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 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."
"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 Road for the greater part, indeed the whole way, was very rough and stoney, but the Land strong... The City of New Haven occupies a good deal of ground, but is thinly, though regularly laid out and built. The number of Souls in it are said to be about 4000. There is an Episcopal Church, three Congregational Meeting Houses, and a College, in which are at this time about 120 Students under Auspices of Doctor Styles [Ezra Stiles]."
"The 'Spirit of 76.' It has endured for two hundred years. It was there — unformed and unnamed — the night disguised patriots threw chests of British-taxed tea into Boston Harbor. It became a fearful reality as rebel drum beats summoned Minutemen to Lexington Green. It was proudly declared in that summer of 1776, when men signed their names to a document that began,'When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another...' It was formally conceded by the British five years later, on the fields of Yorktown, as the American, General Lincoln, received the sword of defeated Cornwallis. Many fought to keep that spirit alive. Young, old, famous, unknown. Benjamin Franklin was 70 the year he signed the Declaration of Independence."
"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."
"Very early the next morning, General George Washington reviewed the local troops on the Green and set out to continue their journey, escorted as far as the historic 'Neck Bridge' by the Second Company of the Governor's Guard, another uniformed company and the company that had been recruited from the students of Yale College, and accompanied by a great number of the inhabitants of the town. Noah Webster, heading the procession with his fife, or to use his own words, 'It fell to my humble lot to lead this company with music.'"
"On September 23, 1779, Captain John Paul Jones fought a battle without parallel in naval history. Hitherto the contest upon the sea had been mainly a predatory warfare of privateers, aimed at the destruction of commerce and the plunder of merchant vessels. The young republic was without a navy proper. Called 'Pirate Jones' by the English, for retaliating on the coast of England for the atrocities committed on the coast of America, the captain of the Bon Homme Richard gallantly refused the sword of the surrending captain of the Serapis — but did take his ship."
"We enter, directly beneath the great Rotunda, the so-called Crypt, a circular chamber with a coronade of forty Doric columns, modeled after the Temple at Paestum. These columns are surmounted by groined arches supporting the floor above. The exact center of the Capitol building is indicated by a star in the pavement... The sub-basement, below this crypt, was originally planned to contain the tomb of George Washington. Since 1865 it has been the receptacle of the bier used to sustain the coffin of Abraham Lincoln and other notable Americans who have lain in state in the Capitol."
"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."
Roger Sherman house 