Benvenue Manor (George Henry Mueller House)

Benvenue Manor, the estate of George Henry Mueller, was designed at the suggestion of his friend and mentor Dettmar Basse, who played a major role in recruiting Germans to the Connoquenessing valley. Basse's house, “Bassenheim” (burned 1842), was regarded by his neighbors as a model. While the Mueller house is technically in Beaver County, it is grouped with Zelienople in Butler County to acknowledge its close proximity and social ties. This house is one-and-one-half stories with a raised basement overlooking the valley and set into the hillside at the rear. Here, the combination of the gambrel roof usually associated with a barn and the formal, two-story, colonnaded, curved porch on the north facade are an amalgamation of elements from the German homeland and the adopted country. The heavily mortared irregular fieldstone contrasts with the fanlight and transoms atop the main doors, again illustrating the tension between “proper” Philadelphia and Germanic traditions. As if the house were not already odd enough, a later owner added the large, one-story crenellated cistern and patio wall on the east elevation.