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 54
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The corners, frames of the doors, arches and sills of the windows, cornices, and other ornamental parts, are of a sprightly coloured free-stone. The cement is sometimes divided by lines at right angles in such a manner, as to make the whole resemble a building of marble; and, being smooth,
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and white, is of course very handsome. Several valuable houses have been lately built in this manner; and the cement, contrary to general expectation, has hitherto perfectly sustained the severity of our seasons. This mode of building is very little more expensive, than building with wood; and will, I suspect, ultimately take the place of every other. I know of no other equally handsome, where marble itself is not the material. Both these kinds of stone are found, inexhaustibly, at a moder- ate distance." Ibid. Vol. I, pp. 184-185.
(Lyman Beecher was pastor of the church in Litchfield when the first President Dwight died, January 11, 1817. Catherine Beecher, his daughter, relates: "The news of Dr. Dwight's death was brought to father in the pulpit near the close of the Sabbath service. A man came in suddenly and went up into the pulpit and whispered to him. Father turned from the messenger to the congregation and said: 'Dr. Dwight is gone'; then raising his hands, he said, with a burst of tears: 'My father! My father! The Chariots of Israel and the horsemen thereof.' The congregation, with an electric impulse, arose to their feet, and many eyes were bathed in tears. It was one of the most impressive scenes I ever saw.")
Willis and other writers, known and unknown, drew freely on the pages of the "Travels" in "writing up" New Haven, and so far as my observation goes, did not always acknowledge their obligation. Willis, it is true, refers to "a distinguished writer," but does not mention him by name.
CHARLES DICKENS, THE NOVELIST, ON NEW HAVEN, FEB. 11, 1842.
"New Haven, known also as the City of Elms, is a fine town. Many of its streets (as its alias sufficiently imports) are planted with rows of grand old elm-trees; and the same natural ornaments surround Yale College, an establishment of considerable eminence and reputation. The various departments of this Institution are erected in a kind of park or common in the middle of the town, where they are dimly visible among the shadowing trees. The effect is very like that of an old cathedral yard in England; and when their branches are in full leaf, must be extremely picturesque. Even in the winter time, these groups of well-grown trees, clustering among the busy streets and houses of a thriving city, have a very quaint appearance; seeming to bring about a kind of compromise between town and country; as if each had met the other half-way, and shaken hands upon it; which is at once novel and pleasant." (Dickens' "American Notes.")
EXCERPTS FROM A GAZETTEER OF THE STATES OF CONNECTICUT AND RHODE ISLAND, 1819.
The Gazetteer which was printed in Hartford in 1819 pro- vides some interesting pictures of New Haven one hundred and twenty-odd years ago.
These several eminences, from their peculiarly bold and characteristic features, give to the scenery of New-Haven an appearance of novelty, gran- deur and interest, surpassing that of almost any other town in the United States. (P. 96.)
New-Haven, for a place of its size and importance, is characterized by an appearance of plainness, neatness and order; and presents little of that stately magnificence, or gorgeous splendour, which are to be found in most of the cities in the United States. (P. 102.)
Of the public buildings, the Episcopal church deserves a conspicuous notice. It is a large and stately stone edifice, constructed in a style of superior elegance. It is one of the finest specimens of the arts in this State; and in style of architecture, solidity of structure, richness of ornament, and the general elegance of its appearance, is surpassed by few public buildings in the United States. (P. 103.)
Yale College has, from an early period, ranked among the first of the literary institutions in the United States; and although numerous rival seminaries have been established in the neighbouring States, yet neither its prosperity nor its reputation has declined; but on the contrary, both have increased with the age of the institution. (P. 105.)
There is a valuable and extensive library belonging to the institution, con- sisting of between six and seven thousand volumes; . (P. 105.)
NEW HAVEN AS IT APPEARED TO NATHANIEL PARKER WILLIS, BORN 1806-YALE 1827 -DIED 1867.
"THE GOTHIC CHURCH," NEW HAVEN .*
"The area occupied by the town of New Haven is estimated to be six times as great as that of a European town with the same number of inhabitants. It was originally laid out in parallelograms, and the houses are built upon the outer sides of the squares, with large gardens meeting in the center. Almost every house stands separate, and surrounded by shrubbery and verdure; and it is the great peculiarity of the town that all its streets are planted with rows of elms, grown at this day to remarkable size and luxuriance. It has the appearance of a town roofed in with leaves ; and it is commonly said, that, but for the spires, a bird flying over would scarce be aware of its existence. Nothing could be more beautiful than the effect of this in the streets; for, standing where any of the principal avenues cross at right angles, four embowered aisles extend away as far as the eye can follow, formed of the straight stems and graceful branches of the drooping elm, the most elegant and noble of the trees of our country. The roads below are kept moist and cool with the roof overhead; the side-walks, between the trees and the rural dwellings, are broad and shady; the small gardens in front of most of the houses are bright with flowering shrubs; and the whole scene, though in the midst of a city, breathes of nature.
"The style of domestic architecture in New Haven favors the rural character of the town. Built, as was remarked before, in the midst of a garden, each house looks like what would be termed in England a cottage, or, in streets where a more ambitious style prevails, like the sort of white villa common at watering places. The green Venetian blind is universal; the broad, open hall extends through the house, showing the gay alley of a garden in the rear; and, living in the midst of a primitive and friendly
* From "American Scenery," by N. P. Willis, Esq. (Yale 1827), and W. H. Bart- lett, 2 Vols., London: 1839. The text was by Willis; the illustrations (equally romantic) were engraved by English and French engravers from drawings by Bartlett. Printed on heavy paper and bound in red morocco the volumes adorned the center table in the homes of the "best families" along with, as we may well imagine, two imposing volumes, also in red and gold, and forming a "National Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Americans," New York: 1834. The character of "American Scenery" is made plain by the extracts and herein reprinted. The editors of the "Gallery" hopefully declare in their prefatory address that "with the advancement of art, a more conspicuous era has dawned, and the American people now display a becoming solici- tude for the preservation of the relics of their own glory. The enterprise presents the loftiest appeal to national honor and self respect, as an effort at once to preserve the features and to rescue, from the wasteing hand of time, the memory of those whose noble deeds, exalted fame, or eminent virtues, have shed a lustre upon their age." Willis himself couldn't have done better than that.
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community, the inhabitants sit at their low windows along the streets, or promenade, without fear of rude observation, on the shady pavement before their dwellings, preserving for the place altogether that look of out- of-doors life and gaiety which, with less elegance, distinguishes Naples and other cities of southern Europe. The prettiest of English rural towns have a great resemblance to it.
"In the center of New Haven were originally laid out two open squares, divided by a street kept sacred from private buildings. The upper green is a beautiful slope, edged with the long line of college edifices. Between the two squares stand three churches, at equal distances; two of the common order of architecture for places of public worship in this country (immense brick buildings with tall white spires); and a third, which is presented in the drawing, a Gothic Episcopal church, of singular purity and beauty. Behind and before it, spread away the verdant carpets of the two enclosed 'greens'; above its turret and windows hang the drooping fans of elms, half disclosing and half concealing its pointed architecture; and to its door, from every direction, tend aisles of lofty trees, overhang- ing the paths with shadow, as if the first thought of the primitive settlers had been to create visible avenues to the house of God. There is scarce a more beautiful place of worship, take it all in all, in the whole of Christendom.
"The trees in the magnificent avenue in front of these churches were planted by a single individual, the Hon. James Hillhouse. His example decided the character of the town, for it was followed in every street. To the enterprise of the same public-spirited gentleman, New Haven owes one of the most beautiful cemeteries in the world. The square in the rear of the churches was formerly, according to the English custom, used as a churchyard, and encumbered with graves, which soon threatened to over- run its limits. Mr. Hillhouse, some years since, purchased a field in the western skirt of the town, laid it out and planted it, and subsequently removed to it all the tombstones and remains from the Green; among them the headstone of the regicide Goffe. It is now one of the most beautiful of burial-places. The monuments are of white marble, or of a very rich verd antique found in the neighborhood; and the natural ele- gance of the place has induced a taste and elegance into these monuments for the dead, found in no other spot of the same character.
"The interior of the Episcopal Church is purely Gothic, and esteemed in the best taste. The material of the exterior is a brownish trap-rock from the neighboring mountains, which, from its color, resembles a very weather-beaten and time-worn stone, and gives a look of antiquity to the edifice. The cornices and abutments are of what a distinguished writer on the subject calls a 'sprightly freestone.'"*
* The "distinguished writer" referred to was none other than the first President Dwight, whose "Travels" were freely drawn upon by Willis and other writers on New Haven. It is only fair to Dr. Dwight to say that he was not guilty of "sprightly freestone," though his own expression was "sprightly colored freestone." Willis himself was too sprightly to be accurate-too inveterately vivacious to be much controlled by what Matthew Arnold calls the "despotism of fact." In describ- ing the "cornice and abutments" of Trinity Church, as of a "sprightly freestone" he
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"YALE COLLEGE" ANOTHER EXTRACT FROM "AMERICAN SCENERY"-NEW HAVEN'S SIMPLE AND PURE SOCIETY AND ITS AIR OF REFINEMENT AND REPOSE EXTOLLED.
"Perhaps one of the best, and certainly one of the peculiar advantages of Yale College, is the extent and excellence of the Society in New Haven, and its accessibility to the students. The town contains near ten thousand inhabitants, most of them people of education, connected in some way with the College; or opulent families drawn thither by the extreme beauty of the town, and its air of refinement and repose. The upper classes of students mingle freely in this simple and pure society, which, it is not too much to say, is one of the most elegant and highly cultivated in the world .* Polished manners and the usages of social life are thus insensibly gained with improvement of mind; and in a country like this, where those advantages are not attainable by all in early life, the privilege is inestimable.
"The college buildings of New Haven are more remarkable for their utility than for the beauty of their architecture; but, buried in trees, and
shows that he wrote with his eye on the page rather than the object. The cornice of the church was of wood and is to this day. What Willis had in mind in referring to the "abutments" is not clear. Perhaps those abutments of "sprightly freestone" --- oh, the pity of it !- were swept away in the restoration of the church by Littell in 1870 .- Since beginning this note I have come upon a reference to Willis in Prof. Henry A. Beers's essay, "Our Own Percival"-easily one of the choicest pieces of genre painting to be found in the New Haven Gallery.
"The infrequent piano," says Professor Beers, "was small but upright [?] (that poor creature, Melodeon, was not, as yet), and it resounded alternately to the songs of Morris and of Moore; to "Near the Lake where Droops the Willow," and to "The Harp that Once thro' Tara's Halls." The sentiments of the former bard were reflected weekly in the New Mirror, side by side with the SPRIGHTLIER fancies of Willis."
It was a sprightly fancy of Willis to locate the occurrence of "a very rich verde antique" in the neighborhood of New Haven. The writer has no thought of being hard on Willis, who was perhaps the greatest literary celebrity of the country in the forepart of the last century and whose writing reflects the taste of that time as does perhaps the work of no other American writer. If the sprightliness of Willis was his literary undoing, it was also his panache.
* What tributes Willis would have paid to the social opportunities of New Haven had he appeared on the stage half a century earlier and met Miss Channing of New- port, must be left to the imagination. Dr. Cutler had that privilege in 1787, and records his impressions in the following rhapsody :
"Breakfasted this morning with Dr. Stiles. He has four daughters, unmarried, very agreeable. His only son is in the law, settled in the country. A Miss Channing, a young lady from Newport, and of very uncommon literary accomplishments, was here on a visit. She not only reads but speaks French, Latin, and Greek, with great ease, and has furnished her mind with a general knowledge of the whole circle of science, particularly Astronomy and Natural Philosophy. She has likewise a high taste for the fine arts, and discourses with great judgment on eloquence, oratory, painting, sculpture, etc. She is very sociable, knows how to take advantage of every incident to render herself agreeable, and no subject seems to come amiss. Her style is exceedingly correct and elegant, without the least symptom of affectation. How highly ornamental is such an education to a female character when connected with the softer graces and politeness of manners." (P. 219, Vol. 1, "Manasseh Cutler- Life, Journals and Correspondence.")
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standing on the ridge of a sloping green, they have altogether a beautiful effect, and an air of elegant and studious repose. Few strangers ever pass through New Haven without expressing a wish to take up their abode, and pass their days, among its picturesque avenues and gardens."*
In the course of time these refining influences extended to the entire neighborhood. On this point we have the testimony of the Rev. Robert William Dale, a dissenting English clergyman who "in 1877 visited the United States to give the Lyman Beecher lectures on preaching at the Yale Divinity School. He was the first Englishman to give this course." (New International Encyclopedia, Vol. V, p. 742.) Like many a con- scientious Briton of his time, Mr. Dale wrote a book about us. The following extract explains itself :
"I was driving one afternoon, in the neighborhood of New Haven, with a gentleman who lived among New England farmers for many years, and I told him that I should like to see the inside of one of the pleasant- looking farmhouses which we were continually passing. He said, 'By all means,' and, at the next farmhouse, he pulled up. I asked him whether he knew the people who lived there. 'No.' My friend's daughter, a young lady who has also seen a great deal of country-life in New Eng- land, went and asked whether two English gentlemen might see the house, and in a few moments she came to us and said that we might go in. The farm belonged to a widow. She met us at the door, and received us with a quiet dignity and grace, which would have done no discredit to the lady of an English squire owning an estate worth four or five thousand a year. Her English was excellent-the English of a refined and educated woman. Her bearing and manners had an ease and quiet- ness which were charming. The house had three good sitting-rooms, well furnished. Books and magazines were lying about; and there was a small but pretty greenhouse. I went into one bedroom and saw that it was extremely neat, and that the linen looked as white as the driven snow." ("Impressions of America." By R. W. Dale. New York, 1878. Pp. 34-35.)
* I could not refrain from including this Arcadian picture of New Haven as Willis knew it in those early Republican days. If our Chamber of Commerce back in '39 had had enough initiative to circularize the country with a reprint of this effusion, New Haven might have had a different history and to-day be one of the largest and richest cities in the country. "Opulent families," an "air of refinement and repose," a "simple and pure society, which, it is not too much to say, is one of the most elegant and highly cultivated in the world-" these, forsooth, are drawing cards to-day. Willis was not much over thirty when he wrote the text of "American Scenery," and was even then suffering from "a reputation too early acquired." Highfalutin' as all this is, and making due allowance for Willis' passion for "fine writing" and the taste of that day which approved it, it is clear that the New Haven of which Willis wrote was a place-an overgrown village, it is true-of unusual beauty and charm in the "American scene," as Henry James calls it. The elms planted by Hillhouse were not yet in their full glory, but gave the full promise of it. The Bristol, Daggett, Smith and De Forest houses stood side by side facing the Green and gave the place an elegant, if not a grand air, and as for the people, they were of pure English stock and the best of it, and if not the "most elegant and highly cultivated in the world," I daresay their sense for "beauty and for conduct" was quite as good as is ours. However, the pages of General Dunn's diary, published in the Yale Alumni Weekly (1909-10), probably give a truer picture of old New Haven than anything written by Willis, who was too professional from the first.
THE MESSAGE OF FRANCE TO CONNECTICUT ON THE UP-KEEP OF HER NEW STATE HIGHWAYS .*
To the Editor of the Courant:
I am not sufficiently familiar with the new state highways constructed under the direction of Commissioner MacDonald to pass upon his work, even if I were otherwise qualified, which I do not in any way pretend to be; but as the new highways are the concern of every citizen of Con- necticut, I venture to offer a suggestion for the consideration of your readers, based upon some familiarity with English and Continental prac- tice in the matter of the care of highways. I think it will be agreed that the construction of state highways, now going on, is easily the most important public work upon which the State of Connecticut is at present engaged and that a fine system of public highways efficiently kept up would contribute more to the prosperity and reputation of the State of Connecti- cut than any other public work. For these reasons I have been deeply interested in the recent discussion in the papers of our new state roads. I have been interested in this discussion for the additional reason that I spent a part of last June and July motoring in France, traveling over some 2,400 miles of the French roads, which I believe it is agreed are the finest in the world. I was not fortunate enough to see the initial construction of any French road, but there were evidences on every mile of the French roads as far as I saw them, of the constant care taken of them. Every mile of every French road over which I motored was pro- vided with small piles of broken stone, placed by the roadside in readi- ness to repair the road upon the appearance of any wear. These piles of broken stone are placed at regular distances apart and I should hesitate to tell how many of them there are by the roadsides in France to-day, if I knew; nor how many tons of stone there are in the aggre- gate in those piles. No one would believe these figures if I could give them. The French roads are constantly patrolled. As I understand the practice, after every storm the roads are gone over, and, wherever there is any accumulation of water, the place is marked and immediately filled in with broken stone from the piles by the roadside. These repairs and repairs of a kindred nature are carried on day by day as required through- out the entire year and supplemented by more extensive repairs in the spring and fall-the "grand reparations."+
* From the Hartford Courant of December 10, 1909. Also printed in full in the New Haven Journal-Courier of December 15, 1909.
ยก The striking feature of the French road system is the skilled supervision pro- vided in every grade of road work and in every unit of the administrative organiza- tion. The basis of the system is the School of Roads and Bridges, one of the finest technical schools in the world, maintained at the expense of the national govern- ment. In this school are trained the highway engineers, to whom are intrusted the building and maintenance of the roads of France. The course of study lasts three years, and the instruction is free.
At the head of the administrative organization is an inspector-general of bridges and highways, under whom are chief engineers in charge of the road work of single
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The construction of these French roads began something over 200 years ago and the French people have learned by experience that it is not enough to construct the roads skillfully in the first place, but that they must be given systematic and almost daily care. Now what has most forcibly struck me about the controversy that has been going on in the papers with regard to our own new state roads is, that little or nothing has been said about our failure here in Connecticut to develop an organization providing for the daily patrol and care of the roads when once built. To build a fine road and then leave it to its fate is a waste of public money. Unless the citizens of Connecticut are prepared to pay for almost daily care of the new roads, their construction might as well be abandoned. We have not yet learned in this country that the up-keep of public works is just as important as their initial construction. The French roads would have gone to pieces years ago if they had not had constant care. This, of course, means a great repair organization, and such a repair organization we must have here. In Massachusetts, I am told, they are organized to keep up the roads, in a far better way than we are here in Connecticut. If Highway Commissioner MacDonald has failed (and I do not pretend to say that he has failed-I do not feel qualified to say that), I suspect that his failure is not so much in the construction of the roads, as in not providing an organization for their care. Public sentiment must be developed in that direction before we can expect to have good roads in Connecticut. A large organization developed for taking care of the roads would also keep the matter of good roads constantly before the public and provide work for a great many men. I apprehend that we shall not have solved our road repair problem until we have a repair organization corresponding in its main features to the French system for the care of roads when once built. In France, as everyone knows, the roads are lined mile after mile with avenues of
departments and communes. Single arrondissements are under the direction
engineers and under-engineers, the latter being equivalent of ordinary
in rank to noncommissioned officers in the army. The subdivisions are under the direction of principal conductors and ordinary conductors. Next in line come the foremen of construction gangs, the clerks employed at headquarters, and finally the cantonniers or patrolmen, each having from four to seven kilometers of highway under his immediate supervision. This great administrative machine, working in complete harmony with definite lines of responsibility clearly established, accomplishes results with the precision and regularity of a great clock ticking off the seconds of time. Probably the most important unit in this great army of workers is the cantonnier or patrolman who has charge of a single section of the road. He keeps the ditches open, carefully fills holes and ruts with broken stone, removes dust and deposits of sand and earth after heavy rains, trims the trees and bushes, and when ordinary work is impossible he breaks stone and transports it to points where it is likely to be needed. He brings all matters requiring attention to the notice of his chief. Each cantonnier carries a little book in which the chief cantonnier notes his instructions and checks up the work accomplished. The conductors go over the line at regular intervals and direct the chief cantonnier and all reports are trans- mitted to the central authorities, so that any day or any hour the exact condition of every foot of road throughout France may be ascertained-Congressional Record, Sixty-first Congress, Second Session, Washington, June 29, 1910. Speech of Repre- sentative Morgan of Iowa on the Good Roads Movement.
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