Wall Street Between Temple Street and College Street-North Side

Sanborn 1886 Map:

1879 Bird's Eye View:

There is almost no information about any of the houses on this block. The entire block was demolished in 1901 for the current college buildings occupying the site. The empty lot on the corner of College Street was just being prepared for the construction of St. Anthony's Hall, which in turn was demolished for the current building on the site.

St. Anthony's Hall

77 Wall Street

Status: Demolished

Built for: ?, probably 1850s

This was an exceptionally tall, high style Italianate house with a stucco façade, stone window frames, and side entrance with a boxy porch. The side façade of the house is visible in this picture of the Federal house on the corner of Temple Street here.

81 Wall Street

Status: Demolished

Built for: ?, probably 1800-1830s

A typical Federal Style house with a open pediment porch, semi-circular window.

83 Wall Street

Status: Demolished

Built for: ?, probably 1820s-1840s

A typical Greek Revival three bay, side entrance house, common in New Haven during the period with a porch in the Ionic order. Sometime after its construction, a box window was added above the porch.

87 Wall Street

Status: Demolished

Built for: ?, 1830s-1850s

Though this block has little information, this house was occupied in the later 19th century by Arthur Tappan. One of the transitional Greek Revival/Italianate houses in New Haven, akin to the houses down Wall Street between Temple and Church, it was stuccoed, three bays, with a Corinthian porch, a small projection for the architrave molding, and dentils. An interesting feature uncommon in houses of this type is the higher peak of the hip roof with a Second Empire style dormer window, which must have been added in the 1870s. The house can be seen in the postcard below.

Block Survival Rate: 0/4: 0%

Temple Street Between Wall Street and Grove Street-West Side

Sanborn 1886 Map:

1879 Bird's Eye View:

This block, like its facing block on the other side of Temple Street, featured a series of very impressive Federal houses built by some of New Haven's most important families. The block was mostly demolished, with the exception of the Noah Webster House (360) in 1932 to form an open space known as "Vanderbuilt Square". This was replaced soon after by Silliman College, which occupies the site today.

332 Temple Street

Status: Demolished, 1932

Built for: Elizur Goodrich, 1802
A simple Federal Style house, five bays, ridge front. The massing is much closer to 18th century rather than 19th century examples, reflecting its early date. The house had a porch with delicate, thin Tuscan columns and strong, dentilled window moldings. The back had several additions, the brick one with a chimney stack that looks like a factory, as can be seen on Wall Street. It can be seen here.

344 Temple Street

Status: Demolished, 1932

Built for: Charles Denison, 1815
Constructed for an attorney in 1815, the five bay ridge front house house has typical Federal details, most notable of which is the broken pediment porch with scamozzi Ionic capitals.

352 Temple Street

Status: Demolished, 1932

Built for: Rev. Samuel Wales, 1800
This house was a simple Federal Style five bay, ridge front design with an intriguing porch. Resting on scamozzi Ionic columns, it had a full pediment but no entablature, a typical amount of fudging on correct details seen in the Federal Style. In essence, it pretty much matched the other houses on the block. However, in the 1880s, the house was heavily remodeled by Ezekiel Stoddard, with the addition of metal cresting to the roof, a new front porch and a box window projecting above it with a pediment and crest. Additions were made all along the rear, almost doubling the size of the house and including Queen Anne details, a remodel not unlike that across at the street at 331. The house can be seen in its original state here. The house can be seen after alterations on the right of this picture.

360 Temple Street

Status: Moved, 1936

Built for: Noah Webster, 1823 by David Hoadley

The Noah Webster house does survive, but not in New Haven. In Henry Ford upon hearing that the house was slated for demolition, purchased it and erected it in Greenfield Village, his museum to architecture and inventors. The house is of a type in New Haven, a five bay, gable front house, of which there are only two examples, this and the house at the corner of College and Crown Street. This house features a scamozzi Ionic portico, like almost all the houses on this street, a shallow bracketed cornice, and an odd oval fan in the center of the gable end, a unique feature in the city. The house has lost many of its Italianate additions, including a bay window, a large iron, tent roofed porch, and oriole windows in the move and restoration. It is attributed to local architect David Hoadley, New Haven's premier Federal Style architect. Apparently Webster was rather elderly when he had this house built and it was constructed for comfort. 

The house today (photo Wikimedia):

The following images are from a HABS survey:

Block Survival Rate: 0 (in position)/4: 0%

Temple Street Between Elm Street and Wall Street-West Side

Sanborn 1884 Map:

1879 Bird's Eye View:

The Ralph Ingersoll house on the corner will be dealt with on Elm Street.

302 Temple Street

Status: Extant, altered, 1930s

Built for: John C. Sanford, 1840 by Ithiel Town
This was one of New Haven's exceptionally fine Greek Revival houses by its chief architect, Ithiel Town, whose own house was but blocks away. Simple, it is a perfect rendition of an Ionic temple, with a full four column, double height porch, a shallow pediment, full entablature, and three bays of simple windows. The original stucco was scored to look like stone. The building was converted into a chapel in the 1890s and a small incongruous Romanesque chapel was built to the left of the façade. All of this was swept away in the 1930s when the ensemble was remodeled in the Colonial Revival style to serve as the Yale University Press. Only a small little section of entablature on the side is still visible. The house (and the small chapel) can be seen here.

310-312 Temple Street

Status: Demolished, 1950s

Built for: Ezekiel Hayes Trowbridge, 1870

This was an exceptionally grand Italianate double house, probably the grandest in the city. It was built by Ezekiel Trowbridge, whose house was directly across the street, for his children. The design was brick with a stone rusticated first floor, fine stone window surrounds with pediments, bay windows, and an archaeologically correct classical entablature and cornice with carved brackets. The sides of the house featured elaborate balconies with metal awnings in a curved tent shape. These rested on very elaborately carved Renaissance brackets. No other building of this period in New Haven approached this level of European design sophistication, more typical in Boston or New York. The site is now a large parking lot. The house can be seen here.

320 Temple Street

Status: Extant!

Built for: Jedidiah Morse, 1812, altered 1875

This started life as similar to the house at 328, a three bay gable front Federal Style house built for a geographer. Around 1875, however, the house was dramatically altered, with the addition of a mansard roof in the French Second Empire style, a cupola (an uncommon feature on mansards, an oriole window, a large bay to the right, and a richly carved entrance porch. Extant with all its details intact, it currently is a Yale music building.

 

328 Temple Street

Status: Extant!

Built for: John H. Lynde, 1806, altered 1920

This is a typical Federal Style, three bay, gable front house so common in New Haven, built for a clerk. In 1920, the front entrance with its fine broken pediment porch was moved to the side on Wall Street and a brick addition was added to the rear in 1850. The most unique element is the palladian window in the gable; instead of the usual round arch in the center, the window comes to a point, a feature seen only on one other house in the city. 

Block Survival Rate: 3/4: 75%

Temple Street Between Wall Street and Grove Street-East Side

Sanborn 1886 Map:

1879 Bird's Eye View:

This side of Temple Street was one of the outstanding Federal blocks in the city, with high style Federal homes that had a unique set of features and were the residences of some of the cities most prominent families. Unfortunately, this entire block was demolished for the construction of Timothy Dwight College in 1934. Ironically, the central bay of this college pays tribute to Bulfinch's Tontine Crescent, a series of row houses demolished in the 19th century in Boston.

331 Temple St.

Status: Demolished, 1934

Built for: Eli Ives, 1814
This was originally a Federal Style five bay, gable front house, but by 1879, it had been altered with pedimented window hoods, a bracketed cornice, a massive bay window with Eastlake designs, a projecting front porch and projecting windows in the attic gable. Additionally, the rear had several elaborate porches and bay windows. After 1879, the house was further altered with the addition of a Queen Anne turret, and it can be seen in this state here.

339 Temple St.

Status: Demolished, 1934

Built for: Levi Ives, 1849
A no-nonsense Greek Revival stuccoed house of the type found throughout New Haven, of three bays and spare ornamentation. This was built by the same family as 331, though survived relatively unaltered with its plain windows and Ionic porch until its demolition. It can be seen here.

347 Temple St.

Status: Demolished, 1934

Built for: Henry R. Pynchon, before 1824
An elaborate five bay, gable front Federal house, built for a bank cashier. It is somewhat transitional since it has the Federal style cornice profile, with shallow brackets, balustrade, and a porch with scamozzi Ionic capitals (where the volutes extend to all four sides, with a truncated Federal entablature. I'd say this was potentially one of the most pretentious Federal houses following the traditional type in the city. It can be seen here.

353 Temple St.

Status: Demolished, 1934

Built for: John Beach, 1812-24
Another five bay Federal house, very much like its neighbor at 347. I suspect that they were once perfect twins in design. This house had the addition of a large porch, too heavy to be Queen Anne, probably in the 1870s. Otherwise, the Federal details remain as they are on 347. It can be seen here.

361 Temple St.

Status: Demolished, 1935

Built for: James Kingsley, 1824
Constructed for a Latin professor, this house was quite interesting. It follows the type of some Greek Revival houses with a side entrance, rather than a street facing entrance, as we can see on the same block at Church Street as well as further down Temple Street on the other side of the Green. This allowed a full street frontage for the principal rooms. The house was in the Federal style and brick with a Federal bracketed cornice, window lintel blocks with incised Greek key designs, and a particularly fine entrance porch with scamozzi Ionic columns. The side facing Grove Street had an oriole window with stained glass (probably an addition of the 1870s) and presented a massive brick facade toward the street. It can be seen here and here.

Block Survival Rate: 0/5: 0%

Temple Street Between Elm Street and Wall Street-East Side

Sanborn 1886 Map:

1879 Bird's Eye View:

311 Temple Street

Status: Extant!

Built for: Ezekiel Trowbridge, 1853 by Sidney Mason Stone
A rather amazing survival, the Ezekiel Trowbridge house is potentially one of New Haven's finest surviving Italianate mansions. Records indicate that it caused quite a stir when first constructed. The house is a five bay Italianate, an uncommon bay length in New Haven. The brick façade has lavish brownstone hood moldings with alternating segmental (round) and pointed pediments resting on acanthus leaf brackets. The porch is particularly fine with extremely thin Indian style columns in the style of Henry Austin and rich carved foliage in the porch spandrels. The only major losses to the house are the balustrades above the porch and on the roof, which is a pity as the roof balustrade had a central arched panel that repeated the carved foliage on the porch. These seem to have vanished in the mid-20th century. The house was altered in 1911 when it became the parish house of Center Church and a large Colonial Revival hall was added to the rear. The house has recently been restored.

325 Temple Street

Status: Demolished, 1896

Built for: James Dana, 1799

A transitional Colonial/Federal style house, it had a rather grand, probably Greek Revival ionic columned porch (I'd guess it was added around the 1820s-30s. The house can be seen here. It was replaced in 1896 by a rather solid Colonial Revival apartment building. This in turn was demolished in 1960 for the current structure.

Block Survival Rate: 1/2: 50%