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 50
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It required ten large packing boxes to contain the wills of colonial New Haven's citizens, and as the court during the 17th century had jurisdic- tion over the entire County of New Haven, all of the older families in the cities of Meriden, Waterbury and New Haven, together with the remaining towns of the county, are represented in the indexed list of wills."
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SAFETY FIRST
In my letter to Mr. Perry of March 3, 1921 (above printed), I called attention to the failure of our Land and Probate Record vaults to comply with the requirements of the law in the matter of fire protection. The next year the vaults were enlarged. But the records of the City and County of New Haven will never have the protection they should have until they are housed in a Hall of Records,-an isolated building constructed to secure the maximum of fire-and-damp-proof protection for our invaluable public records. Such a Hall of Records was one of the leading features recommended in my letter of June, 1907, to the Mayor and Aldermen, printed in the forepart of this volume.
September, 1924.
NOTE: I cannot forbear adding to the foregoing that when the con- troversy over the removal of the precious first volume to Hartford was at its height, I met Governor Baldwin on the street. As we walked along, I asked him if, as a member of Mayor FitzGerald's Committee, he planned to go up to Hartford to the hearing and oppose the transfer. His reply was that he did not intend to appear at the hearing and then, looking at me with that rare and well-remembered twinkle, said "I am afraid that I could not stand cross-examination by members of the State Library Committee." In other words, he knew too well that under the terms of the Union of 1665, the volume legally belonged to the State of Connecticut and not to the City of New Haven.
G. D. S., February, 1930.
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LXX.
ON THE LOCATION OF A NEW CITY HALL: AN OPEN LETTER TO THE SPECIAL COMMITTEE OF THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN.
(Reprinted from the New Haven Sunday Register of March 14, 1920.) (More "ancient history," but retained because already set up in type.)
To the Special Committee Appointed from the Board of Alder- men to Consider the Question (I) of a New City Hall, (2) of a Site therefor-Gentlemen:
In view of the wide discussion of the subject of a new City Hall and a site therefor, following the submission of the Report of the Commission on the City Plan to the Board of Aldermen, I desire to express myself somewhat more fully on the subject.
I am opposed to the erection of a new City Hall at the present time, or even in the near future, unless it can be shown that the present structure is either unsafe or wholly inadequate, or incapable of alteration at a moderate cost to fit it for city purposes for some years to come. My belief is that the present building can at a moderate cost be so rehabilitated in appear- ance and so improved as to its facilities that it will reasonably answer all of the requirements for the business of the City for fifteen or twenty years to come.
My belief is that the present site should be retained, not because it is the ancient site, but firstly, because it is the most centrally located and convenient of access to the public at large of any of the sites proposed; secondly, because it is the most appropriate and dignified site of any of the sites proposed, on account of being side by side with our new federal building and facing the three churches on the Green, constituting New
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Haven's chief and most salient and historic architectural group; and thirdly, because it is the most practicable site for the erection of a City Hall of a business rather than an archi- tectural character, since the building, aside from its façade, would have its chief business entrances on Court and Orange Streets.
Common sense, good business, conformity to the genius of New Haven and to architectural propriety, all dictate the selec- tion of the present site for a new City Hall, when the time comes to build it.
When a site for the new federal building was under dis- cussion, a petition containing a great number of names, includ- ing the names of many of our most prominent citizens, was forwarded to the Secretary of the Treasury, urging the erection of the new federal building on a site south of Chapel Street. I was at this time so firmly convinced that the new building should be located on the Tontine Hotel site, that I took it upon myself to go to Washington and discuss the matter with the Supervising Architect of the Treasury, who assured me that it was the policy of the Federal Government to locate its build- ings where they would not be surrounded and overpowered by skyscrapers, but above all to locate them where they would impress the citizens of the locality with the dignity and author- ity of the Federal Government. The latter was a large factor, I am satisfied, in the final selection of the present site of the federal building. By the same reasoning, I think that this should be a controlling factor in the retention of the present site, next to the federal building and facing the churches on the Green, for our new City Hall, when New Haven gets ready to build one. It will hardly be argued, I think, that a new City Hall, however imposing and costly, if built upon the so-called Temple Street site and therefore obscured to a certain extent by the churches on the Green, would have anything like the dignity and authority of a City Hall on the present site next to the federal building. But I should place the convenience accruing to the general public from the retention of the present
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site, above every other consideration, so far as the site is concerned.
I therefore strongly urge the retention of the present site and the addition to it of the two plots now owned by Mr. Powell and popularly known as the Sabatini and Drug Store properties. To these I should add the old livery stable site east of the Police Court building. These three plots are not only necessary to give the additional space required for a new City Hall when built, but are necessary to the widening of Court Street.
In my opinion the widening of Court Street from 40 feet, its present width, to 60 feet, is far more imperative than the build- ing at the present time of a new City Hall. I have advocated the widening of Court Street from Church to State Street, ever since I became interested in the development of our City on rational lines of city planning and the abandonment of our old haphazard practice.
It seems to me in another view of the matter in hand, that one of the chief functions of the Board of Aldermen is con- stantly to study the grand list, not only to equalize property values, but to find new opportunities for additions to it, and to guard against depreciations with their consequent abatements. In this view, I conceive that to-day there is no more urgent question before the Aldermanic Board than to consider the claims of the section of our City lying east of Church and Meadow Streets and south of Elm. This large area was once served by Chapel Street in the main, but Chapel Street has now become so congested that this area is becoming less and less accessible. I look forward to the time when the "cut" will be built over, thus uniting two sections of the City, unfortunately divided by the "cut," which, as it exists to-day, is a serious obstacle to the development of the eastern section of the City. I am confident that when our great commercial asset of New Haven Harbor is developed, there will be a corresponding development of a business character in this section of the City, and we should look to it now that this section may be made
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convenient of access. The widening of Court Street is the most important single step that can be taken in this direction. The widening of Center Street and its extension through to State Street is also demanded. If the Connecticut Company should ultimately establish a trolley station at the intersection of Union and State Streets, which I conceive to be a desirable improvement, it would be followed by an increase of business in the region in question, and the imperative necessity of more convenient access to the Green through Court Street would be apparent to ali.
For these and other reasons, I am of the opinion that the widening of Court Street is imperative, and that this is the time to do it, when the Powell holdings are available and before any more buildings are located on Court Street. I am satisfied that the present city plot, plus the Powell holdings, would provide not only an ample City Hall site but also for the widen- ing of Court Street.
With regard to the Temple Street site, I submit that the undesirability of this location for a City Hall has not fairly been presented to the public. The advocates of this site urge the acquisition of the Yale University Press building, the historic Stokes house and the Graduates Club, with the possible addition of the plot on which the United Church chapel stands. A site created by the union of these properties would be inadequate in size, inconvenient of access to the general public, and would present almost insuperable architec- tural problems. In the first place, I think it unreasonable to ask large numbers of citizens to cross a great public square six- teen acres in extent, in order to transact their business with the City. This corner site, moreover, would not permit of a suit- able architectural treatment, for reasons which I will not detail at length. I might say, however, that a monumental, com- pactly built building on this corner, ultimately to be matched by a tall building facing the Green on Chapel Street where Gilbert's grocery store now stands, would have the effect of dividing the upper and lower Greens by a group of five build-
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ings, which would include the new City Hall on the Temple Street site, the United Church, Center Church, Trinity Church, and a building on the site of Gilbert's store. To visualize just what I have in mind here, you have but to look down upon the Green from any one of the buildings facing the east side of the Green-the City Hall, the Chamber of Commerce build- ing, or the Second National Bank building. To thus divide the Green would very seriously impair its effect as a great open square in the heart of our City, but such would be the result of a City Hall on the corner of Temple and Elm Streets.
A clear view of this subject was taken by Mr. L. W. Robin- son, who in a public letter advocated the Temple Street site, but only when extended through to College Street. The acquisition of the entire front of the block between Temple and College Streets would be enormously expensive, and it is impracticable, even if the expense were no object, since some at least of the holdings would have to be secured by condemna- tion proceedings, which could only be successful on the showing that the City needed the land for an immediate public necessity, for which convincing testimony would certainly be wanting. I am told that the University would not surrender either the Yale University Press site or the Law School site, unless it appeared that the removal of the City Hall from its present site to the so-called Temple Street site, was a matter of clear public necessity.
But assuming that the City is prepared to acquire the entire frontage between Temple and College Streets without regard to the expense, the tremendous cost attending the erection of a City Hall on that site would still be prohibitory. The building would be brought into competition with our white marble County Court House, and an elaborate structure of white marble or light stone would be necessary to secure a harmonious and dignified effect, unless the City was prepared to be entirely outshone by the County. Thus, in addition to a monumental façade on Elm Street, the building would have to have a corresponding elaborate and costly façade on Temple
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Street, since its Temple Street façade would be even more exposed to view to the public at large than its Elm Street façade. Nor is the point to be overlooked that the buildings of the Yale Divinity School on the corner of Elm and College Streets will ultimately be replaced by handsome buildings of fine design and costly construction erected by the University. Looking forward to that time, it will be apparent that the College Street front of a new City Hall on the Temple Street site would also have to be of a handsome and elaborate char- acter. It is therefore clear that if the Temple Street site is chosen, the City must look forward to the erection of a monu- mental building with three façades, which would make it extravagantly costly. It is a matter of mere speculation, but I judge that frontage between Temple and College Streets and the erection of a municipal group on that frontage, could not be put through for less than six million dollars, while I should think that the cost of acquiring the additional land required and the erection of a building in every way dignified and suit- able on the present site, would be not more than three million dollars. It is to be borne in mind in this connection that a new City Hall on the Temple Street site should properly be placed in the center of the block and therefore on the axis of the upper Green. I am confident that that would be the conclusion of any competent architect after an exhaustive study of the question. Such a building would then be blanketed by the churches on the Green and occupy a position, no matter how costly its character and how beautiful its design, of far less dignity than a building adjoining the federal building on the site of the present City Hall. To overcome the blanketing of a building on the Temple Street site by the Churches on the Green, it would have to rise to a great height above them so as to be recognized as the official residence of the City and to take its place with the County Court House as one of the buildings surrounding the Green. An exceedingly high building rising above the churches would destroy the balance of the Green and seriously interfere with a harmonious development of our great public square as a civic center.
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For these reasons I urgently recommend the retention of the present site and the rehabilitation of the present buildings and the continuation of their use for the present, the purchase of the Powell holdings and the livery stable plot, and the imme- diate widening of Court Street from Church to Orange Street. I also recommend the placing of such building lines on Court Street from Orange to State Street as will ultimately result in the production of a thoroughfare of sixty feet in width from Church to State Streets.
March, 1920.
GEORGE DUDLEY SEYMOUR.
NOTE: The advocates of what may be called the "Wall Street Site" propose to sweep away all of the buildings upon so much of the block between Church and Temple Streets as lies back of the County Court House and the Ives Memorial Public Library, and erect a City Hall with an ornate colonnaded entrance (designed to form a world war memorial, or perhaps a local pantheon) on Elm Street between the Court House and the Library, and with entrances, of course, on Wall Street, on which the building would have a long façade. This ambitious plan presents more to interest the architect than the taxpayer. The building would face the Green, without having any frontage on it, and would have to be very high to rise sufficiently above the Court House and Library to produce any effect from the Green, since its first two stories, at least, would be obscured by the Library and Court House.
On the other hand, some of our citizens are of the opinion that the finances of the City of New Haven do not warrant the location of its official resi- dence on a site fronting the Green, i. e., that the City is too poor to have a home on the Green. Albert McClellan Mathewson, Esqr., who belongs in this group, is the chief protagonist of a plan to acquire a sufficient portion of the block bounded by Church, Orange, Elm and Wall Streets for the building, which might be located on the corner where the Security Insurance Building stands, or farther east on Elm Street, preferably about the middle of the block. This project would require condemnation proceedings handi- capped by the difficulty of justifying the City in entering on private property on the ground of immediate public necessity. It would also involve great costs; locate the building where it would not be convenient of access, and, in my opinion, constitute a monumental proof of a supine citizenship. I cannot believe that the City of New Haven will ever consent to surrender its best sites to Yale University (which now holds and uses over twenty-five per cent of the frontage on the Green), to the Federal Government, to the County, and to banks and business houses, and then settle down itself on a side street.
G. D. S., 1922.
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NOTE 2: As the direct result of the agitation of a group of citizens led by Lewis S. Welch, the Board of Aldermen in December, 1923, called upon the Commission on the City Plan to consider and report on certain phases of this matter in an attempt to fix on some site. The Commission at once met and, on December 29th, voted to recommend the present site, with such accessions within the block as might be necessary. The Chairman at this time instructed the Secretary not to report the vote to the Board of Aldermen until so directed. Meanwhile, the Board of Finance, unknown to the public generally, and certainly unknown to the writer, appointed a committee to consider the subject, and after a prolonged investigation, reported on a plan to bodily move the Ives Memorial Public Library across Temple Street and over onto the site of the Yale University Press, and then erect on the Library site a white marble City Hall in the style of the New Haven County Court House, from which it was to be separated by a campanile. This report was made public June 10, 1924, and put the Commission, so to speak, "in a hole." However, at a meeting of the Commission on May 5th, called to advise and report on the Lighthouse Point purchase project of the writer, the question of sending in to the Board of Aldermen the vote of the Commission passed on December 29th of the preceding year, was raised and discussed, though not mentioned in the call for the meeting. The Secre- tary was now instructed to send in that report, but was given no instructions to explain the delay. These two reports, the report of the Commission on the City Plan and the report of the Committee of the Board of Finance, are now before the Board of Aldermen, who, it is reported, are about to "pass the ball" back to the Commission on the City Plan, from which the writer, sick of all this delay, so prejudicial to the City, as he believes, on July 23d resigned. I cannot better take leave of this subject than by here inserting Chief Justice Taft's letter to me of ten years ago :
July, 1924.
G. D. S.
WILLIAM H. TAFT New Haven, Conn.
MY DEAR MR. SEYMOUR :
June 22d, 1914.
I have your invitation to be present at a meeting of the New Haven City Plan Commission to be held to-day at 4 P. M. I greatly regret that an engagement made several weeks ago prevents my acceptance. My disappoint- ment at not being present is most sincere, because I would like to impress as deeply as I can upon the Commission my conviction that every minute that is lost now in gaining control of sufficient amount of the land about the City Hall, to give us a municipal group worthy of the City of New Haven and worthy of the magnificent site upon the Green that the City Hall has, is dangerous. The history of all cities demonstrates that the improvements that are wisest are those which are planned out years in advance and gradually perfected. I can understand that those who are
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responsible for the City's finances to-day are loath to set out upon a project which may involve a very considerable expense, but if they take steps now, of a reasonable character, to insure the carrying out of the plan that ought to be adopted, they can economize for the City, on the one hand, and make certain the execution of the best plan on the other. "A stitch in time saves nine," and that is truer of municipal development than any other subject matter. The large appropriations made for the new Post Office imposes additional obligation upon the City to square itself to meet the legitimate cost of an appropriate city home. Of all futile and absurd things, the expendi- ture of a large amount of money on an unsuitable or inadequate site is the most silly. I urge upon you, therefore, with all the earnestness possible, that you take immediate steps to secure that part of the land surrounding the present City Hall that you can get now at the lowest figure and keep it for use until the time arrives for the construction of the building. When you have the land, deliberation is no damage. Let's look forward and not confine our observation to the ground immediately under our feet. Let's be wise in our generation. New Haven is bound to grow, her tax resources are bound to increase, real estate is bound to advance in value, if not immediately, in the near future. Let's arrange to take over what we need now, at the cost at which we can buy it, and then consider the question of time for the borrowing of the money or the necessary increase of taxation at our leisure. That is what a City Plan Commission is for, to arrange to do the things now that ought to be done, at the least cost, in order to develop greater things later on. I beg that you impress upon those of authority that they can create no greater claim to the gratitude of the fellow citizens who put them in office than by the exercise of moral courage to do the things that ought to be done in the face of natural but ill-judged criticism in order to secure a great boon in the future to the community that they love so well. Let them, if it need be, sacrifice their present popularity in the consciousness of the good they are doing, and in the certainty of vindicating their judg- ment and receiving the grateful acknowledgment of their fellow citizens in the future for their wisdom, their courage and their high sense of duty.
Sincerely yours, (Signed) WM. H. TAFT.
GEORGE DUDLEY SEYMOUR, EsQ.,
New Haven, Connecticut.
Since the above letter was written, a full decade has passed; central land values have increased enormously, and New Haven is still without a clear purpose-fumbling an important issue with weak hands. (July, 1924.)
LXXI.
PRIMER OF NEW HAVEN HISTORY COMBINED WITH PRIMER OF CITY PLANNING NEEDED FOR USE IN OUR SCHOOLS.
"One of the most far-reaching city planning projects now in progress in the United States, and perhaps in the world, is that of Chicago. Much has already been accomplished, but the leaders of the movement in Chicago have reached the conclusion that the plans cannot be adequately carried on until the entire citizenship has been made to see in a broad way the objects and advantages of city planning. It is realized, therefore, in Chicago, that the immediate task is to begin the education of the children, and a primer of city planning has been prepared and put into use in the public schools. The expectation is that every pupil shall be given an idea of the subject, both general and in its application to Chicago. I wish we might adopt some such plan here. With it I would combine a primer of New Haven history such as is used, for instance, in the public schools of Newark, New Jersey. We have in New Haven, as no one needs to be told, a large foreign population, entirely ignorant of our history and our traditions and without opportunity of learning from their parents at home. A simple history, in words of one syllable, if you please, as colloquial and graphic as may be, would, I think, greatly assist in consolidating our municipal life and giving it direction."
The above, including the caption, is taken from one of a series of four articles of mine published in the Journal-Courier December 16, 17, 18 and 19, 1912, and reprinted by the New Haven Chamber of Commerce in a pamphlet entitled "Our City and Its Big Needs." The matter was taken up by the Town and City Improvement Committee of the Chamber of Commerce, of which I was then a member, and discussed at its meetings during the following year. Mr. James Sturges Pray of the School of Landscape Architecture at Harvard, in reply to a letter from me, offered to undertake the work at a moderate fee, as co-author with Miss Theodora Kimball of the same school. Miss Kimball was then planning to co-operate with her father, Mr. Edwin Fiske Kimball, on a similar primer
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for the Boston Public Schools. Mr. Frederick Law Olmsted was also invited to write so much of the primer as would deal with city planning. I was soon, however, to be both surprised and pleased to receive a letter dated March 19, 1914, from Mr. Frank J. Diamond of the Greene Street School, saying,
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