The Howard Avenue Historic District is a
historic district
A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal protection from c ...
in
The Hill neighborhood of the city of
New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134,02 ...
. Extending along Howard Avenue between Minor Street and
Interstate 95
Interstate 95 (I-95) is the main north–south Interstate Highway on the East Coast of the United States, running from U.S. Route 1, US Route 1 (US 1) in Miami, Miami, Florida, to the Houlton–Woodstock Border Crossing between M ...
, it contains an unusually high concentration of well-preserved late 19th-century middle class vernacular architecture, reflecting the area's growth at that time. It was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
in 1985.
[
]
Description and history
According to city maps and records, Howard Avenue was probably laid out in the 1640s. It was largely surrounded by farmland, and in the early 19th century it was given its present wide boulevard appearance, as part of an attempt by developer James Hillhouse to spur residential development. His attempt failed, and it was not until the 1860s, when a horsecar railway was run along the northern section, that serious development began. This development was further spurred by the creation of a large railyard just to its east by the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad
The New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad , commonly known as The Consolidated, or simply as the New Haven, was a railroad that operated in the New England region of the United States from 1872 to December 31, 1968. Founded by the merger of ...
, which drew workers to the area. In the early 20th-century, middle-class workers began to move further out into streetcar suburb
A streetcar suburb is a residential community whose growth and development was strongly shaped by the use of streetcar lines as a primary means of transportation. Such suburbs developed in the United States in the years before the automobile, when ...
s.I-95
Interstate 95 (I-95) is the main north–south Interstate Highway on the East Coast of the United States, running from US Route 1 (US 1) in Miami, Florida, to the Houlton–Woodstock Border Crossing between Maine and the Canadia ...
). The portion from Lambertion Street to Fifth Street is also in City Point (which today is considered a section of The Hill). Most of the buildings are residential, with wood-frame single-family houses predominating. There are a few brick buildings, as well as a school and firehouse that date to later in the 20th century. The scale of these later additions is of a comparable scale. The houses are architecturally a cross-section of styles dating from the 1860s to the 1910s, typically in vernacular forms with modest adornment. There have been relatively few unsympathetic modifications; these are often limited to the application of modern siding.[ and ]
Gallery
File:Howard Avenue Historic1.jpg, Nicholas Countryman House, 622 Howard Ave. (1866), Rufus G. Russell, with early influence of Gothic Stick style.
File:Howard Avenue Historic2.jpg, Episcopal Church of the Ascension (1887), 33 Lamberton St., Leoni Robinson.
File:Howard Avenue Historic4.jpg, 164 Howard Ave. (1885).
File:Howard Avenue Historic5.jpg, 142 Howard Ave. (about 1900).
See also
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References
{{National Register of Historic Places
Queen Anne architecture in Connecticut
Colonial Revival architecture in Connecticut
Historic districts in New Haven, Connecticut
National Register of Historic Places in New Haven, Connecticut
Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Connecticut