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.
"When I was at Yale, I had a lot of inferiority and insecurity. Growing up meant getting out all those anxieties. You'll find most people who work hard -- make a lot of money -- have a psychological drive that forces them onward and up. I'm no different than anyone else."
"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."