Asher Benjamin

104

Asher Benjamin : biography

June 15, 1773 – July 26, 1845

But as architectural historian Talbot Hamlin writes:

"…he, more than any other person is responsible for the character we roughly call ‘Late Colonial’; his moldings, his doors and windows and his mantels and cornices decorate or at least inspire the decorations of numberless houses up and down the New England coast and in the New England river valleys."

Asher Benjamin died in Springfield at the age of 72.

Gallery of designs

File:Coleman Hollister House Greenfield Massachusetts Asher Benjamin.jpg|Coleman-Hollister House, 1796, Greenfield, Massachusetts File:Interior Coleman Hollister House Greenfield Massachusetts.jpg|Interior, Coleman-Hollister House, 1796, Greenfield, Massachusetts File:First Deerfield Academy Memorial Hall Deerfield Massachusetts.jpg|First Deerfield Academy building, later Memorial Hall, 1797–1798, Deerfield, Massachusetts File:Old South Congregational Church Windsor Vermont.jpg|Old South Congregational Church, 1798, Windsor, Vermont Image:Charles Street Meeting House Beacon Hill Boston Massachusetts.jpg|Charles Street Meeting House, 1804, Boston Image:Old West Church Boston Asher Benjamin 1806.jpg|Old West Church, 1806, Boston Image:First Parish Church (Unitarian Universalist) – Ashby, Massachusetts.JPG|First Parish Church, 1809, Ashby, Massachusetts File:Center Church on the Green New Haven Connecticut.jpg|Center Church on the Green, 1812–1814, New Haven, Connecticut Image:Unitarian Church, Peterborough, NH.jpg|Unitarian Church, 1825, Peterborough, New Hampshire Image:Unitarian Church, Nashua, NH.jpg|Unitarian Church, 1827, Nashua, New Hampshire Image:70 to 75BeaconSt.JPG|70-75 Beacon Street, 1828, Boston

Designs

  • 1796—Luke Baldwin House, Brookfield, Massachusetts (demolished)
  • 1796—Samuel Hinckley House, Northampton, Massachusetts (demolished)
  • 1796-1797—Coleman-Hollister House, Greenfield, Massachusetts
  • 1797 — Leavitt-Hovey House (now Greenfield Public Library), Greenfield, Massachusetts
  • 1797-1798—First Deerfield Academy Building (now Memorial Hall), Deerfield, Massachusetts
  • 1798-1799—Stebbins House, Deerfield, Massachusetts
  • 1798—Old South Congregational Church, Windsor, Vermont
  • 1800—Fullerton House, Windsor, Vermont (demolished)
  • 1802—Harriet Lane House, Windsor, Vermont (demolished)
  • 1803—Hubbard House, Windsor, Vermont (demolished)
  • 1804 — Charles Street Meeting House, 70 Charles Street, Boston, Massachusetts
  • 1806 — Old West Church, 131 Cambridge Street, Boston, Massachusetts
  • 1806 — African Meeting House, 8 Smith Court, Boston, Massachusetts
  • 1808 — Headquarters House, 54-55 Beacon Street, Boston, Massachusetts
  • 1808—60 or 61 Beacon Street, Boston, Massachusetts
  • 1808—Fourth Meeting House of the First Church, Chauncy Street, Boston, Massachusetts
  • 1809—First Parish Church, Ashby, Massachusetts
  • 1809 — Exchange Coffee House, Boston
  • 1811—Alexander House, Springfield, Massachusetts
  • 1811-1812—Fourth Meeting House, Northampton, Massachusetts (demolished)
  • 1812-1814—Center Church, New Haven, Connecticut (with Ithiel Town)
  • 1817—Rhode Island Union Bank, Newport, Rhode Island (demolished)
  • 1819—Boylston Villa, Princeton, Massachusetts (For Ward Nicholas Boylston)
  • 1820—, Argyle, New York
  • 1824-1827—The Black House, Ellsworth, Maine
  • 1825—Unitarian Church, Peterborough, New Hampshire
  • 1826-1832 — Asa Waters Mansion, Millbury, Massachusetts
  • 1827—Unitarian Church, Canal Street, Nashua, New Hampshire
  • 1827—Olive Street Church, Nashua, New Hampshire (demolished)
  • 1828—70-75 Beacon Street, Boston, Massachusetts
  • 1830—Isaac Munson House, South Wallingford, Vermont
  • 1832—Cambridgeport Town Hall, Cambridgeport, Massachusetts (demolished)
  • 1833—Asher Benjamin House, 9 West Cedar Street, Boston, Massachusetts
  • 1833—7 West Cedar Street, Boston, Massachusetts
  • 1834 — Thatcher Magoun Mansion, Medford, Massachusetts (demolished)
  • 1835—Lexington-Concord Battle Monument, Peabody, Massachusetts
  • 1836—Dr. George Shattuck Monument, Mount Auburn Cemetery, Massachusetts
  • 1836—William Ellery Channing House, 83 Mount Vernon Street, Boston, Massachusetts
  • 1836 — Forest Home, the F. O. J. Smith House, Westbrook, Maine (demolished)
  • 1837—Proposal for the Custom House, Boston, Massachusetts (competition lost to Ammi B. Young)
  • 1838-1839—Fifth Universalist Church (now the Charles Playhouse), 74 Warrenton Street, Boston, Massachusetts
  • 1840—Richmond Street Church, Dorchester, Massachusetts (demolished)
  • 1841—Edmund Hastings House, Medford, Massachusetts (demolished)

Books

  • , 1797
  • The American Builder’s Companion, with Daniel Raynerd, 1806. , 1816.
  • , 1814
  • The Architect, or, Practical House Carpenter, 1830
  • , 1833
  • The Builder’s Guide, 1838
  • The Elements of Architecture, 1843