In 1890, Josiah Benton, superintendent of Tidewater Pipeline and co-founder of Titusville Forge Company, purchased this Italianate house and made such lavish changes that the Titusville Herald wrote that its interior was full of surprises and fine effects. Oil heir and 1896 Princeton graduate John H. Scheide later added a fireproof wing in the 1920s for a library that included three Gutenberg Bibles and handwritten works by Shakespeare and George Washington. In 1959, his son gave the books to Princeton and the house to the Titusville Area School District.