Weilheimer House & Air
Base Laundry Buildings
Found Eligible for State
Historic Register
Editor’s Note: The following article is adapted from a
press release shared with the MVHA by the group Livable
Mountain View. For more information visit:
www.livablemv.org.
The Weilheimer House as featured on the front page of the Mtn.
View Register on March 5, 1905.
The California State Historical Resources Commission (SHRC)
determined the Weilheimer House (presently home to Chez TJ
restaurant) and the former Air Base Laundry building (pres-
ently home to the Tied House Cafe and Brewery) are eligible
for the National Register of Historic Places, following a formal
nomination of each building for historic designation by the
group Livable Mountain View. By virtue of the SHRC deter-
mining the buildings’ eligibility, both the Weilheimer House
and former Air Base Laundry building, located adjacent to one
another on Villa Street in Downtown Mountain View, are now
listed on the California Register of Historical Resources.
Appointed by the governor of California, the SHRC is a nine-
member state review board responsible for identifying,
registering, and preserving California’s cultural heritage. Its
members include experts in history, prehistoric archaeology,
architectural history, and restoration architecture. During
its public hearing in Sacramento earlier this year, the
SHRC reviewed Livable Mountain View’s nominations,
which included extensive written documentation and
visual materials supporting the historical and architectural
signi icance of the Weilheimer House and former Air Base
Laundry. The commission then voted 7-0 (two commissioners
were absent) to support the buildings’ eligibility and later
rendered formal decisions on both.
The Weilheimer House was built in 1894 by Julius Weilheimer,
son of Seligman Weilheimer, a German-Jewish immigrant
who in 1853, along with his brother, settled in Mountain
View. The Weilheimers opened a general store, followed by
many other family businesses that included a hotel, a livery,
and additional general stores. Julius Weilheimer was born in
Mountain View in 1860 and eventually ran many of the family
businesses, which by then were located on and around Castro
Street. He served as trustee, mayor (he held city council
meetings in the Weilheimer House), and vice-president
of the local bank, and led the effort to rebuild Mountain
View’s downtown after the destruction caused by the 1906
earthquake.
A rendering of the Air Base Laundry appeared on the front page of
the 1931 Mountain View Register-Leader
The Weilheimer House’s next resident was ive-term U.S.
Congressman Arthur Free, who was responsible for Moffett
Field (later Moffett Field/Ames Research) coming to
Mountain View in 1930, when cities up and down California
were competing for this project.
Built in 1931, the Air Base Laundry largely served the base
and thus was designed to match the 30 Spanish Revival
buildings still located at Moffett Field, all of which are on
the National Register of Historic Places. Its façade remains
unchanged as it retains its stucco inish, red roof, original
upper story windows, and corbels below the roo line.
Although updated since 1931, the materials and scale of the
doors and windows are consistent with that of the original
building. By history, function, and design, the Air Base
Laundry building is Downtown Mountain View’s link to the
irst generation of air and space technology—events that
helped to lay the foundation for today’s Silicon Valley.
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