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Jane Griswold Radocchia is an architect.
Jane studies practical geometry and vernacular architecture.
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Below are some of her latest blog posts, some others can be found on this web site's Archive
Jane Griswold Radocchia
Jane Griswold Radocchia
Latest Presentations
My next Presentation
Green Mountain Timber Frames
Middletown Springs, VT
November 5, 5:30 pm
Recent Presentation
North Bennet Street School
in Boston’s North End
Sept 24-25
Volunteer:
Building Trades
Smithsonian Folklife Festival
July 2-7, 2025
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, probably designed and built the House. The record shows that he bought a copy of Asher Benjamin's The American Builder's Companion, 6th edition, published in 1827.**
Based 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. Except for the storm doors, the entries are original.
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
Here is one of the main doors from the inside.
The Norton-Fenton House is currently closed to visitors. These interior photographs were taken in 2017 or earlier.
This is Plate XLVII from Benjamin's The Architect, or Practical House Carpenter . The lower casing profile matches that of the house.
Here is the base of the casings around the front door and its sidelights.
And Plate XLVIII from The Architect, or Practical House Carpenter.
Finally, 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.
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 of The American Builder's Companion and The Architect, or Practical House Carpenter have been republished by Dover Press.
Architect
As an architect based in Bennington, VT. and Andover, MA. I work with old houses and the families who love them.
During this time, I have worked with over 1200 houses, some modern, some 300 years old.
Historian
I am an architectural historian by accident. I found I was showing friends and clients the historic environment they lived in but did not see.
I know from my work as an architect how available materials and technology influence design and construction.
I am most interested in vernacular architecture, how we built to suit our climate and our needs using the tools and materials we had.
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Blogs
Architecture (Current Blog)
Passing By (Original Blog)
Sunday Drives (Original Blog)
Comments / Reflections
Mary said...
Thank you so much for this lovely article. This church was well loved & had at least a dozen families attending when it closed down. It is sad to see it be torn down, instead of being preserved as a community space. The one blessing is that we can finally see the beautiful architectural elements you describe, which were hidden to all of us by the drop ceiling. Lovely that the church still stands in this elemental fashion for a few more months. More
