Wall Street Between Orange Street and Church Street-South Side

Sanborn 1886 Map:

1879 Bird's Eye View:

The Church of the Redeemer is discussed on Orange Street. The house facing Church Street is discussed there.

36 Wall Street

Status: Demolished, 1905

Built for: ?, probably 1800-1820
No photographic evidence survives for this house (though there are images of its successor, a brick Colonial Revival structure built in 1905). It likely was very similar to the house next door at 40 Wall Street. 

40 Wall Street

Status: Demolished, 1940

Built for: Edward Sargent, 1800-1820
This Federal Style, three bay house is of the typical New Haven type with a gable semi-circle window and a simple Tuscan porch. The site is currently a parking lot.

44 Wall Street

Status: Demolished, 1938

Built for: Simeon Baldwin, 1861
This was a rather grand three bay, symmetrical Second Empire house. It's associated with Simeon Baldwin, a governor of Connecticut. The brick house had a pretty standard façade, but it was enlivened by a bracketed porch with a box window above and shallow mansard roofs. Above the bracketed cornice, were a series of rather unique arched dormer window with curving sides and flat moldings on top. The house was torn down for the Southern New England Telephone Company building which currently occupies the site.

Block Survival Rate: 1/5: 20%

Wall Street Between State Street and Orange Street-South Side

Sanborn 1886 Map:

1879 Bird's Eye View:

This block had few buildings with an address on it. The Orange Street corner had the Bowditch house, while the State Street corner had a small triangular building (which survives). The New Haven Folding Chair Company had one façade facing this street. There was also a small workshop, about which I could find no information.

8-10 Wall Street

Status: Demolished, ?

Built for: ?, ?
No photographic evidence survives for these two row houses. Clearly they did not have mansard roofs and were likely three bays. Potentially, they were Greek Revival or Italianate. The Sanborn map seems to indicate a wooden porch stretching across both facades. Without any further evidence, though, I would not venture a reconstruction. 

Block Survival Rate: 2/5: 40%

Orange Street Between Elm Street and Wall Street-West Side

Sanborn 1886 Map:

1879 Bird's Eye View:

At the southern corner of this block stood the Eli Whitney Jr. house.

170 Orange Street

Status: Demolished, 1940s
Built For: Church of the Messiah, Universalist, 1870s
The Church of the Messiah was built in the late 1870s for a Unitarian universalist congregation in an early Queen Anne style. The beautiful brickwork distinguished this façade, with bands of pressed bricks in a dizzying array of patterns, giving it a crazy-quilt appearance. This elaborate brickwork can be seen all over the city on Queen Anne houses constructed in the 1880s. The banding surrounded a large rose window and, oddly, the designer emphasized a large chimney on the left of the main gable, something which other designers typically avoided. The connected parish house, which can be seen here, was a brick Queen Anne with pointed gables with barge boards and a timbered gable in a medieval style. The church was demolished in the 1940s for parking, and the site is still a parking lot. The neighboring Queen Anne house abutted the parish house and was constructed after 1879.

174 Orange Street

Status: Extant, altered
Built For: Kensington Flat, 1875

Elizabeth Mills Brown calls this New Haven's first apartment building. It was constructed in a Queen Anne style in brick and brownstone like its neighboring church. The façade is somewhat lopsided, with an angled bay on the right and a break in the center bay with a tall arched window. The fifth floor was a later addition, and the cornice is later, with the original design terminating in a brick arcade. The entrance is particularly nice, complete with a later iron cresting.

Corner of Orange Street and Wall Street

Status: Extant, altered
Built For: Church of the Redeemer, 1870
One of New Haven's grandest Gothic churches, the Church of the Redeemer (now Trinity Lutheran Church) is exceptionally well preserved and an exuberant example of the polychromatic Gothic of the 1870s. Designed by David R. Brown, the church is divided on Orange Street into four bays, each with a different elevation and volume, preventing any monotony on the façade; the Wall Street façade has a similar variety of volumes with towers and dramatic elevation changes. No section of the building is exactly alike, with dozens of different window configurations and designs. The polychromatic façade features brick, pinkish brownstone, and light limestone with Eastlake details and elaborate carving; a particularly cool feature is the gilded date mark on the gable and the finely cut names on the entrance porch. The tower originally had four spires that built to the central spire, but these decayed and were removed, giving it an odd silhouette that is far harsher than intended. Images of the interior and its rich finishes can be seen here and here. A larger gallery of images can be seen here.

Block Survival Rate: 2/3: 66%