Standing majestically on the ridgeline a few blocks north of Waterbury Connecticut’s City Green is the Benedict-Miller Household, a visible middle level of this historic community. The colorful three tale mansion is designed on a monumental scale with a quilt get the job done of many gables, crisscrossed diagonal boards and ornate stick-work element. It was created in 1879 by Charles Benedict, whose corporation at the time was the largest company of brass appliances and fixtures in The usa – as nicely as the Mayor of Waterbury.
The Benedict-Miller Property is a Queen Anne/Adhere style mansion built by the architectural firm of Palliser, Palliser & Co who specialized in Gothic and Queen Anne cottages and created numerous residences for P.T. Barnum. The hilltop south experiencing perspective overlooks the metropolis of Waterbury and the Naugatuck Valley with many substantial mature maple trees and landscaping crowning its hilltop placing.
The Benedict-Miller’s front facade with its many gables, railings and stick-perform detail is dominated by the use of contrasting colours, materials and free flowing asymmetrical structure. The a few story estate has eighteen projecting gables that increase to steep peaks with each other with 4 chimneys providing the Benedict-Miller Home a potent vertical and ascendant quality in a well integrated design and style executed on a significant scale.
A single of the most elaborate residences constructed by Palliser, Palliser & Co the Benedict-Miller House assisted popularize in The united states the sample books they released at the conclude of the 19th century. George Palliser was an English builder who arrived to Bridgeport in 1873 with the intention of building properly made and effectively constructed houses cost-effective to people who could not afford to seek the services of an architect. Palliser formulated the strategy of selling plans for properties with prices that depended on their measurement and complete, alongside with suggestions on plumbing, paint and hardware.
Although the Benedict-Miller House was 1 of Palliser, Palliser and Co.’s most elaborate houses, it acquired state-huge awareness throughout design for its “sensible” new aesthetic promoted by the architects. The 1st tale is principally composed of pressed purple brick and terra cotta contrasting in color and texture with the upper stories which was a popular characteristic of the Queen Anne architectural fashion. The 2nd tale is vertical and horizontal boards that are the structural customers of the dwelling body. The 3rd tale is scalloped picket shingles with patterned woodworking in the gables producing a house abundant in ornate element and contrasting shades.
Nonetheless, not long immediately after its completion, Charles Benedict died abruptly of pleurisy in 1881 immediately after returning from a voyage to England and the accounting of his affairs suggests he may well not have concluded relocating into the new residence. His married daughter and his widow moved into the household.
In 1889 the estate was subdivided and household offered to Charles Miller, the President of Miller and Peck, a affluent retail shop specializing in dry products and carpets.
The town of Waterbury obtained the Benedict-Miller Residence in 1942 to supply a long term college campus in the city and as an inducement to the University of Connecticut to remain in Waterbury. From 1955 until 2002 it was the administrative and school offices of the Waterbury campus of the University of Connecticut when it was bought to Yeshiva Gedolah, a college for Orthodox Jews.
Its large scale and locale crowning the ridgeline a few blocks north of Waterbury’s town green tends to make the Benedict-Miller Home one of Waterbury, Connecticut’s most vital historic residences.