Opposite the Old Campus, on Chapel Street, in New Haven, Connecticut: from when the glaciers melted, stewarded by the Quinnipiac people; in 1614, charted by a Dutch explorer; in 1638, colonized by Puritans; before, during, and after the American Revolution, home of the Founding Father, Roger Sherman, his wife Rebekah, their fifteen children, and the Sherman family store; in 1860, Gaius F. Warner's Italianate villa, by Henry Austin; in 1880, Carll's Opera House; in 1884, the Republican League; in 1887, the Hyperion; in 1903, the Union League Club, by Richard Williams; in 1926, the Roger Sherman Theater; beginning in 1977, a tradition of French fine dining, which continues today. While the Roger Sherman house is no longer standing, it holds up all right.
"The New Haven home of Roger Sherman — signer of the Bill of Rights, Articles of Confederation, Declaration of Independence, and Constitution of the United States — was drawn by hand for, 'The Commonwealth of Connecticut, Tercentenary Edition, 1635 - 1935,' by Amy Drevenstedt, 'published for your entertainment and enlightenment by the Children's Bookshop of 33 Wall Street, New Haven.'"
"The primary cause of the first regular engraving being performed in New Haven appears to have been the battle or action at Lexington. When the news of this affair reached New Haven, Arnold, as has been stated, started with about forty volunteers. Among this number were Mr. Amos Doolittle, and a Mr. Earl, a portrait painter. These young men were, no doubt, powerfully excited by what they saw and heard at the scene of action, and on their return to New Haven endeavored to show to their excited countrymen pictorially the opening scenes of the great contest which had now fully begun."
"Time and tempest felled it at last; but it blooms here in marble still, its name is preserved throughout the city as the distinguishing mark of divers stores, shops, and companies; and a pretty marble slab, like a grave stone, in Charter Oak Place inadequately marks where the original flourished until 1856. In Bushnell Park (named after that eminent theologian, the late Dr. Horace Bushnell, who was the chief promoter of this public pleasure ground) there is a couple of Charter Oaks junior, sprung from its fruit; and 'certified' acorns, possibly taken from these younger trees, but supposed to have grown upon the parent, have been worth their weight in gold at charity fairs. Across the Connecticut, leading to East Hartford, stretches a covered bridge one thousand feet long, and taking up in its construction a corresponding quantity of timber. Mark Twain, showing some friends about, told them that bridge also was built of wood from the Charter Oak."
"The first ascent of Mount Washington by a European settler, was by Darby Field, an Irish immigrant, who accomplished this difficult feat in 1642 from a southerly approach. Partly guided by Indians and with only primitive equipment at his disposal, he is thus alleged to be the originator of all Mount Washington ascensions."
"MOST New Yorkers have doubtless forgotten it, but until a little more than three centuries ago the town of Southold, L.I., was the southernmost holding of New Haven Colony. It was bitter loss to New Haven when Southold was written out of the Royal Charter. The people of New Haven stewed for three years before they finally accepted the charter in 1665, without the property on Long Island. The people of Southold resisted the change for many years longer, petitioning the King to be left as part of Connecticut, and refusing to pay New York taxes."
"Could those pious Puritans who landed at Quinnipiac in 1638 return to life and spend a day in modern New Haven, they would hardly know where they were or what to do with themselves. They would need to learn again how to live. The uses of almost everything would be unknown to them, and they would require a guide to show them around and explain things."
"No lighthouses guided the sailors, No breakwater sheltered the bay; No bridges of steel spanned the rivers — Just wilderness bordered the way."
"Late in the spring of 1614 Block's crew launched the new vessel, christened the Onrust, meaning 'Restlessness,' and sailed up the east side of Manhattan Island through the 'Helle-gadt' or 'Hell gate,' a treacherous tidal channel with swirling currents and hidden rocks, into Long Island Sound."
"As the city grows more dense and thronged around it, its use as a convenient spot for public buildings can no longer be thought of, but its priceless value as a breathing and resting and gathering place for the people becomes constantly more conspicuous. May it be guarded from enroachment in the future more jealously than in the past; and may our successors in its care of every race and lineage protect its soil, and cherish its traditions with that affectionate veneration which is the heritage and the test of every true son and daughter of New Haven!"
"The Richard Platt lot was on the southwest side of what is now Chapel Street, New Haven, facing the present grounds of Yale College and extending in the rear to land allotted to Rev. Peter Prudden. Richard is said to have built a house on this plot before his move to Milford, Conn., and, though he gradually disposed of his New Haven holdings after he relocated, he continued to own land in New Haven for a number of years."
Roger Sherman house 