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 22
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I daresay that my effort to ascertain the fact about the authorship of the design of the old College Library is out of all proportion to the value of the thing, but there is satisfac- tion in putting credit where it belongs and a pleasure in such an investigation apart from the result.
New Haven, Conn., June, 1910.
LINONIAN AND THE OLD LIBRARY (Reprinted from The Yale Alumni Weekly of Feb. 21, 1918.)
Sir :- I learn with astonishment and dismay, that the old College Library is to be radically reconstructed for Y. M. C. A. activities, so that the present Dwight Hall building may be torn down to provide a site for a new recitation building which is greatly needed, and for which, as I am told, money is available as soon as a site can be found. But why recon- struct and so ruin the old College Library, the most admired of all Yale buildings? Osborn Hall could well be spared as a recitation building and would better serve as Y. M. C. A. headquarters than the Old Library, both as regards size and location. It has long been the fashion in some quarters to scoff at Dwight Hall. On the other hand, there are many witnesses to its usefulness. I am disposed, however, to side with those who have thought giving space to it upon the Old Campus a mistake. I learn that the representative of the donor of Dwight Hall insists on its retention on the Old Campus. The sentiment must be respected, if agreement cannot be given it. If the point of location on the Old Campus cannot be waived for a more central location, why cannot Osborn Hall as above suggested be used instead of the Old College Library? The representatives of the donor of Osborn Hall would certainly welcome the devotion of the building to so worthy a use, since the character of the structure and its location have made it less and less available as a recitation hall.
It has been suggested by one who has devoted much study to library facilities and needs, that a far better use of the Old College Library would be to restore it to its original exterior form (replacing in stone its original wooden parapets and finials), and entirely to reconstruct its interior on the alcove plan, to house some fifty thousand books for the use of the Academical students who will, as it is surmised, be far removed from
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library privileges when the new Sterling Library is built. I am assured that a library of 50,000 volumes especially selected with reference to the use of the Academical students would provide all the books required up to some 85 per cent. Certainly it would be no hardship for Academical students to seek 15 per cent of their books in the Sterling Library, even if located some distance from the Old Campus. The Old Library, so this library expert says, would easily accommodate 50,000 volumes with room to spare for papers and magazines.
The Old College Library in its original form was the most admired of all the Yale buildings, and it may be doubted if any building con- structed since it was constructed has greater architectural merit, though I have no idea that considered strictly as a Gothic design, it would pass muster with the modern students of the Gothic style. Be that as it may, the Old Library was, and is, a part and parcel of the best of the old Yale College tradition, and as such it would be a pity to lose it. It was designed by Henry Austin, a pupil of Ithiel Town, the designer of Center Church and many other famous buildings. Austin was the nominal designer, perhaps not the actual designer. Up to this time his designs had been largely in the pseudo classical style. It is suspected that the Old Library design was largely the work of an English draftsman, Flockton by name, employed by him at the time-a man of education and training who had drifted to America. Presumably this draftsman had studied the works of Pugin whose studies in the Gothic were at the time attracting great attention in England. Austin had in his library two volumes of Pugin's works, obtained at the sale of the library of Town, his master. King's College Chapel at Cambridge seems to have been the model of the Old Library, whether the design was the work of Austin or his educated but shiftless assistant.
If the Old Library were restored to its original exterior form, and its interior were constructed on the alcove plan and filled with books, as suggested, I am confident that we should shortly see a great return to the use of books by the academical students, and I think it will be agreed that nothing is more desirable, since the ideals of life are drawn from books more than from any other source. Should the Old Library build- ing be so reconstructed, the scattered books of Linonian and Brothers libraries should be reassembled in it, of course, and new force and life given to those great and valuable traditions. Such a library might hence- forth be known as the Linonian and Brothers Library, and the statue of Hale, who more than anyone else founded the Linonian Library, might be removed from its present location in front of Connecticut Hall and placed in front of the library building.
I believe that the project above outlined, if carried out, would do more to strengthen the old foundations of Yale College and reaffirm its best traditions than any other one thing that has yet been proposed. It is clear that in all this welter of reconstruction plans, the alumni body throughout the country view with some apprehension, the possible loss of something of the prestige which Yale College has justly enjoyed since
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its pious foundation now over two hundred years ago. While our Masters are. busy with "articulations" and rearticulations and what not, is not the purpose of the founders of the Collegiate School in danger of being lost sight of-while the steps of the altar are being mended may not the fires burn lower and lower instead of brighter?
If the College authorities had been wise enough years ago, to have had the entire holdings of the University studied as one proposition and a plan prepared for the physical development of the University, the new library would never have been located on the Old Campus. It is fortunate that only a fragment of it has been built. That mistake, and it was a great mistake, certainly proceeded from the absence of that large perspective which would have been secured by a carefully considered plan for the physical development of the institution. Princeton long ago had such a plan prepared and is now building to it to incalculable advan- tage and to the admiration of all who see the place. The preparation of such a plan was heavily imposed upon Yale when the Hillhouse property was acquired, but no plan was secured; since then the holdings of the University have been largely increased, but still no plan has appeared. It would seem clear that until such a plan has been prepared, no site should be chosen for the new Sterling Library. The very fact that several different sites are now advocated, shows how much such a plan is needed. I think Mr. Frederick Law Olmsted should be invited to prepare such a plan in conjunction with an architect familiar with such undertakings. There is a great misapprehension on the part of the general public on the subject of the art of planning-the grouping of buildings on a given area of whatever size. In such work aesthetics play but a minor part ; practical considerations control. The preparation of any working plan for Yale should be preceded by the collection from every department of the fullest available data as to number of students, courses, character of courses, etc., etc. Above everything team-work is needed, that there may be the fullest interchange of plans and projects before the actual work of building is begun. I am not unaware of the current rumor that for above a year and a half a plan has been in course of preparation, but have yet to learn who is preparing it or that any or all of the heads of the departments of the University have been in any way consulted or have been called upon to contribute data as to the present, and suggestions as to prospective, needs of their departments. Is Yale preparing to abandon team-work? I cannot think so!
Connecticut Hall narrowly escaped demolition only a few years ago. But for the efforts of Professor Henry W. Farnam, this, the most historic of all Yale buildings, would to-day be mourned as a thing of the past. To-day the feeling regarding it is such that any building on the Old Campus would be spared before it. Is there no one to champion the cause of the Old College Library-to save it from further mutilation, to restore it to its pristine beauty and rededicate it to its original use? Are there no sons of Yale foresighted enough to insist upon the prepara- tion by the foremost experts available of a well-reasoned plan for the
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physical development of the University now entering upon a new era? In default of such a plan the alumni can expect nothing but a continua- tion of the building blunders and makeshifts of the past. Will Yale be wise in time?
New Haven, February 15, 1919.
"GEORGE DUDLEY SEYMOUR.
AS TO SHARING YALE PRIVILEGE (Reprinted from The Yale Alumni Weekly of Jan. 9, 1920.)
"December 19, 1919
"An open letter :
"To the President and Fellows of the Yale Corporation :
"Gentlemen:
"I have for several years urged upon University officials two projects which I am now, at length, constrained to present to you directly. The first project relates to the University Library, and the second to the Carnegie Swimming Pool.
"I. I desire to suggest that the Corporation shall, by a formal vote, extend to the citizens of New Haven the privilege of using the University Library.
"I am well aware that citizens having no connection with the University have long had the privilege of consulting and even withdrawing books from the Library; the number of persons who have availed themselves of this privilege has been small. The privilege has rested upon a social basis more than any other; has been a courtesy rather than a right, and, in consequence, has been restricted in its scope. I should be misunder- stood, however, if I gave the impression that the Librarian has not been gracious and accommodating to persons not of the college world. On the other hand, the Library is exempted from taxation by this com- munity. The University, by accepting this exemption, assumes at the same time a heavy obligation to make the Library useful as an instrument of education, not only to members of the University, but also to the New Haven public. Moreover, if the 'maintenance of free institutions depends upon the diffusion of knowledge,' there would seem to be an additional reason why the utmost use of the Library as an instrument of education should be made. I do not have in mind the withdrawing of books from the Library by citizens except in a limited way, nor that the Library should be used as a means of purveying current fiction, but rather as a students' library. That section of the community depending upon a library for works of fiction, may resort to the public library, which might easily be strengthened in that direction. I apprehend that a large use of the library would be made by our citizens, if formally invited to do so by the Cor- poration. My belief is that the relations between the University and the city would be put on a better footing by the extension of a definite. invitation on the part of the University to the citizens of New Haven to.
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avail themselves, under restrictions, of the books in the Library. What the self-respecting citizen desires is the enjoyment of the privilege, not by sufferance, but as a right. There should be nothing equivocal about his status, as at present; it should be defined.
"2. I urge you, by an appropriate formal vote, to put the Carnegie Swimming Pool at the disposal of the men of New Haven, say from the first of July until the fifteenth of September, each year hereafter, unless a trial proves that the plan is not workable.
"The Carnegie Swimming Pool, said to be one of the finest in the country and exempted from taxation by this community, lies idle all summer. Its use would be a great boon, in particular, to the young men of the city, which has, thus far, provided no public baths near the center of the town. During the summer, no public bathing facilities are avail- able nearer than Savin Rock on the one side, or Fort Hale Park on the other. These places are so far away that the time required to reach them and return, makes their use almost prohibitive. What is needed is a public bathing place in the center of the city where bathing may be enjoyed without a too great loss of time and at a small expense. I do not attempt to specify the regulations. Small boys, of course, should be excluded; a charge, perhaps, of ten cents should be made toward the expenses, which should be borne either by the bathers or the city, unless the University considers it wise, as a matter of policy, to bear the expense, which would not be great.
"The putting into operation of these two projects would certainly pro- mote a better feeling and a better understanding between 'Town and Gown.' But I should prefer to place these projects on higher ground than the ground of policy or of right. It seems to me that a moral obligation exists, which can be discharged only along the lines above suggested.
"It was my privilege to first suggest and press upon the University authorities the opening of the Art School and Peabody Museum collec- tions to the public on Sundays, and also the giving of free concerts on the Newberry Organ. These enterprises have so far succeeded that it would seem that these other enterprises herein suggested are worthy of your careful consideration.
"Respectfully, "GEORGE DUDLEY SEYMOUR.
"P. S .- I find in my files a letter dated 1913, in which Mr. Schwab agreed to invite the public to use the Library. This was never done."
0
NEW HAVEN APPOINTS A COMMITTEE ON HOSPITALITY IN 1784.
"The city was disposed to foster immigration, and an elaborate welcome was prepared for visitors of a lower degree than the French nobility. A City-Meeting, held September 23, 1784, appointed a Committee of Hos- pitality, consisting of Charles Chauncey, Pierpont Edwards, James
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Hillhouse, Timothy Jones, Jonathan Ingersoll, David Austin, and Isaac Beers, Esqrs. Their duties were 'To assist all such strangers as shall come to the city for the purpose of settlement therein, in procuring houses and land on the most reasonable terms, and to prevent such persons, so far as possible, from being imposed upon with respect to rent and the value of houses and lands, and to give them such information and intel- ligence with respect to business, markets, commerce, mode of living, customs and manners, as such strangers may need; and to cultivate an easy acquaintance of such strangers with the citizens thereof, that their residence therein may be rendered as agreeable and eligible as possible.' If this programme was carefully followed, the home-seeker must have thought New Haven a true Arcadia." (P. 238, Levermore's Republic of New Haven.)
"THE NEW BRICK STATE HOUSE."
"Chief among these buildings was an elegant and commodious brick State House or County Court House, built in 1761-64 by the State and County jointly, and standing a little to the north of, and much nearer Temple street than the present Trinity church; it had both east and west doors, furnished with stone steps; the first floor was devoted to court rooms and offices, and the second to the use of the two houses of the General Assembly at its October sessions, while the third floor was an open hall. The judge of the County Court was Col. James Wadsworth, a graduate of Yale in 1748, of whose college days an interesting reminiscence is preserved in the plan which he drew of New Haven in his senior year and which was engraved in 1806." "New Haven in 1784." By F. B. Dexter.
NEW HAVEN AS IT APPEARED IN 1808 TO ALEXANDER WILSON, THE ORNITHOLOGIST.
"The breeze increasing to a gale, in eight hours from the time we set sail the high red-fronted mountains of New Haven rose to our view. In two hours more we landed; and, by the stillness and solemnity of the streets, recollected we were in New England, and that it was Sunday, which latter circumstance had been almost forgotten on board the packet-boat.
"This town is situated upon a sandy plain; and the streets are shaded with elm trees and poplars. In a large park or common, covered with grass, and crossed by two streets, and several foot paths, stand the church, the State house and college buildings, which last are one hundred and eighty yards in front. From these structures rise four or five wooden spires, which in former times, as one of the professors informed me, were so infested by woodpeckers, which bored them in all directions, that to preserve their steeple from destruction, it became necessary to set people with guns to watch and shoot these invaders of the sanctuary. Just about the town the pasture-fields and corn look well, but a few miles off, the country is poor and ill cultivated.
"The literati of New Haven received me with politeness and respect ; and after making my usual rounds, which occupied a day and a half, I set off for Middletown, twenty-two miles distant."
XVI
ITHIEL TOWN: ARCHITECT : BRIDGE-BUILDER 1784-1844. PATRON OF THE ARTS: HIS FAMOUS LIBRARY.
Ithiel Town, the first trained architect to work in New Haven, was born in 1784 in Thompson, Connecticut, where the family had been settled for several generations, originally coming from Topsfield, Massachusetts.
The Towns were farmer folk of the plainer sort. Arche- laus Town, Ithiel's father, belied his name, and died young, leaving a large family and a small estate. Ithiel was eight years old when his father died, with no alternative but to be the architect of his own fortune or go without one. Of schooling he can have had but little. He was soon working as a house-carpenter. Then he went to Boston and presently attracted attention by planning some improvements in Bul- finch's State House. The effort, as tradition asserts, gave him a start, but what he then did we are not told. He must have made rapid progress at all events, since in 1810, when he was only twenty-six years old, he came to New Haven prepared to do designing and building work. What led him to come to New Haven the writer has not learned. Two years later (1812) he was chosen to design and build Center Church, and that work was hardly begun before he was chosen to design and build Trinity Church. Both of these structures were finished in 1815 when Town was thirty-one years old. They placed him at the very front rank of the profession in this country. It is not unworthy of notice that when he first came to New Haven, he built his own designs, and this practice as far as work in New Haven was concerned, he seems to have continued for many years. He is generally spoken of as the first trained architect to settle in New Haven, but it must not be forgotten that he followed the custom of the time and built his own designs and is listed among early New Haven builders.
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He was also noted as a bridge engineer. The "Town Truss," which he patented, was extensively used in New England and also in the South. In addition to Center and Trinity churches, he designed the old State House,90 the Pro- fessor Salisbury house (about 1839), and other buildings for New Haven as well as some other private residences. His design for the Eagle Bank is in the possession of the New Haven Colony Historical Society. It was to have been built on the site of the present Exchange Building, but the failure of the bank frustrated the plan. The design called for a building in the classical style. Town designed and built about 1843 for John Sanford a house with a classical portico on Temple Street near Elm. The United Church acquired the property in 1877 and used it as a chapel. In 1885 an auditorium designed by L. W. Robinson was added at the rear. In 1912 the fine portico was removed and the present front, designed by R. W. Foote, erected.
For Hartford he designed the Wadsworth Atheneum, Christ Church, and the old City Hall, which formerly stood on Kingsley and Market streets where the police building now stands.
For New York he designed the Astor House on Broadway and the Merchants Exchange on Wall Street. From 1829 to 1843 he was in partnership with Alexander J. Davis with offices in the Merchants Exchange. Together with Davis he designed the State Capitol buildings for North Carolina and Indiana and many other public buildings.
His library of architectural and art books was famous- probably the richest and most complete that had been brought together in America up to the time of his death. It was dispersed at his death, one section being sold in New Haven, another in Boston, and another in Philadelphia. A partial
90 "This building (State House), constructed of stone and marble, under the superintendence of Mr. Ithiel Town, an architect of cultivated taste and talents, forms a prominent ornament of the city. It presents one of the best copies of ancient models which our country affords, and is worthy of an artist who has evinced his fondness for his profession by visiting the best schools in Europe to perfect himself in his art." Lambert's His- tory of the Colony of New Haven, 1838, p. 79.
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list of the books is included in the inventory of his effects. (See New Haven Probate Records, Vol. 57.) For references to his library see Dunlap's "History of the Arts of Design," New York, 1834, pp. 299 and 300, and 410-II. Atwater's "History of the Colony of New Haven," pp. 536 and 548, has a brief and altogether inadequate account of Town.
Town spent his last days in a house which he built about 1832 on Hillhouse Avenue. It was sold to and remodeled by Joseph Earl Sheffield, who bequeathed it to the Sheffield Scientific School. Town died in New Haven January 13, 1844, and is buried in the Grove Street Cemetery, where a plain marble slab marks his grave; but Center Church remains as his monument. He left a fair estate; in his will he pro- vided for an annuity for his aged mother, who married a Tourtellot after the death of Archelaus Town, his father. He seems to have inherited his gifts from her. His bust in the Yale Art School by Chauncey B. Ives, a native of Hamden, was greatly admired when made. (See pp. 193-194.)
Town wrote several books, among them "Improvement in the Construction of Wood and Iron Bridges," New Haven, 1821; a pamphlet with plates and a frontispiece engraved by S. S. Jocelyn and showing "Town's Bridge." Presumably this was the old covered bridge over Lake Whitney. He edited "A Detail of Some Particular Service Performed in America during the Years 1776-1779."
Town had, as the inventory on file in the Probate Office shows, not only a remarkable collection of fine books, but also a house full of paintings, engravings, busts, casts, cabinets of curios and whatever else an artist collects. The place was a veritable museum and was so called by the townspeople. It was one of the show places of New Haven and the privileged citizens took their visitors there to see these wonders. In those early days the collector of "old things" was not abroad in the land and the spoils of Europe had not reached our shores except as great rarities. For many years a pair of curious stone lions-perhaps they were dogs-bought at "Mr. Town's auction" stood in front of Dr. Levi Ives' house on Temple Street; but they were taken indoors long since lest they should find their way to the Campus.
XVII
DAVID HOADLEY. THE "SELF-TAUGHT" ARCHITECT. 1774-1839.
David Hoadley-styled "the self-taught Architect"-was born at Waterbury, Connecticut, in 1774. His father, Lemuel Hoadley, was a farmer; Urania Mallory, his mother, was a daughter of Peter Mallory of Stratford. He can have had no schooling to speak of, since he began as a boy to learn the trade of house-carpenter. His ability and aptitude brought him to the front almost before he was of age, since in 1795 he seems to have been taking a prominent part in designing and building a Congregational meeting house and an Episcopal church for Waterbury. Just to what extent Hoadley was responsible for these buildings cannot now be definitely ascer- tained. But he seems to have impressed himself upon both structures to such an extent that he was credited with being the virtual designer of both of them. They were greatly admired at the time and were famed throughout the State. Both have long since disappeared and there is no adequate representation of either building in existence. From what I can gather about them, I judge that though naïve in other respects, the slender spire of the church and the graceful open belfry of the meeting house gave these buildings their charm. Whatever Hoadley's connection with these two churches was, his work upon them seems to have at once put him at the head of the local designers and builders, though scarcely more than a boy. In 1800 he was employed to build a mansion for Colonel William Leavenworth. I think it is not too much to say that until the house was demolished in 1905 to make way for the Hotel Elton, it was, beyond all comparison, the most dignified and architecturally beautiful house in Water- bury. In 1800-2 Hoadley built in New Haven the Bristol house, which has just been torn down to make way for the Ives
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