1910s

City Hall and County Courthouse, New Haven, Connecticut

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The New Haven City Hall and the New Haven County Courthouse, on Church Street in New Haven, around 1900-1915. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Detroit Publishing Company Collection.

The scene in 2019:

As discussed in the previous post, New Haven’s city hall was built in 1862, on Church Street facing the New Haven Green. It was an important early example of High Victorian Gothic style architecture, designed by prominent local architect Henry Austin, and in 1873 it was joined by the matching New Haven County Courthouse. The courthouse, which was designed by Austin’s former employee David R. Brown, stood on the left side of the building, just to the left of the tower in the first photo, and it was set further back from the street.

The courthouse was in use until a new courthouse was completed in 1914, probably soon after the first photo was taken. The older building then became the city hall annex, and together these two buildings continued to house the city’s municipal offices throughout much of the 20th century. At some point, though, the top of the tower was removed, and by the 1960s both buildings were threatened with demolition.

The buildings were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975, but the following year the former courthouse was demolished, along with most of City Hall. However, the New Haven Preservation Trust succeeded in saving the facade of City Hall, and a new building was constructed behind it and to the left along Church Street. Completed in the mid-1980s, this new City Hall featured a design that was sympathetic to the original portion. Although lacking the pointed windows and ornamentation of Henry Austin’s facade, the new building – visible on the left side of the 2019 photo – has a matching exterior with alternating bands of light and dark stone, dormer windows on the top floor, and even a setback that imitates the old courthouse building.

Tontine Hotel, New Haven, Connecticut

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The Tontine Hotel, at the corner of Church and Court Streets in New Haven, around 1900-1907. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Detroit Publishing Company Collection.

The scene around 1918. Image from A Modern History of New Haven and Eastern New Haven County (1918).

The scene in 2018:

The first photo shows the Tontine Hotel, which had been a New Haven landmark for nearly a century before the photo was taken. It was built sometime in the mid-1820s – sources differ on the exact date – and its design was the work of noted local architect David Hoadley. The Tontine was a prominent hotel in its early years, and its notable visitors during this time included Indian chief and orator Red Jacket, who gave a speech here in 1829, and Daniel Webster, who came here in 1832.

However, perhaps the most significant group of guests came a year later, when President Andrew Jackson came to New Haven in June 1833, accompanied by then-Vice President Martin Van Buren, Secretary of War Lewis Cass, Secretary of the Navy Levi Woodbury, and Governor William L. Marcy of New York. The party arrived in New Haven by steamboat at around 1 p.m. on the afternoon of June 15 and went to the State House, where the president was addressed by the governor and the mayor. Jackson was then escorted through the streets in a procession that took a circuitous route through the city, eventually ending here at the Tontine. Jackson spent the night at the hotel, and in the morning he attended Sunday services at Trinity Church before departing for Hartford.

The Tontine Hotel was still in business when the first photo was taken some 70 years later. At the time, it was known as White’s New Tontine, as its proprietor was George T. White. An advertisement in the 1902 city directory declared it to be “Under New Management. All the Modern Improvements. Refurnished Throughout,” and rooms ranged from $1.00 to $2.00 per night. The first photo also shows a restaurant in the basement of the hotel. The signs indicate that it was a buffet that offered “White’s steaks, chops and game in season,” and the directory described it as a “cafe, restaurant, and rathskeller” that was open from 6 a.m. until midnight. In addition to this restaurant, there are several other amenities visible in the first photo, including a barber shop and a “boot blacking emporium” that were both located on the left side of the building.

Despite its historic significance, though, the site of the Tontine Hotel was eyed for redevelopment soon after this photo was taken. It was demolished by around 1913, in order to make way for a new federal courthouse and post office. Unlike the fairly modest brick hotel, the new courthouse was an imposing marble structure. It had a Classical Revival design, including a large front portico with ten Corinthian columns, and it was the work of noted architect James Gamble Rogers. The cornerstone was laid in 1914, in a ceremony that featured a speech by former president and future chief justice William Howard Taft, but the building was not completed until 1919, a year after the second photo was taken.

Like the architecturally-similar New Haven County Courthouse, which stands nearby at the northeastern corner of the Green, the federal courthouse was threatened with demolition in the mid-20th century. However, like the county courthouse, it was ultimately preserved, and it underwent a major renovation in the 1980s. The post office moved out in 1979, but otherwise the building remains in use, as one of thee federal courthouses in the District of Connecticut. In 1998, it was renamed the Richard C. Lee United States Courthouse, in honor of the longtime mayor of New Haven who helped to preserve the building, and in 2015 it was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

Third Congregational Church, New Haven, Connecticut (2)

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The former Third Congregational Church, on Church Street in New Haven, in 1903. Image courtesy of the Connecticut State Library, Herbert Randall Survey of New Haven and Environs.

The Second National Bank of New Haven on the same site, around 1918. Image from A Modern History of New Haven and Eastern New Haven County (1918).

The scene in 2018:

As discussed in the previous post, the Third Congregational Church was established in 1826, and was located in several different buildings over the next three decades. In 1856, the church moved into this new building on Church Street, opposite the New Haven Green. It was designed by architect Sidney Mason Stone, and the exterior featured a Romanesque-style design that would become popular for churches during the second half of the 19th century. The congregation worshiped here until 1884, when the church merged with the nearby United Church, which still stands on the Green.

In 1890, the vacant church was purchased by the city, and the interior was converted into the first long-term home of the New Haven Free Public Library. At some point before the first photo was taken, a new, much shorter steeple was also added to the building, although it does not seem clear whether this happened before of after it became a library. Because it was designed as a church, though, it proved inadequate as a library. At the time, most libraries had closed stacks, which required patrons to specifically request materials at the circulation desk. However, the limitations of this building resulted in open stacks. This allowed the general public to browse all of the collections, but it also meant that a number of books went missing during the two decades that this building was in use.

The city finally completed a new library building in 1911, which is still standing today at the corner of Elm and Temple Streets. Around the same time, the old building here on Church Street was purchased by the Second National Bank of New Haven, and was subsequently demolished. The bank then constructed an eight-story office building on the site, which was designed by the architectural firm of Starrett & van Vleck and completed in 1913. The first photo was taken a few years later, and was published in A Modern History of New Haven and Eastern New Haven County. According to this book, it was the second-largest of New Haven’s ten banks, with a headquarters here on Church Street that was described as “the finest banking and office building in the city.”

The Second National Bank had its offices here in this building throughout much of the 20th century, but in 1978 it was renamed Colonial Bank and moved to Waterbury. The company would subsequently go through a series of mergers, eventually becoming part of BankBoston, Fleet Bank, and finally Bank of America. In the meantime, though, the former Second National building is still standing here on Church Street, with few changes since the second photo was taken. It remains in use as an office building, and its current tenants include the New Haven newsroom of NBC Connecticut.

Hendrie Hall, New Haven, Connecticut

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Hendrie Hall, on Elm Street between Temple and College Streets in New Haven, around 1910-1915. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Detroit Publishing Company Collection.

The building in 2018:

Built in 1894 and expanded in 1900, Hendrie Hall was originally the home of Yale Law School. The school had previously been located a few blocks away, on the third floor of the New Haven County Courthouse, but by the early 1890s the school was looking to build a permanent facility on the Yale campus. This became a reality in large part thanks to contributions from John William Hendrie, a Yale graduate and wealthy California real estate magnate who gave a total of $65,000 toward the construction of the building. As a result, the building was named in his honor.

The Yale Law School remained here for nearly 40 years, and during this time its faculty included William Howard Taft. He became a law professor here at the end of his presidency in 1913, and he held the position until 1921, when he was appointed chief justice of the United States. Notable graduates who attended law school here in this building included U. S. Attorney General Herbert Brownell Jr. (1927), Senators Raymond E. Baldwin (1921), Estes Kefauver (1927), Augustine Lonergan (1902),and Brien McMahon (1927), Supreme Court justice Sherman Minton (1916), Philippines president Jose P. Laurel (1920), and a number of other prominent politicians, judges, and attorneys.

In 1931, the school left this building and moved to its current location in the Sterling Law Building. However, Yale has put Hendrie Hall to other uses over the years, and it is currently used by the Yale School of Music. Not much has changed in its exterior appearance since the first photo was taken a century ago, but it recently underwent major interior renovations, which were completed in 2017.

St. Elmo Hall, New Haven, Connecticut

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St. Elmo Hall, at the corner of Temple and Grove Streets in New Haven, around 1918. Image from A Modern History of New Haven and Eastern New Haven County (1918).

The scene in 2018:

This building was constructed in 1912 for the St. Elmo Society, one of several secret societies at the Yale-affiliated Sheffield Scientific School. At the time, the Sheffield societies, which also included the Berzelius and the Book and Snake, maintained their own residence halls, and this building housed the members of St. Elmo. It was the work of architect Kenneth Murchison, and it features an Elizabethan-style design that was similar to many of the other Yale buildings of this period.

By the early 1930s, most of the privately-run residential halls were phased out, as Yale instituted its new residential college system. However, St. Elmo Hall lasted longer than most, although the society began leasing space in the building to the school starting in 1945. Yale finally purchased the property in 1962, but St. Elmo continued to use part of the building for its meeting space until 1985. The building was subsequently renamed Rosenfeld Hall, and it is currently houses both classrooms and dormitory rooms. Its exterior appearance has changed little since the first photo was taken, aside from the addition of dormer windows on the top floor.

St. Mary’s Church, New Haven, Connecticut

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St. Mary’s Church, on Hillhouse Avenue in New Haven, around 1918. Image from A Modern History of New Haven and Eastern New Haven County (1918).

The church in 2018:

St. Mary’s Church is the oldest Catholic parish in New Haven, having been established in 1832. Its first permanent location was on York Street, but later moved to Church Street. However, in the early 1870s the growing parish began constructing a new building here on Hillhouse Avenue, in the midst of an upscale, largely Protestant neighborhood. The stone, Gothic-style church was dedicated in 1874, and it was the work Irish-born architect James Murphy, who specialized in designing Catholic churches across New England. Murphy’s other churches included the Cathedral of St. Patrick in Norwich, which was constructed around the same time and features a design that is very similar to St. Mary’s here in New Haven.

Perhaps the most notable event here at this church came in 1882, when curate Michael McGivney established the Knights of Columbus. This organization, which served as a Catholic alternative to fraternal societies such as Freemasonry, was intended to provide support for the working-class immigrants of the parish, particularly for widows and orphans. It began here in the basement of the church, but it soon spread around the country, and today has a membership of nearly 2 million. However, the Knights of Columbus are still headquartered in New Haven, albeit in a much larger building, and Father McGivney’s remains are interred here in the church.

A century after the first photo was taken, St. Mary’s Church is still standing, and it is still an active Roman Catholic parish. Over the years, its surroundings have changed as Yale University steadily expanded its campus northward along Hillhouse Avenue, but the exterior of the church still looks much the same as it did when it was completed. The only significant difference is the spire at the top of the tower. Although designed with a spire, the church did not have one until 1986, when the Knights of Columbus donated one that matched Murphy’s original plans.