ROGER WILLIAMS UNIVERSITY

Final Presentation
Jonathan Hopkins 12/4/2012

Phase 2

HP 524L Archival Research Lab Nancy Austin, PH.D. RWU SAAHP Fall 2012

Top-Down & Restrictive Versus Grassroots & Prescriptive:

The Battle for the Future of City Planning in America
Abstract The process by which American cities have developed since the post-Civil War industrial boom until now has changed dramatically. This process is exemplified in the cases of New Haven, CT and Newport, RI both colonial settlements, like Saratoga, that boomed during New Englands great maritime era and the Gilded Age. 1 Investments in railroads and streetcars encouraged speculative development in these three cities from the 1870s to the 1920s enlarging their footprint and giving them the shape that remains today, for the most part. 2 Heavy industry was located for easiest access to rail and ports, irrespective of residences, which often times ended up being intermingled with factories. 3 Also during this era, municipal government was relatively weak and ineffective in terms of governing ability. 4 As a result, any coordinated land use that developed was due to the following of social norms 5

New Haven was founded, like many New England plantations, both as a Puritan community and a mercantile enterprise. But under the leadership of two forceful men, Theophilus Eaton and the Reverend John Davenport, it carried both ideas to their extreme development: in New Haven Puritanism can be seen at its most pure, and a merchant adventure at its most adventurous. Founded as the capital of an independent colony, the town began with dreams of empire and of a fortune to be made in the beaver-skin trade [] As New England entered its great maritime era, New Haven shared in the increase in trade. The port came back to life, and by the time of the Revolution signs of prosperity were beginning to appear, heralding the boom that was to follow. The Federal period is the beginning of the citys golden age, a rising curve that would last until the Civil War. Chartered as a city in 1784, New Haven was made joint capital with Hartford of the State of Connecticut, and with an explosion of energy it rushed into the new century. With the best port in western New England, it was soon a major port. At the same time, tanning and shoemaking flourished, and small shops making carriages and hardware began to appear. This period is the formative moment in New Havens physical history, a time of enormous florescence and urban th creation which is the base on which the 19 -century city developed. Elizabeth Mills Brown. New Haven: A Guide to Architecture and Urban Design (Yale University Press, 1976) p. 1 Thanks to an ideal climate and a magnificent, accessible harbor, the young village grew into affluent maturity. Newport eventually became the metropolis of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations C.P.B. Jefferys. Newport: A Concise History (Newport Historical Society, 2008) p. 15 2 To a town heavily involved in guns, the years from 1898 to 1918 were fruitful, and New Haven once again began to boom, the turn of the century becoming its third great period of expansion. A sizable proportion, in fact, of todays city was built at that time, in the short space of about fifteen years between 1895 and 1910. Brown. New Haven p. 3 3 Significant failures of land use coordination occurred in multiple working-class areas: Schools and churches mixed with industry, small lot sizes and untidy street grids negatively impacted sideyards, and many residents were directly exposed to the fifth and disease of unregulated junkyards. Stephen Clowney. A Revised Look at Land Use Coordination in Pre-Zoning New Haven The Yale Law Journal Vol. 115, No. 1 (Oct., 2005) p. 172 4 In this era, City Hall was marginal to economic life [] it maintained infrastructure and improved it modestly. Douglas W. Rae. City: Urbanism and Its End (Yale University Press, 2003) p. 203 5 Prior scholarship has invoked social norms as the reason for the remarkable degree of land use coordination in the affluent Willow-Canner section of New Havens East Rock neighborhood, which was developed in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The neighborhoods development preceded the birth of zoning and extensive public land use regulation, and restrictive covenants were never used in that neighborhood. Yet the

and public art was often the result of private donation from wealthy individuals or special interest groups. 6 Zoning began to spread throughout the country in the 1920s as a way to identify industrial, commercial and residential areas of cities and towns so as to provide a more predicable investment market and protect the residential character of neighborhoods. 7 At the same time that residences were being protected from industrial development, labor unions became a strong force for workers rights inside those factories. Zoning gave municipalities some leverage over individual property rights 8 setting the stage for a dramatic growth in government power that enabled cities like New Haven and Newport to funnel federal tax dollars into large scale urban redevelopment projects in the post-World War 2 period. 9 This dynamic was eventually reformed by the culture of the 1960s and 70s, which was able to turn disparate opposition into coordinated protests. 10

neighborhood displays striking uniformity in lot size, building coverage, height, and land use. One author attributes this paradoxical phenomenon to factors outside of the legal regime, including social custom. Valerie Jaffee. Private Law or Social Norms? The Use of Restrictive Covenants in Beaver Hills The Yale Law Journal Vol. 116, No. 6 (Apr., 2007) p. 1327 6 Monitor Square is a handsome, fences-in bit of green at the point where Derby Avenue leaves Chapel Street, the triangle between these two streets and Winthrop Avenue. It is adorned by, and in fact was erected to shelter, the distinguished Bushnell-Ericsson memorial, erected to commemorate the service of Cornelius S. Bushnell, a son of Madison and New Haven, in making financially possible the building of the historic Monitor. Everett Gleason Hill. A Modern History of New Haven and Eastern New Haven County (The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company; 1918) p. 98 7 Zoning [] initially arose out of reaction against the negative environmental and health effects of industrial production in the major cities, and also as a device for promoting the interests of central business districts. Rae. City p. 261 New Haven adopted its first zoning ordinance in 1926. Mark Fenster. A Remedy on Paper: The Role of Law in the Failure of City Planning in New Haven, 1907-1913 The Yale Law Journal Vol. 107, No. 4 (Jan., 1998) p. 1095 8 Zoning is the most pervasive and familiar form of local government control over land use. In a zoned legal regime, land is divided into geographical districts or zones pursuant to local ordinance; municipal regulations then specify the types of land use permitted within each zone [] These regulations, together with municipal regulations governing location of streets and other features of the urban infrastructure, provide public control over most salient aspects of development. Andrew J. Cappel. A Walk along Willow: Patterns of Land Use Coordination in Pre-Zoning New Haven (1870-1926) The Yale Law Journal Vol. 101, No. 3 (Dec., 1991) pp. 617-618 9 It will be remembered that the industrial economy of New Haven had for many decades generated a river of cash flowing into town [] This great river spread economic energy across ten thousand households and more, creating diverse demand for whatever might be desired. The flood was, by Dick Lees time, beginning to dry up, and the federal governments Urban Renewal Administration would for a time partially replace it without ever beginning to replace its function in the citys economy. A great aorta, pumping economic energy into the lee-Logue Kremlin, ran north along the coast from Washington, as if following the course of soon-to-be-built Interstate 95. It carried not hemoglobin but dollar. The IRS collected cash from tax payers across America, Congress placed it at the disposal of the Housing and Home Finance Agency (HHFA), and later the Urban Renewal Administration, and the Redevelopment Agency of New Haven competed with remarkable success for the resulting swag. Rae. City p. 322 10 Mandi Isaacs Jackson. Model City Blues: Urban Space and Organized Resistance in New Haven (Temple University Press, 2008)

The trend in recent years has been to continue to plan from a top-down approach with the addition of public meetings and information sessions that are designed to inform the public about ongoing projects and allow them to make, at best, cosmetic changes to a given project. 11 Zoning - little changed since the 1960s has, in many instances, become plagued by arbitrary rulings and corrupt decision-making. 12 While New Haven and Newport are case studies in these practices, 13 hope remains for the future of city planning in America. 14 Public design charrettes at the beginning of a process to discover what special projects a city should develop followed by a design competition based on public input and overseen by a hybrid elected and appointed panel would improve the public process by structurally and fundamentally developing projects from the ground up, then allowing design professionals who have won the competition to apply their expertise. 15 For more typical development, a more prescriptive zoning tool is required to replace the restrictive Euclidean-based zoning and use-

[] it is instructive to review the public process for Route 34/Downtown Crossing in New Haven. The City of New Haven commenced public workshops in 2009. After 55 meetings with constituency groups and the general public in two years, where community groups have consistently beat the drum for safe streets, improved transportation options, reduced vehicular traffic, clean air, sustainable land use, mixed uses, public spaces and a human scale project neither the lead developer or the City of New Haven have moved from the original carcentric conception of the project. New Haven Urban Design League. Downtown Crossing: A Summary of Concerns Regarding Project Planning and Performance, and Compliance with TIGER II Criteria (February 2012) p. 4 12 [The New Haven Board of Zoning Appeals] gave Nicas the OK to expand the first-floor grocery area from 2,446 to 4,366 square feet where 1,500 square feet are permitted; to build out to 40 percent lot coverage where 30 percent is permitted; to permit 24 outdoor seats where 15 are permitted to add a non-conforming addition to the building, which is in a residential area; and continue to run a convenience store in a residential area with 18 parking spots and outdoor seating. An initial report prepared by Tom Talbot, deputy director of the City Plan Department, recommended that the proposal be denied. In the lawsuit, neighbors argue that advice should have been followed. They argue that Nicas showed no legal hardship to justify expansion, as required by law. Melissa Bailey. Appeal Stalls Nicas Expansion New Haven Independent (August 18, 2011) 13 Mayor John DeStefano, running for a 10th term, has pushed back hard against the community. When pressed about the lack of a public hearing, even after the Parks Commission stipulated community approval in a 4-1-1 vote, DeStefano's office claimed that he had consulted selectively with a select group of Wooster Square residents because he wanted the installation to be a "surprise" for Luisa DeLauro. Claire Bond Potter. DeLauro Monument Out of Place Hartford Courant (October 13, 2011) 14 After an evening of community value setting (identifying what is most important to us) on Friday night, and a day of workshops (small groups discussing projects, design, and implementation) on Saturday, the Washington Sq. Roots Charrette Committee, along with the professional facilitator, will put together a report to the community, and City Council. This report will be our recommendation to the city and community for future development in Washington Square. Washington Square Community Charrette (Washington Square Roots Initiative) http://rwu.edu/sites/default/files/downloads/advancement/wsccharrette_-_oct_19__20_-_info__registration.pdf accessed 12/2/12 15 When regulators are appointed, regulatory policy becomes bundled with other policy issues the appointing politicians are responsible for. Because voters have only one vote to cast and regulatory issues are not salient for most voters, there are electoral incentives to respond to stakeholder interests. If regulators are elected, their stance on regulation is the only salient issue so that the electoral incentive is to run a pro-consumer candidate. Using panel data on regulatory outcomes from U.S. states, we find new evidence in favor of the idea that elected states are more pro-consumer in their regulatory policies. Timothy Besley and Stephen Coate. Elected Versus Appointed Regulators: Theory and Evidence Journal of the European Economic Association Vol. 1, No. 5 (Sep., 2003) p. 1176

11

based codes that dominate municipal zoning ordinances, which is best found today in the transectbased zoning and form-based codes of the planning reform movement. Planning that is responsive to rigid regulations administered in a top-down fashion is less equipped to agilely respond to economic and community needs in the way that a grassroots, incremental process does. 16 Saratoga would benefit from adopting the planning model of grassroots project generation, hybrid elected and appointed design competition panelists and prescriptive zoning to replace the top-down, ineffective public engagement and restrictive zoning practices that dominate city planning today.

16

[] New Havens Nine Squares arguably the first comprehensive town plan in the American colonies, and hence one of Americas famous urban spaces ultimately failed its residents and stunted New Haven growth. The original town plan left New Havens infrastructure inflexible in a time of changing economic and social circumstances during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the most important of which was the rise of New Haven as a commercial center as opposed to an agrarian, religious community. Within the Nine Squares, the supply of streets did not reflect or keep up with the demand for them, both in terms of their number and in terms of their location. I argue that the history of New Haven and other early colonial town plans demonstrates that piecemeal planning planning done incrementally better served new wilderness towns and their residents, by harnessing the expressed preferences of settlers as an informational resource and facilitating streets that best nurtured otherwise unpredictable colony needs. The failure of the original plan was writ large during a second planning event: the re-subdivision of the Nine Square by new streets, which was begun in 1784. The sub division took nearly six years to complete, and cost time, land, and money, all to correct flaws of the original town plan. Maureen E. Boyle."The Failure of Americas First City Plan: Why New Haven, the Colonies First Planned City, Would Have Been Better Left Unplanned" (2010).Student Prize Papers. Paper 57. http://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/ylsspps_papers/57 accessed 12/2/12

Works Cited

Besley, Timothy and Stephen Coate. Elected Versus Appointed Regulators: Theory and Evidence Journal of the European Economic Association Vol. 1, No. 5 (Sep., 2003) pp. 1176-1206 Boyle, Maureen E., "The Failure of Americas First City Plan: Why New Haven, the Colonies First Planned City, Would Have Been Better Left Unplanned" (2010). Student Prize Papers. Paper 57. http://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/ylsspps_papers/57 accessed 12/2/12 Brown, Elizabeth Mills. New Haven: A Guide to Architecture and Urban Design (Yale University Press, 1976) Cappel, Andrew J. A Walk along Willow: Patterns of Land Use Coordination in Pre-Zoning New Haven (1870-1926) The Yale Law Journal Vol. 101, No. 3 (Dec., 1991) pp. 617-642 Clowney, Stephen. A Revised Look at Land Use Coordination in Pre-Zoning New Haven The Yale Law Journal Vol. 115, No. 1 (Oct., 2005) pp. 116-184 Fenster, Mark. A Remedy on Paper: The Role of Law in the Failure of City Planning in New Haven, 1907-1913 The Yale Law Journal Vol. 107, No. 4 (Jan., 1998) pp. 1093-1123 Hartford Courant (Hartford, CT) Hill, Everett Gleason. A Modern History of New Haven and Eastern New Haven County (The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company; 1918) Jaffee, Valerie. Private Law or Social Norms? The Use of Restrictive Covenants in Beaver Hills The Yale Law Journal Vol. 116, No. 6 (Apr., 2007) pp. 1302-1342 Jefferys, C.P.B. Newport: A Concise History (Newport Historical Society, 2008) Jackson, Mandi Isaacs. Model City Blues: Urban Space and Organized Resistance in New Haven (Temple University Press, 2008) New Haven Independent (New Haven, CT) New Haven Urban Design League. Downtown Crossing: A Summary of Concerns Regarding Project Planning and Performance, and Compliance with TIGER II Criteria (February 2012) Rae, Douglas W. City: Urbanism and Its End (Yale University Press, 2003) Washington Square Community Charrette (Washington Square Roots Initiative) http://rwu.edu/sites/default/files/downloads/advancement/wsccharrette_-_oct_19__20_-_info__registration.pdf accessed 12/2/12

Assignment #2: Revitalizing an Archive

Gilbert in New Haven:

A Mutually Beneficial Experience

Final Presentation Jonathan Hopkins HP 524L Archival Research Lab Nancy Austin, PH.D. RWU SAAHP Fall 2012 Due: 12/4/12

1. Gilberts Legacy

Minnesota State Capitol

Location:

Saint Paul, Minnesota 1895-1905

Design & Construction: Style:

Beaux Arts

Digital Photograph Cass Gilbert Society (Carol M. Highsmith, 2007)

U.S. Custom House

Location:

New York City, New York 1899-1907

Design & Construction: Style:

Beaux Arts

Digital Photograph Cass Gilbert Society (Carol M. Highsmith, 2007)

1. Gilberts Legacy

Woolworth Building

Location:

New York City, New York 1910-1913

Design & Construction: Style:

Commercial Gothic Skyscraper

Photograph Cass Gilbert Society (Marjorie Pearson)

1. Gilberts Legacy

Cass Gilbert Rendered Drawings Inventing the Skyline: The Architecture of Cass Gilbert (Columbia University Press, 2000)

1. Gilberts Legacy

2. Gilbert in New Haven

Digital Photograph New Haven Independent (Thomas MacMillan, 2010)

Cass Gilbert Rendered Drawing Report of the New Haven Civic Improvement Commission (New Haven Civic Improvement Committee, 1910) pp. 59-60

Cass Gilbert Rendered Drawing Inventing the Skyline: The Architecture of Cass Gilbert (Columbia University Press, 2000)

2. Gilbert in New Haven

Cass Gilbert Rendered Drawing Inventing the Skyline: The Architecture of Cass Gilbert (Columbia University Press, 2000)

New Haven Free Public Library

Location:

New Haven, CT 1907-1911

Design & Construction: Style:

Beaux Arts-Georgian/Federal Institutional Building

Digital Photograph Cass Gilbert Society (Nick Marucci, 2007)

2. Gilbert in New Haven

New Haven Green, 1908 Postcard

New Haven Green, 1919 Souvenir Picture

New Haven Green, 1910 Postcard

Elm Street, New Haven Green Flickr.com (Digital Photograph)

Free Public Library, post-1911 Cass Gilbert Society (postcard)

2. Gilbert in New Haven

New Haven Free Public Library Flikr.com (Digital Photograph)

New Haven Green Library of Congress (Photograph)

2. Gilbert in New Haven

Cass Gilbert Rendered Drawings Report

New Haven Railroad Station

Location:

New Haven, CT 1907-1911

Design: Style:

Beaux Arts-Georgian/Federal Railroad Station

Cass Gilbert Sketches Inventing the Skyline

2. Gilbert in New Haven

New Haven Railroad Station

Location:

New Haven, CT 1911-1918

Design & Construction: Style:

2nd Renaissance Revival Colonialized Beaux-Arts Railroad Station

New Haven Railroad Station Ceiling Flickr.com (Digital Photograph)

Kamaria Greenfield. Digital Photograph Yale Daily News

New Haven Railroad Station Ceiling takeninbyamerica.com

2. Gilbert in New Haven

Thus did Cass Gilbert congradulate New Haveners on having inherited something as beautiful as the original Green, and warn about the old city having been encroached upon in recent years by so called modern improvements and buildings [...] erected regardless of the environment and without harmony of style.1 Gilbert thought New Haven was one of the most beautiful cities in the world, and he was especially gratified to design a building (the New Haven Public Library) that faced the green, where he could be sure of how it would be perceived across the open space.2 With an interest in Colonial architecture and history3 and in preferring the formal languages of the past4, Gilbert sought to utilize the historic core of the community for maximum effect while also respecting the traditions of past projects and ideas5. Gilbert did so by designing his buildings for the New Haven Green to be Georgian in style and designed to be in harmony with the United Church, as well as other buildings in the historic core of the city.6 For instance, his design of the New Haven Public Library sought to make the building distinctive and monumental and at the same time to preserve the proportions and spirit of the colonial architecture of New Haven.7 Gilberts interest in New Havens character, in particular, and colonial architecture, in general, is again displayed in his later design for the New Haven Railroad Station, which shows Gilberts effort to create a specifically New Haven idiom, mixing Colonial motifs with the new grandeur of the Beaux-Arts movement.8 ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
1 Douglas W. Rae. Fabric of Enterprise City: Urbanism and Its End (Yale University Press, 2003) pp. 80-81 2 Barbara S. Christen. The Architect as Planner: Cass Gilberts Responses to Historic Open Space Inventing the Skyline: The Architecture of Cass Gilbert (Columbia University Press, 2000) p. 206 3 Christen. Inventing the Skyline p. 186 4 Robert A.M. Stern. Introduction Cass Gilbert, Life and Work: Architecture of the Public Domain (W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.; 2001) p. 183 5 Christen. Inventing the Skyline p. 183 6 Christen. Inventing the Skyline p. 206 7 Ibid. 8 Elizabeth Mills Brown. The Milford Turnpike and Boston Post Road: Columbus Avenue, Water Street, Forbes Avenue New Haven: A Guide to Architecture and Urban Design (Yale University Press, 1976) p. 95

2. Gilbert in New Haven

3. George Dudley Seymour

Photograph of George Dudley Seymour, c. 1890 Yale University Manuscripts & Archives: Digital Images Database

George Dudley Seymour

Born:

Bristol, CT, October 6, 1859 Descendent of Settlers of Hartford, CT Hartford High School Graduate, Class of 1878 LL. B. degree from Columbian (George Washington) University, 1880 Master of Law degree, 1881 Honorary Master of Arts degree from Yale University, 1913

Heritage: Education:

Nathan Hale Homestead CTLandmarks.org

Lifes Work:

Member of the firm of Seymour & Earle in New Haven, 1883 Founder and Member of the New Haven Civic Improvement Committee, 1907 Secretary of the New Haven City Plan Commission Corresponding member of the AIA Member of the State Commission on Sculpture in Connecticut Director of the American Federation of Arts Director of the Donald Grant Mitchell Memorial Library in Westville, New Haven, CT Trustee of the Henry Whitfield House museum in Guilford, CT Collecting Colonial (Georgian) and Federal Era Furnishings and Buildings Colonial and Federal Architecture Owner of Nathan Hale House, 1914 George Dudley Seymour. New Haven, a book recording the varied activities of the author in his efforts over many years to promote the welfare of the city of his adoption since 1883, together with some researches into its storied past and many illustrations (The Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor Company; 1942)
George Dudley Seymours Furniture Collection in the Connecticut Historical Society (Connecticut Historical Society; 1958) George Dudley Seymour. New Haven (The Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor Company; 1942) Everett Gleason Hill. A Modern History of New Haven and Eastern New Haven County (The S. J. Clarke publishing company; 1918)

Interests:

Writing:

3. George Dudley Seymour

Cass Gilbert
Born:

Zainesville, Ohio, November 24, 1859 Abraham M. Radcliffe office, St. Paul, Minnesota, 1877 McKim, Mead & White MIT, 1878 Small Midwestern firm to Nationally-renowned New York-based Master Architect Minnesota State Capital (St. Paul, 1895) Brazer Building (Boston, 1896) New Haven City Plan (New Haven, 1907) Woolworth Building (New York, 1910) Met at a Conference in 1906 Letter Correspondence (1906-1918) Commissioned by Seymour in 1907 Interest in Colonial and Federal design Proponents of the City Beautiful Movement Progressive Republicans

Training:

Education: Career:

Important Commissions:

Connection to Seymour:

Cannonball House, Ridgefield, CT duchessfare.com

Barbara S. Christen. Cass Gilbert, Life and Work: Architect of the Public Domain (W. W. Norton & Company; 2011) Margaret Heilbrun, ed. Inventing the Skyline: The Architecture of Cass Gilbert (Columbia University Press; 2004) Sharon Irish. Cass Gilbert, Architect: Modern Traditionalist (The Monacelli Press, 1999) Vincent Scully, et al. Yale in New Haven: Architecture and Urbanism (Yale University Press, 2004)

Rear Garden House of Cannonball House Cass Gilbert Society

3. George Dudley Seymour

George Dudley Seymour. An Open Letter New Haven Register (June 2, 1907)

3. George Dudley Seymour

3. Conversation

Waterbury City Hall

Location:

Waterbury, CT 1914-1915

Design & Construction: Style:

Beaux Arts-Georgian/Federal Government Building

Digital Photograph Cass Gilbert Society (Jerry Dougherty, 2005)

U.S. Federal Courthouse

Location:

New York City, New York 1929-1936

Design & Construction: Style:

Classical Commercial and Government Skyscraper

Photograph Cass Gilbert Society (Marjorie Pearson)

4. Conversation

Contemporary View of Bostons Old State House (Tony Ang)

Brazer Building

Location:

Boston, Massachuesettes 1896-1899

Design & Construction: Style: Cass Gilbert Rendered Drawing Cass Gilbert Society (Burnham Library Architecture Club Catalog, 1897)

Commercial Office Highrise

4. Conversation

Period view of Bostons Old State House 1st-art-gallery.com (Historic Painting, 1801)

Period view of New Havens Union Trust Building, c. 1930 Tichnor Brothers Collection (Historic Postcard)

Contemporary View of Union Trust Building & United Church wikipedia.org (Digital Photograph)

4. Conversation

Resources:
Cass Gilbert Collection New-York Historical Society Museum & Library George Dudley Seymour Papers Yale Manuscripts & Archives at Sterling Memorial Library City Plan Department City of New Haven at the New Haven City Hall New Haven Register (New Haven, CT) Gilbert, Cass and Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. Report of the New Haven Civic Improvement Commission (New Haven Civic Improvement Committee; December, 1910) Seymour, George Dudley. New Haven, a book recording the varied activities of the author in his efforts over many years to promote the welfare of the city of his adoption since 1883, together with some researches into its storied past and many illustrations (The Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor Company; 1942) Christen, Barbara S. and Steven Flanders, eds. Cass Gilbert, Life and Work: Architecture of the Public Domain (W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.; 2001) Heilbrun, Margaret, ed. Inventing the Skyline: The Architecture of Cass Gilbert (Columbia University Press, 2000) Hill, Everett Gleason. A Modern History of New Haven and Eastern New Haven County (The S. J. Clarke publishing company; 1918) Irish, Sharon. Cass Gilbert, Architect: Modern Traditionalist (The Monacelli Press, Inc.; 1999) Rae, Douglas W. City: Urbanism and Its End (Yale University Press, 2003) Scully, Vincent and Catherine Lynn, Erik Vogt and Paul Goldberger, eds. Yale in New Haven: Architecture & Urbanism Design (Yale University Press, 2004) 1st-Art-Gallery website http://www.1st-art-gallery.com/ (assessed 11/30/12) Cass Gilbert Society website http://www.cassgilbertsociety.org/ (accessed 11/30/12) Library of Congress website http://www.loc.gov/index.html (accessed 11/30/12) Tichnor Brothers Collection website http://flickr.com/ (accessed 11/30/12)

Assignment #3: Curating a Narrative through a Typological and Sequential Structure

The Row House Predicament:

How Following a Typology through Time Exemplifies Urban Redevelopment in New Haven

Final Presentation Jonathan Hopkins HP 524L Archival Research Lab Nancy Austin, PH.D. RWU SAAHP Fall 2012 Due: 12/4/12

Archives:

1) Connecticut State Library Digital Collection 2) Historical New Haven Digital Collection 3) Library of Congress Digital Collection 4) Magrisso Forte Collection 5) New Haven Museum and Historical Society

Howard Avenue Row Houses Built: c.1877 Location: Upper Hill, Oak Street Neighborhood Demolished: c. 1965

Court Street Row Houses Built: 1869-70 Location: Wooster Square, Newtownship Neighborhood Rehabilitated: 1961

1956

Pre-1961

Howard Avenue Row Houses By the early 19th Century, a pocket of poverty had settled to the southwest of the original town across the West Creek in an area known as Sodom Hill. Early on the West Creek became a site for tanning, shoemaking, and with the construction of the Farmington Canal, the Hill also became home to newly arrived Irish immigrants. Built soon after the West Creek was filled in the 1870s as a series of low-price row developments, the Howard Avenue row houses were part of the burgeoning slum of Oak Street.1 Prior to World War 1, these row houses marked a pivot point between the working class areas of Oak Street to the southeast and northwest, and the Wooster Square of the West Village that was Dwight Place to the northeast.2

Court Street Row Houses

c.1870 During New Havens maritime rise in the second half of the 18th Century, development moved eastward along the water from the original settlement. By the 1830s, development had extended northward from the water and a new satellite village was emerging. The Newtownship contained its own industries, social pyramid, institutions and, with Wooster Square at its center, a posh rival to the Green of the old town center. Also built as a low-price row development, the Court Street row houses mark a turning point in the social history of the [Wooster Square] neighborhood.1 In the late 19th Century, Wooster Square was increasingly becoming home to immigrant laborers, who were often recruited from Italy to work in nearby factories. ____________________________________
Brown. New Haven p. 189

1962 ___________________________________
1 Brown. New Haven p. 76 2 Ibid.

1879 Birds Eye Aerial Map of New Haven

Howard Avenue

Court Street

1886 Sanborn Insurance Map of New Haven

Survey of Precentage of Foreign Born by Ward, 1930

Map of Negro New Haven, 1930

Source: Historical New Haven Digital Collection

HOLCs 1937 rejected neighborhoods (grade C and D) projected over 1913 upscale neighborhoods.

Source: Home Owners Loan Corporation Mortgage Security Survey, 1937. Reprinted in: Rae. City p. 270

The Home Owners Loan Corporation was created under the Home Owners Loan Act of 1933 as part of President Franklin Roosevelts New Deal. The government established a presence in each state, set up 208 branch offices, and had appraisers available to work in each of the nations 3,000-plus counties [...] Something like twenty thousand staff members were hired to address this [...] task [...] some of these were doubtless ill-equipped for the work: Political pressure was at times effective in getting appointments for men with slight competence and insufficient objectivity.1 The Oak Street neighborhood [...] won a D rating. Here was a neighborhood consisting mostly of frame tenements and multifamily homes in poor repair, inhabited in the main (80 percent) by mixed nationality foreign stock, with a 20 percent infiltration of blacks. Incomes averaged $1,200, according to the report, and the area is given over to the laboring classes and is rapidly filling up with Negros [sic.]. Vandalism may be expected.2 HOLCs area D-5 [...] contains all of Wooster Square (including the fine homes surrounding the square itself) [...] Here was the heartland of Sargent Hardwares Italian workforce, and here were the homes of roughly thirty thousand New Haveners, easily the densest part of the city and one of the densest parts of Connecticut. Here too, true to stereotype were hundreds of foreign-stock marriages producing large numbers of children. [...] According to the HOLC panel, this was an area given over to the working classes. Dwellings include everything from singles to multi-family. There is a scattering of manufacturing plants. Homes are built very closely together and a large portion of the area is highly congested. Pride of ownership is entirely lacking. Absense of market plus vandalism has resulted in some demolition. Here again we have the government issuing a decisive signal to banks and their loan offices: this is beyond the range of acceptable risk.3 In HOLCs evaluation of residential security, the United States of America is advising lenders against investing in traditional city neighborhoods and is advising against investing even in newer neighborhoods if they were infiltrated by the wrong people.4 94.7 percent of the people living in evaluated areas were being signaled that they lived in dubious or substandard neighborhoods, and their bankers were getting the same signal. This doubtless made it more difficult, and more expensive, to borrow money for repairs or renovations: a loan at 4 percent in an A neighborhood might cost 7 percent in a C or 9 percent in a D area, if it could be obtained at all. Often, it was downright impossible to obtain money at any price for homes in D-level neighborhoods. As a result - the distance between D and C, C and B, even B and A would grow. [...] HOLCs certification of neighborhood inferiority [...] further depressed markets in the negatively evaluated portions of the city.5 ______________________________________________________________________________________________
1 2 3 4 5 Rae. City p. 263 Rae. City p. 271 Rae. City pp. 271-272 Rae. City p. 266 Rae. City p. 274

Twelve-hour daytime traffic flows around nine-square grid, Dec. 1935 - July, 1936

Source: Arnold Guyot Dana. New Havens Problems: Whither the City? All Cities (New Haven: N.p., 1937) Reprinted in: Rae. City p. 226

Maurice Rotival Master Plan for City Plan Department of New Haven, 1943

Source: Historical New Haven Digital Collection

Aerial Survey of Connecticut, 1934

Maurice Rotival Plan for the Southwest Area, 1943

Source: Connecticut State Library Digital Collection

Source: Historical New Haven Digital Collection

Map of General Conditions of Housing, 1944

Source: Housing Authority of the City of New Haven, Connecticut, 1944 Digital Image: Historical New Haven Digital Collection

Oak Street Area, c.1945

Oak Street Area, 1950

Source: Historical New Haven Digital Collection

Development Plan City of New Haven, 1955

Oak Street Redevelopment Area

Wooster Square Renewal Plan

Source: City of New Haven Redevelopment Agency, 1955 Digital Image: Historical New Haven Digital Collection

Howard Avenue Row Houses, c.1956

Source: New Haven Museum and Historical Society

Oak Street Redevelopment Area, c.1957

Source: Historical New Haven Digital Collection

Aerial Survey of Connecticut, 1965

Source: Connecticut State Library

Court Street Row Houses, pre-1961

Source: New Haven Museum and Historical Society

Court Street Row Houses

Before Rehabilitation 1961 & After Rehabilitation 1962 In 1961 Court Street, which by then had become gloomy and dingy, became on the Redevelopmenty Agencys most dramatic rehabilitation projects1 ___________________________________________
1 Brown. New Haven p.

Source: New Haven Museum and Historical Society

Court Street, c.1905

Court Street, pre-1961

Source: Magrisso Forte Collection Court Street, c.1905

Source: Historical New Haven Digital Collection Court Street, 1962

Source: Historical New Haven Digital Collection

Source: Historical New Haven Digital Collection

Conclusions

1) 2) 3) 4) 5)

Title 1 of the Housing Act of 1949 provided the opportunity for local governments - through their Redevelopment Agencys - to apply for Federal dollars to fund slum clearance projects and urban redevelopment. In 1956, amendments to the Housing Act enabled funding for the use in rehabilitation projects as well as clearance and redevelopment. The Court Street row houses were rehabilitated in 1961 under the 1956 amendments to the Housing Act as part of the Wooster Square Renewal Plan. The Howard Avenue row houses were demolished in 1965 in order to allow Grace-New Haven Hospital (now YaleNew Haven Hospital) to expand and create the Connecticut Mental Health Center as part of the Oak Street Redevelopment Plan. According to Richard Ely professor of Management and professor of Politcal Science at Yale University, Douglas W. Rae, due to the audacity and ingenuity of [Edward J.] Logue and his staff [at the New Haven Redevelopment Agency], [Mayor Richard C.] Lee managed in one instance to count $7,827,600 of Yales spending on its elegant Earo-Saarinen-designed residential colleges (Morse and Stiles) as part of the local match for [the 1967 Dixwell] urban renewal [project].1

Not only did New Havens Redevelopment Agency defraud the Federal government when applying for funding, but the City then misallocated those funds designated for slum clearance in order to meet planning objectives.

Rae. City p. 322

Sources:

Aerial Photographs of Connecticut, 1934 and 1965 Connecticut State Library Digital Collection Birds Eye Aerial Map of New Haven, 1879 Library of Congress Digital Collection Development Plan City of New Haven, 1955 Historical New Haven Digital Collection Images Historical New Haven Digital Collection Images New Haven Museum and Historical Society (Connecticut History Online) Sanborn Insurance Map, 1886 Historical New Haven Digital Collection

Brown, Elizabeth Mills. New Haven: A Guide to Architecture and Urban Design (Yale University Press, 1976) Hommann, Mary. Wooster Square Design (New Haven Redevelopment Agency, 1965) Rae, Douglas W. City: Urbanism and Its End (Yale University Press, 2003)