Newton E. Marble House (1874)

In 1874, Trinity Church in Newtown built the house at 12 Main Street for its rector, Dr. Newton E. Marble. The Stick and Eastlake-style house, known as “Seven Gables,” was designed by the Bridgeport firm of Palliser and Palliser. The brothers featured the house in their 1878 collection of model homes, writing the following:

This house commands a particularly fine view from both sides and the front, and is situated in one of the pleasantest country towns in New England, the hotels of this town being crowded during the summer months with people from the cities. The exterior design is plain, yet picturesque, and at once gives one an idea of ease and comfort. The roofing over the Hall and Sitting-room is a particularly fine feature […] The corner fire-place between Parlor and Dining-room is a feature we indulge in to a great extent in these days of economy, sliding doors and fire-places, although we sometimes have clients who object to this, thinking it would not look as well as when placed in center of side wall; but when they are asked how this and that can be provided for with the best and most economical results, they readily give in. […] The exterior is painted as follows: Ground, light slate; trimmings, buff, and chamfers, black. Cost, $2,925. The sight of this house in the locality in which it is built is very refreshing, and is greatly in advance of the old styles of rural box architecture to be found there.

The house has recently been for sale.

The Benedict-Miller House (1879)

Dominating the ridge of Hillside Avenue, overlooking Waterbury, is the enormous mansion known as the Benedict-Miller House. A Queen Anne/Stick style extravaganza of gables, crisscross and diagonal boards and decorative railings, balustrades, braces and brackets, the house was built by the firm of Palliser, Palliser & Co. of Bridgeport for Charles Benedict. The brothers, George and Charles Palliser, specialized in Gothic and Queen Anne cottages and designed houses for P.T. Barnum. Benedict was president of the Benedict & Burnham Company, once the largest manufacturers of brass and copper appliances and fixtures in the country, and served as mayor of Waterbury in 1859-1860. Next to Benedict’s house, and once sharing with it a private drive, is another grand Stick-style mansion built for Benedict’s sister, Mary Mitchell. After Benedict’s death, in 1881, his house was owned by Charles Miller, of the Miller & Peck department store. The Benedict-Miller property was part of UCONN’s Waterbury branch campus from 1942 until 2004, when it was sold to Yeshiva Gedolah, a school for Orthodox Jews.