New Haven, Connecticut
Encyclopedia : N : NE : NEW : New Haven, Connecticut
- "New Haven" redirects here. For , see .
New Haven's nickname is the Elm City, as it historically contained many elm trees. While most succumbed to Dutch Elm disease in the middle of the 20th Century, New Haven nevertheless remains a very 'green' city. It is considered the first planned city (1638) in the United States. It is the birthplace of current U.S. President George W. Bush, but is probably best known as the home of Yale University.
- 1 History
- 2 Geography
- 3 Urban layout and neighborhoods
- 4 Demographics
- 5 Colleges and universities
- 6 Newspapers and media
- 7 Culture and notable features
- 7.1 Cuisine
- 7.2 Popular culture
- 7.3 Sports teams and athletic entertainment
- 7.4 Theatre
- 7.5 Museums
- 7.6 Music
- 7.7 Points of interest
- 7.8 Miscellaneous
- 8 Infrastructure
- 9 Sister cities
- 10 Notable New Haven Natives and Long-Term Residents
- 11 Notable Yale Alumni and Faculty
- 12 Literature
- 13 External links
History
Pre-colonial and colonial history
Before European arrival, New Haven was the home of the Quinnipiack 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 did not settle permanently in what would become New Haven.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 more perfect theological community than the one they left in Massachusetts and sought to take advantage of the excellent port capabilities of the harbor. The Quinnipiacks, who were under attack by neighboring Pequots, agreed to sell their land to the settlers in return for protection from hostile tribes.
By 1640, the town's theocratic government and city grid plan were in place, and the town was renamed Newhaven from Quinnipiac. The new settlement soon became the headquarters of the New Haven Colony, which at that time 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 Edward Hopkins estate.
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. It was made co-capital of Connecticut in 1701, a status it retained until 1873. At this time, New Haven was a largely agricultural town, but in 1716, Yale University relocated from Old Saybrook to New Haven and established the early city as a center of learning.
During the American Revolution, New Haven was a town of approximately 3,500 citizens and was a major hotbed of revolutionary activity — so much so that the British invaded the town during the course of the war; however, the British forces did not torch New Haven as they had done with many other coastal New England towns they seized, leaving many of its colonial features preserved.
For over a century, New Haven had fought alongside the British in the French and Indian War, and many influential residents, such as General David Wooster, hoped that the conflict with Britain could be resolved short of rebellion. On April 23, 1775 (still celebrated in New Haven as Powder House Day), however, the Second Company, Governor's Foot Guard, of New Haven entered the struggle against the British when, 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.
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 also establish a gun-manufacturing factory in the northern part of the city near the Hamden border. That area of Hamden is still known as Whitneyville, and the main road through both cities is known as Whitney Avenue. The factory is now a museum, with particular emphasis on activities for children, as well as a substantial collection of exhibits pertaining to the A. C. Gilbert Company. Whitney pioneered the concept of industrial mass-production instead of painstaking hand-shaping of individual pieces, no two of which would be interchangeable. Adoption of his methods made early Connecticut a powerful manufacturing economy; so many arms manufacturers sprang up that Connecticut became known as 'The Arsenal of America'. It was in Whitney's gun-manufacturing plant that Samuel Colt first invented the automatic revolver in 1836.
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 the City Hall building.
During the Civil War, the city received another economic boost as demand for industrial goods increased nationally. New Haven's population doubled in the time between the war and the start of the 20th century, most notably due to the influx of immigrants from southern Europe, particularly Italy.
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 during World War II, and it can be argued that it was already in decline when post-war suburbanization began.
As early as 1954, New Haven was suffering from an exodus of middle-class workers and the development of slums. Then-mayor Richard Lee attempted to stem the tide with one of the earliest major urban renewal projects. Large 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 and Interstate 91. The partial construction of a planned semi-beltway around and through the city remains visible to this day in the form of a strip of open fields running along the edge of the poor Hill section.
From the 1960s through the early 1990s, New Haven continued to decline both economically and in terms of population despite many attempts to resurrect the city through renewal projects. During this period, the city and Yale argued over taxation and land use.
At present, New Haven has stabilized. The city is working to attract biomedical and pharmaceutical research facilities, and many have done so to take advantage of the city's connections with Yale. Downtown New Haven is revitalizing itself as a center of shopping, and Crown Street and Chapel Street host a burgeoning nightlife and bar scene. Thousands of luxury apartments, including million-dollar loft condominiums, are under construction in the downtown and have sold rapidly. The university, and other local schools, continue to draw young people from around the world. But poverty remains a problem for New Haven, as it does for many New England post-industrial cities.
A major point of public discontent is the cost of housing in New Haven proper. Connecticut as a whole has generally high housing prices, as the state is wealthier on average than the rest of the United States, has a relatively low unemployment rate, a high quality of life in most regions, relatively mild coastal weather compared to other locations throughout the Northeast, and close proximity to other large cities. Some residents believe the housing-price problem is exacerbated in New Haven by the presence of Yale University. They contend that the large student population in New Haven provides a constant and steady demand for apartment housing, which is in limited supply. Thus, landlords are able to charge inflated rents. In response, the City of New Haven has undertaken several subsidy programs, in conjunction with the State, to try to provide affordable housing units for certain working-class families and residents.
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 is 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.
Urban layout and neighborhoods
Urban layout
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). To the present day, the New Haven Green remains almost unchanged from its original layout, and is home to three separate historic churches which speak to the original theocratic nature of the city. The Green remains the social center of the city today. It was named a National Historic Landmark in 1970.In the modern era, New Haven has undergone many urban redevelopment projects to revitalize and enhance the city with mixed results. The central downtown area, for one, has been the site of numerous experiments in urban re-design, with new hotels, shopping centers, a sports coliseum, and office towers built under city, state, and federal efforts. Some of these efforts, such as the New Haven Coliseum, were never officially completed; the Coliseum is now closed and is being torn down. The most recent sector being redeveloped is the "Ninth Square," named from the original nine square layout described above.
Neighborhoods
The city has many distinct neighborhoods despite its relatively compact size when compared to other cities. In addition to Downtown, centered on the central business district and the Green, are the following neighborhoods: the west central neighborhoods of Dixwell and Dwight; the southern neighborhoods of The Hill, historic water-front City Point (or Oyster Point), and the harborside district of Long Wharf; the western neighborhoods of Edgewood-West River, Westville, Amity, and West Rock-Westhills; East Rock, Prospect Hill, and Newhallville in the northern side of town; the east central neighborhoods of Mill River and Wooster Square, an Italian-American neighborhood; Fair Haven, located between the Mill and Quinnipiac rivers; Quinnipiac Meadows and Fair Haven Heights across the Quinnipiac River; and facing the eastern side of the harbor, The Annex and Morris CoveEach neighborhood exhibits its own unique mix of ethnic, economic, and social qualities, combining influences from immigrants, long-time residents, and neighboring towns. The city's neighborhoods are, in general, seeing a rebirth of economic vibrancy and development, especially Downtown and Long Wharf.
Greater New Haven
New Haven lies within the New York–Newark–Bridgeport, NY-NJ-CT-PA Combined Statistical Area, but is also contained within the more local New Haven Metropolitan NECTA, in which it serves as the primary metropolitan focal point for most of New Haven County and southern Middlesex County. The metro area of Greater New Haven encompasses about 600,000 residents, many of whom commute to work in New Haven, and includes the following towns:In New Haven County
Demographics
| Historical population of New Haven[link][link] | |
| 1638 | 500 (estimate) |
| 1641 | 800 (estimate) |
| 1775 | 3500 (estimate) |
| 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 |
| 2002 | 124,161 (estimate) |
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.
In the city the population was spread out with 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.
Colleges and universities
New Haven is known first and foremost as a center for education and research. Yale University, at the heart of downtown, is one of the city's best known features and its largest employer. 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, interestingly enough, in the neighboring city of West Haven. North of the city, in Hamden, is the site of Quinnipiac University. New Haven is also served by Gateway Community College, located in the Long Wharf district.Hopkins School is also located in New Haven, and is the fifth oldest educational institution in the United States.
Newspapers and media
New Haven is served by the daily New Haven Register, the weekly alternative (now corporate run) New Haven Advocate and the online daily New Haven Independent (www.newhavenindependent.org). It is also served by several student-run papers, including the Yale Daily News, the weekly Yale Herald and a humor tabloid, Rumpus Magazine.Culture and notable features
Almost unique for a city of its size, New Haven offers a wealth of cultural opportunities.Cuisine
Although credit for creation of the hamburger sandwich is disputed, New Haven boosters accept the claim that it was first served in the United States in 1895 by Louis Lassen, operator of Louis' Lunch, which is still in operation. Burgers are cooked in the original 1895 setup, which holds them vertically instead of flat, between two grills; they are served between two slices of white bread, and the only condiments available are slices of tomato and onions. The restaurant is one of eight featured in "Hamburger America"[link], a documentary film which premiered on Sundance cable television network on the Fourth of July, 2005.As the city was a major destination for Italian immigrants in the early 20th century, New Haven's culinary tradition also includes a claim of being the birthplace of pizza in the United States. Contentious as that claim may be (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 paper-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 scamorza in Italian). Locally, the White Clam Pie is favored. Pizzerias of distinction include Sally's Apizza and Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana, both located on the same block in the Italian-American neighborhood of Wooster Square, Modern Apizza not far away on State Street, and upstart newcomer Bar, a Microbrewery located across Crown Street from Louis' Lunch in New Haven's "entertainment district" downtown.
Some exceptionally highly regarded restaurants in New Haven include the Union League Café on Chapel St., owned by Jean-Pierre (Chef de Cuisine) and Robin Vuillermet, serving classical haute cuisine, Claire's Cornercopia at Chapel and College Streets, serving vegetarian food and is the oldest exclusively vegetarian menu restaurant in the country, Caffe Adulis on College Street, where chef/owner Ficre Ghebreyesus offers a fine selection of Eritrean dishes, Ibiza on High St. (once credited by the food critic in the New York Times with the best meal he had had in the previous year), which was formerly a highly regarded tapas restaurant named Pika Tapas but has turned to a fusion of nouvelle cuisine with Spanish food, and Roomba, serving an innovative nouvelle cuisine interpretation of Cuban food. Remarkably, all of these world-class restaurants are on the same block downtown. The city has more top Zagat-rated restaurants than any other town or city in Connecticut, by a wide margin, and is becoming an internationally-known restaurant destination.
Also of note:
- The Yankee Doodle Sandwich Shop, near the Yale campus on Elm St., the sometimes setting of Bill Griffith's Zippy the Pinhead, and the inspiration for a famous work of Robert Crumb's. You know the one. Cherry Coke and Vanilla Coke are still made the old fashioned way, with cola syrup and seltzer, and hamburgers come with an extravagant dab of butter.
- Mamoun's Falafel Restaurant, an important resource in this student-filled city due to its being open until 3 AM 365 days a year to provide reasonably priced food, including many Middle Eastern and/or vegetarian and vegan selections. A dozen other middle eastern restaurants dot the area.
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 rockstar had ever been arrested in concert.
New Haven currently serves as the home city of the annual International Festival of Arts and Ideas.
New Haven is also home to the famous concert and dance hall Toad's Place which brings in many big name acts to the city.
Garry Trudeau, the creator and current author of the comic strip "Doonesbury," 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."
The Oscar-winning 1950 film All About Eve is set at the Taft Hotel on the corner of College and Chapel Streets, now converted into apartments.
Sports teams and athletic entertainment
New Haven, being a significantly large urban area, served as a home city to many sports teams, all of which have since gone defunct or left town.The New Haven Coliseum, an egregious example of failed modernism leading to urban blight, was built in 1972 to accommodate a variety of entertainment functions for greater New Haven. It is currently being destroyed due to its dysfunctional design and financial drain on the City. Most people believe that the facility was outdated; that the parking garage, accessed via a quarter-mile double circular ramp, had failed to attract usage; and that the City and state Hotel-Motel Tax subsidies that had been devoted to the facility will be better applied to other priorities. The Coliseum played host to many famous entertainers and events in its 30 year history, including: The US Olympic Hockey Team, Aerosmith, The Grateful Dead, Bruce Springsteen and many others. The state funded Arena at Harbor Yard in Bridgeport proved the death nell for the Coliseum, as it could no longer compete with newer arenas.
Much like other mid-sized Northeastern industrial cities, New Haven has historically supported its minor league hockey teams enthusiastically. 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 enjoyed an 18 year run from 1954 to 1972, before being replaced by the New Haven Nighthawks of the AHL, who played at the then new New Haven Coliseum. The Nighthawks were replaced by the Senators in 1993, who were run out of town because of declining support owing to a decrepit arena and a terrible record. Hockey returned in 1997, as the Beast of New Haven, a team famous for its ugly logo, set up shop in a newly refurbished coliseum. However, incompetent management meant the team would only last two seasons, ending AHL hockey in New Haven. The New Haven Knights of the United Hockey League then took up residence in the Coliseum, and the team played until the Coliseum was closed in 2003. Today, New Haven hockey fans make due with the Yale University hockey team, that plays at Ingalls Rink to capacity crowds. New Haven was famous for its blue collar fans who favored rough play, especially the "Crazies" who sat in Section 13 at the Coliseum, behind the opposing team's bench. These fans were always reknowned for being extremely tough on opposing teams, and perhaps owing to fact that they watched bad teams play in a terrible building, relentlessly screamed obscenities and taunts at opposing players (and sometimes at hometown players), making New Haven always an intimidating place to play, though outright physical violence in the stands was rare.
New Haven was home to the New Haven Ravens, an Eastern League AA team from 1994-2003. Yale Field, right across the border in West Haven, was renovated for the team, which was very successful in its first few seasons, before losing support in later years. 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 and became the New Hampshire Fisher Cats. The New Haven Cutters baseball team began play at Yale Field in 2004 in the independent Northeast (now Can-Am) League.
In 2002, New Haven had an arena football franchise in AFL2, known as the Ninjas, who were successful but had to leave once the Coliseum was closed.
The New York Giants of the NFL played an exhibition game against the Detroit Lions in 1960, a first for the city. A number of exhibition games were played against the New York Jets through the 1970s, and in the 1973 and 1974 NFL seasons, the Giants made the Yale Bowl their home field while Yankee Stadium was being renovated. The Yale Bowl is still the 2nd largest stadium in New England, and is always full when Yale and Harvard play "The Game."
From July 1st through 9th, 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 stadium at the Connecticut Tennis Center is the second largest tennis venue in the world, second only to Arthur Ashe Stadium at Flushing Meadows in New York City.
Theatre
The city is very active in the world of theatre, and host numerous theatres and production houses including: the Yale Repertory Theatre, the Long Wharf Theatre, and the Shubert Performing Arts Center. There is also theatre activity from the School of Drama at Yale 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 has premiered many major theatrical productions before their Broadway debuts. Productions that premiered at the Shubert include Richard Rogers' Oklahoma!, Carousel, South Pacific, The King and I, and The Sound of Music; as well as Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire.
Museums
New Haven offers its residents and visitors a wide variety of world-class museums, many of them associated with Yale. Some of the more notable museums are the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library which features an original copy of the Gutenberg Bible, the Connecticut Children's Museum, the new Knights of Columbus museum near its world headquarters, the Peabody Museum of Natural History, the Eli Whitney museum (actually just across the border in Hamden, 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 the home port of a life-size replica of the historical Amistad slaveship 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.Music
The New Haven Green is the site of many free music concerts held by the city, especially during the summer months. Some of the more notable music events are the free summer shows by the New Haven Symphony Orchestra and the July series of jazz concerts.New Haven is also home to the famous concert venue [Toad's Place], which hosted many big name acts fairly regularly until the venues of the Indian casinos, Foxwoods Resort Casino and Mohegan Sun Casino, became the major stopping place of national acts passing through Southern Connecticut. [Rudy's Bar], [BAR] and [Cafe Nine] are also popular venues. Other world renowned underground clubs, such as The Tune Inn and Ron's Place, were once located in the Elm City.
Production-wise, many staples of the emerging punk movement in the late 1970s had influences from the New Haven music scene, and the city has retained an alternative art and music underground that has gone on to influence post-punk era music movements such as indie/college rock and underground hip-hop with such artist as Lil Kia.
Points of interest
Miscellaneous
In 1892, local confectioner George C. Smith 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 has been 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.
New Haven is home to a number of well-known architecture firms, such as Pelli Clarke Pelli, Herbert Newman Partners, Svigals and Partners and Roche Dinkeloo, as well as hundreds of smaller "spin off" firms. Along with Yale University, hospitals, biotechnology, bank headquarters (such as New Alliance) and nonprofit headquarters, architecture firms are among the largest employers in the city.
New Haven hosted the first Bell PSTN switch office.
The New York Giants football team actually played their home games at the Yale Bowl for the 1974 and 1975 seasons while Yankee Stadium (their old home) was being renovated and Giants Stadium in New Jersey (their current home) was being built.
Ultra-traditional men's clothier J. Press was founded in New Haven by immigrant tailor Jacobi Press in 1902. Their store on York Street remains their largest in the country; additional stores are in New York, New York, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Washington, D.C.
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, 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 (a trip of close to two hours). 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, Boston, and Springfield, Massachusetts. An additional station at State Street provides SLE and a few Metro-North passengers easier access to the Central Business District.Major highways
New Haven lies at the intersection of Interstate 95, which provides access to New York and the coastal regions further east, and Interstate 91, which leads northward to the interior of New England. Within the city itself there is the Oak Street Connector/Route 34 which intersects just south of the I-95/I-91 interchange and runs northwest as a spur into downtown. The Route 15 Parkway, also known as the Wilbur Cross Parkway, runs just north of the city, through the outer rim of New Haven, and Hamden. New Haven is also the site of the only highway tunnel in the state (Route 15). The tunnel runs through West Rock, home to West Rock Park and 3 Judges cave.Airports
Tweed-New Haven Airport located along the New Haven/East Haven border provides daily service through US Airways. Jet service returned to Tweed New Haven in May 2004 after a long absence, but was discontinued in January 2006. It is quite common for locals to use Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks, or New York City's LaGuardia Airport or JFK International or Newark, New Jersey's Newark Liberty International Airport, when flying overseas or to a non-Eastern destination.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 [link]. In addition, Pensylvania Power and Light (PPL) Inc. operates a 220MW peaking natural gas turbine plant in nearby Wallingford. Near New Haven there is the static inverter plant of the HVDC Cross Sound Cable.Sister cities
New Haven encourages its citizens to gain a global awareness by forging links with sister cities, including: 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
- Ben Allison, jazz double bass player
- Bruce Altman, actor
- Henry Austin, architect
- Roger Sherman Baldwin, attorney
- Lyman Beecher, clergyman and abolitionist
- George W. Bush, current President of the United States
- Al Capp, cartoonist
- Karen and Richard Carpenter, singers/musicians
- Rosa DeLauro, Congresswoman
- Josiah Willard Gibbs, mathematical physicist, founder of physical chemistry, creator of vector analysis
- Emma Goldman, anarchist/feminist
- Charles Goodyear, inventor
- Gerry Hemingway (jazz percussionist and composer)
- Jack Hitt, author, contributing editor Harper's magazine
- Charles Ives, composer
- Norman Lear, television producer
- Joe Lieberman, vice-presidential candidate, 2000; U.S. Senator for Connecticut
- Floyd Little, American football running back
- Paul MacCready, inventor
- Robert Moses, architect and urban planner
- George Lloyd Murphy, dancer, actor and politician
- César Pelli, architect
- Liz Phair, musician
- Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., Congressman
- Jesse Richards, artist and filmmaker
- Alfred Pritchard Sloan, Jr., businessman and former chief of General Motors
- Allen Stack, swimmer
- Benjamin Spock, pediatrician and author
- Ithiel Town, architect and civil engineer
- Eli Whitney, inventor and innovator
Notable Yale Alumni and Faculty
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)
External links
- [City of New Haven official Web site]
- [InfoNewHaven.com - Your destination for New Haven happenings including concerts, plays, exhibits and more]
- [Historical New Haven Digital Collection]
- [Yale Economic Review article on biotech in New Haven]
- [Life in the Model City: Stories of Urban Renewal in New Haven — online exhibit by the New Haven Oral History Project]
- ["Who Really Ruled in Dahl's New Haven?"] by G. William Domhoff — examination of power structures in New Haven and Yale in the 1960s
- [The New Haven Independent] neighborhood-based online newspaper
- [NewHavenWeb - A Comprehensive Online Directory of New Haven]
- [Cluefest - New Haven's annual city-wide scavenger hunt]
| Neighborhoods of New Haven |
|---|
| Amity | The Annex | Beaver Hills | Church Street South | City Point | Downtown | Dixwell | Dwight-Edgewood-West River | East Rock | East Shore | Edgewood-West River | Fair Haven | Fair Haven Heights | The Green | The Hill | Long Wharf | Morris Cove | Newhallville | Prospect Hill | Quinnipiac Meadows | Upper State Street | West Rock-Westhills | Westville | Wooster Square |
| The State of Connecticut | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Capital | Hartford | ||||
| Regions | Coastal Connecticut · Greater New Haven · Greater Hartford · Inland Connecticut · Litchfield Hills · Lower Connecticut River Valley · Naugatuck River Valley · New York metropolitan area/Gold Coast · Quiet Corner · Southeastern Connecticut · Southwestern Connecticut | ||||
| Counties | Fairfield · Hartford · Litchfield · Middlesex · New Haven · New London · Tolland · Windham | ||||
| Cities | Ansonia · Bridgeport · Bristol · Danbury · Derby · Groton · Hartford · Manchester · Meriden · Middletown · Milford · New Britain · New Haven · New London · Norwalk · Norwich · Shelton · Stamford · Torrington · Waterbury · West Haven | ||||
| . | |||||
| Geography | Government | History | |||
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