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 60
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Nathan Hale
Durable ftone preferve the monumen- tal record. Nathan Hale Efq. a Capt. in the army of the United States who was born June 6"1755 and receiv'd the firft honors of Yale College Sept. 1773 refign'd his life a facrifice to his countrys liberty at New York Sept. 224 1776 Etatis 22ª. Epitaph at Coventry
His laft words were "I only regret that I have but one life to lofe for my country
Thus while fond virtue wilhed in vain to fave Hale bright & generous found a haplefs grave With genius living flame his bofom glowed And, Icience lured him to her fweet abode In Worth's fair path his feet adventured far The pride of Peace . the rifing hope of War. In duty firm in danger calm as even To friends unchanging and fincere to Heaven How (hort his course. the prize how early won While weeping Friendship mourns her favourite gone" Timothy Dwight 1785
THE HALE TABLET IN BATTELL CHAPEL
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THE HALE TABLET IN BATTELL CHAPEL
(Section XXXIX, pages 354-365)
Slate tablet crected by the author in Battell Chapel to the memory of Nathan Hale, of the Class of 1773. The first eight lines are taken from the cenotaph at Coventry. The poetical tribute, by his friend and correspondent, Timothy Dwight, of the Class of 1769. is from "Blest Dwight's" long forgotten epic. "The Conquest of Canaan," published 1785. An attempt was made to have the lettering follow the lettering on the old cenotaph in the burying ground in Coventry.
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THE HALE STATUE
(From a photograph by the writer's friend, the late Robert B. Kill- gore, Esq., of New York City.)
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THE HALE STATUE In Front of Connecticut Hall, Standing in the Old College Yard
(Section XXXIX, pages 354-365)
Hale roomed in this building as a Yale undergraduate, 1769- 1773. His last words, "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country." appear on the circular bronze base on which the figure stands. Cut into the front face of the granite pedestal is, "Nathan Hale 1755-1776 Class of 1773," and into the rear face the legend, "A Gift to Yale College by Graduates and Friends Anno Domini MCMXIV."
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THE HALE HOMESTEAD AS IT APPEARS TODAY From the Old Walled Garden [From a Photograph by Harold Manley Griffith] (Section LI, pages 434-435)
The main house was built in 1776 by Deacon Richard Hale (1717-1802), when his son Nathan was at the Front. That portion of the ell between the main house and the large inner ell-chimney is a part of Hale's actual birth- house, built by his father about 1746. The old pear tree in the foreground (still in bearing) was planted by Deacon Hale. To the extreme right, in the corner of the garden, the back of the Hale statue, erected in 1922, is seen-a replica of that in the old college yard at Yale.
THE DINING ROOM
THE CELLAR Showing the Great Corbelled Chimney Piers
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THE PARLOR
THE NORTHWEST BED CHAMBER Showing Hale's Army Trunk
The four preceding photographs are by Mr. Peter Joseph Meyer. The author cannot fail to credit many cuts in this book from photographs taken expressly for him for the purpose of record by the late Mr. M. W. Filley, veteran photographer, and by Mr. Peter Joseph Meyer.
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[From a photograph taken on Washington's birthday, 1920, by the author's Junior Partner, Mr. Malcolm Parrott Nichols.]
THE GHOSTLY TENANTRY OF ABANDONED OLD HOUSES
(Section XLIX, pages 409-415)
I am constrained to include a quotation I happened upon soon after I came into the ownership of the mansion at The Birth-Place, then vacant and neglected, and deserted by all save the ghostly tenantry of all abandoned old houses. The quotation provides a partly literal and wholly spiritual description of the house as I found it.
Maisons anciennes aux volets un peu retombants et disjoints, châteaux solitaires dans les vallons, combien en est-il à travers les campagnes de France, qui, le long de leur passé, ont abrité de telles éminentes tragédies ! Sacrifices, dévouements, piété, pro- fonds dialogues intérieurs, volontés libérées des mobiles ordinaires du monde, haute sagesse acquise dans les larmes, tout ne s'est pas évaporé sur l'heure : une empreinte est demeurée, un parfum de légende et de respect. Endroits élus, joyaux disséminés aux replis des provinces, dépositaires des plus purs débris du passé, du plus précieux héritage, du plus secret, du plus réservé, dont le langage est capable encore de façonner lentement des âmes à leur sagesse sévère et à de graves renoncements.
(Émile Clermont's Laure, Paris, 1913, p. 2.)
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ANDRE'S SELF-PORTRAIT, SKETCHED ON THE MORNING OF THE DAY FIRST SET FOR HIS EXECUTION, OCTOBER 1, 1780
[Courtesy of Yale University] (Section LIII, pages 440-443)
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SOUVENIRS OF ANDRÉ AT YALE
Contrary to popular belief, André was thirty years and five months old when he was hanged at Tappan. The day before that he made this melancholy but appealing sketch, which was presented to Yale in 1832 and is still to be seen there. André was a small man-note the lift of his arm to reach the top of the chair-back. The spectators at the exhumation of his coffin in 1822 were sur- prised at the smallness of the skeleton.
Hale was but twenty-one years and three months when he met his fate-a man about five feet ten and an athlete.
Hale had to wait over a century before there was any memorial of him at Yale-Hale of whom Dr. Munger could say, "Hale is the truest hero on Yale's lists and her most beautiful and precious gift to the Country."
The extravagant extent to which the feeling regarding André was carried is well illustrated in the preservation at Yale of a mere wisp of his beautiful, long hair, from which the powder shook when it was dressed, soon after his capture. The following items are attached to the little frame containing the grisly relic :
"A lock of hair, which was taken from the remains of Maj. André, after being buried more than 40 years"-Label
I certify that the enclosed hair was taken from the head of the much lamented André, at the period of his disinterment in the fall of the year 1822. Taken from his head by James Buchanan Esq. His Brittannic Majesty's Consul, and my son Francis Stoughton.
New York May 9, 1823. Thomas Stoughton.
Enclosed is the lock of Major Andre's hair of which I spoke to you when I was in New Haven. It is matted with earth just as it was when the body was disinterred- Have not attempted to separate it from the particles of earth &c lest I should destroy it in so doing.
Affy. B. D. Silliman
To Prof. Silliman, June 15, 1855, New York.
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CROOKE'S
PELOFORD
BULLS
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STREET SCENE IN GUILDFORD, ENGLAND
(Section VIII, pages 152-167)
Street scene in Guildford, County Surrey, in Old England, for which our Guilford was named. The Reverend Henry Whitfield, born 1597, may be regarded as the founder of our Guilford. He returned to England in 1650, and became pastor at Winchester, England, where he is buried in the cathedral. The famous stone house that he built in Guilford remains a notable monument to his memory.
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THE WHITFIELD HOUSE, GUILFORD, CONNECTICUT
[From an old photograph of the "Old Stone House"]
The Henry Whitfield house, Guilford, Connecticut, built by him in 1639; now a State Museum. As first built, the roof-pitch was much steeper, and the house probably had a chimney at its south, as well as at its north end. It is believed to be the oldest stone house in the United States. It was secured as a State Museum largely through the efforts of the Connecticut Society of Colonial Dames.
The author was one of the Trustees of the old stone house for twenty-five years or more, and it has always been one of his con- stant interests, and its restoration to as near as possible to its original form has occupied much of his thoughts and energy.
Many years ago he went to England, largely to visit old Guild- ford and nearby Ockley, where Whitfield once preached, and hoped some day to transplant the White Rose of Ockley, which grows so beautifully in the churchyard there, to Guilford, in Con- necticut. Our Guilford was named for Guilford in Surrey, the native place of many of the colonists. In 1650 he (Whitfield) returned to England and, says Cotton Mather, in the "Magnalia," "at the time of parting, the whole town accompanied him unto the waterside with a springtide of tears."
The old house was carefully re-restored in 1938 by Mr. J. Fred- erick Kelly of New Haven.
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COLONEL SAMUEL BELCHER (1779-1849) From the Portrait by George Whiting Flagg [Courtesy of the Connecticut Historical Society ] ("Researches of an Antiquary." page 28)
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WILLIAM NOYES MANSION
Built 1818; Designed by Colonel Belcher; Better Known as "Miss Florence Griswold's House"
("Researches of an Antiquary," page 28)
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THE FAMOUS OLD LYME MEETING-HOUSE Designed by Colonel Samuel Belcher ; Built 1817
COLONEL SAMUEL BELCHER-ARCHITECT EXAMPLES OF HIS WORK IN OLD LYME
I cannot refrain from borrowing from my modest brochure, "The Researches of an Antiquary" (N. D.), three half-tone blocks showing George Whiting Flagg's portrait of Colonel Samuel Belcher (1779-1849), architect, and two of the most noteworthy of Belcher's designs, namely, the famed Old Lyme Meeting-house (built 1817; destroyed by fire July 3, 1907) ; and the William Noyes Mansion (built 1818), known today as Miss Florence Griswold's house, familiar to and beloved by all artist-members of the "Lyme Colony."
Colonel Samuel Belcher was one of the best designers of his time in this country. Most of his work was done in Hartford,
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but it has not, to this writer's knowledge, been studied as it merits. No one has as yet traced more than a very few of his designs. The Old Lyme Meeting-house alone entitles him to a high place among early American architects. Childe Hassam's paintings of it greatly contributed to his own fame.
Having the half-tone cuts on hand, the author cannot forbear using them, if only to correct the story prevailing in Old Lyme that Christopher Wren designed the famous Old Lyme Meeting- house. Colonel Samuel Belcher, of Hartford, designed it and deserves the credit.
Belcher was painted by George Whiting Flagg (born in New Haven in 1816), of that well-known family of painters, and per- haps the most gifted of them. And, by your leave, I have thus opened the door to a few words about the Flaggs, once so promi- nent in New Haven life, which knows them no more. Honorable Henry Collins Flagg, a native of Charleston, South Carolina, settled in New Haven, took a prominent part in public affairs, and was Mayor 1834-1839. His half-brother, Washington Alston (unbelievably illustrious then as a poet and painter ), came here to New Haven betimes to visit him and his family, and it was he who inspired Henry C., George W. and Jared B., sons of Mayor Flagg, to become painters. Alston prophesied high honors for George. All were good artists, but none of the "first rank." Jared painted many of New Haven's "ancestral portraits." He lived in what is now 107 Whitney Avenue, where his studio window is still to be seen on the north side of the house. Jared's sons, Charles Noel, Montague, and Ernest, continued the artistic tradition of the family. Charles Noel, a delightful man and an excellent painter, did a fine portrait of the late David Daggett as president of the Graduates Club. Colonel "Nod" Osborn owned portraits of his father and mother painted by Jared Flagg and exhibited them to his callers with great pride. Charley Flagg, a genial raconteur, fairly exuded artistic temperament. The writer served with him for years on the State Commission of Sculpture, which greatly profited by his advice. Alston Avenue, named for Washington Alston at the instance of the Mitchells of "Edgewood," recalls his visits here.
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THE SILLIMAN HOUSE ON THE CORNER OF TRUMBULL STREET WITH THE BRIDGE OVER THE NORTHAMPTON CANAL
From a Drawing by Robert Bakewell, About 1836
"The first house in Hillhouse Avenue was the one where long dwelt Professor Benjamin Silliman. It was built by the Hill- houses, with very thick stone walls, perhaps two years before it was purchased by Professor Silliman in 1809, but had not been occupied except by a man in charge of the property. In Septem- ber, 1809, Professor Silliman brought his bride there. She was a daughter of the second Governor Trumbull, and in 1814 Mrs. Trumbull, who had been some years a widow, came to reside with her daughter. Doubtless it was from that connection that Trum- bull Street received its name ; it was early called 'New Street,' and on a map of the city published in 1827, it is named 'Second Street.'
"Professor Silliman died in his Avenue home in November, 1864 : after a time the property was sold, and in 1872-73, the thick stone walls were thrown down and replaced by wood, and the house, much changed by its new owner, was moved about so as to front on Trumbull Street." Taken by permission from the brochure "Hillhouse Avenue from 1809 to 1900," by the late Mrs. James Dwight Dana, a daughter of Professor Silliman.
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Light House of the Entrance of N. Hava Boy
THE FIRST NEW HAVEN LIGHTHOUSE
The first New Haven Lighthouse (built 1804-5) on "Five Mile Point," which the United States Gov- ernment bought for $100 from Amos Morris in 1804.
The above is from a water-color presented to the author many years ago. It is signed "Latrobe," presumably a son of Benjamin Henry Latrobe (1764-1820), the famous architect, who never came to New Haven, as far as known. This picture is thought to represent the predecessor of the present stone lighthouse, the spiral stairway of which is well worth a visit.
GATEWAY TO GROVE STREET CEMETERY
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GATEWAY TO GROVE STREET CEMETERY (Section XV, pages 219-228)
(From the original water-color drawing in the Yale University Library.)
Another notable design of Austin's, happily unaltered, is the massive brownstone gateway (1845-48), in the Egyptian style, of the historic Grove Street Cemetery. Of excellent proportions and large enough to be imposing, this is an impressive design, with its bold inscription, "The Dead Shall Be Raised."
(See "Researches of an Antiquary," a brochure of five essays by the writer.)
NOTE: The author cannot refrain from expressing his gratification on reading that in this year of our Lord 1941 New Haven has employed a professional City Planner. The author's campaign for the adoption by New Haven of systematic City Planning is evidenced by the opening chapters of this book written some thirty years ago, before such problems as housing and airports con- fronted the City Fathers.
The author feels that he cannot more appropriately end this long-belated book than with a brief quotation from Emerson's "Terminus."
"It is time to be old, To take in sail :- The god of bounds, Who sets to seas a shore, Came to me in his fatal rounds, And said : 'No more!'"
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