New Haven

“ I now propose to give a brief description of New Haven and its inhabitants in the words of a business man who loves the town. New Haven, is to-day a city of more than forty thousand inhabitants, remarkable as the New Englanders generally are for their ingenuity, industry, shrewd practical good sense, and their large aggregate wealth; and with forty thousand such people it is not strange that New Haven is now growing like a city in the west. ”

“ The transformation of the two great wooded ridges beyond the dwelling-line into well-graded drives, art vying with nature to please the eye and win the soul to beauty, completes the impression sometimes expressed, that New Haven is an immense village encircled by gardens. ”

“ New Haven is situated at the head of a fine bay, four miles from Long Island Sound, and seventy-six miles from New York, on the direct line of Rail-road, and great thoroughfare between that city and Boston, and can be reached in three hours by Rail-road and about five by water from New York. New Haven has long been known as the city of Elms, and it far surpasses any other city in America in the number and beauty of these noble elm trees which shade and adorn its streets and public squares. ”

“ It was indeed a glorious morning, and to ride through the streets of New Haven at sunrise is like dashing through the gravel walks of a garden, for there is scarcely a dwelling which is not surrounded by a little wilderness of trees and shrubbery. ”

“ The University with its manifold departments is a veritable hive of industry; the scales of Justice at the County Court House are tipping endlessly in favor of right against wrong; while the busy hum of the Winchester Arms and a hundred other mills, makes a music that dies not out.
Altogether, historic New Haven is a pleasant place in which to live, and its hospitality is as generous as are its gardens and its parks. ”

“ At the base of the hill runs the New York and New Haven Railroad, with its iron horse and long trains of cars, carrying their wealth of freights and armies of passengers to all points in the East, while to the left lies the town of South Norwalk—the spires of its churches rising up into the blue sky, like monuments pointing heaven-ward—and whose beautiful and capacious school-houses are filled with the bright eyes and rosy faces of the youths who receive from competent teachers the lessons that will prove so valuable in the time to come. ”

“ Had I commenced a letter with the French Hélas! hélas! it would have been no more than might reasonably have been expected considering the desolate situation of New Haven and the gloomy prospects before me. But for you, who are in the very vortex of fashionable life and surrounded by the amusements and bustle of the metropolis of New England, for you to exclaim, "How lonely I am!" is unpardonable, or at most admits of but one excuse, to wit, that you can plead the feelings of the youth who exclaimed, "Gods annihilate both time and space and make two lovers happy!" ”

“ The area occupied by the town of New Haven is estimated to be six times as great as that of a European town with the same number of inhabitants. It was originally laid out in parallelograms, and the houses are built upon the outer sides of the squares, with large gardens meeting in the centre. Almost every house stands separate, and surrounded by shrubbery and verdure; and it is the great peculiarity of the town, that all its streets are planted with rows of elms, grown at this day to remarkable size and luxuriance. ”

“ New Ha′ven, the largest seaport and city of Connecticut and fourth largest in New England, stands at the head of New Haven Bay. It has broad, shaded streets, public squares, parks and gardens and handsome public buildings. ”

“ It was a hot June day when little more than a month later, two commodious limousines keeping close together rolled along the last few miles of the Boston Post Road, coming from the South, and entered New Haven. How strange and yet familiar seemed the streets of the famous college city to the lithe, sunburned young fellow at the wheel of the foremost car. This way and that darted his glance, as the car passed Poli’s and many another place enshrined in memories and traditions, and he was kept continually busy pointing out landmarks to the dark olive-tinted beauty beside him. ”

“ In 1815 the Fulton, the first steamboat on Long Island Sound, made its first trip from New York to New Haven. The second quarter of the 19th century was the period of development of railways and manufactures. The period since the Civil War has been marked by a diversification of industries. To that conflict New Haven contributed approximately $30,000,000, and 3000 men, 500 of whom were killed. From 1701 until 1873 New Haven was the joint capital (with Hartford) of Connecticut. New Haven was incorporated as a city in 1784 ”

“ There are tastefully adorned suburbs surrounding New Haven, where the hills afford charming prospects. The two great attractions, however, are the 110 bold and impressive promontories known as the East and West Rocks, which are high buttresses of trap rock, lifting themselves from the plain on each side of the town in magnificent opposition, and rising four hundred feet. ”

“ Hartford, though less celebrated for beauty of landscape than its sister city, New Haven, possesses some fine objects, both of nature and art, which have perhaps not been fully appreciated. A deep, rich verdure is its birthright, and the loveliness of its surrounding heights is admitted by all. ”

“ The style of domestic architecture in New Haven favours the rural character of the town. Built, as was remarked before, in the midst of a garden, each house looks like what would be termed in England a cottage, or, in streets where a more ambitious style prevails, like the sort of white villa common at watering places. ”

“ The commercial interests of the city lie in a distributing and coastwise trade, the latter being facilitated by an excellent natural harbor, which has been greatly improved, and which was once the scene of extensive shipbuilding. New Haven ranks first among the industrial centres of the State. ”

“ But the oddest thing of all would be if then New York and New Haven were both to ring with my praises, and there were not a soul, not even half-dead me, to ask whether a lead-pencil was really worth all that effort.
Well, any sustained heroic effort is admirable for its own sake. We quite properly admire explorers of poisonous forests and climbers of difficult peaks, even when there is little of value to be obtained by their reaching their goal. ”

“ As a matter of fact, the shore road from the Pier to New Haven is not good; it is hilly, sandy, and rough; but it is entirely practicable, and makes up in beauty and interest what it lacks in quality.
We did not leave Green's Inn until half-past nine the morning after our arrival, and we reached New Haven that evening at exactly eight,—a delightful run of eighty or ninety miles by the road taken. ”

“ Like the Connecticut Colony, the New Haven Colony in setting up its government made no reference to any authority beyond itself; the people elected their own magistrates and made their own laws. But the New Haven Colony was unlike Connecticut in one important respect. In New Haven no man could vote or hold a place in the government unless he was a church member. ”

“ In the meantime the moss-troopers of Connecticut, the warriors of New Haven and Hartford, and Pyquag--otherwise called Weathersfield, famous for its onions and its witches--and of all the other border towns, were in a prodigious turmoil, furbishing up their rusty weapons, shouting aloud for war, and anticipating easy conquests and glorious rummaging of the fat little Dutch villages. ”

“ In the centre of New Haven were originally laid out two open squares, divided by a street kept sacred from private buildings. The upper green is a beautiful slope, edged with the long line of the college edifices. Between the two squares stand three churches, at equal distances; two of the common order of architecture for places of public worship in this country (immense brick buildings, with tall white spires) ; and a third, which is presented in the drawing, a Gothic episcopal church, of singular purity and beauty. ”

“ And the graveyard in New Haven, with its tall poplar trees, was an epitome of the lives of men and women who had made their impress, not only on that community, but on the world. Our school was situated on Hillhouse avenue, and our walks were mostly confined to that quiet, shady street and "Powder House lane," in order that we might avoid meeting the "students," of whom our teacher seemed to have a great dread, a fear from which her pupils were entirely free. ”

“ New Haven is developing into the largest railroad transfer point in New England, the railroad system having in process of construction at Cedar Hill a freight classification yard for New England of about 1,000 acres, with more than 10 miles of trackage constructed in 1920. ”

“ But by the time New Haven was reached the spirits of each had risen considerably, and they were able to take some interest in the things which the waiter placed before them in the dining car. Neither had eaten much dinner in New York, and so they found that they had very fair appetites. It’s wonderful what food will do in the way of cheering one up! When they tossed their bags into the carriage at Wissining and climbed in after them they were as merry as you please. A sprinkle of snow had fallen while they had been on the train, and there was a jolly feeling of winter in the air. ”

“ The great elms which look down on it now must have seen him and perhaps read his treacherous mind, for they say the elms of New Haven are the most intelligent and learned anywhere in New England except at Harvard itself; and you know that knot-holes are trees' eyes. They don't tell this to any one save their most intimate friends, but Jack and I know tree language. At home in the park we put our ears against their trunks and listen in the spring, when they are most talkative and don't mind telling their best secrets. ”

“ Few towns in New England possess more charm, whether of nature or society, than the towns in which her long-established institutions of learning have taken root, flourished, and dominated the life of the community. New Haven, Cambridge, and Providence are all cities now with a heterogeneous population and large manufacturing interests, and they each contain thousands of inhabitants to whom Harvard, Yale, and Brown are of as little practical benefit or concern as if they were situated in remote Hawaii or Porto Rico. ”

“ I wished to reside within a few hours of New York. I had never seen more delightful locations than there are upon the borders of Long Island Sound, between New Rochelle, New York, and New Haven, Connecticut; and my attention was therefore turned in that direction. Bridgeport seemed to be about the proper distance from the great metropolis. It is pleasantly situated at the terminus of two railroads, which traverse the fertile valleys of the Naugatuck and Housatonic rivers. The New York and New Haven Railroad runs through the city, and there is also daily steamboat communication with New York. ”

“ New Haven is an important industrial city and has considerable commerce. The harbor has a jetty and a breakwater surmounted by a lighthouse, and the port has a large coasting trade. But it is of more consequence as a manufacturing town, employing many thousands of workers producing hardware, wire, locks, clocks, cutlery, firearms, corsets, india-rubber goods, carriages, furniture, paper, matches, musical instruments, etc. ”

“ East Rock is the picturesque point in an attractive park, its summit crowned by a Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument, while on the slope of West Rock is Judge's Cave, where the two regicides, Goffe and Whalley, lay in concealment for a time. There are parks overlooking the harbor and other smaller inclosures, the entire public park system comprising 1100 acres. The city has some 200 miles of streets, about 70 miles of which are paved, a large proportion with macadam, and drained by 95 miles of sewers. New Haven is the seat of Yale University (q.v.) ”

“ New Haven is considered to be the most beautiful town in America, and it is marvellously beautiful. The elm is a very fine tree on this continent. It is of a peculiar kind, rising to a great height [Pg 95] before any branches shoot out, thus producing large overhanging branches like a candelabrum. It is common in all American towns, but this is called by pre-eminence the City of Elms. There are broad avenues in every direction, the branches of the trees meeting across and forming shady walks on the hottest day. ”

“ The disaffected element in New Haven, however, was large and important; and when Connecticut’s imperialistic ambitions were gratified, and she obtained a charter which gave her all her neighbor’s territory, a very large proportion of New Haven’s inhabitants indicated that they preferred the “Christless rule” of Connecticut, with its property qualification for the franchise, to that of the New Haven churches. Throughout the whole process of absorption of the smaller colony by its now aggrandized neighbor, both the action and the manner of Connecticut are difficult to defend. ”

“ Herein consists the great beauty of the New England villages, a beauty quite too often overlooked in other states in the process of laying out towns. Nature and art have here wrought in harmony, and village and country are beautifully and healthfully blended.
I was informed, before leaving Norwalk, that the "Buckly House," the last relic of the Revolution in Fairfield, had fallen under the stroke of public improvement, and also that no living witness of the cruelty of Governor Tryon was there. I therefore concluded to go directly through to New Haven that evening. ”

“ As the New Haven adventurers were the most opulent company which came into New England, they were disposed and able to lay the foundation of a first-rate colony—the proofs of which are visible, in part, in the elegant city which became its capital. The foundations of the civil and religious polity of the colony were laid on the 4th of June, 1639, with every due solemnity. ”