Church Street Between Wall Street and Grove Street-East Side

Sanborn 1886 Map:

1879 Bird's Eye View:

This block was mostly destroyed in the 1930s and the scale has been all but obliterated by the two massive buildings that currently occupy it, the New Haven County Courthouse (1971) on Wall Street and the Century Tower (1990) on Grove.

237 Church Street

Status: Demolished, 1934

Built for: Edward Salisbury, 1829, by Ithiel Town and A. J. Davis
One of Town and Davis' grand early Italianate designs in New Haven, the Salisbury house, built for Yale's first professor of Sanskrit and Arabic, featured a very plain stuccoed façade, a three bay cube plan, simple brackets, and a two story porch with Tuscan columns and brackets. Oddly, the windows were divided in half and featured panels beneath with vertical ridges, a rather eccentric detail. The back of the house had a glassed in conservatory. Salisbury was a noted orientalist who filled his house with his collection of eastern art, and the house was built on a generous piece of property that featured some impressive plantings, including pine trees, a rarity in New Haven. This is probably one of the greatest losses on Church Street. It was torn down in 1934 for a commercial building, which was replaced in the 1970s by the current Brutalist New Haven County Courthouse. The house can be seen here just before its demolition.

247 Church Street

Status: Demolished, 1939

Built for: Joshua Chandler, 1760
This house was not original to this site; originally it stood on the site of the Tontine Hotel further down Church Street, and was moved in the 1820s to this site when the hotel was constructed. The house served as New Haven's coffee house in the 18th century, which was run by Joshua Chandler. William Chandler, his son, was a strong loyalist and fled the US after the revolution. Originally the five bay Colonial style house had a simple porch, which was altered in the 19th century with the addition of a box window. The house was thoroughly documented by HABS a few years before its demolition.

Photo: HABS

251 Church Street

Status: Demolished, 1939

Built for: Charles W. Allen (?), probably 1830s
There's not a ton of information on this house, which may have gone through several changes in its history. I believe it started off as a Federal Style brick house, given the simplicity of the facade and the porch, which is consonant with some other New Haven Federal porches. The house seems to have had its mansard added in 1864, when Charles W. Allen, a fire chief, was living here. When looking from the side, the third floor windows seem far to low to have been built with the mansard roof, leading me to think there was a gabled roof originally. Additionally, there seems to have also been a Colonial Revival makeover in the late 19th or early 20th century, given that the windows in the dormers were replaced with traceried Federal ones and the entrance was enclosed in a Federal door.  The house can be seen to the left of a photograph of the Chandler house here. In the image you can see the house with its Colonial Revival details (no image survives of it in an earlier state). The side wing I only saw in one image. It appears that it may have been added to accommodate a larger staircase, since the windows are oddly positioned (plus arched windows tend to indicate staircases).

255 Church Street

Status: Demolished, ?

Built for: ?, ?
This was some sort of wooden building. Since it has its own address, I am guessing it was a small commercial or manufacturing building associated with the house next door. There are no images of it.

257 Church Street

Status: Demolished, 1939

Built for: ?, probably 1800s-40s
A three story row house in an either Federal or Greek Revival style. It had a somewhat awkward Doric porch with triglyphs in the frieze, a rarity in New Haven. There is little information about the house, but it was clearly impressive in its earlier incarnation. After 1884, an addition with classical pilasters was added to the left hand side.

259 Church Street

Status: Demolished, 1890s?

Built for: ?, probably 1800s-1820s
This certainly looks like a typical three bay gable front Federal house on the Bird's Eye view. Since it appears in 1886, it must have been demolished subsequent to that. The family across the street seems to have bought it and torn it down for a "Swiss Garden" sometime in the late 19th or early 20th century. It likely looked very similar to 233 Church Street. 

Block Survival Rate: 0/6: 0%

Church Street Between Elm Street and Wall Street-East Side

Sanborn 1886 Map:

1879 Bird's Eye View:

This was once one of New Haven's grandest residential blocks in the downtown and was densely built up. The block was mostly demolished in the late 1920s and early 1930s for the buildings that currently survive. It is noteworthy that in this block you can see most of the styles that characterized 19th century architecture. An aerial view of the area can be seen here.

197 Church Street

Status: Demolished, 1908

Built for: ?, probably 1820s-1850s
This was a brick commercial building attached to the 1668 Richard Perry house on the corner of Elm and Church. It was probably erected, along with the open wooden sheds behind, when the house was converted to commercial uses in the mid-19th century. Like the Perry house, it was demolished in 1908 for the Security Insurance Building, which in turn was demolished in 1927 for the current building. The addition and sheds can be partially seen here.

209 Church Street

Status: Demolished, 1928

Built for: Eli B. Austin, before 1820
A rather impressive Federal/Colonial style house in its detailing (although it's unclear whether some of it is Colonial Revival gilding). This was built for Eli Austin, a grocer, before 1820. It may actually be an 18th century house, given that it is four bays and has dormers, something generally unpopular in New Haven in later periods. The delicate railing on the roof with urns is similar to the Pierpont house on Elm Street. The house was torn down for the Charles W. Scranton Company building, which currently occupies the site (now a Citizen's Bank). The house can partially be seen here.

215 Church Street

Status: Extant, heavily altered, 1940s

Built for: Timothy Higgins Bishop, 1850s
This Italianate house of the 1850s, built for Timothy H. Bishop, actually does survive, though it doesn't look it from the current façade. In the 1940s, the Italianate façade was completely rebuilt as a Colonial Revival company office. If you walk to the rear of the building, you can see the simplified remnants of the original house (including the rear tower with tombstone windows). Originally, it was a typical three bay cube with an Ionic porch, heavy Renaissance window moldings in stone, and a spare entablature with dentils. The only image of the house shows the central window obscured by an Art Deco bay window, however, the house's close resemblance to a drawing by Henry Austin (particularly in the roof pitch and cupola composition) give us a probable means for reconstruction of the central window as a triple window with a pediment above. A similar house is the Perit house on Hillhouse Avenue. Based on the drawing (ironically in a lush sylvan setting) Austin may have had a hand in its design.

Watercolor by Henry Austin

221 Church Street

Status: Demolished, 1925

Built for: Winston J. Trowbridge, 1864
Built a decade after its neighbor, the Winston Trowbridge house shows the greater elaboration in Italianate design seen as the 19th century progressed. Instead of a sedate and spare façade, the Trowbridge house was a three bay cube, but the central bay projected slightly and there were projecting pilasters on the corners. Unlike the "correct" classical porch of the Bishop house, the Trowbridge house has a much more Italianate porch with paired brackets, Tuscan pillars, and an arched opening. The window surrounds as well were less elaborate; instead of carved brackets, they featured simple panel designs. This house was torn down for the Quinnipiack Club building which currently occupies the site.

227 Church Street

Status: Demolished, 1929

Built for: Simeon Baldwin, 1826, by Sidney Mason Stone
This house had a distinguished history as home of one of Connecticut's early governors, Roger Sherman Baldwin, built for his son, Simeon. It was built next to the family's earlier house, number 233, in 1826 as an elaborate Greek Revival house. The plan was a stuccoed three bay cube with central entrance (featuring Temple of the Winds columns), the typical Greek Revival attic boards, and an entrance porch that nearly obscures the central window (a rather unique New Haven feature). Later, Simeon Baldwin seems to have built the Second Empire house that bears his name on Wall Street on the same block. This house was demolished for the Art Deco Southern New England Telephone Company building which currently occupies the site.

233 Church Street

Status: Demolished, 1927

Built for: Roger Sherman Baldwin, before 1824
This was the previous Baldwin house, a typical three bay, gable front, Federal house, somewhat elaborated by Doric guttae that gave it the effect of having shallow brackets. The porch had French Ionic capitals, a step up from the typical Tuscan design. The postcard below shows how it looked when it served as a tearoom. It was torn down for the Southern New England Telephone Company building which currently occupies the site.

Block Survival Rate: .5/6: 8%

Wall Street Between Orange Street and Church Street-North Side

Sanborn 1886 Map:

1879 Bird's Eye View:

25 Wall Street

Status: Demolished, 1940s

Built for: Robert Pierpont, 1850s

This was an impressive, tall Italianate villa with a three bay plan and an off center entrance. Atypically, the house does not have an architrave molding separating the third floor from the first two. The porch was Corinthian with a balustrade and had two side wings with an elaborate hanging bay window. The cupola was removed before its demolition in the 1940s. A partial view can be seen here showing the porch. A better view can be seen here without the cupola and with a greatly reduced eave.

Between 25 and 33, a large Richardsonian Romanesque apartment building was constructed in the 1890s. 

33 Wall Street

Status: Demolished, 1929

Built for: ?, 1830s

An especially well proportioned Greek Revival house of five bays, it is unclear for whom it was built but for most of its history it served as a school (until 1874). It was remodeled with Queen Anne details and turned into apartments in the late 19th century. The house has some especially interesting features, despite the severity of its ornament. First is that the central bay is shallowly recessed, breaking up the façade into a triple mass. The Doric porch contrasted this recess. The house had especially large attic boards with sloping sides, a very common touch in New Haven's Greek Revival houses, seen on the Ingersoll house on Elm Street and the Whitney house nearby on Elm. 

The house on the corner was the Salisbury house, by Ithiel Town. An image of the side seen here can be seen here.

Block Survival Rate: 0/3: 0%

Wall Street Between Orange Street and State Street-North Side

Sanborn 1886 Map:

1879 Bird's Eye View:

The building on the corner of State Street and Wall Street has no photographic evidence. Soon after the Bird's Eye view was created, it would be demolished in the expansion of the Hooker Carriage factory. Hillhouse High School is dealt with on Orange Street. The entire block is now a large parking lot with a nondescript federal office building in the center. 

13 Wall Street

Status: Demolished, 1930s?

Built for: ?, probably 1800-1830

A small ridge front three bay house, typical of the early 19th century. It only has one piece of photographic evidence, but seems to have had a open pediment porch. The house can be seen partially here. A later view can be seen here.

19 Wall Street  

Status: Demolished, 1936

Built for: ?, probably 1800-1820

Between 1880 and 1884, a row of brick houses was between numbers 19-14, as the Sanborn map shows. This house was moved to the rear of the property near the Farmington Canal. In the article detailing the house's demolition, it was noted that it had served as a technical school for stenographers. A portion of the house can be seen here to the right of the school. The later row houses can be seen here.

Block Survival Rate: 0/4: 0%