USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > New Haven > New Haven, a book recording the varied activities of the author in his efforts over many years to promote the welfare of the city of his adoption since 1883, together with some researches into its storied past and many illustrations > Part 19
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New Haven's great reputation as the "City of Elms" was due more than any other one thing to the public spirit and personal efforts of Mr. Hillhouse, whose memory, considering his public services, has been sadly neglected. There is to-day no fitting memorial to him in all New Haven. The old Hill- house High School is no more, and his name is preserved in a public way only in Hillhouse Avenue and as a name of a section of the New Haven High School. We think of him chiefly to-day in connection with the elms, but he was a man of many activities, and one of the first citizens of the Republic in his time.
To start a movement for the replanting of elms, and at the same time to pay a tribute to the memory of James Hillhouse, I move that the President and Members of the Chamber of Com- merce recommend to the Mayor and the Department of Public Works that they make the necessary arrangements to replant the Green with elm trees, with suitable ceremonies, on October 2Ist, 1910, which is the anniversary of the birth of Hillhouse, of whom Dr. Leonard Bacon said: "He brought from a farm of his own in Meriden and planted, partly with his own hands, the elms that now interlock their giant arms over the famous colonnade of Temple Street."
In connection with this motion, I would like to add that I have made a careful inquiry and learn that October 2Ist is a suitable date for fall planting, though a few days later might be preferable. I am informed that the best results will be secured by locating the sites for all trees to be planted, digging holes of ample size, richly fertilizing them and then closing them until the day of the planting. In that way the earth
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will be better prepared for the young trees and no time will be lost in preparing for placing the trees in position. In my opinion, furthermore, an expert should be employed to lay out the planting with respect to conditions of to-day, since it may not be best strictly to follow the old arangement of the trees. There is no reason, I am assured, why the Green may not again be adorned with elms as fine as any that ever adorned it in the past, though not as many of course, since the concrete walks around and through the Green restrict the area favorable to the best growth of trees.77
77 The above letter was transmitted by the Secretary of the Chamber to the Board of Aldermen who, on June 21st, 1910, appointed a special committee to consider it, consisting of Messrs. Morrissey, Chillingworth, Grodske, Stoddard and Reilly. This special committee fixed the evening of August 25th for a public hearing, at which the Special Aldermanic Com- mittee was represented by Messrs. Morrissey, Chillingworth and Grodske. The following citizens appeared and spoke in behalf of the project: Dr. Edward H. Jenkins of the Connecticut Agricultural Station, Dr. Wilton E. Britton, State Entomologist, Mr. Ernest F. Coe of the Elm City Nursery Company, Mr. Lewis S. Welch, Chairman of the Town and City Improvement Committee of the Chamber of Commerce, Mr. John F. Galligan, and the writer. President Ullman, of the Chamber of Com- merce, was represented by Mr. Julin, Secretary of the Chamber, who read a letter from President Ullman, and also spoke in his own behalf. William H. Ayling, City Superintendent of Trees, was also present. Mr. James Hillhouse, grand-nephew of Senator Hillhouse, the prime-mover in the planting of the New Haven elms, was an interested spectator. Presi- dent Ullman's letter was as follows:
NEW HAVEN, CONN., Aug. 24, 1910. To the Special Committee on Trees, Board of Aldermen, City of New Haven, Conn.
Gentlemen :- I wish to express my hearty approval of the suggestion of Mr. George Dudley Seymour as approved by the Committee on Town and City Improvements and endorsed by vote of the Chamber of Com- merce, that October 21, 1910, be set apart for municipal observance in the matter of planting elms on the Central Green. The date I am told is late enough for proper fall planting, and the sentiment contained in the date as the anniversary of the birth of James Hillhouse makes it doubly appropriate, other considerations being equal.
The trees selected should not be too small but large enough to help out a present plan of beautification, though not so large that the expense will be excessive and the chance of life for the trees small.
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NEW HAVEN :
I trust that your Honorable Committee will find it wise to report favor- ably the proposition under consideration.
Respectfully, ISAAC M. ULLMAN, President of the Chamber of Commerce.
On Tuesday, September 6th, the Special Committee on Trees brought in the following report :
To the Honorable Board of Aldermen of the City of New Haven:
Your Special Committee on Trees, to whom was referred the petition (communication) of the Chamber of Commerce for the replanting of the Central Green with trees and for the establishment of a "Tree Day" in honor of the memory of the late James Hillhouse, beg leave to report that they have attended to the business assigned, and on due examination are of the opinion that the prayer of said petitioner should be granted.
They therefore respectfully recommend the passage of the following order :
All of which is respectfully submitted.
JOSEPH F. MORRISSEY, Chairman.
ORDERED, That the New Haven Commission of Public Parks be and they are hereby requested to establish and maintain a nursery, under their management and control, from which the City of New Haven may from time to time obtain shade trees for public purposes. And the Board of Finance is respectfully requested to make suitable annual appropriations to cover the expenses of establishing, furnishing and maintaining said nursery.
ORDERED, That the Director of Public Works cause to be prepared in proper places on the Central Green, excavations, to remove sand and fill in with loam and turfed over as soon as possible, to receive elm trees to be provided by the City and planted on October 21, 1910, the anniver- sary of the birth of James Hillhouse, to the full extent that the finances at his command will permit.
RESOLVED, That October 21, 1910, be celebrated with proper ceremonies under the direction of his Honor, the Mayor, to commemorate the memory of James Hillhouse and as a token of appreciation by the citizens of New Haven of his generosity in planting elms upon the green which has resulted in New Haven being recognized the world over as the City of Elms.
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RESOLVED, That in consideration of the evidence submitted to this committee at its public hearing, held August 25, 1910, of the large amount of damage done to the shade trees of the City by the unhitched horses of the milk men, the grocers and others, the Chief of Police be and hereby is directed to strictly enforce the ordinances relative to unhitched horses.
The Elms Planted 1910 and 1914.
A few elms were planted with simple ceremonies on "Hill- house Day" (October 2Ist, 1910), but the impoverished soil of the Green was not suitably enriched preparatory to plant- ing them, and, as expected (by the writer) none of them survived.
In 1914 double rows of elms were planted by Mr. Amrhyn, Superintendent of Parks, to outline the mall laid out on the Elm, Church and Chapel Street sides of the Green by Fred- erick Law Olmsted. These elms are alive, but despite the care bestowed upon them are not (1920) in a flourishing condition, being seriously infected by the leopard moth. It may now be questioned if, under conditions like those of to-day, the Green can be again adorned with elms anything like those of the "Great Days." There never was another "Hillhouse Day."
CENTRAL GREEN USED BY PUBLIC.
To the Editor of the Union:
I noticed in Sunday's Union an article highly commending the mall, now finished, on the Elm and Church Street sides of the lower Green. In the article in question the planning of the mall was attributed to our capable City Engineer, Mr. Frederick L. Ford. That is a mistake. The mall was designed by Mr. Frederick Law Olmsted, one of the authors of the New Haven City Improvement Report. Subsequent to the publica- tion of the New Haven report, the New Haven Park Commission employed Mr. Olmsted to study the Green and make recommendations for its improvement.
Mr. Olmsted submitted a plan for the park commission to follow. The grading of the Green, the installation of irrigating pipes, and the planting of a double row of elms on the Chapel, Church and Elm Street sides of the lower Green, are all recommendations of Mr. Olmsted. I am free to admit that personally I never liked the idea of the mall, though on the other hand, I can see that ultimately a broad walk between double rows of trees will have a fine effect.
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NEW HAVEN :
I take this opportunity of saying that after a residence of over thirty years in New Haven, I have never seen a sight, on the whole, so impressive as that I viewed from my office windows, Saturday night, July 4th, when I saw the lower Green packed with an immense throng of people to witness the fireworks. Such a use of our public square by an immense body of our people of all classes and all ages, certainly justifies its original design and is in accordance with the traditions of the use of the Green since 1638.
I am sure that no one who saw that crowd and realized its significance, can fail to enlist himself in that growing body of citizens who are unalterably opposed to any invasion of the Green by so much as an inch of space, by any private interests. The Green should be preserved for all time for just such uses of it by the entire public as New Haven provided in its historic Green, for the celebration of our great national holiday.
New Haven, Conn., July 6, 1914.
GEORGE DUDLEY SEYMOUR.
THE USE OF THE GREEN.
(From the New Haven Journal-Courier of July 6th, 1918.)
The inspiring use made yesterday of the Green justifies the wisdom of the Founders of New Haven in setting apart a great public square as a common gathering place, and also calls upon us to thank the generations of city fathers who have preserved it from invasion and handed it down to us for such uses of it as were made yesterday. Did Governor Eaton or the Rev. Mr. Davenport, or John Brockett, surveyor, have any vision of yesterday as they laid out the market place of the city they were founding? Of course not; but what a monument it remains to their faith in God's purposes! I doubt if in the entire history of the Green extending over a period of 280 years, a more notable use of it was made than was made of it yesterday, when a great part of our citizens gathered upon it and around it, to celebrate Independence Day, and to declare our common purpose in the war.
Yesterday, thanks to our priceless heritage in the Green, all classes of our citizens met on common ground, brought together by a common bond to declare a common purpose. Can the value of such an occasion be over-estimated in binding together the different elements of our hetero- geneous life? With the Green encumbered, such a public gathering could not have taken place under conditions anywhere near so inspiring.
Since I came to New Haven to live, in 1883, it has been proposed to put a soldiers' monument upon the Green, to locate a combined public library and natatorium upon the Green, to put a city hall upon the Green, to put waiting stations and comfort stations upon the Green, to plant the Green with flower beds, to ornament it with statues and arches, and lastly to convert a portion of it into a parking place for automobiles. Happily none of these projects has gone through, and but for the three churches, the Green presents an unbroken surface. I must except the
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THE USE OF THE GREEN
Bennett Fountain, which I believe must soon be removed to a more appropriate place in one of our outlying public parks. No monument of whatever character located upon the Green and dedicated to public uses could symbolize our common brotherhood so finely as does the Green itself. Every citizen has an ownership in it, and feels that he can enjoy it, not by sufferance, but by right.
Within a few months it has been proposed to organize a Society for the Defense of New Haven Green. Such an organization should be formed and every one of our citizens should be a member of it, from the mayor down to our humblest habitant. For my part, the use of the Green from time to time by great bodies of our citizens of all nationalities is by far the most inspiring sight that New Haven offers, and its most helpful augury. Every lover of New Haven and every believer in free institutions should stand shoulder to shoulder to defend the old Green from invasions of whatever character.
New Haven, July 5, 1918.
G. D. SEYMOUR.
1
THE ELMS OF "DEAR OLD YALE."
. "you loiter away under the trees. The monster elms, which have bowered your proud steps through four years of proudest life, lift up to the night their rounded canopy of leaves with a quiet majesty that mocks you. They kiss the same calm sky which they wooed four years ago; and they droop their trailing limbs lovingly to the same earth, which has steadily and quietly wrought in them their stature and their strength."- Donald G. Mitchell in Dream Life (1851), p. 130.
CONSULE PLANCO. In Plancus' days, when life was slow, We dwelt within the Old Brick Row Before Durfee or Welch was built, Or gilded youths in Vanderbilt Looked down upon the mob below, Then Freshmen did not use to go 'Most every evening to the show ;
Quite inexpensive was our gift In Plancus' days. We had no football then, you know : All bloodless lay the untrodden snow, No gore was shed, no ink was spilt, No poet got upon his stilt To write these frenchified rondeaux, In Plancus' days. -Professor Henry Augustin Beers, Yale 1869.
XII
A LETTER TO THE NEW HAVEN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE IN OPPOSITION TO A PROJ- ECT TO ERECT A WAITING ROOM ON THE NEW HAVEN GREEN.
"Facility of communication is the very basis for the existence of cities; improved methods of general transportation are at the root of the modern phenomenon of rapid city growth; and the success of a city is more dependent upon good means of circulation than upon any other physical factor under its control." Frederick Law Olmsted: Address at Roches- ter, New York, May 2d, 1910.
NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT, April 25th, 1913.
Dear Mr. Secretary:
Your letter of April 12th, asking me to be one of several to speak on the subject of the project of a waiting-room on the Green at the meeting of the Chamber on April 27th, is before me. Since I am to be in Chicago on the 27th, I will state my views in writing.
I cannot too strongly emphasize my objection to the erection of a waiting-room of any character on any place on the Green. I also object to the erection of any shelter of any description over that portion of the sidewalk around the Green. I object to any invasion of the Green and the streets which belong to the public, on principle; I also object to a waiting-room on the Green or any shelter over the sidewalk, for practical reasons.
It must be clear to everyone who has made any attempt to count the people who wait in crowds on Chapel Street west of Church Street, and the crowds of people who wait on Church Street north of Chapel Street, that no waiting station on the Green can possibly accommodate them all, since it could not be conveniently located, and since it could not well be made large enough, without passing all bounds.
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WAITING STATION ON THE GREEN
Some idea of the size which a waiting-room on the Green would have to be, to be large enough to accommodate the people who wait on Church Street on the north side of Chapel Street, may be derived from the figures presented with the plan brought forward last September by the late Alderman Jensen for widening Church Street. His scheme included a waiting- room on the Green one hundred and fifty feet long and ten feet wide. Alderman Jensen, it must be remembered, was then one of the engineers in the employ of the Consolidated Road, whose officials must have been familiar with his plan. If we place any waiting-room on the Green, it must be large enough not only for the crowds who would use it to-day, but for the larger crowds of the future, when the congestion will be much greater than it is now, unless radical steps are taken to solve our ever present traction problem. What I want to make clear is, that it is practically impossible to locate any waiting- room on the Green so that it would accommodate all of the people who would wish to use it and that to accommodate even a portion of the people who would wish to use it, it would have to be very large.
No city with which I am familiar, American or foreign, has a waiting station or a sidewalk shelter in its congested portion for the accommodation of pedestrians waiting for trolley cars or busses. On the other hand, every effort is made to keep the congested portions of cities as free from obstructions of all sorts as is possible.
I think it will be impossible for any advocate of a waiting- room on the Green to point to any city that has allowed a private corporation to take public ground for such a purpose. Where waiting-rooms have been established in cities, they have been built on land acquired by the traction companies, as in one or two places in Boston; but even these waiting-rooms have not been built in congested places.
Any waiting-room on the Green would deface the Green and, in my opinion, pave the way for its invasion by larger and larger waiting-rooms as time goes on. Any structure on the Green at or near the corner of Church and Chapel streets
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NEW HAVEN :
would block the view of our new Public Library and County Court House, and destroy the character of the Green as a great open space in the heart of the City. With the elms a thing of the past, we have need enough to beautify the Green rather than deface it.
I do not wish to be unreasonable, but I do not see why this community should be asked even to consider the location of a waiting-room on the Green, until it is perfectly patent that no other place can be secured which would reasonably accom- modate the public ; assuming for the moment, that any waiting- room at the intersection of Church and Chapel streets can be made large enough really to accommodate the public now and in the years to come, and that our problem is a problem to which a waiting-room offers the real solution. The Consoli- dated Railroad is by all odds the richest citizen of the State. It secured its invaluable franchise for running its tracks through our city streets for nothing, and can well afford to buy a waiting-room site. Such a site, if suitably located, might ultimately be used as an entrance for the subway which I feel certain will some day pass under the Green, and which, I under- stand, is a feasible project so far as the matter of water levels is concerned.
The real problem before this community is not a waiting- room problem, but a traction problem. While we are consid- ering a waiting-room on the Green, we should be consider- ing the blocking of traffic on Church and Chapel streets by the trolley cars, and the interference with the passage of pedes- trians and all kinds of vehicles, by the crowds of people who are all the time getting into and out of trolley cars. We already have a congestion problem of far more seriousness than our waiting-room problem, and this congestion problem is growing more and more pressing. As the number of trolley cars increases and as the cars increase in size and in frequency of running, and as the number of automobiles increases and as they increase in size, and as the number of pedestrians increases, as that number is increasing all the time, the situa- tion is bound to be worse and worse. A waiting-room would
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WAITING STATION ON THE GREEN
scarcely palliate the trouble at all-would in fact probably make it worse.
New Haven to-day is a cross-roads town in the sense that it has but one distributing point, viz., the intersection of Chapel and Church streets. Following the inevitable rule of growth, the congestion at this distributing point is bound to increase. Land will increase in value at this point as the city increases in population; as the land increases in value the taxes assessed upon it will be put higher. As the taxes increase, there will be a disposition to build very tall buildings on the properties adjacent to this center of distribution. The taller the buildings the more people to use them and the greater the need for room in the streets and sidewalks.
This rule of growth in towns with one center of distribution follows an inevitable law, and results in a city inconvenient to live in and a city in which the values are not fairly distributed. The ideal city is one in which there are several distributing points, and hence several points where a large amount of business is done. In such a city the values of land are better equalized.
We have, as I have said, a traction problem, and it should be studied as such, so as to provide different centers of distri- bution for the traveling public moving in different directions. I will not pretend to say where these centers should be, more than that it is apparent that one of them should be at the corner of State and Chapel streets, close to the viaduct. To-day trade is moving westward from that point and values must ultimately fall if they have not already fallen. This trade would be held and land values maintained in that vicinity if the intersection of Chapel and State streets should be made a station for the exchange of traction passengers. I need not amplify this thought as it illustrates my point. No reason can exist why through passengers between the railway station and the outlying portions of the city and the suburbs should be carried through Chapel and Church streets, or transferred at that point rather than at some point to one side.
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NEW HAVEN :
For the reasons above given, and for others which I might advance, I am opposed to the location of any waiting station on the Green, or to any shelters over the sidewalks adjoining the Green, which belongs to the entire community and which should be guarded by the entire community against invasion of any sort. The very fact that the location of a waiting sta- tion on the Green-the chief ornament of New Haven, and its most historic feature-is before this Chamber for discussion, shows how far we are to-day in New Haven from appreciating the Green at its true value as our great municipal asset. I venture to prophesy that twenty-five years hence such a propo- sition as placing a waiting station on the Green could never get a hearing in the hall of the New Haven Chamber of Com- merce.
I am in favor of having a commission appointed to study the problem as a traction problem, unless assurances can be secured from the officers of the Consolidated Road that they will take up the problem as a traction problem, and take steps to arrange for new centers of distribution by a re-routing of their tracks.78
To Charles E. Julin, Esqr.,
Sec'y New Haven Chamber of Commerce, New Haven, Conn.
78 This project was earlier discussed at a Chamber of Commerce luncheon held at the Hotel Taft on March 16, 1913. Plans prepared by an engineer of the New Haven Road for two waiting stations each three hundred feet long were shown and their erection was warmly advocated by his Honor the Mayor, and many others. The writer was the only person who could be found to speak in opposition to the plan of the engineer of the New Haven road.
A commission was appointed to study the problem as a traction problem. So far as I am aware this commission never made a report. A full account of this meeting was published in the N. H. Evg. Register of Mch. 6th and in the Journal-Courier of Mch. 17th, 1913.
.
XIII
A PROPOSITION TO REGULATE ILLUMINATED SIGNS.79
To the President and Members of the Chamber of Commerce:
I have been asked to call the attention of the Chamber of Commerce to the widespread movement for the regulation of outdoor advertising, such as street signs and billboards. France has for years closely supervised outdoor advertising and taxed it. Our consul general to France states in a late report that the authority over all advertising displayed in public places is so complete that the abuses prevailing in other countries are practically unknown in France, where no one is permitted to deface streets and public places with crude announcements of business. The result is that outdoor advertising in France is restrained and everywhere charac- terized by better taste than with us and never approaches the glare and rudeness characteristic of much of the outdoor advertising in this country. In Germany outdoor advertising is closely supervised and carefully restricted. Billboards such as line the streets of American cities are unknown. One of the great reasons why the cities on the continent of Europe impress the American traveler so much is, that the whole sub- ject of advertising signs is so carefully regulated and con- trolled. This adds more to the attractiveness of foreign cities than the average traveler, who does not search for the reasons, realizes.
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