The Ninth Square Historic District encompasses a historically diverse and well-preserved part of the commercial area of
Downtown New Haven
Downtown New Haven is the neighborhood located in the heart of the city of New Haven, Connecticut. It is made up of the original nine squares laid out in 1638 to form New Haven, including the New Haven Green, and the immediate surrounding central ...
,
Connecticut
Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...
. The district is bounded by Church, Court, State, and Crown Streets, and is centered on the intersection of Chapel and Orange Streets. The buildings in the district are mostly late-19th and early 20th commercial buildings, and includes a number of commercial buildings from the first half of the 19th century, a rarity in most of Connecticut's urban downtown areas.
[ and ] The district 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 1984.
Ninth Square takes its name from an early division of New Haven, when leaders of the New Haven Colony
The New Haven Colony was a small English colony in North America from 1638 to 1664 primarily in parts of what is now the state of Connecticut, but also with outposts in modern-day New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware.
The history o ...
created a town plan of nine large squares in 1637, centered on the one now housing the New Haven Green
The New Haven Green is a privately owned park and recreation area located in the downtown district of the city of New Haven, Connecticut. It comprises the central square of the nine-square settlement plan of the original Puritan colonists in New ...
. Because the ninth square was located closest to the colony's harbor, it was the first to develop a significant commercial presence. In the 1820s, the Farmington Canal
The Farmington Canal, also known as the New Haven and Northampton Canal, was a major private canal built in the early 19th century to provide water transportation from New Haven into the interior of Connecticut, Massachusetts and beyond. Its Mass ...
was routed near the district, spurring further commercial development. The conversion of the canal right-of-way to railroad use intensified the area's commercial development in the second half of the 19th century. All of this resulted in a significant diversity of styles in the commercial buildings seen, generally reflecting architectural styles popular at the time of their construction. The area declined after World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, but has been spared from destruction in urban renewal activities of the mid-20th century.
Businesses
Gallery
File:The Exchange, New Haven.jpg, The Exchange (1832), Chapel and Church Sts., New Haven
File:Ninth Square Historic1.jpg, Street Building (1832), 742-750 Chapel St.
File:Ninth Square Historic2.jpg, Street Building along State St. Monolith
A monolith is a geological feature consisting of a single massive rock (geology), stone or rock, such as some mountains. For instance, Savandurga, Savandurga mountain is a monolith mountain in India. Erosion usually exposes the geological for ...
ic granite
Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...
piers Piers may refer to:
* Pier, a raised structure over a body of water
* Pier (architecture), an architectural support
* Piers (name), a given name and surname (including lists of people with the name)
* Piers baronets, two titles, in the baronetages ...
with Doric Doric may refer to:
* Doric, of or relating to the Dorians of ancient Greece
** Doric Greek, the dialects of the Dorians
* Doric order, a style of ancient Greek architecture
* Doric mode, a synonym of Dorian mode
* Doric dialect (Scotland)
* Doric ...
capitals marking the original street storefronts.
File:Ninth Square Historic3.jpg, Monson Building (1891), 760 Chapel St.
File:Ninth Square Historic4.jpg, Fire House 12 (1905), 47 Crown St.
File:Ninth Square Historic5.jpg, New Haven Water Company (1903), 100 Crown St., Leoni Robinson.
File:Ninth Square Historic6.jpg, Connecticut Savings Bank (1906), 45 Church St., Gordon, Tracy and Swartwout, New York.
File:Ninth Square Historic7.jpg, Orange St. from Center St. to Crown St.
File:Ninth Square Historic8.jpg, Young Men's Institute, later the Palladium Building, (1855), 139 Orange St.
See also
*
References
External links
New Haven Preservation Trust: Ninth Square Historic District
{{National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places in New Haven, Connecticut
Italianate architecture in Connecticut
Greek Revival architecture in Connecticut
Historic districts in New Haven County, Connecticut
Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Connecticut