New Haven Green
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The New Haven Green is a 16-acre public park and recreation area located in the downtown district of the city of New Haven, Connecticut. It comprises the central square of the nine square settlement plan of the original Puritan colonists, and was designed and surveyed by colonist John Brockett.[1] Today the Green is bordered by the modern paved roads of College, Chapel, Church, and Elm streets. Temple Street bisects the Green into upper (northwest) and lower (southeast) halves. The green is host to numerous public events, such as the Festival of Arts and Ideas, summer jazz and classical music concerts that can draw hundreds of thousands of people, as well as typical daily park activities. It became a National Historic District on December 30, 1970.
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[edit] History
The Green is a traditional town green and was originally known as "the marketplace". The Puritans were said to have designed the green large enough to hold the number of people who they believed would be spared in the Second Coming of Christ: 100,000.
In its early years, the Green held a watch house, a prison and a school[1]. The upper Green also once held the First Methodist Church. The church was removed from the Green in 1848 with a new church built across Elm Street (designed by Henry Austin). The Green also held a succession of statehouses, dating from the time when New Haven was joint capital of Connecticut with Hartford. The most recent state house was erected in 1837, designed by Ithiel Town in a Greek revival style. Ultimately, Hartford was declared the sole capital and the building was demolished in 1889 [2].
The Green was used as the main burial grounds for the residents of New Haven during its first 150 years, but by 1821 the practice was abolished and many of the headstones were moved to the Grove Street Cemetery. However, the remains of the dead were not moved, and thus still remain below the soil of the Green.
Although the Green is now owned and maintained by the city of New Haven, descendants of the city's original settlers maintained ownership until 1805, when they nominated five of their number to form a committee to oversee the property. Today's committee members — called proprietors — are drawn from the ranks of prominent city residents. Members are appointed for life, and when one dies the four remaining members convene in private to select a replacement.
[edit] On the Green
Located on the upper Green are three historic 17th century churches which reflect the city's theocratic roots[3]:
- United Church on the Green (United Church of Christ / Congregational), or North Church, is built in Federal style by David Hoadly in 1814.
- Center Church, or The First Church of Christ (United Church of Christ / Congregational) established in 1639. The current church, designed in Georgian style by architect Ithiel Town, was built in 1812. Benedict Arnold's first wife is buried in its crypt (which is open to tours), and regicide John Dixwell is buried behind the church[4].
- Trinity Church, which is an Episcopal congregation founded in 1752, was also designed by Ithiel Town, in Gothic Revival style. It was consecrated in 1816.
In the lower Green are the Bennett Fountain (built in 1907 and designed after the Choragic Monument of Lysicrates in Athens) and the flagpole with granite World War I memorial (designed by Douglas Orr in 1928) and fountain (added in 2003).[5]
While once the edges of the Green were covered with a glorious canopy of elms, planted originally by James Hillhouse, most died of dutch elm disease. In the 1980's, disease-resistant elms were planted in an effort to memorialize the legacy of the trees that gave New Haven the nickname "Elm City".
[edit] Around the Green
Bordering the Green are municipal, commercial and university structures. On the northwest side of the Green, across College Street, stand Phelps Gate and the Yale University buildings bordering Old Campus. On the southwest side along Chapel Street are stores, bars, and other commercial properties. On the southeast side of the green, across Church Street, is New Haven's Victorian City Hall (by Henry Austin in 1861), the adjacent Federal Courthouse (James Gamble Rogers, 1913) and The Exchange Building (1832, restored in 1990). The Amistad Memorial is next to City Hall. On the northeast side along Elm Street by the lower Green is the New Haven Free Public Library (Cass Gilbert, 1908) and Connecticut Superior Court (1909). The upper Green on Elm is bordered by "Quality Row", containing some of the oldest structures in New Haven: the federal style white clapboard Nicholas Callahan house, once a tavern (now the Yale Elihu Senior Society), the federal Eli W. Blake House (now the Graduate Club), the federal John Pierpont house (now the Yale University Visitor Center) built in 1767 and the brick Greek revival Governor Ralph Isaacs Ingersoll House, designed in 1829 by Town and Davis (future home of Dwight Hall, the student community service organization at Yale)[6].
[edit] References
- ^ a b Not a Park or Mere Pleasure Ground: a Case Study of the New Haven Green, James Sexton
- ^ When we were Kings, Business New Haven, Priscilla Searles, 1998.
- ^ New Haven: The Elm City, towngreens.com
- ^ New Haven Center Church official site
- ^ Memory and Place on the New Haven Green, 1638-1876, Ralph E. Russo
- ^ Living in Style — The New Haven Green and Its Architecture, Benjamin A. Gorman
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