Wall Street Between Church Street and Temple Street-South Side

Sanborn 1886 Map:

1879 Bird's Eye View:

54 Wall Street

Status: Demolished, ?

Built for: ?, probably 1830s-50s

A three-bay stuccoed Italianate/Greek Revival transitional house, its history is pretty much unrecorded. It had a fine Ionic portico. It was probably torn down in the 1940s for the current two-story building on the site.

58-60 Wall Street

Status: Demolished, 1940s

Built for: David Daggett, 1824

Known as the "Stone House", this double Federal house was widely admired in its day. Constructed of trap rock, a rarity in 19th century New Haven, the house featured a fine Federal cornice with small brackets, a four-columned porch with French Ionic capitals and a balustrade, and graceful curving stairs descending from the porch. The side also featured unusually large semi-circular windows in the gables. The Daggetts remained in the house until the 20th century. This unique Federal building was demolished in the 1950s for parking, a use the lot is currently put to. An image of the house can be seen here.

Block Survival Rate: 0/4: 0%

Wall Street Between Church Street and Temple Street-North Side

Sanborn 1886 Map:

1879 Bird's Eye View:

The corner on Church Street was an empty lot until filled by a Queen Anne house, demolished for the Trinity Parish House. The house on Temple Street will be dealt with there. This block was mostly demolished for Timothy Dwight College, constructed in 1933. No information survives for either of the houses on Wall Street.

57 Wall Street

Status: Demolished, 1930

Built for: ?, probably 1800-1830

A typical Federal style, three bay, gable front house. Photographs do not survive of the exterior, but the Doolittle Map of 1824 provides an image of the house. A photograph of the Trinity Parish House shows the, probably Italianate, bracketed molding over the door. This was attached to the house next door by wings. The site is now the Timothy Dwight Master's house, a rather beautiful, high-style Federal design.

59 Wall Street

Status: Demolished, 1930

Built for: ?, probably 1820-1840s

A three bay, central entrance Greek Revival house, this was also demolished in the 1930s for Timothy Dwight College.

Block Survival Rate: 0/2: 0%

Church Street Between Wall Street and Grove Street-West Side

Sanborn 1886 Map:

1879 Bird's Eye View:

The corner on Wall Street had a large empty lot depicted on the Bird's Eye view. It was soon to be filled by a large Queen Anne house. The Wall Street side of the block was demolished for the Trinity Parish House and 321 Church Street, but the Grove Street side has survived.

240 Church Street

Status: Demolished, 1890s?

Built for: William Sanford, before 1854
This is one of a very few Greek Revival side-entrance houses in New Haven where the main entrance, instead of being on the front of the house was on the side, presumably to allow a full parlor to occupy the street frontage. Other examples can be found on Temple and College Streets. Only one drawing of the house survives (a rather unclear one at that), but it seems to have been four bays with an iron balcony running across the front. The house did not last much longer after 1879 because it was replaced with a Queen Anne house. It's site is now the parking lot connected to the former Trinity Parish House.

246 Church Street

Status: Demolished, 1940s?

Built for: John Durrie, 1826, altered 1870
This is yet another Federal house of the early 19th century that was altered later with a mansard roof to update its style. The two story bay window also seemed to be a popular addition to the front, with an example across Wall Street. This house was given an elaborate entrance with pilaster and an arch, and the front door was recessed into the façade, a rather extreme remodel. The house also seems to have sprouted bay windows on the sides. It was demolished probably in the 40s and is now the site of the rather bland 246 Church Street office building.

250 Church Street

Status: Extant, heavily altered 1901, 1935

Built for: Theodore Dwight Woolsey, 1841
Surprisingly this house survives, although one would not guess so with its new façade. Originally, it was a rather tall five bay Greek Revival house of 1841 with a severe brick and brownstone façade, centered Doric porch, and a side wing. Even the attic board was not particularly complex. It rested on a rather tall basement, giving it a high stoop. In 1901, President Theodore Dwight Woolsey of Yale decided to remodel the house dramatically in a Federal Style, turning it from five bays into seven bays, adding pilasters and a pediment to the central three bays, and creating new brownstone window lintels in a Greek Revival style. If you look carefully, you can see that the left-most part of the house, the original main block, has a slightly different fenestration from the right side, where the addition was brought forward. The entrance was moved to the left side. The inspiration looks like it might have been drawn from the Timothy Bishop house on Elm Street. In 1935, the house was altered again for commercial purposes, with Art Deco shop-fronts added to the basement. The house can be seen here.

258 Church Street

Status: Extant, heavily altered 1935

Built for: Abby Salisbury, 1837, possibly by Ithiel Town and A. J. Davis
This was a truly unique house, featuring elements that appear in no other New Haven houses. Built in 1837, it was possibly designed by Town and Davis, though Elizabeth Mills Brown is doubtful. I believe in a Town and Davis attribution for this house. First, it bears strong resemblances to other houses of theirs, especially the use of simple beam brackets, seen on almost all Town and Davis Italianates, the simplicity of the stuccoed façade, and the somewhat exotic details (the simple geometric balustrade, for instance). Second, daring architectural details, such as the very strange and unprecedented chamfered window shapes, suggest an architects hand, as a builder would have been unlikely to be so bold. Third, the Salisbury family across the street had used Town and Davis in their villa. These reasons suggest that Town and Davis may have been involved, or at least a close disciple. The house is Italianate, vaguely, with eccentric details; I suspect that the short mansard roof, present in 1879, might have been added later and that the original roof was a low hip roof, as seen on the Salisbury house across the street. The Queen Anne (? they are eclectic) dormers are also not stylistically consonant with the design. Unfortunately, everything that was unique in the design of this house was obliterated when Yale remodeled it in 1935 for commercial use. Yale destroyed the original entrance porch, removed all the chamfered windows, a very special feature, and built Art Deco shop fronts into the first floor. The house can be seen before Yale's alterations here.

Block Survival Rate: 1/4: 25%

Church Street Between Elm Street and Wall Street-West Side

Sanborn 1886 Map:

1879 Bird's Eye View:

The large house on the corner of Elm Street was the David DeForest house of 1822 (demolished for the current courthouse building). Their property extended over half the block and had green houses and elaborate gardens. Only three houses faced Church Street, all demolished in 1942 to avoid taxes according to a newspaper article.

226 Church Street

Status: Demolished, 1942

Built for: Cyrus Winthrop (?), probably 1820s-1850s
This three bay house was a typical New Haven three bay Greek Revival, with an iron balcony running across the front and a porch with Temple of the Winds columns and an attic board. A fine balustrade ran above the cornice. Cyrus Winthrop is probably not the builder, but is one of the few names associated with the house.

230 Church Street

Status: Demolished, 1942

Built for: Frank D. Trowbridge, 1860s
Like its neighbor at 226, this house followed the same general pattern but was finished in the Italianate style, with a heavy cornice, elaborate bracketed porch with a balustrade, and an alternation of window styles, with long rectangular windows on the first floor and segmental arched windows on the second with cast-iron hood moldings.

234 Church Street

Status: Demolished, 1942

Built for: Charles H. Townshend, probably 1820s-1850s
This three bay house probably looked almost exactly like 226 Church St. when it was first built in the Greek Revival style, as the telltale Greek Revival porch demonstrated (almost identical to 226). Some time in the 1860s or 70s, like many of the other, older houses on Church Street, it was remodeled in the Second Empire style, though here there were significant alterations. A two story bay window was added to the front of the house, a feature reflected on a houses further up Church as well as on College Street. The dormers in the mansard roof, instead of being confined to the roof above the cornice, cut the cornice, a feature similar to the Dwight remodel on Wall and College. A rather odd addition was built to the left with a tiny dormer in the mansard and three small windows lined up. Later in the 1880s, the house was further altered with fanciful, asymmetrical Queen Anne turrets added to each of the front corners and two story bay windows added to the sides.

The site of these buildings is currently a parking lot and the Gold Building.

Block Survival Rate: 0/4: 0%