Emmor Brooke (E.B.) Weaver (1876 Iowa–1968 San Diego)
by Kimball Worcester, CHA Volunteer
The Craftsman movement in architecture shone with examples throughout San Diego County in the early years of the 20th century with such design luminaries as Irving Gill, Richard Requa, and Frank Mead. Irving Gill and his associates bestowed their artistry on Coronado with noteworthy properties such as 1710 Visalia and 1022 Adella, among others, some of which no longer exist.
E.B. Weaver worked in the offices of Irving Gill from 1905 to 1914, having arrived in San Diego in 1903 with a degree from the Illinois School of Architecture. Weaver is known in San Diego for designing some 50 buildings, of which the flamboyant Ramona Castle, 1921, (Mt. Woodson Castle today) built for his friend Amy Strong is a 100-year-old survivor. A link between Weaver and Coronado surfaced in a little article in the San Diego Union and Daily Bee of 31 Jan 1909 titled “Artistic Cottage for Coronado Resident.”
That “Coronado resident” was the photographer and naturalist Harold A. Taylor, whose photos of early Coronado life and Hotel Del guests are rich historic resources. Taylor’s aesthetic prowess involved his pioneering work in color photography and operating the Studio of Three Arrows in Yosemite before moving to Coronado. Taylor was also known for his superb photos of the California Missions and the 1915 Panama-California Exposition in San Diego.
This cottage designed by Weaver and commissioned by Taylor, newly arrived in Coronado, was located at 521 A Ave. Taylor and his wife were recorded as residing there in the 1910 census. Below are some excerpts from the article describing Weaver’s design:
“…a shingled cottage for Harold A. Taylor of the art store at Hotel del Coronado…being erected between Fifth and Sixth streets on the north side of A. It is planned
to secure the water and mountain view, which requires that the main living rooms open to the rear, rather than toward the street front.”
“The walls of the living room are to extend up to the roof without a ceiling and be finished so as to leave visible the actual roof construction.”
“…provision is to be made for a display of photographic prints such as are accomplished by the best modern development of that art.”
“…every convenience that goes to make up a modern home.”
Of note is the location stated as the “north” side of A. The numbers on A now run even on the north side and odd on the south, which, if the same in 1910, would put the house on the south side. There is no evidence today of this house. Indeed, there is no 521 A Ave. We know that by the next census recording in 1920 the Taylors had moved to 1303 7th Street, where they lived until moving to their ranch in El Cajon in the 1930s.
Weaver himself, after the Taylor commission in Coronado, moved forward in his profession with distinction. His patron and friend Amy Strong was a frequent visitor to Coronado, staying at The Del and socializing with the Babcocks. Weaver’s work with Strong had begun in 1909, when he and John Terrell Vawter (with whom he had a brief partnership) began designing the Castle that would not begin construction until 1916.
Weaver retired from his work in 1945 and lived another 23 years in San Diego till his death in 1968, long past the era of the original Craftsman movement and sadly outliving his little “artistic cottage” on A Ave. in Coronado.
