Benjamin A. Gorman
At various times called “The Neck”, “Dragontown”, “Clamtown”, or “Fayre Haven” as John Davenport referred to it in 1638, Fair Haven can be viewed differently from each end of Grand Avenue which has been the main artery connecting New Haven to the Quinnipiac River. As colonial New Haven grew, it moved eastward along the harbor. By the time of the Revolution, the name of New Township referred to the area between Olive Street and Mill River. Fair Haven itself, across the Mill River, had been a separate village of scattered farms since 1679. The area east of Mill River had become a street car suburb inhabited by Irish immigrants by the 1860’s. This area, so close to the prosperous Wooster Square, rises and falls according to past Civil War industrial stress. Into the twentieth century, one group after another occupied the buildings which by the 1960’s had become a slum area much of which will be demolished. Only recently is the development taking place with single family dwellings replacing the tenements. But the heart of Fair Haven lies two miles from New Haven’s Green at the other end of Grand Avenue along the banks of the Quinnipiac River.
It is along this river that time is being turned backed to the oystering village that began to develop soon after the Revolutionary War. From the beginning, the settlers in imitation of the resident Indians, began to catch oysters. In time, this shellfish became the resource upon which a community could be built. In 1784, Fair Haven became part of New Haven only to withdraw in 1837. The emergence of the streetcar and increasing industrialization, physically brought the two together again in 1870. After the 3,992 inhabitants rejoined New Haven politically, the area westward toward the Mill River experienced the growth of homes and the farms began to disappear.
In the first hundred years or more, Fair Haven was just a cluster of fishing huts, referred to as “Dragon” because of the harbor seals that inhabited the Quinnipiac waters and resembled sea monsters in the eyes of the early settlers. By 1808, oystering supported about 150 people who lived in 50 houses along the river with Rowe’s Tavern nearby. Fair Haven’s growth would be built on the oyster industry; by the mid 1800’s its coastal trade would rank second to Baltimore’s in volume.
In the fall of 1791, a bridge which replaced the ferry opened. It connected the west to the east banks of the Quinnipiac River. At the same time the old ferry path was widened and remained Grand Street. In 1796, envious East Haveners petitioned the General Assembly for the right to build a toll bridge and subsequently the Tomlinson Bridge would cross the River. The Dragon Bridge facilitated commerce by speeding travel across the Quinnipiac and increasing the accessibility of the East Haven meadows and woodlands to New Haveners.
Herman Hotchkiss, as soon as the site of the first bridge was known, purchased land adjoining it and constructed wharves, a mercantile store and a tavern at the eastern approach. Within a few years, he bought more land on the New Haven side and in 1806 built a two-story dwelling, barn and horsesheds. He continued to buy land in the area up to his death in 1836. Because of his investments which led to its growth, Herman Hotchkiss became known as the Founder of Fair Haven.
“To Be Sold”
A one story Dwelling-House, gambrel roof, situated in the Great-Neck (so called) about two miles from the court-house in New Haven, and not so far distant from the New Bridge; there are two large rooms on the lower floor, and two chambers; also an underground room suitable for opening oysters, and a small garden spot adjoining the premises. Any person desirous of purchasing the above, may apply to. . . . . . . .living on the premises.
Nathaniel Yale
Sept. 25, 1793”
(Arnold G. Dana,
New Haven Old and New
, LII, p5.)
This description illustrates the typical oyster house found along the Quinnipiac River. At first oyster opening was done at home by the women of the house; later, large shops opened which employed women and boys who labored on a piecework basis. An oyster opener averaged about 65 quarts a day, earning 2 1/2 cents per quart.
Oyster boats became a familiar sight on the river and larger vessels engaged in trade with Chesapeake Bay and the West Indies returning with sugar and pineapples.
By the early 1800’s the local oyster beds were over-fished and Fair Haven began to bring oysters from Virginia to maintain the supply. In 1858 Fair Haven oystermen brought two million bushels of oysters on 250 schooners for use as seed oysters to replenish the beds. The oyster industry began to change from just a harvesting activity to a scientific farming process. Henry C. Rowe, in the late 1800’s became the leading oysterman. He pioneered the use of steam powered boats to cultivate oysters and could harvest 7,000 bushels a month. The peak of the industry was 1888 when the harvest was valued at $1,250,000. Until the 1830’s, oystering continued to be a major industry but the combination of the oysters’ natural predators, the marine snail and the star fish, the change of the industry’s base to southern Long Island to be closer to New York City and the increase of pollution caused the industry decline.
Originally the oystermen used a dugout canoe just as the Indians had used to harvest the shellfish. By the early 1800’s the white pine trees near the area were depleted and John Smith began a trade that brought dugouts from Lake Cayuga in New York where he purchased the uncut trees for a dollar. He hollowed the trees, tied the canoes together and floated them down the Hudson River to New York City. From there they were transported by larger vessels to New Haven and sold for $35.00 each. As oystering continued to grow, shipbuilding also kept pace. Shipyards were to be found on both sides of the Quinnipiac and on the east side of the Mill River. The first three-masted schooner built in Connecticut was constructed by Captain J.H. Woodhouse near the present Ferry Street 8ridge. In 1848, the first “sharpie” was claimed to have been built by James Goodsell. The dugout was replaced by the Fair Haven Sharpie. This spin off business from oystering continued to grow, meeting not only local needs but were sold to other oystermen along the Eastern seaboard. The names of Rowe, Graves and Thatcher became well known as sharpie builders by the 1880’s.
The Sharpie was a long, narrow, flat bottomed, fishing boat between 27 and 36 feet long. It had a centerboard and one or two masts, rigged with a triangular sail. The term “sharpie” refers to its sharp bow. With its flat bottom, it gave steady footing for two men to scrape oysters from the shallow river beds with rakes and tongs.
Later they were used for racing. The sailing speed was eleven nautical miles in thirty four minutes. By the 1880’s nearly 200 sharpies were to be found along the wharves of Fair Haven alone.
Samuel Hemingway, who lived at 37 Pearl Street, owned a successful shipping business. At the rear of his property, near his docks, he began to handle the oystermen’s money for a small commission. As one business might lead to another, Hemingway’s banking and business experience would propel the oyster broker to the presidency of the Second National Bank.
Throughout the 1880’s Fair Haven’s population and business would increase; from the riverfront oyster community, it would reach out from the river banks building, thriving and asserting its pride. On the corner of Grand and Clinton Avenues, the first public school was built in 1808. The Fair Haven Academy was erected on Clinton Avenue in 1836; tuition was $S.00 to $6.00 per quarter. Other private schools also opened. They served the wealthy of the community.
The First Congregational Church dedicated its first meeting house in 1830. 8y 1851, the membership had grown so that a group left to build the Second Congregational Church across the river on the corner of Lenox Street. In 18S3, the original parishioners hired Henry Austin to design a new and larger church. The church which would seat 1,400 had a 237 foot steeple. The lofty spire made it the highest church in Connecticut and guided many sea captains into the harbor safely. A storm in 1877 damaged the spire. Unfortunately, even after repairs, it would sway in strong winds and one hundred feet had to be removed. One sea captain, not knowing of the removal, could not find his familiar landmark on a misty day when it could have been seen above the fog. He concluded that he had entered the wrong port and headed back out to sea.
With the spire’s removal and a drastic reconstruction in 1878, the Georgian appearance was replaced with a heavy Romanesque style; its tall brick tower would also be removed as a lightning hazard leaving the blunted turret one sees today. In 1890, the name was changed to the Grand Avenue Congregational Church. The burial ground of the church, Union Cemetery, covering seven acres, is a resting place for many early Fair Haven seamen.
On East Grand Avenue, St. James Episcopal Church was dedicated in 1844; it reminds the observer of Trinity Church on the New Haven Green. Across the street, the Second Congregational Church (pilgrim Church) opened in 18S2 and its style echoes Center Church also on the Green. Fair Haven Methodists, after being in several locations, constructed a church of Gothic design on East pearl Street which was dedicated in 1873. The spires of these churches, seen from the river as outlined by the sky, illustrate the growth of Fair Haven and the prosperity of the inhabitants who used architectural styles which can be appreciated more than one hundred years later.
The river and its related activities influenced the homes that were constructed. Along the banks of the river, the earliest oysterman’s house was a work place for the shuckers, wielding knives, who opened the oysters. As profits were made, the waterfront expanded with larger structures devoted to this business; schooners and Sharpies tied up on the wharf-side and workers toiled within the salty workrooms. prosperity from oystering, boatbuilding and other businesses moved people to areas above the river and houses representative of styles that suited the status of the inhabitants.
The main link to New Haven, unpaved and tree-shaded, Grand Street was lined with commercial establishments. All the appropriate craft shops of the period could be found along it. Increasing numbers of stores providing goods for the community opened their doors. Of note was the clothier, Edward Malley, who began his business in 1848 in Fair Haven before establishing himself in New Haven proper with the Edward Malley Company.
The original Fair Haven 8ridge was replaced in 1860 with one having sidewalks for pedestrians and rails for the Fair Haven and Westville Horse Railroad Company. The carbarn was on Grand Avenue near Fillmore Street and nearby 450 horses were stabled. Trolleys replaced the horses in 1893. The second Grand Avenue 8ridge was replaced in 1896; this iron structure rested on seven stone piers and measured 427 feet long by 50 feet wide.
In 1852 the New Haven and New London Railroad constructed a truss bridge across the Quinnipiac River north of the Grand Avenue 8ridge. The line sliced Fair Haven from the depot in New Haven into East Haven until 1894 when the tracks were routed northward and the bridge was demolished.
8y 1870 when Fair Haven joined New Haven, its population had grown to almost 4,000. The incorporation resulted in new streets being laid out and old ones being repaired. Some streets were renamed such as pearl Street which became East pearl because New Haven already had one with that name. Grand Street became Grand Avenue in 1887. The ferry was replaced by a bridge over the Quinnipiac in 1876. The Ferry Street bridge provided greater access and thus continued expansion. The growth of Fair Haven after the Civil War can be followed in the building of numerous churches including Saint Francis Roman Catholic Church (1867) on Ferry Street and in the number of public and private schools that opened. The once rustic village was rushing toward the next century and new waves of people who would make their home in Fair Haven.
While the activities on the river remained devoted to oystering and related businesses, Irish, German, polish and Italian immigrants arrived to work in the factories and on the railroads. The seamen had lived close to the river in comfortable homes. The newcomers would come to live in small cottages more inland; the result would be the disappearance of some of the earlier rural estates. For example, the thirty acre estate of Oliver E. Maltby, a retired New York businessman whose property ran from the Mill River to Blatchley Avenue, was subdivided into building lots after his death in 1897. Gone were the elegant mansions, stables and greenhouses. From Ferry Street toward New Haven there was money to be made, selling land and building homes which were sold at low prices and were convenient to the factories. Fair Haven’s Post Office, established in 1833 near the Quinnipiac River, moved to the corner of Clinton and Grand in 1881 as the population expanded in that direction.
Across the river, in Fair Haven Heights, the opposite was occurring in terms of the size of homes developing. This area, because of its view, became an attractive place to live for the well-to-do. Spacious homes were built in the relatively unsettled woods. Successful oystermen had imposing houses along the river and farther up the Heights, Victorian showplaces were constructed like the twenty-four room mansion by James H. King, rumored to be the former president of the American Tobacco Company. Charles Ives’ Victorian home stood 400 feet above the river; his spacious grounds and gardens would later become Fairmont park in 1923.
The industry that attracted the immigrant workers varied from the New Haven Clock Company, the Bigelow Company which still makes steam boilers, the Quinnipiac (Yale) Brewery, to the A.C. Gilbert Erector Set Co. Gilbert’s product gained fame as a child’s toy and in 1938, Gilbert also began to manufacture the American Flyer train to which he had obtained the rights. A large supply of skilled workers were attracted to the area and the jobs found in New Haven Quilt and pad, Brewster Shirt, Sargent’s, National Folding Box and the other industries. Three and four-story tenements began to line Grand Avenue and its side streets. Fair Haven became more citified with the mix of business, industry, private and multiple family dwellings. Open space declined as a result. Fortunately, part of the old Civil War Camp Terry near Chapel Street and Clinton park were acquired by the public park Commission.
The coming of the Twentieth Century brought more industry and the problems of industrialization to the area. Overcrowded living conditions, pollution and crime shadowed the teeming populations. But Fair Haven became their neighborhood as the families developed a close relationship to the area. The individual residents not only lived and worked here but as a community, they played, worshiped, shopped and celebrated close to their home. At Dover Beach on the Quinnipiac River, Fair Haveners learned to swim; they celebrated around bonfires on the Fourth of July and cheered at Labor Day canoe races on the river. Fair Haven had an identity of its own that was a source of pride to the inhabitants.
The last thirty years saw a decline in the area; especially as industry moved out, the community changed. Deterioration of the attractive neighborhoods increased; people moved away for various reasons. Social upheaval and political in-fighting resulted in the decline of the sense of neighborhood. The continuity with the past was broken. Yet the memories of many are strong and fortunately the area escaped, to a great degree, the downtown demolition of the 1960’s. As that area learned, bulldozing and constructing anew does not build a community. Fair Haven has retained many structures that provide a link to its past. Balanced renewal with careful preservation, planning, and building with a sense of purpose, can rekindle the pride that a community needs for itself.
The days of the oyster laden schooner unloading, the world traveling sea captain returning, and the mansions gracing many acres are gone. Their marks on the landscape remain. They can still be observed and can serve as a source of pride upon which to build. They serve as threads to the future. Today, Fair Haven is actively turning to its past, remembering and preserving, while building its future.