Benjamin Church (carpenter)

Benjamin F. Church (1807–1887) was a pioneer carpenter and builder in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA, listed among the city's first settlers of 1835.

He helped to construct one of the city's first two big hotels and built a Greek Revival temple-style house for his family that today is a public museum in Estabrook Park, Shorewood, Wisconsin.

Church settled in Kilbourntown, the village on the west side of the Milwaukee River, named for its founder Byron Kilbourn.

In 1836, Church was either contractor or "boss carpenter" for the construction of Washington House, one of the first two big hotels in Milwaukee.

[7] On July 5–7, 1847, he was among a large contingent of delegates from Milwaukee County to the River and Harbor Convention in Chicago.

[8] The convention drew 2,315 delegates from 19 states to advocate for federal support of improvements to inland rivers and harbors.

[11] Church and his wife Pamelia Hall Clement, who was born in 1815 in Pembroke, Merrimack County, New Hampshire, had six children.

In 1938, as a Works Progress Administration (WPA) project, the Benjamin Church House was rescued from its location in Milwaukee and moved to Estabrook Park just north of East Capitol Drive to serve as a public museum.

Its Greek Revival architectural style, Doric columns, hand-hewn timbers, local bricks dated 1844 and other features gave it historic significance.

Today, the Milwaukee County Historical Society maintains the house and opens it to the public during the summer.