History & Heritage

Center Square House

Property Details

Three-story French Second Empire-style wood frame hotel with symmetrical façade and one-story veranda. Belfast mansard roof with segmental-arched dormers. Square center tower with dormer Mansard roof. Artificially sided and many windows altered. Built on the site of the Union House Hotel in 1882, this was known the Center Square House, an 18-room hotel and one of the many resort hotels in this resort community. The hotel was built by George A. Frieh (1852-1899) and Alsatian who came to the United States in 1872. He arrived in Milford ca. 1882 and built the hotel described in a contemporary account as an “attractive hotel containing 18 rooms and supplied with modern improvements including steam heat and hot and cold water.” The hotel was eventually operated by his wife, Louise Beck Frieh, daughter of Ernest Beck, proprietor of the Vandermarkk House hotel and sister of Amanda Beck Terwilliger, who ran the Terwilliger House Hotel next door. In 1950, under the ownership of Robert C. Pillips, the building was interconnected to the former Terwilliger House immediately to its right, becoming part of the Tom Quick Inn. (1882)

Terwilliger & Frieh, 1880 & 1882 (Second Empire) This three-story hotel was owned by Amanda Beck Terwilliger. It is another example of the many hotels in the Borough. The mansard, or dual-pitched, hipped roof provided extra rooms on the upper floor behind the steep roofline. Notice the segmental dormers and a centered square tower on the façade with its cap repeating the larger building elements. Another Second Empire hotel was built by George A. Frieh, an Alsatian, and operated by his wife Louise. The two hotels were joined together becoming Robert Phillips’ Tom Quick Inn in 1950. They are almost (fraternal) Siamese Twins.