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ARCHITECTS
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Organized in 1924 by Clarence S. Thalheimer and David D. Weitz, who were both working in the office of John T. Windrim at the time. Thalheimer and Weitz had known each other since their childhood in the Strawberry Mansion neighborhood of Philadelphia. In 1933, their office prepared drawings for real estate development adjacent to the new U.S. Custom House designed by Ritter & Shay. According to a letter from Emerson C. Curtis & Company, Realtors, to the Hon. L. W. Robert, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury (26 July 1933), preserved in the National Archives, "The first unit contemplates a park area in front of the Custom House now being erected . . . However, to make this self supporting . . . it is proposed to construct a two deck garage under the ground over the entire area as is shown on the print. Above ground will be a grouping of three two story buildings of architecture in keeping with the new Custom House about a centered terraced area. The central building of this group will be constructed for a restaurant of the 'Horn and Hardart' or 'Linton' type in order to accommodate the twenty-five hundred employes (sic) who will be in the new Customs building; and the other two buildings will have twenty stores on the first floors and twenty suites of offices on the second floor. . . ." Never erected, this complex would have changed the image of the Independence mall to a mixed-use facility. In 1954 Clarence S. Thalheimer's son Jack Thalheimer joined the office after completing his architectural training. The younger Thalheimer was made a partner in the firm by 1962. The firm survived Weitz's death in 1976, continuing into the late 1980s.
Written by Emily T. Cooperman, and Sandra L. Tatman.
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