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Martin Eli Weil Papers: Finding
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archWeil
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Title: Martin Eli Weil papers
Dates (inclusive): approximately 1964-2009
Bulk dates: 1979-2008
Collection Number: archWeil
Creator:
Weil, Martin Eli
Extent:
137 boxes and 6 oversize folders (134 linear feet)
Repository:
The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens
The Huntington Library
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, California 91108
Phone: (626) 405-2191
Email: reference@huntington.org
URL: http://www.huntington.org
Abstract: This collection contains the professional papers of architect Martin Eli Weil (1940-2009), relating to Weil's work as a restoration
architect and consultant in Los Angeles and Southern California. The materials date from 1964 until 2009, the year of Weil's
death, with the bulk of the material relating to 428 projects on which Weil worked as a restoration architect and consultant
from the time he arrived in Southern California in 1979 until 2008. Files document 428 individual projects, including Frank
Lloyd Wright structures such as Barnsdall Park and Hollyhock House; the restoration of the El Capitan Theater; and jobs undertaken
as a consultant for the cities of San Gabriel, La Verne, Porterville, and Monrovia, California. The collection also includes
papers reflecting Weil's service as Restoration Services Director for the Restoration Services Division of the Department
of Indian and Northern Affairs in Canada from 1971-1978; his work as an instructor in historic preservation at the University
of Southern California from 1981-2009; his writing, chiefly as an architecture columnist for the
Larchmont Chronicle; his involvement with the Harvard Heights community in Los Angeles, where he lived; and his Master's thesis project.
Language: English.
Open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services Department. For more information, contact Reader
Services.
The Huntington Library does not require that researchers request permission to quote from or publish images of this material,
nor does it charge fees for such activities. The responsibility for
identifying the copyright holder, if there is one, and obtaining necessary permissions rests with the researcher.
[Identification of item]. Martin Eli Weil Papers, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.
Gift of the Estate of Martin E. Weil, February 2010.
The Martin Eli Weil Papers are arranged according to the original order of Weil's files. Series were designated by archivists
at the Huntington Library. In 2014, archivist Anita Weaver began processing the collection and drafted the Project Index.
From 2016-2017, project archivist Sue Tyson completed arrangement and processing of the collection, the Project Index, and
wrote the finding aid. In 2019, Gina Giang completed physical control over the collection and published the finding aid. Because
they form the bulk of the collection, the project records were rehoused and their boxes numbered first; other boxes were numbered
as their series were processed.
Most of the collection was originally housed in manila folders in file drawers in Weil's home offices. In order to protect
materials in the project records, where practicable, drawings and photographs were separated from manuscript materials and
placed in folders directly following. Where Weil's original folder titles illuminated the contents of the folders, they were
retained, usually edited for consistency and clarity. In cases where Weil's folder titles did not adequately describe a folder's
contents, the archivist has provided a descriptive title and noted Weil's original title in brackets on the folder.
Project-related materials that Weil stored separately from the project records, including objects, chiefly materials fragments
and paint samples; photographs; and rolled drawings, were rehoused by conservators and the archivist. The project-related
materials are arranged alphabetically by project; and described, along with the project records, in Series IV, Projects.
Restoration architect Martin Eli Weil (1940-2009) was born July 2, 1940 in Glasgow, Montana, to Esther and Herbert Weil, a
civil engineer, and grew up in Omaha, Nebraska. Weil earned a Bachelor of Arts in Art History from the University of Iowa
in 1962 and two Master's degrees, one in Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania in 1965; and one in Early American
Culture and the Decorative Arts in 1967, as a Fellow in the Winterthur Program in American Material Culture at the University
of Delaware.
Upon completing his degrees, Weil worked first as an architect with John Carl Warnecke, Architect, in New York City (1967-1968)
and then as a restoration consultant and restoration architect for John Dickey, Architect, in Media, Pennsylvania (1967-1971).
In 1971, Weil was recruited to join the staff of Parks Canada's Division of Restoration Services in the Canadian Department
of Indian and Northern Affairs in Ottawa, serving initially as the Division's Head Restoration Architect in the General Period
Section (1971-1975) and then as Head of Period Architecture and Acting Head of Administration (1975-1976) and Division Chief
(1976-1978), ultimately overseeing restoration of ten historic sites. In addition, Weil served as president of Heritage Ottawa
and, in 1974, founded the Society for the Study of Architecture in Canada, which he served as president until 1976.
In 1978, Weil moved to Southern California, where he soon became a prime mover in founding the Los Angeles Conservancy, in
part in order help thwart the demolition of the Los Angeles Public Library. In 1979, Weil established his business, "Martin
Eli Weil, Restoration Architect," which he ran from his home with a small staff, taking on projects both as principal architect
and as a consultant. He developed expertise in areas including the restoration of historic buildings and sites; rehabilitation
of period structures and their adaptation for re-use; microscopic paint analysis and color restoration; specific plans and
their implementation; preservation design guidelines; environmental impact and historic structures reports; tax act certification
and national register nominations; and interior design. In 1985, Weil bought the last extant house designed by the architecture
firm Greene & Greene in Los Angeles, the Lucy Wheeler House (1905), and made its restoration a continuing project, even as
he worked and lived there.
During a career that lasted until his death in 2009, Weil worked on hundreds of projects, including many significant restorations
and rehabilitations; major projects included the Storer House, Hollyhock House, and other buildings by Frank Lloyd Wright;
the El Capitan Theater; Bullock's Department Store in Pasadena; Ebell Theatre; Griffith Park Observatory; the Santa Monica
Mountains Conservancy's Mentryville project; Villa Riviera; and the Huntington Mausoleum. He worked for private parties as
well as municipal, state, and federal governments, and served as City Restoration Architect and consultant for cities including
San Gabriel, La Verne, Pasadena, and Monrovia.
Other professional engagements included work as a teacher; one of the original lecturers at the University of Southern California's
Summer Program in Historic Preservation and also a faculty member in USC's Historic Preservation graduate program, Weil taught
courses at the school from 1981-2009 in subjects including historic preservation, surveying historic sites, historic interiors,
historic finishes, the built environment of Los Angeles, and period interiors and furnishings. He also wrote a column, "Weil
on Architecture," for the
Larchmont Chronicle from 1995-1999. Along with his work for the Los Angeles Conservancy, Weil was also involved in his neighborhood of Harvard
Heights, in the West Adams section of Los Angeles. He was a charter member of the West Adams Heritage Association and a member
of the Harvard Heights Association, and his efforts were key to creating the Harvard Heights Historic Protection Overlay Zone.
For his work in the field of restoration architecture and for his service to the community, he had two awards named in his
honor, the Society for the Study of Architecture in Canada's Martin Eli Weil Prize (established 1989) and the West Adams Heritage
Association's Martin Eli Weil Historic Preservation Award (established 2006); in both cases, he was first recipient of these
awards. Weil also earned awards from the Los Angeles Conservancy (multiple honors); the National Trust for Historic Preservation,
for his work on the El Capitan Theater (1992); the California Governor's Preservation Award, for his work on Hanna House (1999);
and, shortly before his death, the California Preservation Foundation Preservation Design Award, for color consulting and
exterior renovation of the Villa Riviera in Long Beach (2009). Weil died in February, 2009.
The collection contains correspondence; project and business records; reports; contracts; notes and research files; appointment
books; drawings, including approximately 2920 rolled drawings; approximately 5000 photographs, chiefly snapshots depicting
work in progress; material samples, including approximately 2000 fragments of wood or other surfaces containing paint samples;
and 46 media files documenting the career of Martin Eli Weil. The materials date from 1964 until 2009, the year of Weil's
death, with the bulk of the material relating to 428 projects on which Weil worked as a restoration architect and consultant
from the time he arrived in Southern California in 1979 until 2008; some of these projects were undertaken as part of larger
projects, such as jobs Weil performed while under contract to various municipalities. Of the 428 projects, 406 were included
in Weil's project records, found in his filing cabinets; 22 projects are represented in the collection only by either photographs,
drawings, or materials samples (objects), without any other project documentation. Rolled drawings comprise both original
drawings by Weil and reprographic copies of drawings by original and prior restoration architects that Weil used in his work.
The collection documents the wide range of work Weil performed, comprising historic structures reports, microscopic paint
analysis, tax act and historic landmark certification, environmental impact and seismic structures analysis, and other restoration
and rehabilitation work on structures. Major projects represented include Hollyhock House and other Frank Lloyd Wright buildings
in Barnsdall Park as well as Storer House; the El Capitan Theater and Bullock's Department Store in Pasadena; residences including
David O. Selznick's home (Joelson Residence); and work Weil undertook as a consultant for the cities of La Verne, San Gabriel,
Porterville, and Monrovia, California.
Also included are papers reflecting Weil's work as the Restoration Services Director for the Restoration Services Division
of the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs in Canada from 1971-1978; research and teaching materials from his work as
a faculty member at the University of Southern California from 1981-2009; documentation of Weil's writings, chiefly as a columnist
for the
Larchmont Chronicle; correspondence, writings, and research files relating to Weil's community involvement, chiefly his work to support creation
of a Historic Protection Overlay Zone in Harvard Heights; and 68 drawings from his Master's thesis project.
The materials in the collection are grouped into series designated by the archivist as suggested in the
Standard Series for Architecture and Design Records: A Tool for the Arrangement and Description of Archival Collections, developed by Kelcy Shepherd and Waverly Lowell (2010).
The project records, which form the bulk of the collection, are described primarily in the Project Index rather than in this
finding aid. The Project Index, a downloadable PDF that provides details on each of the collection's 428 projects, includes,
where available, client and project name; project date; address; neighborhood and historic district; historic name, original
architect, and National Register of Historic Landmark designation information; the scope of Weil's work; titles of reports
written or co-written by Weil; awards; collaborators on projects; and other details about projects, including information
about dimensions of rolled drawings.
The Project Index also provides details about locations of reports, photographs, drawings, and other materials in the collection,
information to be used in combination with the location information provided in the finding aid for determining which materials
to request for viewing. Columns labeled Files, Photos, Drawings, AV/E-Media, and Objects provide box and folder numbers for
these materials. Please note that, in the Project Index, Files refers chiefly to manuscript materials; Photos and Drawings
include references both to items separated out from manuscript materials in the main project records and to items Weil arranged
separately, including rolled drawings and some photographs of work in progress. The Objects column references primarily fragments
including paint samples and, to a lesser extent, building materials.
The Project Index is divided into two major sections: The main body of projects documented in Weil's project records (406
projects, represented in Rows 2-415) and 22 projects, listed under "Other Projects," for which only photographs, drawings,
or objects (materials samples) were found, without other project documentation (Rows 417-439). Rows 440-442 describe unidentified
materials; these have not been counted as projects because it is possible that they belong to projects already listed.
In addition to the Project Index, a separate spreadsheet provides details about the rolled drawings accompanying the multiple
projects Weil worked on at Barnsdall Park, including Hollyhock House.
The collection is arranged in the following four series:
- Series I. Personal Papers
- Subseries A. Student Work
- Series II. Professional Papers
- Subseries A. Writings and Related Research
- Subseries B. Faculty Papers
- Subseries C. Associations and Committees
- Subseries D. Awards
- Subseries E. Scrapbook and Curricula Vitae
- Subseries F. Posters and Drawings
- Subseries G. Other
- Series III. Office Records
- Series IV. Project Records
- Subseries A. Files
- Subseries B. Photographs
- Subseries C. Objects
- Subseries D. Media
- Subseries E. Drawings
Series and subseries were designated by the archivist as suggested in the
Standard Series for Architecture and Landscape Design Records: A Tool for the Arrangement and Description of Archival Collections.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the
Huntington Library's Online Catalog.
Weil, Martin Eli -- Archives.
Wright, Frank Lloyd, 1867-1959.
Bullock's (Department store)
El Capitan Theatre (Organization : Hollywood, Calif.)
Greene & Greene.
Hollyhock House (Hollywood, Los Angeles, Calif.)
Architectural drawing -- Archives.
Architects -- California -- Archives.
Architects and community.
Architecture -- California -- Los Angeles -- Designs and plans.
Architecture -- Conservation and restoration.
Architecture -- Designs and plans.
Color -- Conservation and restoration.
Historic buildings -- Conservation and restoration -- California -- Los Angeles.
Historic preservation -- California -- Los Angeles.
Paint -- Conservation and restoration.
Paint materials -- Analysis.
Barnsdall Park (Los Angeles, Calif.)
La Verne (Calif.) -- Buildings, structures, etc.
Los Angeles (Calif.) -- Buildings, structures, etc.
Monrovia (Calif.) -- Buildings, structures, etc.
Pasadena (Calif.) -- Buildings, structures, etc.
Porterville (Calif.) -- Buildings, structures, etc.
San Gabriel (Calif.) -- Buildings, structures, etc.
Agreements.
Architectural drawings (visual works).
Architectural photographs.
Correspondence (letters).
Business records.
Drawings (visual works).
Photographs.
Reports.
Kelley, H. Roy (Harold Roy), 1892- , architect.
Kelly, Arthur Rolland, 1878-1959, architect.
Kwan, Raymond, photographer.
Weil, Martin Eli, architect.
Weil, Martin Eli, author.
Weil, Martin Eli, illustrator.
Williams, Paul R., 1894-1980, architect.
Wright, Frank Lloyd, 1867-1959, architect.