Background
Asher Benjamin was born in 1771 in Greenfield, Massachusetts, United States.
Asher Benjamin was born in 1771 in Greenfield, Massachusetts, United States.
He had an office in Boston as early as 1803, listed in the City Directory of that year as "Architect.” While Mr. Benjamin designed and built several churches and many private homes, he is better remembered as the author of a series of books on building which were published between 1799 and 1830. Filled with plans of houses, churches, and numerous building details, “The Country Builders' Assistant," "The American Builders' Companion,” "The Rudiments of Architecture," and "The Practical Home Carpenter" were widely studied by all builders and would-be architects of the period, and the popularity of the books called for several later editions.
In Windsor, Vt., where Benjamin spent his early life, he designed his first buildings—the old South Congregational Church and two residences. The First Congregational Church at Bennington. Vt., formerly believed to have been his work is now attributed to one of his contemporaries, Flavius Filmore of Vermont. In Boston his most important works were the Charles Street Church (extant), a brick structure at the corner of Mt. Vernon, completed in 1807, and the old West Church, 1809, on Cambridge Street, the latter taken over in recent years by the City and remodeled for use as a branch Public Library. About the same time he built a home for himself at 9 West Cedar Street on Beacon Hill, and perhaps others in the same block, as well as a row of residences, 92 to 98 Bowdoin Street (the latter no longer standing). In addition he is believed to have designed the two famous colonaded houses at 54 and 55 Beacon Street.
Elsewhere at least two churches, possibility more, in Connecticut valley towns were built by Mr. Benjamin; the old Congregational at Agawam (long ago destroyed by fire) and the First Parish Church at Bedford. Also in that area were the Carew and Alexander residences at Springfield, two- story mansion type residences designed in the Greek Revival; the Captain Colton house at Longmeadow: and the Coleman-Hollister residence, on Bank Row in Greenfield, in Early Republican style.