Outskirts Press, INC.

The First Full-length Biography of Asher Benjamin

From the rural backwater of Hartland, Connecticut, Asher Benjamin would rise to become one of the most important yet overlooked figures of American architecture in the first half of the nineteenth century. Taking inspiration from the neoclassical designs of the Boston architect Charles Bulfinch, Benjamin would be the driving force behind the transformation of the Connecticut Valley from an isolated provincial outpost to a sophisticated urban frontier. His later Boston designs, many of which survive, evinced a maturity and elegance which made the city a model of Federal design for the young nation. In addition to his building designs, in 1797 Asher Benjamin would write and publish The Country Builder’s Assistant, the first architectural guidebook by a native- born American. Never losing sight of his roots as a rural carpenter and housewright, Benjamin spent his entire career supporting country builders and the establishment of a uniquely American architecture.

The time Asher Benjamin took to explore developments in Boston and Pittsfield would greatly benefit him. By the age of twenty-three he was aggressively assimilating the neoclassical style through the architectural guidebooks of London-based architects such as William Pain and William Chambers, and was making careful observations of the designs of Charles Bulfinch in Boston. Though he may not have known it at the time, he also had in hand a church design that would dominate small towns in New England for the next quarter of a century. While Bulfinch’s designs were influential to his thinking, Benjamin was not without his own ideas. Never a mere copyist, Benjamin understood Bulfinch did not work in the Connecticut Valley, and the needs of country builders and their clients in rural New England were different from those in Boston.

By the time Benjamin finally settled in Greenfield, he was hired to build a house in nearby Northampton. It’s unknown whether Benjamin had the commission before coming to the area, or if he was hired only after arriving. Either way, the ambitious twenty-three-year-old Benjamin had his first commission as an independent journeyman housewright. He would design and build a house for Samuel and Dorothy Hinckley. The commission for the well-to-do Samuel Hinckley would provide an opportunity for Benjamin to impress other prospective clients looking for a house of high-level design and craftsmanship. The connection with the Hinckleys would give the upstart Benjamin an exciting opportunity to display his work to other potential clients, but the connection would have an important impact on his personal life as well.

The Hinckley house was Benjamin’s first attempt at building a high-style dwelling featuring Federal details, making the house the earliest neoclassical design in the Connecticut Valley. An assessment of Benjamin’s sources for the design of the Hinckley house appears to have been inspired by Charles Bulfinch’s design of the first neoclassical house in Boston (indeed, the first in all of New England). The house was for the wealthy Boston merchant Joseph Coolidge, Sr., and his wife, Katherine.[1] Bulfinch was tied to the Coolidges through family connections, as his sister Elizabeth was married to Joseph Coolidge, Jr.