On Chapel Street, in New Haven, Connecticut, opposite the Old Campus: from the time of glaciation, cultivated by the Quinnipiac; in 1614, charted by a Dutch explorer; in 1638, colonized by the Puritans; throughout the American Revolution, home of the signer, Roger Sherman, his second wife Rebecca Prescott-Sherman, their fifteen children, and the family store; in 1860, industrialist Gaius Fenn Warner's Italianate villa, by Henry Austin; in 1880, Marshal Peter R. Carll's Opera House; in 1884, the Republican League; in 1887, the Hyperion; in 1903, the Union League addition, by Richard Williams; in 1926, the Roger Sherman Theater; beginning in 1976, a tradition of French fine dining, that continues today. While the Roger Sherman house is no longer standing, it holds up all right.
Menu for the 29th Annual Banquet of the Union League Club of New Haven, given in honor of General Edwin S. Greeley, former club president, featuring dishes such as, "Caviar Au Round Table," "Salad Sherman 1789," and, "Ice Cream in Fancy Forms."
"Jim Grabowski crossed his arms, the fingers of one hand enclosing a delicate, fan-shaped paintbrush, and summed up his career as an artist. 'I paint things nobody else paints... my way,' said the man whose robust, black-bearded appearance is as solid as the work he produces. Grabowski assembles collages. He combines acrylic backgrounds with whatever material interests him, from sea fans to wallpaper and gold foil."
"Dr. A. E. Winchell and George D. Hughes, proprietors of the Hyperion, are about to erect two new brick buildings close to the theater. One will be a business block, three stories high and 36 by 50 feet in dimensions, to contain a large basement office, two stores on the first floor, two offices in the second story and an office for a photographer on the top floor. The location of the block will be directly in front of the Hyperion, on the vacant plot where a fountain has heretofore stood, leaving the wide concrete walk for a passage-way to the Hyperion between this new structure and the Republican league building."
"When you dine at Robert Henry's, wear your best clothes; the restaurant's elegance deserves to be honored. Skip lunch; the food is of a quality that demands the keenest of appetites. And bring your checkbook; excellence at this level doesn't come cheap."
"Jo McKenzie, a former chair of the state GOP and longtime friend of the senator, played a practical joke on Senator Dodd, when he showed up the night of October 13, for the gala opening of her family's New Haven restaurant, Robert Henry's. McKenzie, who has previously managed the Inn at Mill River in Stamford, and the Copper Beech Inn in Ivoryton, presented Dodd with -- that's right -- a gift-wrapped box of doughnuts."
August 22, 1902 — President Theodore Roosevelt toured the city of Hartford in a state-of-the-art horseless carriage aka electric car. The vehicle, a Phaeton Mark IV, built by the Columbia Electric Vehicle Company of Hartford, was designed by a member of the Union League Club of New Haven, William Hooker Atwood.
"In October 2007, while dining in the Clubroom at the Union League Café, John Kiley took an impromptu photograph of his wife, Sandra Kiley, with the British new wave group, Duran Duran. The band played two warm-up performances at the Chevrolet Theatre, in Wallingford, Connecticut, before debuting their latest album with a string of shows on Broadway."
"I meet Jan Cunningham, appropriately, in the Bistro des Artistes of the Union League Café on Chapel Street, where several of her recent paintings are on view through the end of September. She is serious and intense as she recalls leaving her native Texas to study painting at Rhode Island School of Design in the 1970s, and her subsequent move to New Haven in the early '80s."
"The citizens of this place were highly gratified by the presence of The President of the United States, who came to town last Saturday afternoon in good health. The next day he attended Divine Service in Trinity Church. His Excellency the Governor, his Hon. the Lieutenant Governor, Hon. Roger Sherman, the Hon. the Speaker, of the House of Representatives, with the Treasurer, dined with him; — and attended the afternoon Service, at the Rev. Dr. Edwards's Meeting. "
"Merchants in the area are delighted by the rebuilding of the former Union League clubhouse, which had deteriorated greatly in its 13 years of idleness. Vandals broke many of its plate glass windows and the building developed into a depressing sight."