This building, designed by New Haven architect Henry Austin, was the home of Yale University physiology professor, Lafayette Benedict Mendel (1872–1935) from 1900 to 1924.

It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1976 for its association with Mendel, who discovered vitamins A and B, and greatly expanded knowledge of nutrition and food-related biochemistry.

It stands in a neighborhood that was developed predominantly in the 1880s, but its construction date is now generally given as 1858 and the house is depicted in a map of the City of New Haven from 1879.

[3] Mendel was born in New York City in 1873 to German immigrants, and entered Yale University in 1887 as the youngest member of his class.

After receiving a Ph.D. focused on classical liberal arts, he became an assistant at Yale's Sheffield Scientific School, in the biochemistry lab of Russell Henry Chittenden.