F. Weigl Iron Works

Peter Mansbendel, the woodcarver who set Weigl up with a forge, was a Swiss master. Born in Basel in 1883, he apprenticed at ten to a local carver, studied Grinling Gibbons's carving in London, finished at a Paris art school and came to America in 1907. He followed Clotilde Shipe, daughter of the Austin developer Monroe Shipe, to Austin and married her in 1911. His studio was in the old Swedish consulate on West Ninth Street, where Swante Palm had kept his library. Architects across Texas called him in for mantels and doors.

What the plaque says

F. Weigl Iron Works Ironsmith Fortunat Weigl (1884-1973) migrated to Austin in 1913 from Germany with his wife Anna and sons F. Lee and Herbert. Work was scarce until 1917, when Weigl was commissioned by the local woodcarver Peter Mansbendel, who supplied a forge and tools. In 1922 Weigl established his own ornamental iron works, which he moved to this site in 1935. With the help of his sons, he produced original works, entirely hand-wrought, for many significant Austin homes, the State Capitol, and buildings of the Universities of Texas and Texas A&M. His firm remained in operation until 1977. (1981)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• French Legation State Historic Site — 0.5 mi
  A raised pine house built in 1840 and 1841 for France's envoy to the Republic of Texas, who left Austin in a rage over a neighbor's pigs before it was finished.
• Texas State Cemetery — 0.8 mi
  A hill east of the Capitol that began with one general's grave in 1851 and now holds Stephen F. Austin, governors, Barbara Jordan and more than 2,000 Confederate veterans and widows.
• Texas State Capitol — 0.9 mi
  Austin's fourth statehouse, a Renaissance Revival capitol of 1888 that stands 311 feet to its Goddess of Liberty and was restored after the 1983 fire.
• George Washington Carver Museum — 1.0 mi
  East Austin's museum of Black history and culture, grown from a segregated branch library moved across town in 1933, with a permanent exhibit on Juneteenth at its core.

More markers nearby

• Headquarters of US Army, 5th Military Dist. — steps away
• O. Henry — 0.3 mi
• H&TC and I&GN Depots — 0.4 mi
• Site of the Official Residence of Mirabeau B. Lamar — 0.4 mi