Wesleyan University‘s Patricelli ’92 Theater was originally called Rich Hall and was built in 1868 as the college library. It was designed by Henry Austin and David Russell Brown. In 1928, Olin Library opened and Rich Hall was converted to become a theater, funded by a donation from the class of 1892. The theater was renovated in 2003 with a gift from Robert Patricelli (’61) in honor of Leonard J. Patricelli (’29). Wesleyan’s student-run theater, Second Stage, is based in the theater.
The first ecclesiastical society of Plainville began in 1840, when the congregation split off from the church in Farmington to become the Second Congregational Church of Farmington. Plainville was incorporated as a seperate town in 1869. The current Gothic Revival style Congregational Church of Plainville was built in 1850 and was designed by the New Haven architect Henry Austin.
Nelson Hotchkiss was a New Haven builder and manufacturer, who also became a real estate developer. He and Henry Austin were involved in the Park Row development in Trenton, New Jersey in the 1840s. Later, Hotchkiss built three Italianate-style houses, most likely designed by Austin, on Chapel Street in New Haven. One was Hotchkiss’s own home, built in 1850. That same year a house was also constructed for his partner, William Lewis. In 1854, Hotchkiss built his second home on Chapel, but only lived there for two years before moving back to his earlier residence.
William Lewis was the partner of Nelson Hotchkiss in a company which produced sashes and blinds. The partners also developed real estate along Chapel Street in New Haven, each building a house there in 1850. In 1854, Hotchkiss built a second house down the street. The Lewis House, like the two Hotchkiss houses, may be the work of New Haven architect Henry Austin, or at least inspired by his designs.
Designed by Henry Austin, the First Methodist Church, on College Street in New Haven, was built in 1849 in the late Federal style in a stylistic link with the nearby Center Church of 1814. In the ensuing years, the church was significantly altered, with many of the Federal features being removed. In 1904, after a fire, the church was repaired with a new portico and steeple, in a Federal Revival mode, designed by Charles C. Haight of New York, who also designed the Keney Memorial Clock Tower in Hartford. In 1981, First Methodist Church merged with Summerfield United Methodist Church, located in the Newhallville neighborhood of New Haven, to form the First & Summerfield United Methodist Church.
Located on Church Street, across from the Green, New Haven’s City Hall was one of America’s earliest High Victorian Gothic buildings. It was designed by Henry Austin and was completed in 1861, with the addition of a similar brownstone county court house building on the north side in 1871, designed by David R. Brown. The City Hall‘s clock tower was later removed, creating a truncated appearance, but the building was restored in 1976 with a rebuilt clock tower. More recently, after many years of considering alternatives for a new government center, the rear and north portions of the original building were demolished and replaced with new additions, while the front portion was maintained.
Originally constructed on Yale’s Old Campus in 1842-46 to serve as a library, Dwight Hall and Chapel was converted in 1931 to contain the Dwight Memorial Chapel, honoring Timothy Dwight. An early example of the Gothic Revival style, it was Yale’s first Gothic building and is currently Yale’s second oldest surviving building. It was designed by Henry Austin and in 1931, after the library had moved to a new building, its interior was remodeled by Charles Z. Klauder. The building is home to the organization known as Dwight Hall (formerly the Yale University Christian Association), which will be moving to a different building in 2010.
In front of the Chapel is a statue of former Yale President Theodore Dwight Woolsey.
