New Haven is the second- or third-largest municipality in
Connecticut, after
Bridgeport and possibly
Hartford, with a core population of about 124,000. It is in
New Haven County, on
New Haven Harbor, on the northern shore of
Long Island Sound.
Founded in 1638, New Haven was laid out in a
grid of four streets by four streets creating what is now commonly known as the "Nine Squares," now the center of
Downtown New Haven. The city instituted the first public tree planting program in America, eventually producing a canopy of mature trees (including some large elms) that gave New Haven the nickname "The Elm City."
The city is best known as the home of
Yale University and the National Historic Landmark
New Haven Green. Along with Yale, healthcare (hospitals, biotechnology), professional services (legal, architectural, marketing, engineering), financial services and retail trade form the base of the economy. Since the mid-1990s, the city's
downtown area has seen extensive revitalization
History
Pre-colonial and colonial history
Before European arrival, the New Haven area was the home of the
Quinnipiac tribe of
Native Americans, who lived in villages around the
harbor and subsisted off local fisheries and the farming of
maize. The area was briefly visited by
Dutch explorer
Adriaen Block in 1614. Dutch traders set up a small trading system of
beaver pelts with the local inhabitants, but trade was sporadic and the Dutch didn't settle permanently in the area.
In April 1638, five hundred
Puritans who left the
Massachusetts Bay Colony under the leadership of the Reverend
John Davenport and the
London merchant
Theophilus Eaton sailed into the harbor. These settlers were hoping to establish a better theological community than the one they left in
Massachusetts and sought to take advantage of the excellent port capabilities of the harbor. The Quinnipiacs, who were under attack by neighboring
Pequots, sold their land to the settlers in return for protection.
By 1640, the
town's theocratic government and nine square grid plan were in place, and the town was renamed Newhaven from Quinnipiac. However, the area north of New Haven remained Quinnipiac until 1678, when it was renamed Hamden. The settlement became the headquarters of the
New Haven Colony. At the time, the New Haven Colony was separate from the
Connecticut Colony which had been established to the north focusing on
Hartford. Economic disaster struck the colony in 1646, however, when the town sent its first fully loaded ship of local goods back to England. This ship never reached the Old World, and its disappearance stymied New Haven's development in the face of the rising trade power of
Boston and
New Amsterdam. In 1660, founder John Davenport's wishes were fulfilled and
Hopkins School was founded in New Haven with money from the estate of
Edward Hopkins.
In 1661, the judges who had signed the death warrant of
Charles I of England were pursued by
Charles II. Two judges, Colonel
Edward Whalley and Colonel
William Goffe, fled to New Haven to seek refuge from the king's forces. John Davenport arranged for these "
Regicides" to hide in the
West Rock hills northwest of the town. A third judge,
John Dixwell, joined the other regicides at a later time.
New Haven became part of the Connecticut Colony in 1664, when the two colonies were merged under political pressure from England, according to folklore as punishment for harboring the three judges (in reality, done in order to strengthen the case for the takeover of nearby
New Amsterdam, which was rapidly losing territory to migrants from Connecticut). It was made co-
capital of Connecticut in 1701, a status it retained until 1873. In 1716, the Collegiate School relocated from
Old Saybrook to New Haven and established New Haven as a center of learning. In 1718, the name of the Collegiate School was changed to
Yale College in response to a large donation from Welsh merchant
Elihu Yale.
For over a century, New Haven citizens had fought alongside British forces, as in the
French and Indian War. As the
American Revolution approached, General
David Wooster and other influential residents hoped that the conflict with Britain could be resolved short of rebellion. But on
April 23,
1775 (still celebrated in New Haven as
Powder House Day), the Second Company,
Governor's Foot Guard, of New Haven entered the struggle against the British. Under Captain
Benedict Arnold, they broke into the powder house to arm themselves and began a three-day march to
Cambridge, Massachusetts. Other New Haven militia members were on hand to escort
George Washington from his overnight stay in New Haven on his way to Cambridge. Contemporary reports, from both sides, remark on the New Haven volunteers' professional military bearing, including uniforms.
British forces under General
William Tryon raided the 3,500-person town in July of 1779, but didn't torch it as they'd with
Danbury in 1777, or
Fairfield and
Norwalk a week after the New Haven raid, leaving many of the town's colonial features preserved.
Towns created from New Haven
New Haven was the original settlement in New Haven Colony; over time other new towns separated from its territory and incorporated. The following is a complete list of
towns established from parts of the original New Haven settlement.
Connecticut Register and Manual
Post-colonial history
New Haven was incorporated as a city in 1784, and
Roger Sherman, one of the signers of the Constitution and author of the "
Connecticut Compromise," became the new city's first mayor.
The city struck fortune in the late 18th-century with the inventions and industrial activity of
Eli Whitney, a Yale graduate who remained in New Haven to develop the
cotton gin and establish a gun-manufacturing factory in the northern part of the city near the
Hamden town line. That area is still known as
Whitneyville, and the main road through both towns is known as Whitney Avenue. The factory is now the
Eli Whitney Museum which has a particular emphasis on activities for children, and exhibits pertaining to the
A. C. Gilbert Company. Whitney pioneered the replacement of hand-shaped piecework with industrial mass-production and interchangeable parts and was the first defense contractor. His methods made early Connecticut a powerful manufacturing economy; so many arms manufacturers sprang up that the state became known as 'The Arsenal of America'. It was in Whitney's gun-manufacturing plant that
Samuel Colt invented the
automatic revolver in 1836.
The
Farmington Canal, created in the early 1800s, was a short-lived transporter of goods into the interior regions of Connecticut and Massachusetts, and ran from New Haven to
Northampton, Massachusetts.
New Haven was home to one of the important early events in the burgeoning
anti-slavery movement when, in 1839, the trial of mutineering
Mendi tribesmen being transported as slaves on the Spanish
slaveship Amistad was held in New Haven's United States District Court. There is a statue of
Joseph Cinqué, the informal leader of the slaves, beside City Hall. See "Museums" below for more information.
The
Civil War boosted the local economy with wartime purchases of industrial goods. After the war, New Haven's population grew and doubled by the start of the 20th century, most notably due to the influx of immigrants from southern
Europe, particularly
Italy. Today, roughly half the populations of East Haven, West Haven, and Hamden are Italian-American.
Modern history
New Haven's growth continued during the two World Wars, with most new inhabitants being
African Americans from
the South and
Puerto Ricans. The city reached its peak population after
World War II. The area of New Haven is only, encouraging further development of new housing after 1950 in adjacent, suburban towns. Moreover, as in other US cities in
1950s, New Haven began to suffer from an exodus of
middle-class workers.
In 1954, then-mayor
Richard C. Lee began some of the earliest major
urban renewal projects in the United States. Certain sections of
Downtown New Haven were destroyed and rebuilt with new office towers, a hotel, and large shopping complexes. Other parts of the city were affected by the construction of
Interstate 95 along the Long Wharf section,
Interstate 91 and the
Oak Street Connector. The Oak Street Connector (
Route 34), running between
Interstate 95,
downtown and
The Hill neighborhood, was originally intended as a highway to the city's western suburbs but, due to neighborhood opposition, was only completed as a highway to the downtown area, with the area to the west becoming a boulevard.
From the
1960s through the early
1990s, central areas of New Haven continued to decline both economically and in terms of population despite attempts to resurrect certain neighborhoods through renewal projects. In the mid-1990s New Haven began to stabilize and grow, though poverty in some central neighborhoods remains a problem.
1970 trial
New Haven in 1970 witnessed the largest trial in Connecticut history.
Black Panther Party co-founder
Bobby Seale and ten other Party members were tried for murdering an alleged informant.
May Day, 1970 saw the beginning of the pretrial proceedings for the first of the two
New Haven Black Panther trials; it was met with a demonstration by twelve thousand Black Panther supporters, including a large number of college students, who had come to New Haven individually and in organized groups and were housed and fed by community organizations and by Yale students in their dorms.
The demonstrations continued through the Spring. By day protesters assembled on the
New Haven Green across the street from the Courthouse to hear speakers including
Jean Genet,
Benjamin Spock,
Abbie Hoffman,
Jerry Rubin, and
John Froines; afterwards, many taunted the New Haven police, and in return were
tear gassed and retreated to their temporary quarters. The police behind them half-heartedly assaulted the dormitories, as was customary for such demonstrations at the time, but on the whole it was peaceful, with very little injury or property damage and only two minor bombings. The
National Guard were kept ready on the highways into the city, but police chief
Jim Ahern determined that the city police were controlling the situation adequately, and that the presence of the Guard would only inflame the situation; the events at
Kent State University a few days later were to prove him prescient.
This coincided with the beginning of the national student strike of May 1970. Yale (and many other colleges) went "on strike" from just before May Day until the end of the term; as at many colleges it wasn't actually "shut down", but classes were made "voluntarily optional" for the time and students were graded pass/fail for work done up to then.
New Haven in modern political history
New Haven is the birthplace of
U.S. President George W. Bush, who was born when his father, former president
George H. W. Bush, was living in New Haven while a student at Yale. A predominantly
Democratic city, New Haven voters overwhelmingly supported
Al Gore in the
2000 election and Yale graduate
John Kerry in
2004. In addition to being the site of the college educations of both Presidents Bush, New Haven was also a temporary home to former president
Bill Clinton and
U.S. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, who met while they were students at
Yale Law School. New Haven was also the residence of conservative thinker
William F. Buckley, Jr. in 1951, when he wrote his influential
God and Man at Yale. In July 2007, New Haven became the first city in the United States to offer municipal identification cards to residents regardless of immigration status. They are designed to facilitate residents' access to certain city services, such as the library, to function as local debit cards and parking meter cards, and to allow all to open bank accounts, thus eliminating the need for immigrants in particular to carry around large sums of cash, a situation which, it's said by city officials and activists, made them a target of street crime.
Since the mid-1950s and spearheaded by its former long-serving mayor, Richard C. Lee, New Haven has undertaken numerous urban redevelopment projects, but with overall mixed results. The downtown area in particular has been the site of sometimes dubious experiments in urban redesign, with new hotels, retail complexes, parking structures, a sports colliseum, and office towers built under a labyrinth of city, state, federal and private efforts. Of recent note, as each of these pieces of the redevelopment puzzle transform, become obsolete or again redeveloped, New Haven tends to bear the brunt of a fair share of painful analysis in regard to its ongoing rebuilding efforts, mostly in response to the overhyped claims of success that many similar projects touted over a generation ago.
During the 1950s and 60s, New Haven received more
urban renewal funding per capita than any city in the U.S. New Haven became the
de facto showcase of the new modern redeveloped city and plans for its downtown development were featured on the cover of Time Magazine in the early 1960s. Some projects, such as the
brutalist-styled
New Haven Coliseum (demolished in 2007), drew major crowds but were ultimately considered to be victims of modernist over-design and rapid obsolescence. In 2004, the central structure of the mall was converted to luxury apartments, joining a renovated 4-star Omni hotel and new street-level retail. Other numerous smaller projects have in-fill design qualities and are mixed-use.
Current plans for downtown include developing the sites of the Colliseum and Macy's and Malley's department stores and relocating Gateway Community College,
Long Wharf Theatre and a mixed-use development there. A major focus has been the "Ninth Square," named from the original nine square layout of New Haven center. This area has experienced an influx of hundreds of new and renovated apartment and condominium units, plus a significant number of upscale restaurants and nightclubs have opened.
Geography
According to the
United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 52.4
km² (20.2
mi²). 48.8 km² (18.9 mi²) of it's land and 3.6 km² (1.4 mi²) of it (6.91%) is water.
New Haven's best-known geographic features are its large deep harbor, and two reddish basalt "trap rocks" which rise to the northeast and northwest of the city core. These trap rocks are known respectively as
East Rock and
West Rock, and both serve as extensive parks. West Rock has been tunneled through to make way for the east-west passage of the
Wilbur Cross Parkway (the only highway tunnel through a natural obstacle in Connecticut), and once served as the hideout of the "
Regicides" (see:
Regicides Trail). Most New Haveners refer to these men as "The Three Judges." East Rock features the prominent Soldiers and Sailors war monument on its peak as well as the "Great/Giant Steps" which run up the rock's cliffside.
The city is drained by three rivers, the
West,
Mill, and
Quinnipiac, named in order from west to east. The West River discharges into the
West Haven Harbor, while the Mill and Quinnipiac Rivers discharge into the New Haven Harbor. Both harbors are embayments of
Long Island Sound. In addition, several smaller streams flow through the city's neighborhoods, including Wintergreen Brook, the Beaver Ponds Outlet, Wilmot Brook, Belden Brook, and Prospect Creek. Not all of these small streams have continuous flow year-round.
Streetscape
New Haven has a long tradition of
urban planning and a purposeful design of the city's layout. Upon founding, New Haven was laid out in a
grid plan of nine square blocks; the central square was left open, in the tradition of many New England towns, as the
city green (a commons area). The city instituted the first public tree planting program in America. Most of the
elms that gave New Haven the nickname "Elm City" perished in the mid-20th century due to
Dutch Elm disease. The
New Haven Green is currently home to three separate historic churches which speak to the original theocratic nature of the city. The downtown area provides about half of the city's jobs and half of its tax base
Economy
Though New Haven's economy originally was based in manufacturing, Yale University has caused a large shift in the city's economic support. Over half (56%) of the city's economy is now made up of services, in particular education and healthcare, with Yale as the city's largest employer, followed by Yale New Haven Hospital. Yale and Yale-New Haven are not only the city's largest employers, but also among of the state's largest, providing more $100,000+-salaried positions than any other employer in Connecticut.
Demographics
Historical population of
New Haven |
| 1790 |
4,487 |
| 1800 |
4,049 |
| 1810 |
5,772 |
| 1820 |
7,147 |
| 1830 |
10,180 |
| 1840 |
12,960 |
| 1850 |
20,345 |
| 1860 |
39,267 |
| 1870 |
50,840 |
| 1880 |
62,882 |
| 1890 |
86,045 |
| 1900 |
108,027 |
| 1910 |
133,605 |
| 1920 |
162,537 |
| 1930 |
162,665 |
| 1940 |
160,605 |
| 1950 |
164,443 |
| 1960 |
152,048 |
| 1970 |
137,707 |
| 1980 |
126,021 |
| 1990 |
130,474 |
| 2000 |
123,626 |
| 2005 |
124,001 (estimate) |
As of the
census² of 2000, there were 123,626 people, 47,094 households, and 25,854 families residing in the central municipality, the City of New Haven. The
population density was 2,532.2/km² (6,558.4/mi²). There were 52,941 housing units at an average density of 1,084.4/km² (2,808.5/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 43.46%
White, 37.36%
African American, 0.43%
Native American, 3.90%
Asian, 0.06%
Pacific Islander, 10.89% from
other races, and 3.91% from two or more races.
Hispanic or
Latino of any race were 21.39% of the population.
There were 47,094 households out of which 29.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 27.5% were
married couples living together, 22.9% had a female householder with no husband present, and 45.1% were non-families. 36.1% of all households were made up of individuals and 10.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.40 and the average family size was 3.19.
The ages of New Haven's residents are as follows: 25.4% under the age of 18, 16.4% from 18 to 24, 31.2% from 25 to 44, 16.7% from 45 to 64, and 10.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 29 years. For every 100 females there were 91.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 87.6 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $29,604, and the median income for a family was $35,950. Males had a median income of $33,605 versus $28,424 for females. The
per capita income for the city was $16,393. About 20.5% of families and 24.4% of the population were below the
poverty line, including 32.2% of those under age 18 and 17.9% of those age 65 or over.
In 2001, the New Haven metropolitan area had the third-highest per capita income in the country, after San Francisco and Silicon Valley, California. In 2006, analyzing a slightly differently-defined urban area, it had the 32nd highest, which also placed it among the top 10% highest per-capita income metropolitan areas in the country.
Education
Colleges and universities
Yale University, at the heart of downtown, is one of the city's best known features and its largest employer
(External Link). New Haven is also home to other centers of higher education, including
Southern Connecticut State University and
Albertus Magnus College. The
University of New Haven is located not in New Haven but in neighboring
West Haven.
Quinnipiac University is located north of New Haven, in the towns of Hamden and North Haven.
Gateway Community College has a campus in New Haven, located in the
Long Wharf district.
Primary and secondary schools
Wilbur Cross High School and Hillhouse High School are New Haven's two largest public secondary schools.
Hopkins School, a private school, was founded in 1660 and is the fifth oldest educational institution in the United States. New Haven is home to a number of other private schools as well as public magnet schools including High School in the Community, Hill Regional Career High School, Co-op High School and the Sound School, all of which draw students from New Haven and suburban towns. New Haven is also home to Amistad Charter school and Elm City Prep.
The school district is called
New Haven Public Schools.
Newspapers and media
New Haven is served by the daily
New Haven Register, the weekly "alternative" (which is corporate run by Tribune, the company owning The Hartford Courant)
New Haven Advocate and the online daily
New Haven Independent. The city's Spanish-speaking community is served by Registro, a Spanish-language twice-weekly operated by The New Haven Register's parent company. The Register also backs
PLAY magazine, a weekly entertainment publication. It is also served by several student-run papers, including the
Yale Daily News, the weekly
Yale Herald and a humor tabloid,
Rumpus Magazine.
WTNH Channel 8, the
ABC affiliate for Connecticut,
WNHX-LP Channel 51,
WCTX Channel 59, the
MyNetworkTV affiliate for the state, and
Connecticut Public Television station
WEDY channel 65, a
PBS affiliate, broadcast from New Haven.
Culture and notable features
Architecture
New Haven has many architectural landmarks dating from every important time period and architectural style in American history. The city has been home to a number of architects and architectural firms that have also left their mark on the city including
Ithiel Town and
Henry Austin in the 19th century and
Cesar Pelli,
Warren Platner,
Kevin Roche, Herbert Newman and Barry Svigals in the 20th. The
Yale School of Architecture has fostered this important component of the city's economy.
Cass Gilbert, of the
Beaux-Arts school, designed New Haven's
Union Station and the New Haven Free Public Library and was also commissioned for a
City Beautiful plan in 1919.
Marcel Breuer,
Alexander Jackson Davis,
Philip C. Johnson,
Gordon Bunshaft,
Louis Kahn,
James Gamble Rogers,
Paul Rudolph,
Eero Saarinen and
Robert Venturi all have designed buildings in New Haven.
Many of the city's neighborhoods are well-preserved as walkable "museums" of 19th and 20th century American architecture, particularly by the
New Haven Green,
Hillhouse Avenue and other residential sections close to
Downtown New Haven. Overall, a large proportion of the city's land area is comprised of National (NRHP) historic districts. One of the best sources on local architecture is "New Haven: Architecture and Urban Design", by Elizabeth Mills Brown.
The five tallest buildings in New Haven are:
Connecticut Financial Center 383 ft (117 m) 26 Floors
Knights of Columbus Building 321 ft (98 m) 23 Floors
Kline Biology Tower 250 ft (76 m) 16 Floors
Crown Towers 233 ft (71 m) 22 Floors
Harkness Tower 217 ft (66 m)
Cuisine
Credit for creation of the hamburger sandwich is disputed, but some say that it was first served in the United States in 1895 by Louis Lassen, operator of Louis' Lunch. The restaurant is one of eight featured in "Hamburger America", a documentary film that premiered on Sundance cable television network on 4 July 2005.
A major destination for Italian immigrants in the early 20th century, New Haven also claims to be the birthplace of pizza in the United States (see Gennaro Lombardi for a rival American claim, or the pizzerie Da Michele or Brandi of Naples, Italy, which claim to have invented the margherita in 1889). New-Haven-style pizza, called apizza (pronounced ah-BEETS in the local Italian dialect), is made in a coal- or wood-fired brick oven, and is notable for its thin crust. Apizza may be Red (with a tomato-based sauce) or White (garlic and olive oil), and pies ordered "plain" are made without the otherwise customary mozzarella cheese (pronounced sca-MOTZ, as it was originally smoked mozzarella, known as "scamorza" in Italian). White clam pie is a local specialty.
The tradition of immigration in New Haven has continued to a significant extent, particularly in the late 1990s and 2000s, and as a result there are now literally hundreds of ethnic restaurants and small markets (as well as even a few supermarkets) specializing in various foreign foods, including noted Eritrean, Malaysian, Ethiopian, Spanish, Mexican, Thai, Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Indian, Jamaican, Cuban, Peruvian, Syrian/Lebanese, and Turkish restaurants. Many of these establishments are supported by the large immigrant populations in the area.
The city also has more top Zagat-rated restaurants than any other town or city in Connecticut, including many new additions such as upmarket downtown restaurants Bentara, Foster's, Pacifico, and Ibiza. Over 120 restaurants are located within two blocks of the New Haven Green. Claire's Corner Copia at Chapel and College Streets claims to be the oldest vegetarian restaurant in the country. Also of note are "The Carts," about 20 lunch carts from neighborhood restaurants that cater to the Yale-New Haven Hospital pedestrian traffic in the center of the Hospital Green (Cedar and York Sts.) during weekday lunchtimes.
Popular culture
On March 20, 1914, the first United States figure skating championship was held here.
New Haven was also the location in 1967 of one of Jim Morrison's infamous arrests while he fronted the rock group The Doors. The resultant near-riotous concert and arrest was commemorated by Morrison in the lyrics to "Peace Frog" which include the missive "...blood in the streets in the town of New Haven..." This was also the first time a rock star had ever been arrested in concert.
New Haven serves as the home city of the annual International Festival of Arts and Ideas, and is home to the famous concert and dance hall Toad's Place.
Doonesbury comic-strip creator Garry Trudeau attended Yale University. There he met fellow student and later Green Party candidate for senator Charlie Pillsbury, a long-time New Haven resident for whom Trudeau's comic strip is named: During his college years Pillsbury was known by the nickname "The Doones".
Scenes in the film All About Eve (1950) are set at the Taft Hotel on the corner of College and Chapel Streets. The hotel was since converted into apartments.
New Haven was fictionalized in the movie The Skulls, which focused on conspiracy theories surrounding the real-life Skull and Bones secret society which is located in New Haven. The city was also fictionally portrayed in the movie Amistad concerning the events around the mutiny trial of that ship's rebelling captives.
Several recent movies have been filmed in New Haven, including In Bloom, with Uma Thurman, Mona Lisa Smile, with Julia Roberts, and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Harrison Ford and Cate Blanchett.
New Haven has been featured as a setting in the TV show Gilmore Girls. One of the show's protagonists, Rory Gilmore, graduated from Yale, and wrote for the Yale Daily News.
Sports and athletics
Much like other mid-sized Northeastern industrial cities, New Haven has historically supported its minor league hockey teams enthusiastically, having had a hockey team for 76 years. The New Haven Eagles were founding members of the American Hockey League in 1936, playing at the old New Haven Arena on Grove Street. The New Haven Blades of the Eastern Hockey League played from 1954 to 1972 before being succeeded by the New Haven Nighthawks of the AHL, which played at the then-new New Haven Coliseum, a sports and entertainment facility that hosted such performers and others as the U.S. Olympic Hockey Team, Aerosmith, Grateful Dead, Bruce Springsteen, Van Halen, Yes, and the Steve Miller Band before closing in 2003, when the state-funded Arena at Harbor Yard in Bridgeport later became the preferred venue.
The Nighthawks were replaced by the short-lived Senators in 1993. After a hiatus, hockey returned in 1997, with the Beast of New Haven, a team famous for its ugly logo. Playing in a newly refurbished Coliseum, this team lasted only two seasons, ending AHL hockey in New Haven.
The New Haven Knights of the United Hockey League then took up residence in the Coliseum, playing there until the Coliseum closed in 2002. Afterward, fans' allegiance shifted to the Yale University hockey team, which plays at Ingalls Rink; the Quinnipiac University hockey team; or United Hockey League's Danbury Trashers, owned by James Galante, who attempted to purchase and save the New Haven Coliseum and the New Haven Knights, though the Trashers have been disbanded and Galante is currently incarcerated for alleged mob ties.
New Haven had been known for its blue collar fans who favor rough play, especially the "Crazies" who sat in "The Jungle" — Section 14 at the Coliseum, behind and adjacent to the opposing team's bench. These fans were renowned for being extremely tough on opposing teams, relentlessly screaming obscenities and taunts at opposing players (and sometimes at hometown players), making New Haven an intimidating place to play even though outright physical violence in the stands was rare. Section 14ers maintain a website called "Section 14 Online" which can be found at Section14.com.
New Haven was home to the minor league baseball team the New Haven Ravens, an Eastern League AA unit, from 1994 to 2003. Yale Field, across the town line in West Haven, was renovated for the team, which was very successful in its first few seasons before losing support. The Ravens won the Eastern League championship in 2000, giving New Haven its first professional championship since the New Haven Blades' championship in 1956. The Ravens have since moved to Manchester, New Hampshire, becoming the New Hampshire Fisher Cats. The New Haven County Cutters baseball team began play at Yale Field in 2004 in the independent Northeast (now Can-Am) League.
In 2002, New Haven had an af2 minor-league arena football franchise, the Ninjas, who were successful but had to leave when the Coliseum was closed the following year
The New York Giants of the NFL played an exhibition game against the Detroit Lions in 1960 in the Yale Bowl, a pro-football first for the city. The New York Jets played exhibition games in the Bowl through the 1970s, and in 1973 and 1974, the Giants made the Yale Bowl their home field while Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands in East Rutherford, New Jersey was under construction. As of 2006, the Yale Bowl is the second-largest stadium in New England, and is often full when rivals Yale and Harvard play what has become known as "The Game".
From July 1 — July 9 1995, the city hosted the Ninth Special Olympics World Summer Games.
The Connecticut Tennis Center at Yale University hosts the Pilot Pen International, a professional men's and women's tennis event, every August. The 15,000 seat Tennis Center Stadium at the Connecticut Tennis Center is the fourth largest tennis venue in the world, behind only to Arthur Ashe Stadium at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York City, the stadium at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden in Indian Wells, California, and Court Philippe Chatrier at Stade Roland Garros in Paris.
New Haven has a very large cycling community, which is represented by a large advocacy and community group, ElmCityCycling. Group rides are held several times per week.
Theatre
The city hosts numerous theatres and production houses including the Yale Repertory Theatre, the Long Wharf Theatre, and the Shubert Theatre. There is also theatre activity from the Yale School of Drama, which works through the Yale University Theatre and the student-run Yale Cabaret. Southern Connecticut State University hosts the Lyman Center for the Performing Arts.
The Shubert Theater once premiered many major theatrical productions before their Broadway debuts. Productions that premiered at the Shubert include Oklahoma!, Carousel, South Pacific, The King and I, and The Sound of Music, as well as the Tennessee Williams' play A Streetcar Named Desire.
Museums
New Haven has a variety of museums, many of them associated with Yale. The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library features an original copy of the Gutenberg Bible. There is also the Connecticut Children's Museum; the Knights of Columbus museum near that organization's world headquarters; the Peabody Museum of Natural History; the Yale University Collection of Musical Instruments; the Eli Whitney museum (across the town line in Hamden, Connecticut, on Whitney Avenue); the Yale Center for British Art, which houses the largest collection of British art outside the U.K., and the Yale University Art Gallery, the nation's oldest college art museum. New Haven is also home to the New Haven Museum and Historical Society on Whitney Avenue, which also has a library of many primary source treasures dating from Colonial times to the present. Artspace on Orange Street is a contemporary art gallery, showcasing the work of local, national, and international artists.
New Haven is also the home port of a life-size replica of the historical Freedom Schooner Amistad, which is open for tours at Long Wharf pier at certain times during the summer. Also at Long Wharf pier is the Quinnipiack schooner, offering sailing cruises of the harbor area throughout the summer. The Quinnipiack also functions as a floating classroom for hundreds of local students.
Music
The New Haven Green is the site of many free music concerts, especially during the summer months. These have included the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, the July Free Concerts on the Green in July, and the New Haven Jazz Festival in August. The Jazz Festival, which began in 1982, was one of the longest-running free outdoor festivals in the U.S., until it was canceled for 2007. Headliners such as Dave Brubeck, Ray Charles and Celia Cruz have historically drawn 30,000 to 50,000 fans, filling up the New Haven Green to capacity.
New Haven is also home to the concert venue Toad's Place. The city has retained an alternative art and music underground that has helped to influence post-punk era music movements such as indie/college rock and underground hip-hop. Other local venues include Cafe Nine, BAR, Firehouse 12, and Rudy's.
The Yale School of Music also contributes to the city's music scene by offering hundreds of free concerts throughout the year at venues in and around the Yale campus.
Points of interest
Five Mile Point Lighthouse.
Marsh Botanical Garden
Yale University
Miscellaneous
In 1892, local confectioner George C. Smith of the Bradley Smith Candy Co. invented the first lollipops.
The Frisbee is said to have originated on the Yale campus, based on the tin pans of the Frisbie Pie Company which were tossed around by students on the New Haven Green.
New Haven serves as the world headquarters of the Knights of Columbus organization, which maintains its headquarters and a small museum downtown. The organization was founded in the city in 1882.
New Haven hosted the first Bell PSTN (telephone) switch office. The District Telephone Company of New Haven created the world's first telephone exchange and first telephone directory (1878) and installed the first public phone (1880). The company expanded and became the Connecticut Telephone Company, then the Southern New England Telephone Company (now part of ATT).
The Erector Set, the popular and culturally important construction toy, was invented in New Haven by A.C. Gilbert in 1911, and was manufactured by the A. C. Gilbert Company at the Erector Square factory in New Haven, Connecticut, from 1913 until the company's bankruptcy in 1967.
The first memorial to victims of the Holocaust on public land in America stands in New Haven's Edgewood Park at the corner of Whalley and West Park Avenues; it was built in 1977 with funds collected from the community and is maintained by Greater New Haven Holocaust Memory, Inc. . The ashes of victims killed and cremated at Auschwitz are buried under the memorial.
Infrastructure
Hospitals and medicine
The New Haven area supports several medical facilities that are considered some of the best hospitals in the country. These include Yale-New Haven Hospital (including the Yale-New Haven Children's Hospital), and the Hospital of Saint Raphael. A large Veterans Affairs hospital is located nearby in West Haven. To the west in Milford is Milford Hospital and to the north in Meriden is the MidState Medical Center.
Transportation
Railroad
New Haven is connected to New York City by both intercity and commuter rail, provided by Amtrak and Metro-North Railroad respectively, and some New Haven residents commute to work in New York City (just under two hours away by train). The city's main railroad station is Union Station, which serves Metro-North trains to New York, Shore Line East commuter trains to New London, and Amtrak trains to New York, Hartford, Boston, and Springfield, Massachusetts. An additional station at State Street provides Shore Line East and a few peak-hour Metro-North passengers easier access to Downtown.
The start of the New Haven Railroad began in a small area of New Haven called Cedar Hill Area. It has long been forgotten since its days of grandeur, but still has all the elements in place from the great railroad days.
A commuter rail line to run along the existing Amtrak line from New Haven through Hartford to Springfield, MA has been proposed by the Connecticut Department of Transportation (ConnDOT) and is currently in the planning phase.
Major highways
New Haven lies at the intersection of Interstate 95 on the coast - which provides access southwards and/or westwards to the western coast of Connecticut and to New York City, and eastwards to the eastern Connecticut shoreline, Rhode Island, and eastern Massachusetts - and Interstate 91, which leads northward to the interior of Massachusetts and Vermont and the Canadian border. I-95 is infamous for traffic jams increasing with proximity to New York City; on the east side of New Haven it passes over the Quinnipiac River via the Pearl Harbor Memorial, or "Q Bridge", which often presents a major bottleneck to traffic. I-91, however, is relatively less congested, except at the intersection with I-95 during peak travel times.
The Oak Street Connector (Route 34) intersects I-91 at exit 1, just south of the I-95/I-91 interchange, and runs northwest for a few blocks as an expressway spur into downtown before emptying onto surface roads. The Wilbur Cross Parkway (Route 15) runs parallel to I-95 west of New Haven, turning northwards as it nears the city and then running northwards parallel to I-91 through the outer rim of New Haven, and Hamden, offering an alternative to the I-95/I-91 journey (restricted to non-commercial vehicles). Route 15 in New Haven is also the site of the only highway tunnel in the state (officially designated as Heroes' Tunnel), running through West Rock, home to West Rock Park and the Three Judges Cave.
Airport
Tweed-New Haven Airport, located three miles east of the city, provides daily service through US Airways.
Seaport
New Haven Harbor is home to The Port of New Haven, a deep-water seaport with three berths capable of hosting vessels and barges as well as the facilities required to handle break-bulk cargo. The port has the capacity to load 200 trucks a day from the ground or via loading docks. Rail transportation access is available, with a private switch engine for yard movements and private siding for loading and unloading. There is approximately of inside storage and 50 acres of outside storage available at the site. Five shore cranes with a 250-ton capacity and 26 forklifts, each with a 26-ton capacity, are also available.
Power supply facilities
Electricity for New Haven is generated by 448 MW oil and gas-fired generating station located on the shore at New Haven Harbor. In addition, Pennsylvania Power and Light (PPL) Inc. operates a 220 MW peaking natural gas turbine plant in nearby Wallingford.
Near New Haven there's the static inverter plant of the HVDC Cross Sound Cable.
Sister cities
New Haven has the following sister cities designated by Sister Cities International:
Afula-Gilboa, Israel
Amalfi, Italy
Avignon, France
Freetown, Sierra Leone
Hue, Vietnam
León, Nicaragua
Taichung (City), Taiwan
Some of these were selected because of historical connection — Freetown because of the Amistad trial. Others, such as Amalfi and Afula-Gilboa, reflect ethnic groups in New Haven.
In 1990, the United Nations named New Haven a "Peace Messenger City".
Notable New Haven natives and long-term residents
Lauren Ambrose (b. 1978), actress
Ben Allison (b. 1966), jazz double bass player
Lyman Atwater (1813-1883), born in Cedar Hill area, Congregational Church clergyman author, and strong opponent to Charles Darwin's natural selection
Henry Austin (1804-1891), architect
David Bahn (b.1962), Rock drummer, dancer, poet, Documerge programmer
Roger Sherman Baldwin (1793-1863), attorney, grandson of Roger Sherman
Lyman Beecher (1775-1865), clergyman and abolitionist
Michael Bolton nee Bolotin, (b.1953), singer-songwriter
Tim Buckley, creator of the popular Ctrl+Alt+Del comic
George W. Bush (b. 1946), 43rd President of the United States (born in New Haven)
Walter Camp (1859–1925), football inventor and New Haven native.
Al Capp (1909-1979), cartoonist who created Li'l Abner comic strip.
Karen and Richard Carpenter (Richard, b. 1946; Karen, b. 1950 - d. 1983), singers/musicians were born in New Haven.
Loren Mazzacane Connors (b. 1949) musician, artist
Tommy Corcoran (1869-1960), major league baseball player
Michael Crowley, senior editor at The New Republic
Chad Dawson WBC Light-Heavyweight Champion
Rosa DeLauro (b. 1943), Congresswoman
George Dixon (1934-1990), Canadian football running back
Jerome F. Donovan (1872-1949), Congressman
Timothy Dwight IV (1752-1817), prominent president of Yale College.
Paul Fusco (b.1953), puppeteer, actor, and creator of ALF TV sitcom.
Marcus (b. 1961) and Paul Giamatti (b. 1967), actors, New Haven natives, and sons of Yale University president and Baseball Commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti.
Josiah Willard Gibbs (1839-1903), mathematical physicist, founder of physical chemistry, creator of vector analysis
Emma Goldman (1869–1940), anarchist and feminist
Fred Goldsmith (1856-1939), 19th-Century pro baseball pitcher, co-inventor of the curveball, along with pitcher Candy Cummings.Notable Yale alumni and faculty
Notable Hopkins School alumni
Literature
Leonard Bacon, Thirteen Historical Discourses, (New Haven, 1839)
C. H. Hoadley (editor), Records of the Colony of New Haven, 1638-1665, (two volumes, Hartford, 1857-58)
J. W. Barber, History and Antiquities of New Haven, (third edition, New Haven, 1870)
C. H. Levermore, Town and City Government of New Haven, (Baltimore, 1886)
C. H. Levermore, Republic of New Haven: A History of Municipal Evolution, (Baltimore, 1886)
E. S. Bartlett, Historical Sketches of New Haven, (New Haven, 1897)
F. H. Cogswell, "New Haven" in L. P. Powell (editor), Historic Towns of New England, (New York, 1898)
H. T. Blake, Chronicles of New Haven Green, (New Haven, 1898)
E. E. Atwater, History of the Colony of New Haven, (New edition, New Haven, 1902)
Douglas W. Rae, City: Urbanism and Its End, (New Haven, 2003)
New Haven City Yearbooks
Michael Sletcher, New Haven: From Puritanism to the Age of Terrorism, (Charleston, 2004)
William Lee Miller, The Fifteenth Ward and the Great Society, (Houghton Mifflin/Riverside, 1966)
Preston C. Maynard and Majorey B. Noyes,(editors), "Carriages and Clocks, Corsets and Locks: the Rise and Fall of an Industrial City-New Haven, Connecticut" (University Press of New England, 2005.)
External results
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