New Haven History

Max Adler House // 1879

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The Max Adler House on Greene Street in New Haven’s Wooster Square neighborhood is a flamboyant example of Victorian-era residential architecture that is hard to classify as an architectural style. The residence was constructed in 1879 for Max Adler (1841-1916) a German-born Jewish immigrant who grew up in New Haven and became a leader in industry at a young age. Max founded the Strouse & Adler Corset Company, which is said to be the first corset factory in the United States. The company did very well and he was able to erect this residence overlooking Wooster Square park for his family. Architecturally, the house has a mansard style roof, a feature of the Second Empire style; applied stickwork in the wooden bays, porch and dormers, a feature of the Stick style; and embroidered panel brickwork and terra cotta, elements of the emerging Queen Anne style. The Adler House has been lovingly preserved and is one of New Haven’s finest Victorian-era residences.

Former St. Casimir’s Church // 1872

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Built in 1872, this Victorian Gothic style church on Greene Street in the Wooster Square area of New Haven, Connecticut, has had a varied history that tells the full story of its neighborhood. The church was originally constructed as the Davenport Congregational Church and was designed by New Haven architect, Rufus G. Russell, who formerly worked many years for Henry Austin, the city’s leading architect, before opening his own firm. In the early 20th century, the neighborhood demographics shifted to a more diverse area of recently arriving immigrants who worked in nearby industry and the edifice was occupied by an Italian Baptist church. 1927, the church was purchased by a local Lithuanian congregation, who re-established the building as the St. Casimir Catholic Church. For nearly 100 years, the church remained an active use anchoring the iconic Wooster Square park until the congregation closed, leaving the building’s fate unclear. Luckily, developers purchased the property, which is located within a local historic district, and converted the church into residential units.

Strouse, Adler Company Corset Factory // c.1880

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The Strouse, Adler Company Corset Factory is a historic factory complex at 78-84 Olive Street in New Haven, Connecticut that has been adaptively reused into apartments, serving an important second life. Developed between 1876 and 1923, the complex was the largest and oldest of New Haven’s several corset manufacturers, and remained in continuous operation for that purpose until 1998. The company was originally founded in 1861 as J.H. Smith and Company, and was the nation’s first manufacturer of corsets. The business was purchased the following year by Isaac Strouse, who took on Max Adler, a local dry goods retailer, as a partner. The company adopted the name Strouse, Adler in 1899 and was incorporated in 1927. The complex eventually closed and was converted to apartments, serving an important need for housing in the region.

Hotchkiss-Stephens House // c.1843

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The Hotchkiss-Stephens House on Wooster Place overlooks the iconic Wooster Square park in New Haven, Connecticut, and is significant as an early neighborhood residence altered after the Civil War in the fashionable Italianate style. The brick residence is said to have been originally designed by Ithiel Town for Russell Hotchkiss (1781-1843), an early merchant in the neighborhood. Hotchkiss lived in the home just a year before his death in 1844. His second wife remained in the home for some years after his death, along with children and two Black female servants according to census records. The property was later purchased by Edward Stevens (1824-1884), a manager at the New Haven Clock Company, who had the property modernized with a full third floor with bracketed cornice, iron balconies and garden fence, and its stunning two-story castiron side porches.

Mayor Robertson House // 1836

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This large, brick, Greek Revival style residence sits on the corner of Wooster Place and Greene Street in New Haven’s iconic Wooster Square neighborhood, and stands as an important example of the style along with its significance of its early owner, who became a prominent local politician. In 1836, Dr. John Brownlee Robertson (1809-1892) married a second time to Mabel Heaton, following the death of his first wife, Mary, a year prior. Mabel’s father Abram Heaton, was an early investor who helped develop Wooster Square into the high-quality neighborhood in the early-mid 19th century, and upon this prominent corner lot, had this residence built for his newlywed daughter and son-in-law. The five-bay, two-story house features its original fluted column portico and a shallow hipped roof and was converted to a two-family around the turn of the 20th century.

Elliott-Russo House // c.1835

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Located at the corner of Wooster Place and Chapel Street in the iconic Wooster Square neighborhood of New Haven, this early Greek Revival style house is a physical landmark showcasing the evolution of the neighborhood in the 19th and 20th centuries. The residence was built around 1835 either for or purchased early on by Matthew Griswold Elliott (1805-1892), a businessman who later engaged in politics and became Vice President of the New Haven Savings Bank and a director of the New York and Hartford Railroad. In 1890, the property was purchased by Paulo “Paul” Russo, an Italian immigrant who was born in 1859, in Viggiano, Italy. His family moved to New York in 1869 and then New Haven in 1872. Paulo opened a small market in New Haven which became the first Italian-owned business in the state of Connecticut. In 1893, Russo became the first Italian to graduate from Yale Law School and he helped foster and grow the local Italian-American community around Wooster Square. After Paul Russo, Michael D’Onofrio, also of Italian descent, purchased the home and along with his wife, brothers, and friends, D’Onofrio transformed the building into a funeral home for over a decade before the house was converted to condominiums. The Elliott-Russo House is a landmark example of a hipped-roof, Greek Revival style residence with smooth flushboard siding, pilasters dividing the bays, and unique Greek meander motifs in the window lintels.

Olive Street Rowhouses // c.1865

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The Wooster Square area of New Haven, Connecticut, is comprised of a lovely collection of houses and institutional buildings from the 1830s through the late 19th century, showing the ever-changing taste of architectural styles from Greek Revival to Italianate to Second Empire and Queen Anne. These rowhouses on Olive Street serve as bookends to long rows of houses on Court Street, a narrow, one-way street radiating from Wooster Square. The buildings were developed by the Home Insurance Company, a fire insurance firm and developer that helped fuel the development of residential New Haven in the 1860s by investing in real estate, primarily with fireproof masonry buildings. These Italianate style rowhouses were built in the 1860s after the Civil War and were sold on speculation to middle-class families. All buildings retain the original bracketed cornices, brownstone sills, lintels, and basement facing, and projecting porticos at the entries.

St. Michael’s Roman Catholic Church // 1904

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St. Michael’s Roman Catholic Church in Wooster Square, New Haven, Connecticut, was established in 1889 to serve a burgeoning community of Italian immigrants and is said to be the oldest Italian Catholic church in the state. New Haven’s census of 1870 listed just ten Italian residents and by 1900, the census listed more than 5,000 Italian-born residents. Most of these Italian immigrants were drawn to New Haven for employment in the growing industrial and railroad industries and the proximity to New York, where many arriving immigrants passed through. New Haven’s Italian community centered around Wooster Square, where many today know all about the many Italian groceries and nationally known pizzerias. The Italian Community acquired a c.1855 church here by 1899 and following a fire, rebuilt the church in the current form. The New Haven-based architectural firm of Brown and Von Beren furnished plans for the Italian Renaissance Revival style renovations, which was completed in 1904 with bold central tower and stucco walls, retaining many original Italianate windows. The church has served as an important cultural and institutional landmark in New Haven for over 120 years and the congregation remains active.

Sheffield-Sterling-Strathcona Hall // 1931

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Sheffield-Sterling-Strathcona Hall, a handsome Collegiate/Neo-Gothic Revival style building at the corner of Prospect and Grove streets, was built in 1931-1932 as three, interconnected buildings in a single composition. Architect, Clarence C. Zantzinger, designed the building, with its facade dominated by a 11-story corner tower flanked by four-story wings. The building replaced the Old Sheffield Hall (later known as South Sheffield), originally a hotel built by James Abraham Hillhouse around 1820, which later served as the Yale Medical Institution, later renovated and expanded for the Sheffield Scientific School, which officially merged with Yale University in 1956. The new building is named for its historic connections with the Sheffield Scientific School, also following donations by John W. Sterling and Lord Strathcona. Steel-framed and clad with Indiana limestone, the building commands the prominent corner site.

Old Wolf’s Head Society Building // 1884

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The Wolf’s Head was established in 1883 as one of Yale’s secret societies. It was intended as an alternative to the more established Skull and Bones and Scroll and Key societies, and it made a statement when it completed this clubhouse in 1884. The handsome Richardsonian Romanesque clubhouse at the corner of Prospect and Trumbull streets in New Haven was designed by the firm of McKim, Mead and White, which would go on to become one of the leading architectural firms in the country during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The rough-faced brownstone structure was historically covered in climbing ivy, adding to the building’s mysterious nature. Wolf’s Head made it their home from 1884 until 1924 when the building was sold to the University and Wolf’s Head moved to new quarters on York Street. The building was rented to clubs for years until the early 1960s, when it started to be used for faculty offices, staff and classrooms. The building was added onto and today, the old Wolf’s Head is used by the Institution for Social and Policy Studies.