Waterbury CT Historic Homes: Benedict-Miller House

Standing majestically on the ridgeline a few blocks north of Waterbury Connecticut’s City Inexperienced is the Benedict-Miller Residence, a visual heart place of this historic neighborhood. The colorful a few tale mansion is developed on a monumental scale with a quilt do the job of several gables, crisscrossed diagonal boards and ornate adhere-function element. It was constructed in 1879 by Charles Benedict, whose firm at the time was the largest maker of brass appliances and fixtures in The united states – as nicely as the Mayor of Waterbury.

The Benedict-Miller House is a Queen Anne/Adhere fashion mansion intended by the architectural agency of Palliser, Palliser & Co who specialised in Gothic and Queen Anne cottages and developed various homes for P.T. Barnum. The hilltop south dealing with see overlooks the town of Waterbury and the Naugatuck Valley with a lot of huge experienced maple trees and landscaping crowning its hilltop environment.

The Benedict-Miller’s entrance facade with its various gables, railings and stick-work depth is dominated by the use of contrasting colours, products and free of charge flowing asymmetrical layout. The a few tale estate has eighteen projecting gables that rise to steep peaks alongside one another with four chimneys offering the Benedict-Miller Home a potent vertical and ascendant quality in a properly integrated structure executed on a significant scale.

A person of the most elaborate residences designed by Palliser, Palliser & Co the Benedict-Miller Property helped popularize in America the pattern guides they revealed at the conclude of the 19th century. George Palliser was an English builder who arrived to Bridgeport in 1873 with the intention of producing perfectly created and very well designed houses affordable to folks who could not pay for to seek the services of an architect. Palliser made the concept of promoting options for residences with price ranges that depended on their measurement and end, together with information on plumbing, paint and hardware.

Even though the Benedict-Miller Dwelling was a person of Palliser, Palliser and Co.’s most elaborate homes, it attained point out-large attention for the duration of building for its “sensible” new aesthetic promoted by the architects. The 1st story is principally composed of pressed pink brick and terra cotta contrasting in color and texture with the upper stories which was a widespread element of the Queen Anne architectural design. The second story is vertical and horizontal boards that are the structural members of the residence frame. The third story is scalloped wooden shingles with patterned woodworking in the gables developing a dwelling rich in ornate depth and contrasting colours.

On the other hand, not lengthy after its completion, Charles Benedict died suddenly of pleurisy in 1881 after returning from a voyage to England and the accounting of his affairs signifies he may not have finished going into the new property. His married daughter and his widow moved into the house.

In 1889 the estate was subdivided and dwelling offered to Charles Miller, the President of Miller and Peck, a affluent retail retail outlet specializing in dry items and carpets.

The city of Waterbury obtained the Benedict-Miller Household in 1942 to offer a lasting college campus in the metropolis and as an inducement to the College of Connecticut to continue being in Waterbury. From 1955 until finally 2002 it was the administrative and school workplaces of the Waterbury campus of the College of Connecticut when it was offered to Yeshiva Gedolah, a college for Orthodox Jews.

Its significant scale and location crowning the ridgeline three blocks north of Waterbury’s city eco-friendly would make the Benedict-Miller House 1 of Waterbury, Connecticut’s most crucial historic houses.