NOs. 30- 32 College St.
“No. 30 in 1886 was the home of William T. Bartlett and No. 32 was the residence of William R. Tyler from 1876 to 1898. Mr. Tyler built a new house next north (No. 34) on the side of the old Caleb Mix House and his family remained there till 1914 when they moved to No. 406 St. Ronan St.”
-Excerpt courtesy of Miss Zadie P. Tyler, Dana Archive, The New Haven Museum
William Bartlett House, by Preston Maynard
“230 College St., owned by Center Associates. Presently vacant, historic use was residential. The style of building is High Victorian Gothic. Identical matching townhouse demolished for parking area on right side. Front windows altered; now are enclosed. Situated along a busy commercial street just before it intersects with St. The house is one of several late 19th-c. residences in the area. These now house commercial uses. Block has been broken with intrusions, most of which are in the form of parking lots.
The building is a 2.5-story townhouse, 3 bays wide by 2 bays deep, with pitched roof. Roof is covered with imbricated slate tiles. The eaves are exposed and project over the end-walls. Gable-ends are supported by stick consoles. The front (east side) facade has a major gabled pavilion. This is slightly off-centered and has flat eaves, a molded rake board; arched braces, and a peak screen intersected by a drop pendant. Within the gable itself are paired window grouping, each bay has an arched head with cut-stone voussoirs and sill. Sash is 1×1 type. Also piercing the roof at this level is a single dormer with flaired roof and stickwork. The 2nd story has a segmental arch window openings with pointed arch window head and sill which forms a continuous course across the facade. The entry is off-centered under a bracketed entry porch. The entry has segmental arch opening with transom.
An architectural example of a handsome late 19th-c. townhouse in the High Victorian Gothic style. This building has steeply pitched roof, stick braces and rake boards, and polychrome masonry which are all details typical of the style. Its twin structure was demolished to provide access to the rear parking lot.
This house is one of the last 19th-c. dwellings still standing on the street. College St. was largely residential in the 18th and 19th-c. The commercial intrusions of the 20th-c. have all but eliminated this original fabric. This dwelling was built for William Bartlett about 1876.”
-Image courtesy of Yale University, New Haven Building Archive, “Historic Building Resources Inventory,” profile by Preston Maynard, New Haven Preservation Trust, August 1981
“The Ira Atwater House, located at 220 College Street, is one of the oldest residences in the commercial center of New Haven. The house was built circa 1817 and converted to commercial use in 1915 when picturesque storefront with leaded glass windows was added to the front of the building. The property has over 6000 square feet of space…
Built in the 1840s, the Thomas P. Merwin House was at one time the site of a former shirt factory… 4590 square feet… located at 228 College St.
One of the most outstanding examples of High Victorian Gothic style, the William Bartlett House was built in the mid-1870s. The house was originally one of a pair of identical townhouses… 3687 square feet… at 230 College St.”
-Excerpt courtesy of Newspapers.com, The Hartford Courant, Schiavone Realty and Development Corporation advertisement, Friday, March 29, 1985
Yale University Building Acquisitions
228 College Street – The Merwin
“Nestled on College Street above the popular Oaxaca restaurant, this spacious and elegant apartment is half a block from the New Haven Green and Yale’s ‘Old Campus.’ The Merwin 4-bedroom duplex unit features six independent central heating and cooling zones that tenants control for personal comfort. The utilities are electric and tenants are responsible for their utility charges. The property is also a short walk to Cedar Street and the Medical campus.”
-Excerpt courtesy of Elm Campus Partners, Chapel Street District Apartments, “228 College Street – The Merwin,” 2016
The William Bartlett House, by Margaret Moor
“The William Bartlett House was constructed in 1876 for Mr. Bartlett, an employee of the Treasurer Union Trust Company. Originally part of a duplex, the other half the building was destroyed in the first half of the 20th century to provide access to a rear parking lot. Today, the High Victorian Gothic building is the last remnant of the 18th and 19th century College Street residential neighborhood, serving as a reminder to busy passersby of the city’s long history. The building was converted for commercial use in the mid-20th century, and today is home to a classic New Orleans-style restaurant known as the ‘Queen Zuri.’
The Bartlett House is a 2.5 story brick townhouse built in the High Victorian Gothic style. It was originally constructed as part of a residential duplex, however its 232 College Street counterpart was torn down at the beginning of the 20th century to provide an alleyway for access to the public parking lot at the building’s back. The first story is raised off of the sidewalk, providing for a small courtyard at the front of the building. Once a front lawn, it has now been paved over with cement and is currently used as outdoor restaurant seating during the spring and summer months. The building’s windows are long and rectangular, and framed by cut-stone masonry. The current owners have chosen to accent the bright red brick with blue framing, creating an almost storybook feel for the outside of the property. Similarly, the off-center front door of the building is covered by an ornate, columned pavilion. The slate gabled roof is accentuated with intricate iron crossings that further evoke this mythical ambiance.
The William Bartlett House is situated along the busy commercial district section of College Street. It is one of three restaurant buildings dwarfed by the massive entertainment and industrial buildings surrounding it. As a main thruway connecting New Haven with the highway system just a few blocks south, College Street is bustling with cars and pedestrians at all times of day. The block features the more contemporary-style Shubert Theater, College Street Music Hall, and the Crown Street Garage. However, the Bartlett House’s unique High Victorian style adds an element of quaintness and serenity to the busy downtown atmosphere. In the summer months, the shaded front porch of the house offers an inviting refuge for hungry customers looking to enjoy a bit of live music and good, southern food. The Bartlett House keeps a growing street pedestrian friendly, and stands as a reminder of New Haven’s evolving history.
The William Bartlett House was originally the residence of Mr. William T. Bartlett, an employee of the Treasurer Union Trust Company. His family occupied the residence for nearly thirty years before passing it on to other local families, including real estate agents and nurses. The building remained a home until the early 1940s. Then, taking advantage of the expanding commercial downtown district, the Sudock family chose to convert the lower floor of the residence into a restaurant, and regulate their family home to the upper floors. In the 1960s and 1970s, the building transformed into a true mixed-use space, with multiple apartments on the upper floors and a beauty salon replacing the Sudock restaurant. In the 1990s, the Bartlett house was purchased by the Samurai Japanese Restaurant and remained a prime New Haven sushi spot until being taken over by the Queen Zuri in 2017. The transformation of the Bartlett house from a residential duplex into a commercial restaurant reflects the expansion of the New Haven downtown and eventual regulation of residential spaces to the outer edges of the original nine square grid. Its stark presence as such a beautiful Victorian townhouse amidst the more industrial buildings surrounding it today is a reminder of that history.
The William Bartlett House has stood in the same form since its creation in 1876, however the neighborhood surrounding it has undergone an immense transformation. When first constructed, the Bartlett house was one of dozens of residential homes on College Street and in the surrounding areas. It shared a block with the College Street Congregational Church and stood around the corner from Carll’s Opera house and the Grand Union Hotel. Its prime location just a block from the Yale University campus likely made the land well-desired by local New Haven residents. By the mid-1900s, the College and Crown street neighborhood was beginning to transform into a mixed-residential and commercial space. While it still remained a family home, some of the former residences across the street had been converted into apartments and office space, and the Taft Hotel had taken up residence on opposite block. An entertainment hub, the Shubert Theater across the street now attracted hundreds of people from around Connecticut to see productions of vast expense. No longer a quiet neighborhood, the Bartlett House too began to grow with its neighbors and by the mid-1900s had itself become a mixed-use building, hosting restaurants, hair salons and other businesses on its lower floor.
Past Tenants
1876–early 1900s: William Bartlett and family.
Early 1900s-1940s: Residential building occupied by various tenants.
1940s-1990s: Mixed-use commercial and residential building, started as a restaurant in the 1940s owned by the Sudock family, converted into a beauty salon in the 1960s-70s. The building was intermittently unoccupied.
1990s-2010s: Occupied by the Samurai Japanese Restaurant.
2017-present: Occupied by the Queen Zuri.”
-Excerpt courtesy of Yale University, New Haven Building Archive, “The William Bartlett House,” by researcher Maggie Moor, June 7, 2018
Going for the Gyoza in New Haven, by Patricia Brooks
“JAPANESE restaurants are not a yen a dozen in Connecticut, so it is always a pleasure to welcome a new one. Samurai, in downtown New Haven, provides a pleasant dining experience in terms of both food and tranquil surroundings. There’s nothing samurai-like or martial about the place, a two-story house across from the Shubert Theater with Japanese prints on pale yellow walls, a shoji screen at the entrance and huge white mulberry paper globes dangling from the ceiling in the two main dining rooms. The rooms, probably at one time the parlor and dining room of the house, lead into one another, and in a third room at the back, a long sushi bar dominates, with a sparkling array of fresh seafood. Up a long flight of mirror-lined stairs are additional dining rooms, well suited to private parties. Japanese waitresses in happi coats extend greetings at the entrance door.”
-Excerpt courtesy of the New York Times, Dining Out, “Going for the Gyoza in New Haven,” by Patricia Brooks, April 10, 1994
The Eighmie Patent Shirt
173.275. SHIRTS. Geo. D. Eighmie, Poughkeepsie, N. Y. [Filed Jan. 18, 1876.]
To all whom it may concern:
“Be it known that I, GEORGE D. EIGHMIE, of Poughkeepsie, in the county of Dutchess and State of New York, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Shirts; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawing forming a part of this specification, in which the figure is a front view.
This invention relates to certain improvements in shirts designed to obviate the breaking and rumpling of the bosom produced by the bending of the body and the girding of the suspenders. It consists in a bosom or front attached to the shirt about an inch from the edge, so as to leave a loose edge all around, beneath which the suspenders pass when bending forward. The upper part of the bosom is attached to the neck-band below the yoke band, so that the pressure of the suspenders on the shoulders does not cause the top of the bosom to bend or rumple.
In the drawing, A represents the shirt-bosom, of an inverted pear shape, attached to the body B by a continuous line of stitching, a, about one inch, more or less, from the edge, so as to leave a loose free edge, C, to the bosom all around. This edge allows the suspenders to slide under the same when the wearer is stooping or his shoulders bent around from sitting in a chair, and prevents the puckering and rumpling at the bosom. The neck-band E I make very narrow in front, and, instead of placing the button-hole for the collar-button in the same, I place it at f in the upper portion of the central plait of the bosom. In the bottom part of the free edge is worked a button-hole, b, which is to be buttoned to the nether garments to hold the bosom down, thus dispensing with the attached slip ordinarily used for this purpose. The upper portion of the bosom D is drawn inwardly and attached to the neck-band at C at a point below the yoke-band d. The object of this arrangement is to prevent the bending of the upper corners by the suspenders. When the upper portion of the bosom is attached to the yoke-band, the stiff bosom being-connected directly with the yoke-band seam, upon which the suspender bears, the pressure and rubbing action of the latter soon breaks and rumples the upper corners of the bosom, which difficulty is obviated by the arrangement before described.
I am aware of the patent to J. C. Dunham, dated May 25, 1,875, and fully disclaim the same. In this case the whole bosom is loose, except the upper half of the central row of plaiting, but this allows too much freedom of motion for the bosom, and, unless very stiffly starched, after a little wear it soon becomes displaced and works up. In this case, also, the upper part of the bosom is attached to the yoke-band, and open to the objection consequent upon this arrangement.
Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new is —
A shirt consisting of the combination, with the body B and the collar-band E, of the bosom A, attached to the body by a line of stitches, a, a short distance from the edge, which is left free all around, as at C, and attached at the top to the neck-hand at points below the yoke-band, substantially as and for the purpose described.
The above specification of my invention signed by me this 14th day of January, A. D. 1876.
GEO. D. EIGHMIE.
Witnesses:
SOLON C. KEMON,
CHAS. A. PETTIT.”
-Excerpt courtesy of the HathiTrust Digital Library, University of California, “Specifications and Drawings of Patents Issued from the U.S. Patent Office,” United States Patent Office, 1876
IMPROVED SHIRT
“Geo. D. Eighmie, Poughkeepsie, N. Y. — This invention relates to certain improvements in shirts, designed to obviate the breaking and rumpling of the bosom produced by the bending of the body and the girding of the suspenders. It consists in a bosom or front attached to the shirt about an inch from the edge, so as to leave a loose edge all round, beneath which the suspenders pass when bending forward. The upper part of the bosom is attached to the neck band below the yoke band, so that the pressure of the suspenders on the shoulders does not cause the top of the bosom to bend or rumple.”
-Excerpt courtesy of the HathiTrust Digital Library, Scientific American, “New Chemical and Miscellaneous Inventions,” March 11, 1876
A WEDDING
In New Haven Fifty Years Ago Last Evening.
“Fifty years ago last evening, September 2, 1857, at 6 o’clock in the old Chapel street church, which was on Chapel corner of Union streets, which afterwards gave place to the brick block were the Bushnell hardware store was located, and is now in the center of the great railroad cut, Thomas P. Merwin, then one of the young dry goods merchants of the city, occupying the double store on Chapel street, adjoining the New Haven National bank, was married to Harriett A. Warner, daughter of Gaius F. Warner, the malleable iron manufacturer, by the Rev. William T. Eustis, pastor of that church, who was then one of the most popular preachers in the city. Four children have blessed that union, all of whom are living in this city to congratulate this couple upon fifty years of their happy married life. After boarding in the family of William R. Baldwin on Olive street, one of the publishers of the Evening Register, one year and a half, Mr. and Mrs. Merwin established their home on College street, enlarging the same from time to time as the growing family necessitated, where they still reside.”
-Excerpt courtesy of the Library of Congress, Chronicling America, New Haven Morning Journal and Courier, Tuesday, September 3, 1907
“[Smith] Merwin was long a leading merchant tailor and much respected and esteemed. His sons are T. P. Merwin, the dry goods merchant, and E. P. Merwin and B. R. Merwin, the two latter of the firm of Ed. P. Merwin & Co., importing merchant tailors. The first named was the major of the Horse Guards a few years ago and that body never made a finer appearance, probably, than under his charge. Ed. P. Merwin is a veteran Gray, and his brother an active young Gray and President of the Grays’ Glee Club, of to day.”
-Excerpt courtesy of Google Books, “History of the New Haven Grays from Sept. 13, 1816, to Sept. 13, 1876,” by Jerome Bonaparte Luckè, 1876
The Stores
“No city can be said to be perfect unless well supplied with stores. These must be of many different kinds, the leading and attractive being the retail dry goods stores. With them New Haven is well supplied; and it is remarkable that the heaviest part of the retail dry goods business in New Haven is done on one street — Chapel street. You will find on Chapel street, above the depot and between it and Temple street, all the first-class dry goods Stores of the city. Of course this makes Chapel street, within those units, a most active and busy thoroughfare. It is the Broadway and Comhill of New Haven. These stores are not all of them very stylish although respectable in outward appearance, but are well packed with goods. Some of the Chapel street merchants carry large stocks of goods, and their trade is heavy. One of the best proofs of their success in the business is, that notwithstanding very heavy rents and other expenses, seldom one of them goes down. Perhaps it is true that New Haven is not overstocked with dealers in this trade, thus insuring success to the parties who venture.
But these places of business are presided over by gentlemen, and men of genius in their pursuits, or the contrary results might frequently be apprehended. The interior of most of these shops presents a solid bank of goods, and large, well arranged and attractive rooms. Take for example that of T. P. Merwin & Co; that of J. H. Coley, Munson & Carpenter, Allen & Co, Frazer & Newcomb, Lake, Browning & Co, Pallman, Bromley, Plumb, Wilcox & Hall, Milander, Camp & St. John, Malley, Smith, Blair & Collins etc. Mr. Plumb has a profitable trade, and a store often thronged with ladies where they find almost every imaginable article they desire for work, admiration and ware. Messrs. Lake Browning & Co, gentlemen traders, show a store packed with goods, and their sales we know must be heavy from the amount of customers we see constantly going in and coming out. So of Frazer & Newcomb where a large assortment of staple and fancy goods always blocks up the store. We bid success to them one and all.”
-Excerpt courtesy of the Internet Archive, New York Public Library, “The attractions of New Haven, Connecticut: a guide to the city,” by Samuel H. Elliot, 1869
Henry Warner Merwin
Business Address, 139 Orange Street, New Haven, Conn.
Residence, 28 College Street, New Haven, Conn.
“Henry Warner Merwin was born July 24, 1875, in New Haven, Conn., son of Thomas P. Merwin, a retired merchant born in 1833 in New Haven, Conn. His mother, Harriett A. (Warner) Merwin, was born in 1837 in Plymouth, Conn. Three cousins, Almon B. Merwin, ’57, Salter S. Clark, ’73, and Frederick M. Lloyd, ’93, were graduated at Yale. He prepared at the Hillhouse High School, New Haven, Conn. He took the Mechanical Engineering Course and received a Senior appointment. He is unmarried.
Merwin writes: ‘Studied law at Yale Law School, being an editor on the Yale Law Journal, and graduated in 1897, received the degree of LL.B., cum laude. Was with law firms of Cravath & Houston, and Seward, Guthrie & Steele in New York, from October, 1897, to April, 1900, during which time I lived in Brooklyn, N.Y. Have resided in New Haven, Conn., the balance of the time. Since March, 1901, have practiced law with Charles G. Morris, Yale ’95, under name of Morris & Merwin. Am a member of Graduates Club, Chamber of Commerce, Yale Golf Club, and Young Men’s Republican Club, all of New Haven.”
-Excerpt courtesy of Google Books, Yale University, “Quindecennial Record of the Class of 1895 Sheffield Scientific School of Yale University,” by the Class Secretaries Bureau through the Yale University Press, 1912. (top) -Image courtesy of Flickr, “New Haven, Connecticut at Crown and College Street with 1970s cars and the Exorcist movie at right at the Roger Sherman Theater,” photo by Andy Blair, July 1974
Roger Sherman house 