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.
"I do not know what caused the fire. A woman had just finished singing on the stage and the film was being shown. I saw a little smoke and a light which I thought had something to do with the production. Then I saw a piece of blazing material fall from the top of the stage. It was small, but it was followed by a burst of fire."
"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. 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."
"A culture that is primarily visual leaves no trace of its passage. It is unrecordable. Knowing this, it's still possible to get fragments of narratives, to imagine a grander architecture from the imprints of a crumbling building, and to reconstruct a small look at the past -- albeit inevitably colored by the present, by nostalgia and television and regret."
"Piano rags filled the air as waiters and waitresses bedecked in Gay Nineties clothing served the libations. A woman in a bear costume mingled with the crowd; a mime 'sang' songs of the era. Outside, a horse hitched to a carriage whinnied in the crisp, winter night. And who was in the carriage, trotting dignitaries up and down the street? Who else but Joel Schiavone, New Haven's flashiest developer, a flamboyant 46-year-old who believes -- and proves -- that showmanship is as much an ingredient of success as business sense."
Roger Sherman house 