It occupies a large grassy parcel, and is set well back from the road, with a fine view over the downtown and industrial areas of the city.

The house is a three-story wood-frame structure, with asymmetrical massing and plan typical of the Queen Anne style.

[2] The house was completed in 1880 for Charles Benedict, a leading industrialist in Waterbury's dominant brass works.

It was designed by Charles and George Palliser, and exhibits many elements found in the pattern books they published.

The city purchased the surviving elements of the subdivided estate in 1952, and it served for a time as part of the Waterbury campus of the University of Connecticut.