Quinnipiac River 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 cer ...
straddling the
Quinnipiac River in the
Fair Haven and
Fair Haven Heights
Fair Haven Heights, or simply the Heights, is a residential and light industrial neighborhood in the eastern part of the city of New Haven, Connecticut, located east of the Quinnipiac River. Fair Haven Heights is not to be confused with the adjac ...
neighborhoods 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 ...
. It encompasses most of the historic maritime village of Fair Haven, with a history dating back to the 18th century.
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 ...
in 1984. At that time it included 524
contributing buildings
In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic distric ...
, an inland
wetland
A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (Anoxic waters, anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in t ...
at the mouth of Hemingway Creek on the northeast corner of the district, and the Grand Avenue Swing Bridge over the Quinnipiac River connecting Fair Haven with Fair Haven Heights at the center of the district.
[ and ]
The historic Fair Haven village developed beginning in the early 18th century, around a ferry crossing of the Quinnipiac River, now the site of the Grand Avenue bridge. It was a mainly agricultural outpost of New Haven, whose development was further spurred by the construction of the first bridge on that site in 1790. A few taverns and houses surviving in the district from this period. Owners of waterfront properties adjacent to extensive mudflats engaged in the harvesting and processing of oyster
Oyster is the common name for a number of different families of salt-water bivalve molluscs that live in marine or brackish habitats. In some species, the valves are highly calcified, and many are somewhat irregular in shape. Many, but not ...
s, which became a major economic activity in the area by the mid-19th century. Fair Haven was annexed to New Haven in 1871, and subsequently participated in that city's industrial expansion, developing in part as a 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 ...
while still focused on oyster processing and related industries.
Gallery
File:182 Front St.jpg, Original Stephen Rowe's tavern and store (1804), 182 Front St., and other houses of the early 19th century oystering village on Front St. north of the Grand Ave. Bridge.
File:King's Block Fair Haven.jpg, King's Block (1816), 20 Grand Ave.
File:Porch 37-39 Grand Avenue.jpg, Recessed 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 ...
porch
A porch (from Old French ''porche'', from Latin ''porticus'' "colonnade", from ''porta'' "passage") is a room or gallery located in front of an entrance of a building. A porch is placed in front of the facade of a building it commands, and form ...
of double Greek revival
The Greek Revival was an architectural movement which began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States and Canada, but a ...
house, 37-39 Grand Avenue, Fair Haven.
File:37-39 Grand Ave.jpg, Double Greek revival house, 37-39 Grand Avenue.
File:One Grand St..jpg, One Grand Ave. (1890s)
See also
*
References
External links
East Haven Preservation Trust: Quinnipiac River Historic District
with text adapted from NRHP application document plus gallery of 8 photos
Quinnipiac River Village
{{Authority control
National Register of Historic Places in New Haven County, Connecticut
Italianate architecture in Connecticut
Greek Revival architecture in Connecticut
Queen Anne architecture in Connecticut
Fair Haven (New Haven)
Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Connecticut