College and Temple Israel, the latter of which is the oldest synagogue building in Massachusetts. He also designed a concentration of large buildings, including the courthouse, in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, one of which has been listed on the United States National Register of Historic Places. Many of his other works contribute to listed historic districts.

Weissbein established the Louis Weissbeing Scholarship Fund (1915) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology "to found a scholarship to be awarded each year to a promising student, preference to be given a Jewish boy in making the award."[11]

Architectural works

Notes and References

  1. Who's Who in New England, ed. Albert Nelson Marquis (Chicago: A. N. Marquis & Company, 1909): 985.
  2. Death certificate, 1913.
  3. Boston directories
  4. https://backbayhouses.org/louis-weissbein/ Louis Weissbein
  5. "Weissbein Succeeds Fitz" in Boston Daily Globe, April 23, 1891, 10.
  6. "Gen. Bridges Resigns" in Boston Daily Globe, January 4, 1894, 1.
  7. https://aiahistoricaldirectory.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/AHDAA/pages/39427727/ahd1047730 Louis Weissbein
  8. "Gift For Louis Weissbein" in Boston Daily Globe, December 12, 1913, 9.
  9. "Noted as Architect" in Boston Daily Globe, December 15, 1906, 13.
  10. Technology Review 16, no. 1 (January, 1914): 10.
  11. Book: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Catalog Academic year 1932-33. 50.
  12. Keith N. Morgan, Buildings of Massachusetts: Metropolitan Boston (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2009)
  13. "Washington Building" in Ballou's Pictorial 17, no. 25 (December 17, 1859): 385.
  14. Kenneth A. Breisch, Henry Hobson Richardson and the Small Public Library in America (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1997)
  15. Illustrated Boston (New York: American Publishing and Engraving Company, 1889): 115.
  16. https://mhc-macris.net/#!/details?mhcid=BOS.RC Historic Area Detail: BOS.RC
  17. https://mhc-macris.net/#!/details?mhcid=PIT.102 Historic Building Detail: PIT.102
  18. https://mhc-macris.net/#!/details?mhcid=PIT.101 Historic Building Detail: PIT.101
  19. https://mhc-macris.net/#!/details?mhcid=PIT.172 Historic Building Detail: PIT.172
  20. http://www.brooklinefirefighters.org/index.cfm?zone=/unionactive/view_article.cfm&HomeID=68878&page=History History of the Brookline Fire Department
  21. Edward Boltwood, The History of Pittsfield, Massachusetts; from the Year 1876 to the Year 1916 (Pittsfield: City of Pittsfield, 1916)
  22. https://backbayhouses.org/225-marlborough/ 225 Marlborough
  23. "Intelligence," Massachusetts Teacher 27, no. 11 (November 1874): 462.
  24. Adam Gaffin, "Roslindale residents to seek landmark status for house Mary Baker Eddy once lived in," Universal Hub, June 18, 2016.
  25. Charles S. Damrell, A Half Century of Boston's Building (Boston: Louis P. Hager, 1895)
  26. https://mhc-macris.net/#!/details?mhcid=BOS.3735 Historic Building Detail: BOS.3735
  27. https://backbayhouses.org/203-commonwealth/ 203 Commonwealth
  28. Andrew Elder and Jeremy C. Fox, Boston's Orange Line (Charleston: Arcadia Publishing, 2013)
  29. David Kaufman, "Temples in the American Athens: A History of the Synagogues of Boston" in The Jews of Boston, ed. Jonathan D. Sarna and Ellen Smith (Boston: Combined Jewish Philanthopies of Greater Boston, 1995): 165-207.
  30. Report of the Auditor of Accounts of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for the Year ending December 31, 1889 (Boston: Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1890)
  31. "Real Estate and Building" in Cambridge Chronicle, August 23, 1902, 1.

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