Address: 45-47 South Main Street
Contemporary Building Name: 45-47 South Main Street
Historic Building Name: C. Blish House / Mill
Present Use: Residential
Historic Use: Residential, Mill?
Architectural style: Greek Revival
Date constructed: c. 1840 (Baber), 1780 (Assessor)
Description: There is no door in the three-bay front elevation of the house, and the grouping of three windows is off center to the north. Windows are 6-over-6. A horizontal window in the pedimented gable end is now glazed as a pair of four-pane sash. A chimney rises from the north slope of the roof near the center of the ridge. A long veranda under low hipped roof supported by square posts runs along the north side elevation leading back to the main (side) entrance. The long two- and one-story ell to the rear is in two sections. The Assessor's field card reports that there is a cathedral ceiling in one portion of the ell.
Significance: While the C. Blish House has the three bays and pedimented front gable end characteristic of the Greek Revival style, other features do not fit the mode, suggesting the possibility of major alterations to the building in the past. Chief among the non-conforming features is the absence of a front door. While not unprecedented, the absent door usually is found in a wing or toward the front of a side elevation leading from a porch in front of a wing. There is no wing here, and the position of the door at the end of a long veranda seems unlikely to be the original arrangement. The odd location of the central chimney is also an anomaly. The mass of the two-part ell exceeds that usually associated with a residence. The 1869 atlas identifies a building at about this location with the name C. Blish. The 1855 map shows the words "Blish Mill," and indicates it is on a tributary to the Blackledge River, which might have provided the necessary power source for a mill.
Sources: Baber, David. Capitol Region Council of Governments Historic Resource Survey of Marlborough, 1978.
Ransom, David. Historical and Architectural Resources Survey, Town of Marlborough, Connecticut. April 1998.
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