The Roger Sherman house — New Haven, guided by history.
A New Haven history blog exploring the past of the old Roger Sherman house, at approximately 1032 Chapel Street, New Haven, Connecticut. Inhabited for millenia by Native Americans, planted by Puritans in 1638, this ground has been home to: a house built by Roger Sherman for his family; the Gaius Fenn Warner mansion, (with double-bow front!) by architect Henry Austin; Carll's Opera House; a radical Republican League club; the Hyperion theatre; a less radical Union League club, (there was bowling!) by architect Richard Williams; a succession of French fine dining restaurants; and much more. While the Roger Sherman house is no longer standing, it continues to stand for New Haven, guided by history.
"The ironmonger opposite South College uses his front yard to advertise his wares. On the door-steps is a pair of 'portal-warding lion-whelps.' On one side of the walk is a deer with liver-colored mottlings, and on the other a realistic Newfoundland dog. In the center of the right-hand grass plot is a bathukolpos sphinx on a pedestal, and in the centre of the left-hand plot an ornamented fountain with goldfish. On the edge of the basin squats a large green frog."
"The first time you climb High Street Gate marks a new phase of your life at Yale that can be most accurately described as the 'late-night phase.' Yale Police lock the gate at 12:30 a.m. on weeknights, which seals off all access to Old Campus except for Phelps Gate, directly across the Green."
"The great majority of photographs in this book are from the collection of the New Haven Colony Historical Society. But in order to give broader scope to this visual document of life in early Connecticut, other sources were used as well. These include the collection of Mrs. Edith LaFrancis (for all the striking photographs taken by George and Alvah Howes), the Sterling Memorial Library, Yale University (for selected scenes of life at early Yale)..."
