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.
"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. "
"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."
"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.'"
"[A] prominent trait of his character -- to give the people what they want and demand. Mr. Bunnell's long training with P. T. Barnum has schooled him thoroughly in the art of amusement catering... This is the ninth year of his theatrical management in New Haven, and the years have been successions of triumphs. Mr. Bunnell... is fully equipped to supply the people with the amusements they want, for [he] so thoroughly understand[s] the wants of the New Haven public. The time will come, added Mr. Bunnell, when the Hyperion will be denominated 'The theater of New England.'"