Historic Buildings of Connecticut

Exploring the Nutmeg State One Building at a Time

New Haven

The Pardee-Morris House (1680)

The original Thomas Morris House was built around 1680, off what is now Lighthouse Road in the Morris Cove section of New Haven. It is a rare example of a stone ender house in Connecticut. The ell was added around 1767. On July 5, 1779, during the Revolutionary War, the British raided New Haven and burned the house. The surviving stone and timbers were used by Capt. Amos Morris to rebuild the home the following year. In 1915, William Pardee bought and restored the house, bequeathing it to the New Haven Colony Historical Society in 1918. Known as the Pardee-Morris House, it was open to the public as a house museum for many years, but was forced to close in 2000 due to a lack of funds. Now falling into disrepair, the house, which William Hosley describes as, “the most historic property of the Colonial era in New Haven,” faces an uncertain future.

Harkness Memorial Tower (1917)

The most recognizable structure at Yale University is the Harkness Memorial Tower. Designed by James Gamble Rogers, with ornamentation by the sculptor, Lee Lawrie, the Gothic-style tower has long stood as a symbol for Yale. It was constructed between 1917 and 1921 and was donated by Anna M. Harkness in honor of her deceased son, Charles William Harkness, Yale class of 1883. Rodgers, who designed many buildings at Yale in the Collegiate Gothic style, was also the architect for the Harkness family. He said the design for the Tower was inspired by the 15th-century tower of “Boston Stump,” the parish church of Saint Botolph in Boston, England. Apparently, the often told story that Harkness Tower was once the tallest freestanding stone structure in the world is a myth. Inside, the Tower contains the Yale Memorial Carillon, which was originally installed in 1922 and expanded in 1964. It is played by Yale University Guild of Carillonneurs.

Hendrie Hall (1894)

Hendrie Hall, named in honor of John William Hendrie, was originally built in two sections to house Yale’s Law School. The earlier rear section was built in 1894 and the remainder in 1900. Designed by the architects Cady, Berg & See of New York in the Renaissance Revival style, with a facade resembling a Venetian palazzo, Hendrie Hall was intended to be the first of several grand Yale buildings along Elm Street. In the end, these were never built and the street’s much older wooden houses have survived. Since the Law School moved in 1931, the building has served various purposes and currently houses student music groups and offices.

Also, check out today’s entry at Historic Buildings of Massachusetts: Boston’s Old City Hall of 1865!

The Exchange Building (1832)

The Exchange Building, on Church Street across from New Haven Green, was built in 1832 to serve as a commercial structure with a simple repeated Greek Revival window pattern. The builder, Atwater Treat, may have followed a design of Ithiel Town. The Exchange, New Haven’s first building constructed specifically as a commercial one, featured an open ground floor for shops. The building had a number of later changes, including the removal of the original cupola, which was eventually replaced by a billboard. In 1990, the building was restored, with a rebuilt cupola and and stone columned facade on the ground floor.

Henry F. English House (1892)

The last private home to be built on Hillhouse Avenue in New Haven was the Henry F. English House. The Classical Revival-style mansion was designed by Bruce Price (architect of Quebec’s Château Frontenac and father of Emily Post) for the lawyer, Henry Fowler English, son of the former governor of Connecticut, James Edward English. It is now Yale’s Office of Undergraduate Admissions.

Reverend Stephen Jewett House (1833)

The Reverend Stephen Jewett House, on Wooster Place in New Haven, was originally built in 1833 for the merchant Theron Towner, who then sold it to Rev. Jewett, an Episcopal minister. The house was designed and constructed by the builder James English, who later became a successful manufacturer and politician. After the Civil War, when the Second Empire style became fashionable, the house was updated with a Mansard roof and a new porch.

Caroline Nicoll House (1828)

Abraham Bishop was a New Haven property owner and Jeffersonian political radical who owned the block on Elm Street where the John Cook and Timothy Bishop houses were built in the early nineteenth century. Somewhere between 1828 and 1838, he had a house built for his daughter, Caroline Nicoll, on Elm Street, next to the Cook house and across from the Bishop House.

Today’s post concludes New Haven Month, but also marks an important anniversary: Historic Buildings of Connecticut began one year ago today with the Joseph Webb House in Wethersfield! A post has since appeared for each day, a feat I had not entirely planned on when I began this project! That makes 365 buildings preceding today’s (taking into account an extra one for a leap year, but subtracting the humorous April 1 post). Recently, the blog has moved to a new domain and won an award from the Hartford Preservation Alliance! Let’s see what interesting buildings appear here in the site’s second year!