Asher Benjamin's pattern book in Bennington, Vermont

 

In 1838, Judge Luman Norton, his daughter Louise and her husband Christopher Fenton built this 2 family house in Bennington, Vermont.   The side entrances are original; their porches, contemporary.* 

Hiram Waters, Master Carpenter in Bennington, Vermont, probably designed and built the House.  The record shows that he bought a copy of Asher Benjamin's The American Builder's Companion: the 6th edition, published in 1827.** 

Base on my research I think he also owned Benjamin's next book, The Architect, or Practical House Carpenter,** 1830.

Waters used Benjamin's molding profiles as well as his drawing for columns for his own house and carpentry shop. He also used them for this house. 

 

The porch roofs and columns in front of the side doors  are 1950's +/-additions. The entries behind are original, except for the storm doors. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The pilasters on either sides of the doors match those in Benjamin's  in The American Builder's Companion.  All the parts are there.

 

 

 

 

This is Plate E,  Ionic Columns 

 

 The Norton-Fenton House is currently closed to visitors. These interior photographs were taken in 2017 or earlier. 

 Here is one of the main doors from the inside. 

 

 

 

 

This is Plate XLVII from Benjamin's next book, The Architect, or Practical House Carpenter .                                                              

 

 

 Here is the  base of the casings around the front door and the windows.

 

 

 

 

 

And Plate XLVIII from
The Architect, or Practical House Carpenter.

 

                       

 

 

 

 

 Finally, here is one of the two curved staircases in the Norton Fenton House.

Benjamin uses 9 pages in his 1827 pattern book, 11 in his next book to describe how to layout and finish these stairs.  

 

 

 Here are details on cutting the face moldings for the sides of the planks used to build the stairs. PLATE LVI, The American Builder's Companion. 

 

 

 

I am always impressed that a carpenter could 'read' these drawings and build from them. Hiram Waters was surely a superb Master Builder.   

 

 

 

 

 

*I've written about the design of this house in an earlier post:

https://passingbyjgr.blogspot.com/2017/05/the-4-front-doors-of-norton-fenton-house.html 

 *I've also written about Hiram Waters, 1797-1890:  

https://passingbyjgr.blogspot.com/2020/10/hiram-waters-workshop-monument-avenue.html 

 

** The Bennington Museum's Wallomsack Review has an excellent introduction to Hiram Waters. https://benningtonmuseum.org/wp-content/uploads/Walloomsack-Review-14-Autumn.pdf

 The unabridged 6th edition and The Architect, or Practical House Carpenter have been republished by Dover Press.